Former features writer @ Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Now writing, editing, freelancing for various media sites including CDC Gaming Reports. Always with a book.
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Articles by Rege Behe
8 indie bookstores we love in the Pittsburgh area
Every independent bookshop, like a good novel, has its own story to tell. As we explored Pittsburgh’s best, we set out to solve a mystery: How have these unique businesses, some nearly a century old and others much newer, escaped the fate of chain stores such as Waldenbooks and Borders? A few years ago, independent bookstores nationwide were in peril. But instead of becoming anachronistic outposts of literacy, independent bookshops are now thriving.
Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books takes Oakland with Judy Collins and other guests
The Carnegie Library in Oakland occasionally hosts big events, but taking on the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books and the 4,000 enthusiasts expected to attend posed a challenge for the event organizers. “It's the biggest building in the world, and there's still no room in it,” Mary Monaghan, director of public services with Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, tells Pittsburgh City Paper.
In Democracy Awakening, America's "most successful independent journalist" Heather Cox Richardson tracks the right's rise
The discontent that riles American politics was sown in the 1990s. The ascension of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly made much of talk radio, especially in rural areas, the domain of conservative viewpoints. Heather Cox Richardson, an author and professor of 19th-century American history at Boston College, believes that, at the time, multiple factors contributed to the rise of American conservatism.
How Hurricane Katrina and Fred Rogers inspired Vernon Poche & the Ghosts of New Orleans
Next year marks exactly two decades since Hurricane Katrina became one of the country’s greatest natural disasters. Over that time, Paul Siefkin believes the tragedy has become lost to younger generations. “That means that there are high school graduates now for whom that's history. And yet, for people in New Orleans, they talk about it like it was yesterday,” Siefkin tells Pittsburgh City Paper.
Author Mike Watt trades horror for the Wild West with the story of two real-life outlaws
Mike Watt didn’t intend to write a novel that echoes Zane Grey or Louis L’Amour. The horror author thought his latest book would tred more familiar ground, with zombies, ghosts, and other similar creatures interacting with cowboys. But Watt, a local filmmaker, writer, and journalist who has written for magazines including Fangoria and Cinefastique, didn’t account for Dave Rudabaugh and John Joshua Webb.
Colm Tóibín continues romantic saga of Irish immigrants in the U.S. with Long Island
It’s been well documented that Colm Tóibín never intended to write a sequel to his 2009 novel, Brooklyn. But his latest book, Long Island, revisits the characters and landscapes of that novel, which, in 2015, was adapted into an acclaimed film starring Saoirse Ronan. Both novels are rich in the details of life, especially in Enniscorthy, Ireland, Tóibín’s hometown. But there’s a major difference in the resolution of the novels.
A once-lost George A. Romeo manuscript follows a murderous pied piper in Louisiana
George A. Romero Archival Collection, he realized it was something unique: an unfinished novel by the famed horror filmmaker. “I'd never heard of Pay the Piper. Shortly after I found it, no one had heard of it,” Kraus tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “It was really a kind of a secret project, I think. I was really surprised that it existed at all. Set in Louisiana, Pay the Piper (Union Square) is a sprawling tale of intrigue and horror.
How poet Jan Beatty drew from WAMO and "madwomen" for her latest poetry anthology
In her latest collection, Dragstripping (University of Pittsburgh Press), Jan Beatty includes numerous poems about her father, who died almost 40 years ago, in 1986. “I keep thinking that I’m done with him, and it just keeps happening,” Beatty tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “I’m still wearing my father’s ring. I’m still very close to him. I’m not going to turn it down. I’m grateful that I’m still getting poems.
Wildcat by Jeffrey Dunn finds romance in an uncanny Appalachian town
Jeffrey Dunn admits he’s dyslexic and has a million words available to him, but sometimes, he says, “I just can’t find the box that I put them in.” The words he does locate and use in his latest novel Wildcat: An Appalachian Romance (Izzard Ink) are those of a grizzled craftsman who knows well the landscape of storytelling. Take his description of the atmosphere in the fictional town of Wildcat, modeled after Braeburn, a small community near Natrona Heights and Lower Burrell.
Ed Simon reflects on the weirder side of Pittsburgh's "soul" in new essay collection
While Ed Simon has spent most of his life in Pittsburgh, he also lived for 12 years in New York City; just north of Cambridge, Massachusetts; in suburban Virginia; and on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The perspective achieved through leaving and returning to Pittsburgh informs Simon’s latest book The Soul of Pittsburgh: Essays on Life, Community and History (Arcadia Publishing).
Clare Beams births a new kind of pregnancy horror with The Garden
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments.
Clare Beams births a new kind of pregnancy horror with The Garden
Clare Beams calls herself “a trees person, not a forest person” when revising copy. “You can say to me, 'I don’t understand the character. Why is she so mean?'” Beams tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “And I’ll be totally thrilled to write three new chapters to try and understand that, to soften that.
Swimsuit models and the mafia define L.L. Kirchner's debut novel Florida Girls
L.L. Kirchner was raised in Pittsburgh but now lives in Florida, a state that has already influenced her writing. The author, who previously published two memoirs, recently released her debut novel Florida Girls (Lila Books). The story was inspired by an old newspaper photo featuring two lines of women — one from California, the other Floridians — dressed in vintage 1940s bathing suits.
Author Anna Monardo fulfills grandmother's dying wish with After Italy
The genesis of Anna Monardo’s new autobiography was seeded almost three decades ago when her grandmother, clinging to life, relayed a final request. “I want to write the story of my life,” Gramma Anna told her granddaughter. “When she said that she was dying, and she knew she was dying,” Monardo tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “And she was very young — she was dying too young.
How a podcast, a fear of flying, and a plantation museum influenced Jesmyn Ward's latest novel Let Us Descend
Jesmyn Ward thought she was prepared when starting to write her latest novel, Let Us Descend (Scribner). The story of a young enslaved woman who navigates a daunting trip from the Carolinas to New Orleans – on foot, no less, while being driven by cruel slave traders – Ward knew the material was going to test her resolve. Ward, who appears Mon., May 13 as a guest of the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures Ten Evenings series, admits she underestimated the effect of the book’s subject matter.
Squirrel Hill author Catherine Gammon explores how loud silence can be in The Gunman & the Carnival
Many of the stories in Catherine Gammon’s latest collection, The Gunman & the Carnival (Baobab Press) are set in Los Angeles, where the Squirrel Hill-based writer grew up. But it wasn’t until Gammon came to Western Pa. in 1992 to teach at the University of Pittsburgh that she began to understand her birthplace.
Stay Gold adds family-owned bookstore to Regent Square business district
Carrie and Corey Wittig were used to being surrounded by books. Carrie worked as a language arts teacher and Corey was a librarian. But Carrie’s bout with breast cancer a few years ago convinced the couple they needed something closer to their East End home — jobs where they could be more available to their two young children.
Stay Gold adds family-owned bookstore to Regent Square business district
Carrie and Corey Wittig were used to being surrounded by books. Carrie worked as a language arts teacher and Corey was a librarian. But Carrie’s bout with breast cancer a few years ago convinced the couple they needed something closer to their East End home — jobs where they could be more available to their two young children.
Tracy Kidder documents doctor's quest to heal patients experiencing homelessness
For months, Tracy Kidder rode in a van with Dr. Jim O’Connell, traversing the streets and alleys of Boston, Mass. Kidder, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Mountains Beyond Mountains, observed O’Connell treating countless people experiencing homelessness. O’Connell not only dispensed much-needed medical care, he also became a confidante, and sometimes friend, to many of the people he treated.
Rust Belt Union Blues examines the political shift of organized labor groups
Lainey Newman is too young to have experienced the glory days of unions in Western Pennsylvania. Currently a law student at Harvard, and only 25, the Squirrel Hill native heard about unions from extended family members but had no first-hand experience with the United Steelworkers, the Ironworkers Union, or any of the other organized labor groups that were a force in the region between the 1950s and late 1970s.
Aristocrat releases latest football-themed slot, NFL Winning Drive
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Aristocrat Leisure promotes Matthew Primmer to chief product officer
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Cameron Barnett goes from a Murmur to a roar with new poetry collection
Cameron Barnett considers himself a shy person. But in his new poetry collection, Murmur (Autumn House Press), Barnett’s voice is urgent and insistent, demanding that readers pay attention. In the poem "Corners," Barnett writes: I take their hands to my chest, tap out a sweet staccato: Do you see me? Shut your eyes. Do you see me?” “In that poem, it’s sort of speaking for a speaker trying to be seen for who they are in their full complexity and identity,” Barnett tells Pittsburgh City Paper.
Mohegan Sun names Kimberly Simone director of sales
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Scientific Games adds two partners to SG Content Hub and Partner Program
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Pretty Little Liars author Sara Shepard trades YA lit for a story about women off the grid
Sara Shepard only lived in Arizona for about three years. But the state’s tawny landscapes, sere vegetation, and seemingly endless vistas were very much on the bestselling author’s mind while writing Nowhere Like Home. “I was interested in the idea of setting something in a community where you sort of go to escape and you think all your problems are going to be solved,” says Shepard during an interview with Pittsburgh City Paper.
After stellar results in 2023, MGM CEO confident that 2024 will be similar
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Don't expect Jennifer Egan to upload her memories into the cloud anytime soon
The Candy House (Simon & Schuster), the most recent book from Jennifer Egan, features many characters from the author's 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad. Since the novels came out 12 years apart, it’s easy to assume Egan wanted to revisit characters from her most lauded novel after working on other books. That’s not quite true. “I would actually say it wasn’t that they came back, they really never left,” says Egan during an interview with Pittsburgh City Paper.
Scientific Games names Andrew Jackson VP of Environmental, Social and Governance
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TransUnion survey indicates gaming industry needs to be aware of economy, inflation
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Seminole Hard Rock promotes Keith Sheldon to President of Entertainment and Brand Management
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Oklahoma: Hard Rock announces hotel and residences near Chickasaw Nation casino
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Lori Jakiela reflects on cancer bout with a new memoir and outlook on life
When Lori Jakiela published her first memoir, Miss New York Has Everything, in 2006, she was asked what was left to write about. Jakiela was then in her late 30s, and it seemed to one interviewer that she’d exhausted all the details and minutia from a life well-lived. That wasn’t quite true – Jakiela recently published her fourth memoir, They Write Your Name on a Grain of Rice (Atticus Books). “They interlace,” says Jakiela of her memoirs during an interview with Pittsburgh City Paper.
Pittsburgh author Ed Simon examines guitars, footballs, and other important objects in Relic
An Elvis Presley guitar displayed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is no different than any guitar from that era. This is according to Ed Simon, who explores the meaning of relics in a new book. “The only thing that makes it important is that Elvis once touched it,” Simon tells Pittsburgh City Paper, writing in Relic that “any sports hall of fame is, in a literal sense, not much different than going to Dick’s Sporting Goods. A football is a football is a football.
Pittsburgh's People of the Year 2023: Lit
As a child, Virginia Montanez developed a keen sense of humor through watching The Carol Burnett Show and Marx Brothers movies. She had a gift for making adults laugh, “not with 12-year-old humor,” but with pointedly funny observations and jokes. She says that gift helped her deal with having a “hearing impairment” in a big chaotic family, where she competed with four sisters for attention. “We’re all two years apart. On the one side, I couldn’t be part of conversations.
Hard Rock Digital launches Hard Rock Games for free-to-play online and mobile gaming
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Rebecca Makkai drew from #MeToo and true crime to craft her latest novel
I Have Some Questions for You, the latest novel from author Rebecca Makkai, could be read as a psychological thriller that examines how memory works, a whodunnit, or a feminist novel. This malleability, the ability to write without adhering to preconceived notions of what her work will be, is woven into Makkai’s process. “Form definitely follows function, and genre tends to follow function too,” Makkai tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “And theme kind of rises mysteriously out of all of that.
Aruze Gaming appoints Betty Zhao as new VP of International Operations
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Jennifer Fickley-Baker revisits Pittsburgh past with 26 Ways to Come Home for the Holidays
Jennifer Fickley-Baker grew up in Baldwin in a close-knit family. She remembers oddball phrases older family members used that evoked a different era, particularly a grandfather who would go on about whippersnappers, fuddy-duddys, and doohickeys. “My grandfather talked like that all the time,” says Fickley-Baker, the author (under the pen name Jennifer Joy) of 26 Ways to Come Home for the Holidays.
Dream Street captures 1950s Pittsburgh through the lens of W. Eugene Smith
W. Eugene Smith could have done a photo essay about any city in the world. In the mid-1950s Smith was a brilliant, if at times mercurial photographer. He worked for Newsweek and Life magazines, covered the Pacific theater during World War II (he was seriously injured in Okinawa), and produced acclaimed photo essays about Deleitosa, a village in Spain, and Albert Schweitzer.
Bestselling author Abraham Verghese talks family, writing, and drowning
Abraham Verghese produced a voluminous novel — over 700 pages — that never feels bloated or long. Set in Kerala on India’s Malabar Coast, The Covenant of Water follows a family haunted by a weird condition — in every generation, someone drowns. The two central characters — a girl who marries at 12 and eventually becomes Big Ammachi, the family matriarch, and Digby, a physician unable to find suitable work in Glasgow because he is Catholic — set out on unlikely paths that eventually converge.
Kosoko Jackson centers Black, queer characters in haunting new tale
One of Kosoko Jackson’s main sources of inspiration is filmmaker Jordan Peele — which would be understandable if Jackson was a filmmaker. But like Peele, Jackson, who crafts young adult books featuring non-stereotypical Black, queer characters, does dip into horror. His latest novel, The Forest Demands Its Due (HarperCollins), is akin to Rushmore by way of American Horror Story. The protagonist, Douglas Jones, attends an elite prep school where he doesn’t fit in.
Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh combines time travel and queer romance
Pride and Prejudice and Pittsburgh, the latest book by author Rachael Lippincott, is, ostensibly, a young adult romance. But the story of Audrey, a Pittsburgh woman magically transported back to 19th-century England, weaves in sci-fi and historical fiction, as well as inspiration from an enduringly celebrated female author. “When I'm writing it’s not necessarily having all of those elements and trying to stack the book with them,” Lippincott tells Pittsburgh City Paper.
Author Matthew Desmond wants sustainable solutions to America's poverty problem
In 1881, author Leo Tolstoy, flush with the success of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, abandoned his home in the country and moved to Moscow. His literary success enabled him to employ servants, and he had few, if any, concerns. But one thing he observed in Moscow shocked Tolstoy: rampant poverty. He sought reasons why everywhere he turned there were beggars, sex workers, and others who were struggling and destitute.
Poet Lynn Emanuel spins beautiful prose out of the pandemic, noir, and nuclear testing
Right before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Lynn Emanuel went to a gallery in New York. A painting by English artist Rachel Whiteread drew her attention. Ostensibly, it seemed to be merely a swath of white canvas. But when Emanuel read the painting’s description, she realized it was so much more. A sense, a feeling that Whiteread’s work engendered, reverberated for Emanuel when the pandemic started to shut down the world.
Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures names Sony Ton-Aime as new executive director
While an undergrad at Kent State University in 2013, Sony Ton-Aime attended a Pittsburgh Arts & Lecture event featuring writer George Saunders. At the time, the Haitian native was studying accounting and taking an occasional poetry course. After hearing Saunders speak, and subsequently attending other literary events, Ton-Aime wondered if it was possible to forge a career in the arts.
Find creative printed materials of all kinds at the inaugural Pittsburgh Art Book Fair
In October 2022, Emma Honcharski attended Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair, an event that, since 2006, has been a staple of the city’s creative scene. Her friend, Chas Wagner, also attended, and they wondered if it was feasible to host a similar happening in Pittsburgh. Less than a year later, it’s not only possible, but a reality. The first annual Pittsburgh Art Book Fair — taking place Sat., Sept. 9- Sun., Sept.
Kit Frick weaves a YA mystery in Mexico with The Reunion
The latest novel by Pittsburgh-based author Kit Frick is, ostensibly, a young adult title. However, The Reunion, which follows four teenagers who travel to a Mexican resort to celebrate an impending family marriage, is more than a coming-of-age tale; it’s also a keenly plotted mystery that could easily appeal to adult readers.
Memoir recounts how a scam artist turned a Pitt grad into a “company pimp”
Ron Kaiser was promised many things by Earl Belle. He was going to be the editor of the Saltsburg News in Indiana County. He was going to direct PR campaigns for Belle’s seemingly inexhaustible business interests. Instead, Kaiser ended up in jail. In his self-published book,The Note from Belle, Kaiser, now 92, recounts his long-ago interactions with Belle, who became a media darling because of his lavish lifestyle in Pittsburgh and New York City, and, ultimately, a pariah who fled the country.
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