That Carnegie Mellon University students are impressive goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyhow. For the past nine months the Pittsburgh Review of Books’ inaugural staff has shepherded into publication 463 essays, reviews, interviews, and book excerpts from nearly 350 authors. They have edited and revised, commissioned and written their own pieces. We publish three days every workday, and save for Thanksgiving and Christmas, have kept up this dizzying schedule. That this is a site that I (maybe a bit too often) sit scrolling through admiringly is a testament to their hard work, their creativity, their dedication, and their grit.
A unique function of PRoB, when compared to our peers, is that in addition to publishing “engaged, incisive, and smart cultural criticism and analysis” is that we also have a pedagogical function. The site is both tied to courses taught in CMU’s English Department, as well as serving to train our staff who work as research assistants for the publication. As such, that means we will continually have to say goodbye to our staff as they graduate. This is, of course, bittersweet (as graduations always are). Our graduates are going on to graduate school and publishing jobs, journeying back to homes that are far away and staying in Pittsburgh. Holly and Shelly are respectively off to do graduate work at the New School and Syracuse, Sarah will be working in publishing (and at the Roberto Clemente Museum!), and our Managing Editor Shanzeh who has returned home to Pakistan will be teaching and working towards founding the Karachi Review of Books! I deeply and genuinely hope that all of them learned a lot during their time here, because they were invaluable in the running of this site.
I’m honored to preserve their masthead bios below:
Shanzeh Afzal – Managing Editor
Shanzeh Afzal is a Master’s student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh where she is pursuing an MA in Literary and Cultural Studies. Her work focuses on the impacts of energy, approached through cultural, historical, and literary lenses, with a particular emphasis on environmental justice. Previously, she was a Research Associate at The Knowledge Forum, where she studied energy and electricity issues in Sindh, Pakistan. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences and Liberal Arts from the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, where she majored in Media and Culture. Her essay, “The Opposite of Colonization is Indigenization: Imagining Energy Futures through South Asian Science Fiction,” was published in the ninth issue of Tasavvurnama.
Sarah Fleming Steinberg – Associate Editor for Essays
Steinberg is a Pittsburgh-based writer, project manager, and sports specialist currently pursuing an MA in Professional Writing at Carnegie Mellon University. A former baseball operations professional with the Houston Astros and Pittsburgh Pirates, she writes and edits for Kitchen Sink Sports, a site she founded. Originally from Albuquerque, she lives with her partner, Conor, and their rescue dog, Penny. When she’s not analyzing baseball stats, she’s likely solving crosswords and sipping tea.
Asia Thompson – Associate Editor for Interviews
Hailing from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Asia Thompson came to Pittsburgh with her cat Bingo for a taste of the city and the unique literary culture. Asia loves reading and writing about Black studies, built environments, cultural criticism, and aesthetics. She received her bachelors in Communications and English Literature from the University of South Florida.
Shelly Shi – Associate Editor for Reviews
Shelly Shi is a writer, editor, and incoming Master’s student in Rhetoric at Carnegie Mellon University. Her work explores the intersections of feminist theory, queer studies, and cultural criticism, with a focus on narrative as a tool for resistance. She is the founder of 404 Not Found, a digital magazine dedicated to feminist and queer critique in media and literature. Shelly also has experience in live performance coordination, NLP-driven textual analysis, and public humanities outreach.
Holly Jiayi Wang – Associate Editor for Excerpts
Holly Jiayi Wang is an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University whose research investigates how contemporary literature registers affective life within the ideological and material structures of care and capitalism. She is a Dietrich College Honors Fellow and plans to pursue graduate study in literature. Her outside interests include knitting, baking pies, and making slow, deliberate visits to art museums.
Deya Liao – Multimedia Editor
Deya Liao is a current Fifth Year Scholar at CMU studying Computer Science, Film/Visual Media, and History. She’s interested in digital media as a medium capable of cultivating culture and community in an era defined by its technological dependence––and how it can thereby create an interesting space for original humanities discourse.
Gabrielle Acker – Art Director
Gabby is a rising senior in the School of Design at CMU. Between the odd video essay and crochet project, her passion really lies in storytelling and nurturing spaces for creative communities. PRoB is a vibrant platform where critical thought and creative expression intersect, and she is excited to aid in inspiring readers to explore new perspectives and ideas.
