April 24, 2025 • 20 mins
The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books is a free event that celebrates the city’s rich literary community and love of reading. Poets, authors and readers gather at the Festival to pay tribute to Pittsburgh’s growing literary reputation. The festival features local and nationally-recognized authors, dozens of poets, children’s activities, bookstores, entertainment, publishers and more. https://www.pittsburghbookfestival.org/
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
And welcome in. This is a public affairs program shedding
the light on the interest, issues and concerns of the
greater Pittsburgh area. Good morning, My name is Johnny hart
Well your host. Today we're talking Carnegie Library at Pittsburgh.
Mary Monaghan, director of Public Services, Good morning, how are you, Mary, Marning?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
John I'm great.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Thank you Carnegie Library Pittsburgh. I'm a huge fan of
your organization, everything you do. I've said this before and
I'll tell you in case you missed my story. Some
time ago, I was kind of I didn't I was
I didn't know what I wanted to do, and I
went into a Carnegie Library in Aliquippa and started reading
(00:43):
some books, fell in love with reading, and it really
turned my life path in a different direction. It really
it focused what I wanted to do for a living.
I realized I've always wanted to be in radio. I
really wanted to do interviews and things like that. And
if it wasn't for the Carnegie Library, I don't think
I would would would have been able to achieve that
kind of focus. So I'm a big fan of everything
(01:04):
you do.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Well, thank you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
And certainly this twenty minutes. Isn't devoted to me, but
just just think of how many people you have changed
in the in Pittsburgh, but just the world. You know,
it's a it's a world famous organization. So you have
a lot to be a proud proud of, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
We say library save lives? And I think a lot
of people think that that's a little bit of a
trite statement, maybe that it's silly. You know, what does
a library do?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
How?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
You know?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, I got I got boots because you really did
change my life.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, So tell.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Me a little bit about Mary, what exactly? I know
we're going to be talking about the Festival of Books
and this is a fabulous or you know, how many
years have you been doing this?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
The festival for four years? This is the fourth annual.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And you kind of have a new location. We'll talk
about that, but let's talk Mary first. So what exactly
do you do for Carnai Library?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So right now now I am the director of Public Service.
But I've been at Carnegie Library for thirty three years.
I started to start when you were like when I
was fifteen. Yeah, well, you know, I came to Pittsburgh
to be a librarian. And honestly, my story's very similar
to yours. I graduated from college, I didn't really know
(02:19):
what I wanted to do. I was living in Indianapolis
at the time, and I went to the library, Yes,
very close, just a hopskip and a jump, and I
went to the library and started looking through books of
careers and found a librarianship. And literally there was a
click in my head. That's the thing, brilliant, that's what
(02:40):
you're supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Were you always a lover of reading? Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Always, always, always an avid reader, but never realized that
you could make a career of it. Never realize, you know,
it just never clicked that that that could be something
you could spend your life doing. And so I came
here to get my master's in library science and got
my very first job at the West End Library as
a children's librarian. And I have stayed and loved every minute.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I've been to the West End Library many many, many
many library.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yea, it really is.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And you know, not only how I I initially wanted
to polish up my resume, and I read it on
books on resume and then I thought, okay, what you
maybe motivation self? You know, self help books, and then
all of a sudden there was a book on you know, nonfiction,
and then I fell in love with you know, non
(03:31):
fiction books and history and things like that. And you
never know where reading is going to lead you.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Absolutely, it's an adventure. Every single every single book you open,
there's an adventure. You learn something, you you meet new people,
you make relationships with characters and books that last your
entire life.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
And the Festival of Books is growing, and you said
four years and last year was a huge success. You're
you're moving it to the Carnegie Library, the Oakland them
the main one. Now why is that? Why are you
changing locations?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Well, we took over the festival officially last year and
it was still in East Liberty and the main Library
in Oakland is home for us, and we wanted to
make sure that we brought the Festival of Books, the
Festival of Reading, one of the most exciting things that
we do home. And you know, we have the main library,
(04:28):
home of every book ever written, I swear, and such
beautiful grounds, you know, in the heart of Oakland, and
we just wanted to have our festival at our house.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
All right, So tell us everything we need to know.
About this year's festival.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Okay, so the festival is on Saturday, May thirty. First,
it's from ten to five. We have about sixty nine
different authors coming, plus twenty five ish poets, and then
workshops that are being held by different book groups in
the community, different experts on different topics. We have forty
(05:05):
two or forty four I think sessions of authors talking
to each other, authors reading their works, talking to the audience.
Some really really exciting names that a lot of folks
will recognize, and folks for whom this is their first
book and their first time out talking to their public.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Okay, so we're talking dozens of authors and poets, lots
and lots. This is quite a logistic nightmare for you, right,
How when did you start planning this?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
We started planning this day after laughing pretty much. Yes,
exactly right. Yeah, So, you know our beloved, beloved main Library.
I always say it's so big, and yet you can't
fit anything into it, you know, It's just we have
so many books and so much stuff. So it really
has been a little bit of a challenge for us
to figure out where we're going to put all these
(05:58):
people and where we're going to put all this stuff.
Luckily we have folks who are much smarter than me
at figuring that kind of stuff out. So we'll have
things inside the library, we'll have things outside the library,
different vendors and exhibitors, so inside, outside, all over the place.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So if you're a lover of reading, or a lover
of the library, or a lover of books, this is
quite an opportunity. Can you give us some maybe highlights
of some of the authors or poets that are that
are going to be coming on May thirty first.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So one of my absolute favorites, and because I grew
up listening to her records and my folks house, is
Judy Collins.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
So yes, ye, sweet Judy blue Eyes.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yes, yes, So she has a book of poetry coming
out called Sometimes It's Heaven, and she is going to
be our poetry headliner. She goes on at four o'clocks.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Fabulous. I had a chance to interview her, really, and
she is an absolute.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Sweet Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
She so connected to all those Crosby Stills, Nashy Yes,
in the California Sound and of course she was in
the middle of all of them.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, and you see her pictures now, and she's she
still has those blue eyes and.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
That dunning blue eyes, gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Gorgeous mane of white hair. And yeah, so she's written
a few other books, one a memoir, and but this
is her first book of poetry, and we're so excited
to have her come.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Fabulous.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
So some of our other headliners. We have Rachel Kong,
who a lot of folks might know from a book
that came out last year called Real Americans. It was
a bestseller. People loved it, and she's promoting her book
Goodbye Vitamin. So that's her new.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Book and what is that about.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Oh gosh, Johnny, I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm working
my way through the list and I haven't gotten to
the case yet. So she's.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Hey, yous, right right.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
We have Tory Peters who's coming, who is also on
her second book called Stag Dance. We have Omar Tyree,
who a lot of folks would know from fly Girl,
which came out thirty years ago and really was, if
folks know the term, like streetlet. He was sort of
the king of that. He really sort of spurred a
(08:17):
lot of that kind of writing and people love it.
We have Sharon g Flake, who is a children's author,
a Pittsburgh author. Her award winning, multi award winning book
called The Skin I'm In, a children's book, came out
thirty years ago as well, and she's written several sequels
and this year she is going to be talking about
(08:37):
The Family I'm In. And one really exciting thing is
that you know, she is a she is if you
follow children's literature. She's a very prominent writer in children's literature,
a pittsburgher, and she has just donated all of her
papers to the archives at the University of Pittsburgh. So
it's a real it's really exciting both for pitt and
(08:58):
for and for her. So you know, those are some
of our headliners. We also have some folks coming to
talk about some books, some local books, some local authors.
We have a book coming or an author coming who
wrote the book of Pittsburgh in fifty maps, and we
have a small group of folks who wrote a book
(09:19):
about Pittsburgh steps, you know, just sort of mapping, and.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
We have a lot of them, we do, you.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Know, and I never see anybody climbing them, but they're
all out there. I wouldn't climb them. You couldn't pay
me enough. But a lot of mystery writers. Nat Cassidy
has a book that's coming out called When the Wolf
Comes Home. A lot of people are really waiting to
read that. We have Laura piper Lee who's coming and
what's really fun about that is that the Bakery Square
(09:46):
book Club in East Liberty is planning to read her
book and so we were able to connect with them
and they're going to come over to the festival and
hold their book club meeting at the festival and she's
going to sit with them, so like you know, there
she'll be with the book club talking about her book.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
We're talking to Mary Monahan, director of Public Services of
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's Festival of Books is taking
place coming up on May thirty first. A new location
was in Each Liberty last year. This year it's going
to be at the main you know, Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh in Oakland. If somebody wants more information, they just
go to your website.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
They can go to Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh dot org,
or they can go to Pittsburgh Book Festival dot org
Pittsburgh Book firsk Festival dot org.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Okay, all right, so you have some of these authors
in local and national, and you also have these poets.
Now what are they going to be doing? Is there
are you able to Are there going to be readings?
Is there going to be you know, quite Q and
A what takes place? How are they going to interact
with some of these authors.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
So a lot of the programs are going to be
panel authors. So we have, for example, or panel presentations,
So we have all of the mystery authors sitting together
and they'll be talking to each other. We have somebody
there who will be posing questions for them, and they'll
be talking about their books and their writing and their process.
And then they'll be time for questions and answers from
(11:11):
the audience. And then all of the books that they'll
be talking about will be for sale by some local
bookstores and folks can get their books signed, which is
always really exciting. We have a few of our folks
who will be doing just readings. So, for example, Jennifer Haig,
who also has Pittsburg connection. She has a number of
books in the past, very very popular. Her new book,
(11:33):
Rabbit Moon is coming out. She'll be doing a solo presentation,
so she'll be reading from her book, She'll be talking
about her process, you know how she writes and what
this book is about. But the really really exciting thing
is that for attendees at the festival, there's a chance
to meet these folks. There's a chance to like, I
can't wait to meet Duty Collins, but you know, there's
(11:55):
a chance to really interact with folks who have written
and created something that is so meaningful to you. And
you get to you know, have their book and have
them sign it and have a few minutes to talk
to them. So that's really the appeal for me is
to be able to be around these super creative people
who you know, have made these books that are so meaningful.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
So this is the fourth year for the festival, fourth
year for the festival. So what was the origin, what,
what was your main goal? What was your mission when
you first decided that, hey, we're going to have this
book festival.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
So it was actually not even us. It was a
man named Marshall Cohen. He was he's retired, he's since
moved even out of Pittsburgh, but he grew up in
Pittsburgh and was based in Pittsburgh, and he was a
lobbyist and he traveled all over the country and went
to book festivals in cities, you know, all over the US,
and just could never believe that a book festival wasn't
(12:50):
happening in Pittsburgh, and so he started it.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Wow, that is shocking that it hadn't happened, especially in Pittsburgh.
And as much as you know, the Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh is so accepted by those community. There's so many
people who love and have devoted to your your cause,
so that is kind of us a problem.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah, Pittsburgh, for as big of a sports town as
it is, it's a huge reading town and it's a
huge literature town.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
So I kind of we were talking about that's okay.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
He made the so we as soon as he started,
you know, we came on board because of course it
was you know, it's clearly fits within our mission. It's
the thing that's you know, the things that are so
important to us. And after a couple of years he
Marshall decided to step down and we said, all right,
well this.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Is getting too big for you. Take it.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, and we were thrilled, absolutely thrilled to do it.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
In past years, what have been the some of the
things that people really enjoyed and are you bringing those
things back.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Absolutely, so I think some you know, one of the
one of the big things is the opportunity to to
talk to authors. The other thing is it really is
an opportunity families, for families to come together. We have
some of the authors that I talked about who are
for adults. We have a lot of authors and writers
and even poets who are aimed at children and teenagers.
(14:12):
So it's a real opportunity for families to come together
and sort of experience books and experience reading together. We
have a lot of vendors who are going to be there,
both selling things and what so they're all sort of
book related or book adjacent. In fact, there's one vendor
(14:33):
who sells yarn. She is a library and wants a library,
and you're always a librarian. But she used to work
for us and she left. She's always a big knitter.
She loved to knit, she loved to do all that stuff.
And now she has a yarn company called Ex Libris
where she dies yarn based on books. So it's really neat.
(14:56):
You know, it's sort of like the Great Gatsby yarn.
And I don't know if she has this, but you know,
it would look sort of it would have the blues
in it from the cover and the orange and you know,
everybody knows that sort of classic cover of the Great Gatspace,
so you know. So it's a lot of kind of
book adjacent vendors, folks selling stickers and t shirts and
mugs and that kind of stuff. Plus we have our
(15:17):
three local bookstores who will be supporting the festival, Riverstone Books,
Mystery Lover's Bookshop out in Oakmont, and Stories like Me
in Squirrel Hill, and they will be selling the books
of the authors who are going to Do.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
You have any sponsorship for this? We do.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
We have some fantastic sponsors. The Bunch of Organization is
one of our biggest sponsors. Duo Lingo. Well, it's our sponsors.
I'm sorry that I can't remember them.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
We'll get to it okay later, but all right. So
for those who are just tuning in the Pittsburgh Festival
of Books, this is the fourth year May thirty. First.
The new location is going to be at the main
Library in Oakland. It starts at ten am and a
last two five o'clock five o'clock. In your opinion, what
are you most excited to see other than maybe Judy Collins.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I actually am super excited. I'm a little bit of
a map nerd, so I'm super excited about the Pittsburgh
and fifty Maps book. What is that it's I actually
haven't seen it yet, but it's you know, it's just
I think different ways that you can look at Pittsburgh
through maps. So there's obviously the street map, but could
(16:28):
you look at Pittsburgh in a map of where different
people live, Like, you know, neighborhoods are.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
The neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. I'm not neighborhoods.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
That's news to me.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Does anybody live in downtown Pittsburgh? That's the thing? Somebody says,
where are you from? Pittsburgh? Yeah? But where are you from?
This is the actually exactly, we all we all have
a neighborhood that we're proud of, right, all right? So
what do you what is what is the biggest challenge
of putting this together?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Oh? Wow, you know, the biggest challenge is that it
is so big and there's so many moving pieces, and
you know, finding finding the authors who have something new
coming out that would be exciting and interesting for folks
in Pittsburgh, seeing if they're available, you know, making sure
(17:22):
that we get them here and you know, at the
right time. So it's because it's so many different individuals.
It's it's close to ninety actual individuals who are traveling
here or who you know who live in Pittsburgh. That's
the biggest challenge is just sort of making all of
those arrangements for folks. But it's also the most exciting
because we get to know and see what books are
(17:44):
going to be coming out next year or in six months,
and so that's a lot of fun to get a
little bit of a sneak peek about what your next
favorite book's going to be.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
All Right, we only have a couple of minutes. Yeah,
so let's kind of recap everything people need to know
about this year's festival. It's going to be bigger. I'm
going to let you you have the floor, you get
the last word. Tell us everything we need to know
about this year's.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Excellent May thirty first at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Maine
in Oakland. That's not East Liberty, it's not East Liberty.
It's been moved. So the street address is forty four
hundred Forbes Avenue. If folks want to put that into
their GPS who doesn't know where quest Oh, well, you'd
be surprised. Ten am to five pm. We have over
sixty authors, close to thirty poets, a lot of fantastic workshops,
(18:30):
a lot of fantastic partners who are going to be there,
and it's just it's not going to range.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
How many people do you expect to attend this year's
first Well.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I tell you we had four thousand last year when
it was an East Liberty and if we don't beat
that number, I don't know how to do my job.
So it's going to be over four thousand.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Wow, that's amazing, Just a testament of you know, how
much people love what the Carnegie Library does for Pittsburgh
and they love reading and love books, and of course
this is an event that just keeps growing. So congratulate. Now,
if somebody, as far as parking is concerned, you're kind
of on your own.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Oh man, Well, we do have the lot you can
enter Forbes and Craig. Once that gets full, we are
making arrangements with other lots around Oakland for you, just
at least to make sure people know where they are and.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Get there early. Get there early, and if somebody wants
more information the websites again.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
The website is Pittsburgh Book Festival dot org and the
Carnegie Library's Carnegie Library dot org.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
The Pittsburgh Festival of Books taking place Saturday, May thirty first,
starting at ten o'clock a new location, Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh,
the main in Oakland. Once again, the websites.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Pittsburgh Book Festival dot org and Carnegie Library dot org.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Marrymanahan of Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, good luck and I'm looking
you better start planning next year.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
We are thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
My next guest wants to raise a lot of money
for a very special cost that's coming up next
And welcome in. This is a public affairs program shedding
the light on the interest, issues and concerns of the
greater Pittsburgh area. Good morning, My name is Johnny hart
Well your host. Today we're talking Carnegie Library at Pittsburgh.
Mary Monaghan, director of Public Services, Good morning, how are you, Mary, Marning?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
John I'm great.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Thank you Carnegie Library Pittsburgh. I'm a huge fan of
your organization, everything you do. I've said this before and
I'll tell you in case you missed my story. Some
time ago, I was kind of I didn't I was
I didn't know what I wanted to do, and I
went into a Carnegie Library in Aliquippa and started reading
(00:43):
some books, fell in love with reading, and it really
turned my life path in a different direction. It really
it focused what I wanted to do for a living.
I realized I've always wanted to be in radio. I
really wanted to do interviews and things like that. And
if it wasn't for the Carnegie Library, I don't think
I would would would have been able to achieve that
kind of focus. So I'm a big fan of everything
(01:04):
you do.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Well, thank you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
And certainly this twenty minutes. Isn't devoted to me, but
just just think of how many people you have changed
in the in Pittsburgh, but just the world. You know,
it's a it's a world famous organization. So you have
a lot to be a proud proud of, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
We say library save lives? And I think a lot
of people think that that's a little bit of a
trite statement, maybe that it's silly. You know, what does
a library do?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
How?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
You know?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, I got I got boots because you really did
change my life.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, So tell.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Me a little bit about Mary, what exactly? I know
we're going to be talking about the Festival of Books
and this is a fabulous or you know, how many
years have you been doing this?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
The festival for four years? This is the fourth annual.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And you kind of have a new location. We'll talk
about that, but let's talk Mary first. So what exactly
do you do for Carnai Library?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So right now now I am the director of Public Service.
But I've been at Carnegie Library for thirty three years.
I started to start when you were like when I
was fifteen. Yeah, well, you know, I came to Pittsburgh
to be a librarian. And honestly, my story's very similar
to yours. I graduated from college, I didn't really know
(02:19):
what I wanted to do. I was living in Indianapolis
at the time, and I went to the library, Yes,
very close, just a hopskip and a jump, and I
went to the library and started looking through books of
careers and found a librarianship. And literally there was a
click in my head. That's the thing, brilliant, that's what
(02:40):
you're supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Were you always a lover of reading? Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Always, always, always an avid reader, but never realized that
you could make a career of it. Never realize, you know,
it just never clicked that that that could be something
you could spend your life doing. And so I came
here to get my master's in library science and got
my very first job at the West End Library as
a children's librarian. And I have stayed and loved every minute.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I've been to the West End Library many many, many
many library.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yea, it really is.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And you know, not only how I I initially wanted
to polish up my resume, and I read it on
books on resume and then I thought, okay, what you
maybe motivation self? You know, self help books, and then
all of a sudden there was a book on you know, nonfiction,
and then I fell in love with you know, non
(03:31):
fiction books and history and things like that. And you
never know where reading is going to lead you.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Absolutely, it's an adventure. Every single every single book you open,
there's an adventure. You learn something, you you meet new people,
you make relationships with characters and books that last your
entire life.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
And the Festival of Books is growing, and you said
four years and last year was a huge success. You're
you're moving it to the Carnegie Library, the Oakland them
the main one. Now why is that? Why are you
changing locations?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Well, we took over the festival officially last year and
it was still in East Liberty and the main Library
in Oakland is home for us, and we wanted to
make sure that we brought the Festival of Books, the
Festival of Reading, one of the most exciting things that
we do home. And you know, we have the main library,
(04:28):
home of every book ever written, I swear, and such
beautiful grounds, you know, in the heart of Oakland, and
we just wanted to have our festival at our house.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
All right, So tell us everything we need to know.
About this year's festival.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Okay, so the festival is on Saturday, May thirty. First,
it's from ten to five. We have about sixty nine
different authors coming, plus twenty five ish poets, and then
workshops that are being held by different book groups in
the community, different experts on different topics. We have forty
(05:05):
two or forty four I think sessions of authors talking
to each other, authors reading their works, talking to the audience.
Some really really exciting names that a lot of folks
will recognize, and folks for whom this is their first
book and their first time out talking to their public.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Okay, so we're talking dozens of authors and poets, lots
and lots. This is quite a logistic nightmare for you, right,
How when did you start planning this?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
We started planning this day after laughing pretty much. Yes,
exactly right. Yeah, So, you know our beloved, beloved main Library.
I always say it's so big, and yet you can't
fit anything into it, you know, It's just we have
so many books and so much stuff. So it really
has been a little bit of a challenge for us
to figure out where we're going to put all these
(05:58):
people and where we're going to put all this stuff.
Luckily we have folks who are much smarter than me
at figuring that kind of stuff out. So we'll have
things inside the library, we'll have things outside the library,
different vendors and exhibitors, so inside, outside, all over the place.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So if you're a lover of reading, or a lover
of the library, or a lover of books, this is
quite an opportunity. Can you give us some maybe highlights
of some of the authors or poets that are that
are going to be coming on May thirty first.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So one of my absolute favorites, and because I grew
up listening to her records and my folks house, is
Judy Collins.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
So yes, ye, sweet Judy blue Eyes.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yes, yes, So she has a book of poetry coming
out called Sometimes It's Heaven, and she is going to
be our poetry headliner. She goes on at four o'clocks.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Fabulous. I had a chance to interview her, really, and
she is an absolute.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Sweet Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
She so connected to all those Crosby Stills, Nashy Yes,
in the California Sound and of course she was in
the middle of all of them.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, and you see her pictures now, and she's she
still has those blue eyes and.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
That dunning blue eyes, gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Gorgeous mane of white hair. And yeah, so she's written
a few other books, one a memoir, and but this
is her first book of poetry, and we're so excited
to have her come.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Fabulous.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
So some of our other headliners. We have Rachel Kong,
who a lot of folks might know from a book
that came out last year called Real Americans. It was
a bestseller. People loved it, and she's promoting her book
Goodbye Vitamin. So that's her new.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Book and what is that about.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Oh gosh, Johnny, I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm working
my way through the list and I haven't gotten to
the case yet. So she's.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Hey, yous, right right.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
We have Tory Peters who's coming, who is also on
her second book called Stag Dance. We have Omar Tyree,
who a lot of folks would know from fly Girl,
which came out thirty years ago and really was, if
folks know the term, like streetlet. He was sort of
the king of that. He really sort of spurred a
(08:17):
lot of that kind of writing and people love it.
We have Sharon g Flake, who is a children's author,
a Pittsburgh author. Her award winning, multi award winning book
called The Skin I'm In, a children's book, came out
thirty years ago as well, and she's written several sequels
and this year she is going to be talking about
(08:37):
The Family I'm In. And one really exciting thing is
that you know, she is a she is if you
follow children's literature. She's a very prominent writer in children's literature,
a pittsburgher, and she has just donated all of her
papers to the archives at the University of Pittsburgh. So
it's a real it's really exciting both for pitt and
(08:58):
for and for her. So you know, those are some
of our headliners. We also have some folks coming to
talk about some books, some local books, some local authors.
We have a book coming or an author coming who
wrote the book of Pittsburgh in fifty maps, and we
have a small group of folks who wrote a book
(09:19):
about Pittsburgh steps, you know, just sort of mapping, and.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
We have a lot of them, we do, you.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Know, and I never see anybody climbing them, but they're
all out there. I wouldn't climb them. You couldn't pay
me enough. But a lot of mystery writers. Nat Cassidy
has a book that's coming out called When the Wolf
Comes Home. A lot of people are really waiting to
read that. We have Laura piper Lee who's coming and
what's really fun about that is that the Bakery Square
(09:46):
book Club in East Liberty is planning to read her
book and so we were able to connect with them
and they're going to come over to the festival and
hold their book club meeting at the festival and she's
going to sit with them, so like you know, there
she'll be with the book club talking about her book.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
We're talking to Mary Monahan, director of Public Services of
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's Festival of Books is taking
place coming up on May thirty first. A new location
was in Each Liberty last year. This year it's going
to be at the main you know, Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh in Oakland. If somebody wants more information, they just
go to your website.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
They can go to Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh dot org,
or they can go to Pittsburgh Book Festival dot org
Pittsburgh Book firsk Festival dot org.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Okay, all right, so you have some of these authors
in local and national, and you also have these poets.
Now what are they going to be doing? Is there
are you able to Are there going to be readings?
Is there going to be you know, quite Q and
A what takes place? How are they going to interact
with some of these authors.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
So a lot of the programs are going to be
panel authors. So we have, for example, or panel presentations,
So we have all of the mystery authors sitting together
and they'll be talking to each other. We have somebody
there who will be posing questions for them, and they'll
be talking about their books and their writing and their process.
And then they'll be time for questions and answers from
(11:11):
the audience. And then all of the books that they'll
be talking about will be for sale by some local
bookstores and folks can get their books signed, which is
always really exciting. We have a few of our folks
who will be doing just readings. So, for example, Jennifer Haig,
who also has Pittsburg connection. She has a number of
books in the past, very very popular. Her new book,
(11:33):
Rabbit Moon is coming out. She'll be doing a solo presentation,
so she'll be reading from her book, She'll be talking
about her process, you know how she writes and what
this book is about. But the really really exciting thing
is that for attendees at the festival, there's a chance
to meet these folks. There's a chance to like, I
can't wait to meet Duty Collins, but you know, there's
(11:55):
a chance to really interact with folks who have written
and created something that is so meaningful to you. And
you get to you know, have their book and have
them sign it and have a few minutes to talk
to them. So that's really the appeal for me is
to be able to be around these super creative people
who you know, have made these books that are so meaningful.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
So this is the fourth year for the festival, fourth
year for the festival. So what was the origin, what,
what was your main goal? What was your mission when
you first decided that, hey, we're going to have this
book festival.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
So it was actually not even us. It was a
man named Marshall Cohen. He was he's retired, he's since
moved even out of Pittsburgh, but he grew up in
Pittsburgh and was based in Pittsburgh, and he was a
lobbyist and he traveled all over the country and went
to book festivals in cities, you know, all over the US,
and just could never believe that a book festival wasn't
(12:50):
happening in Pittsburgh, and so he started it.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Wow, that is shocking that it hadn't happened, especially in Pittsburgh.
And as much as you know, the Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh is so accepted by those community. There's so many
people who love and have devoted to your your cause,
so that is kind of us a problem.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah, Pittsburgh, for as big of a sports town as
it is, it's a huge reading town and it's a
huge literature town.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
So I kind of we were talking about that's okay.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
He made the so we as soon as he started,
you know, we came on board because of course it
was you know, it's clearly fits within our mission. It's
the thing that's you know, the things that are so
important to us. And after a couple of years he
Marshall decided to step down and we said, all right,
well this.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Is getting too big for you. Take it.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, and we were thrilled, absolutely thrilled to do it.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
In past years, what have been the some of the
things that people really enjoyed and are you bringing those
things back.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Absolutely, so I think some you know, one of the
one of the big things is the opportunity to to
talk to authors. The other thing is it really is
an opportunity families, for families to come together. We have
some of the authors that I talked about who are
for adults. We have a lot of authors and writers
and even poets who are aimed at children and teenagers.
(14:12):
So it's a real opportunity for families to come together
and sort of experience books and experience reading together. We
have a lot of vendors who are going to be there,
both selling things and what so they're all sort of
book related or book adjacent. In fact, there's one vendor
(14:33):
who sells yarn. She is a library and wants a library,
and you're always a librarian. But she used to work
for us and she left. She's always a big knitter.
She loved to knit, she loved to do all that stuff.
And now she has a yarn company called Ex Libris
where she dies yarn based on books. So it's really neat.
(14:56):
You know, it's sort of like the Great Gatsby yarn.
And I don't know if she has this, but you know,
it would look sort of it would have the blues
in it from the cover and the orange and you know,
everybody knows that sort of classic cover of the Great Gatspace,
so you know. So it's a lot of kind of
book adjacent vendors, folks selling stickers and t shirts and
mugs and that kind of stuff. Plus we have our
(15:17):
three local bookstores who will be supporting the festival, Riverstone Books,
Mystery Lover's Bookshop out in Oakmont, and Stories like Me
in Squirrel Hill, and they will be selling the books
of the authors who are going to Do.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
You have any sponsorship for this? We do.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
We have some fantastic sponsors. The Bunch of Organization is
one of our biggest sponsors. Duo Lingo. Well, it's our sponsors.
I'm sorry that I can't remember them.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
We'll get to it okay later, but all right. So
for those who are just tuning in the Pittsburgh Festival
of Books, this is the fourth year May thirty. First.
The new location is going to be at the main
Library in Oakland. It starts at ten am and a
last two five o'clock five o'clock. In your opinion, what
are you most excited to see other than maybe Judy Collins.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I actually am super excited. I'm a little bit of
a map nerd, so I'm super excited about the Pittsburgh
and fifty Maps book. What is that it's I actually
haven't seen it yet, but it's you know, it's just
I think different ways that you can look at Pittsburgh
through maps. So there's obviously the street map, but could
(16:28):
you look at Pittsburgh in a map of where different
people live, Like, you know, neighborhoods are.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
The neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. I'm not neighborhoods.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
That's news to me.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Does anybody live in downtown Pittsburgh? That's the thing? Somebody says,
where are you from? Pittsburgh? Yeah? But where are you from?
This is the actually exactly, we all we all have
a neighborhood that we're proud of, right, all right? So
what do you what is what is the biggest challenge
of putting this together?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Oh? Wow, you know, the biggest challenge is that it
is so big and there's so many moving pieces, and
you know, finding finding the authors who have something new
coming out that would be exciting and interesting for folks
in Pittsburgh, seeing if they're available, you know, making sure
(17:22):
that we get them here and you know, at the
right time. So it's because it's so many different individuals.
It's it's close to ninety actual individuals who are traveling
here or who you know who live in Pittsburgh. That's
the biggest challenge is just sort of making all of
those arrangements for folks. But it's also the most exciting
because we get to know and see what books are
(17:44):
going to be coming out next year or in six months,
and so that's a lot of fun to get a
little bit of a sneak peek about what your next
favorite book's going to be.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
All Right, we only have a couple of minutes. Yeah,
so let's kind of recap everything people need to know
about this year's festival. It's going to be bigger. I'm
going to let you you have the floor, you get
the last word. Tell us everything we need to know
about this year's.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Excellent May thirty first at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Maine
in Oakland. That's not East Liberty, it's not East Liberty.
It's been moved. So the street address is forty four
hundred Forbes Avenue. If folks want to put that into
their GPS who doesn't know where quest Oh, well, you'd
be surprised. Ten am to five pm. We have over
sixty authors, close to thirty poets, a lot of fantastic workshops,
(18:30):
a lot of fantastic partners who are going to be there,
and it's just it's not going to range.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
How many people do you expect to attend this year's
first Well.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I tell you we had four thousand last year when
it was an East Liberty and if we don't beat
that number, I don't know how to do my job.
So it's going to be over four thousand.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Wow, that's amazing, Just a testament of you know, how
much people love what the Carnegie Library does for Pittsburgh
and they love reading and love books, and of course
this is an event that just keeps growing. So congratulate. Now,
if somebody, as far as parking is concerned, you're kind
of on your own.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Oh man, Well, we do have the lot you can
enter Forbes and Craig. Once that gets full, we are
making arrangements with other lots around Oakland for you, just
at least to make sure people know where they are and.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Get there early. Get there early, and if somebody wants
more information the websites again.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
The website is Pittsburgh Book Festival dot org and the
Carnegie Library's Carnegie Library dot org.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
The Pittsburgh Festival of Books taking place Saturday, May thirty first,
starting at ten o'clock a new location, Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh,
the main in Oakland. Once again, the websites.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Pittsburgh Book Festival dot org and Carnegie Library dot org.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Marrymanahan of Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, good luck and I'm looking
you better start planning next year.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
We are thank you so much, thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
My next guest wants to raise a lot of money
for a very special cost that's coming up next
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