*translation “Are you going to read a book?”

** Yinz is the Pittsburgh version of  “Y’all”

*** no one really knows what “N’at” means.

I’d always dreamed of living in a city. As a kid, of course, I usually dreamed about NYC, or Chicago or even London.
I felt at home among skyscrapers, happy in the midst of crowds, alive when all the lights and noise surrounded me. However, I ended up in Pittsburgh, PA, and I couldn’t be happier.

I’ve got my skyscrapers and my city living full of coffeeshops and live music, but I also get a small town friendliness and community I’ve come to love.  In fact, one of the best things  about Pittsburgh is the vibrant writing community. We have excellent MFA programs at Chatham and Seton Hill, a lovely library system thanks to Andrew Carnegie (just remember in these parts, it’s pronounced “car-NEGGH-gee” rather than New York’s fancy “Carn-e-gee”) and even a really cool program for exiled writers, The City of Asylum.

We have an Andy Warhol museum, a great Children’s museum, incredible theater shows, and amazing parks. Oh, yeah and sports. We have those too. We put french fries in our sandwiches and everyone eats pierogies (we even make vegan ones).

We’ve got films set or partially set here, (Dark Knight!) , video games, (The Last of Us), and plenty of books. The most memorable, for many people is Perks of Being a Wallflower,

Perks Scene

That’s a beautiful shot of a very real part of my city. Likewise, the hit Me, and Earl and the Dying Girl, captures real-life Pittsburghese.

In addition to these Pittsburgh authors, there’s also Joshua David Bellin (aka the YA Guy) author of Survival Colony Nine,Jonathan Auxier , author of The Night Gardener, Laura Lee Anderson, author of Song of Summer, and many others.

Plus we have really cool events. This fall, Rainbow Rowell will be speaking at the library, and this coming weekend, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman will be speaking at Carnegie Mellon University for FREE! Details below.

So, that’s why I love my odd little big city that thinks it’s a small town. Why do you love your hometown?

Details for the event.

Lecture Speakers: Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman
Date: Saturday, August 1, 2015
Time: 2:00 – 3:00 pm
Location: Doherty Hall, Room 2315, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. The book signing will follow the lecture in the same room.
Registration/Fee: There is no charge to attend the lecture and registration is not required for this portion of the program.

If you’re from Pittsburgh, let me know!