Want to celebrate our city’s rich literary community for free? The annual Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books will welcome nationally renowned authors with ties to Pittsburgh, dozens of poets, book and comic stores, entertainment, publishers, and more on May 11 at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Find a lineup of local authors below!
Know before you go: Whether you love romance novels, want to take a workshop, plan to bring your kids, or are a die-hard yinzer, there is a genre guide to help you plan your perfect day.
Beams’ book “The Illness Lesson,” is a New York Times Editors’ Choice and her story collection, “We Show What We Have Learned,” won the Bard Fiction Prize. Beams, a Pittsburgh resident and teacher at the Randolph MFA program, recently released her newest novel, “The Garden.” She was also a 2014 NEA fellow and a finalist for the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.
- 📖 Beams’ horror and historical fiction author talk is at 10:15 a.m. with Russian-born American novelist Irina Reyn.
Cotman is the author of four collections of speculative short stories: “The Jack Daniels Sessions EP,” “Hard Times Blues,” “Dance on Saturday,” and his most recent, “Weird Black Girls” is an “irresistibly unnerving collection of stories that explore the anxieties of living while Black.” His debut novel “The Age of Ignorance” will be published by Scribner in 2025.
- 📖 Catch Cotman’s author talk focused on short stories at 12:15 p.m. with Creative Nonfiction Editor Elizabeth Abeling.
Derrick, who lives in Pittsburgh with her family, is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of “She Gets the Girl” and the author of “Forget Me Not,” which was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s literature.
- 📖 Derrick will be speaking on a panel, “From Pittsburgh with Love,” with wife Rachael Lippincott at 11:15 a.m.; a book signing at 12 p.m.; speaking on a panel, “Family Ties,” with Jennifer Baker and Shannon C.F. Rogers at 2:15 p.m.; and another book signing at 3 p.m.
Cave Canem co-founder Toi Derricotte’s sixth collection of poetry, “‘I’ New and Selected Poems,” was shortlisted for the 2019 National Book Award. She won the Pegasus Award from the Poetry Foundation in 2023, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets in 2021, and the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America in 2020.
- 📖 Derricotte will be reading in the Poetry Tent at 3 p.m. Find more festival poets here.
Lippincott is the #1 New York Times bestselling author and coauthor of “Five Feet Apart,” “All This Time,” “She Gets the Girl,” “The Lucky List,” “Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh,” and ‘“Make My Wish Come True.” She holds a BA in English writing from Pitt. Lippincott is originally from Bucks County, and currently lives in Pittsburgh with her wife and daughter.
- 📖 Lippincott will be speaking on panels, “From Pittsburgh with Love,” with wife Alyson Derrick at 11:15 a.m. and “Reading the Rainbow at Every Age,” with Alan R. Wells and Michael Leali at 12:15 p.m. She’ll also do a book signing!
Reed is the author of “Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries and Just One More Page Before Lights Out.” It was excerpted in The New Yorker and in George Saunders' Substack, Story Club. Shannon is also the author of “Why Did I Get a B? And Other Mysteries We're Discussing in the Faculty Lounge.” She teaches at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Writing Program.
- 📖 Reed will be holding an author talk at 11:45 a.m. with literary artist Adriana Ramirez.
Simon is editor of Belt Magazine and the author of over a dozen books, including “The Soul of Pittsburgh.”
- 📖 Simon will be speaking on a Local History panel at 1:45 with Pitt Archivist & Records Manager Zachary Brodt, moderated by Virginia Montanez, and holding an author talk at 3:30 p.m.
- 🎤 Hey, we know her! Hear Montanez talk about mapping what’s left of Pittsburgh’s past or the silliest insults given to our city over the past 200 years on the City Cast Pittsburgh podcast.
