Join us for an evening of honoring Pittsburgh’s literary community as we kick-off the second annual Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books! Mix and mingle with Festival authors and poets, enjoy delicious hors d'oeuvres and refreshments and listen to live entertainment all while celebrating our region’s love for reading.
When: May 12 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: Pittsburgh Theological Seminary 616 N Highland Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Register today for Festival programming at the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books! Registration is free and allows you to have a secured seat at your favorite authors' programming.
Laura Warrell, featured author of this year's Festival, has been announced as a PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction finalist. The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction honors the best published works of fiction by American permanent residents in a calendar year. Three writers are chosen annually by the Board of Directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to serve as judges, ensuring that its awards selection process is free of commercial influence.
SELF-PUBLISHED WRITER'S ROW
Are you a self-published author looking to bring awareness to your work? Attend this year’s festival as part of our Self-Published Writer’s Row. You’ll be provided a space to sell your books and connect with Festival attendees while joined by fellow self-published authors.
With the help of our volunteers, the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books will once again successfully bring together Pittsburgh’s literary community this May. Volunteering is a fun way to show your support and give back to the community!
Visit pittsburghbookfestival.org/volunteer to sign up as a volunteer today! An email will be sent in the coming weeks to those who signed up to choose your time slot.
A SNEAK PEEK AT THIS YEAR’S PROGRAMMING AND EXHIBITORS
Duolingo
We’re thrilled to have Duolingo as both a sponsor and a part of our programming this year. At this year’s Festival, Duolingo will be exhibiting Duolingo ABC, a free, step-by-step reading program designed for kids to learn essential reading skills such as knowledge of the alphabet, understanding the meaning behind words and sentences and more.
You can find Duolingo ABC in your device’s app store or test it out at the Festival in May!
Parable of the Sower
From March 30 to April 2, the Pittsburgh Playhouse will proudly present Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower. Based on the classic sci-fi novel by Afro-futurist author Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower is a genre-defying, triumphant, mesmerizing work of rare power and beauty that illuminates deep insights on gender, race, and the future of human civilization. This fully staged “congregational” opera brings together over 30 original anthems drawn from 200 years of Black music to recreate Butler’s sci-fi, Afrofuturist masterpiece live on stage.
At the Festival, you can hear from the Pittsburgh Playhouse panel as it focuses on local black women and their relationships to Octavia E. Butler's Afrofuturism and feminism.
The Young Dreamers’ Bookstore
The Young Dreamers’ Bookstore comes to us as a mobile book retail store founded in 2022 for young children and their families. The store proudly features books that have protagonists of African descent from across the globe and/or are written by talented and culturally diverse writers.
Connect your children with books that meet them at their dreams and literacy needs at The Young Dreamers’ Bookstore!
Heinz History Center on Kennywood and the Heinz Family
Join Brian Butko and Emily Ruby from the Heinz History Center as they discuss the history of Kennywood and the Heinz Family
Celebrating Pittsburgh Neighborhoods
Don't miss out on Stewart O'Nan and Kathleen George's program as they talk about places they love around the Steel City while using their novels!
Pittsburgh Zoo
At the Festival, Elizabeth Pagel-Hogan will hold a reading of her book Animal Allies alongside a zookeeper from the Pittsburgh Zoo (and a few live animals!) to illustrate the theme of promoting STEM careers among young girls.
COMICSBURGH
We’re thrilled to welcome back COMICSBURGH to this year’s Festival! COMICSBURGH is a collective group of independent comic book creators from the Pittsburgh area who present their publications together both in the immediate region and on the road at various conventions. The original collaborators are Marvin Wynn (The Edge), Heroineburgh Comics and Videos, and Grant Lankard (Beowulf, Memoirs of the Morbid), and they have more recently been joined by D.P. Brown (Theme of Thieves) and S.K. Malveaux (MusicMaker). Their creations range from original interpretations of the superhero genre to fantasy and science-fiction, all conceived and published right here in the Steel City.
Pittsburgh Ballet Theater
Aligned with this year's theme of reading being three-dimensional, we're excited to have the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater present a story time of Sleeping Beauty! At the Festival, children will be able to experience the story of Sleeping Beauty through visual projections of dance while learning vocabulary and dance moves.
CHECK OUT OUR 2023 SPONSORS!
The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books is only made possible with the help of our supporters. Thank you to our 2023 sponsors for your generous contributions!
Lamar
Pittsburgh Regional Transit
Sponsorship opportunities are still available for the 2023 Festival. We remain committed to enhancing education and literacy in our communities and invite you to participate in our mission as a sponsor.
