A Writer’s Life in PGH: A Half Century with Abby Mendelson

Join Abby Mendelson at the library as he talks about his writing life.  During his writing career he has written extensively on a variety of topics including Judaism, Pittsburgh history, and Pittsburgh sports. He wanted us to note that he relishes answering questions and desperately hopes that he is interrupted frequently during this talk!  Abby will have copies of his book Reunion available, with all proceeds benefiting the Pittsburgh Food Bank. 
 

Award-winning writer Abby Mendelson is the author of three novels, Paradise Boys, Scotch and Oranges, and The Oakland Quartet; four short-story collections, Ghost Dancer, End of the Road, Reunion, and Keturah, forthcoming; and one flash-fiction collection, Six Archetypal Images. His most recent non-fiction book is Spirit to Spirit: A Portrait of Pittsburgh Jazz in the New Century. He also wrote The Pittsburgh Steelers Official History, in a fourth edition; The Pittsburgh Steelers: Yesterday and Today; The Steelers Experience; Arena: Remembering the Igloo; Pittsburgh: A Place in Time, about Pittsburgh neighborhoods, in a second edition; Pittsburgh Prays: Thirty-Six Houses of Worship; Voices from the Hill: A Celebration of Hill House; Reckoning with Rainbows: The History of The Pressley Ridge Schools; and A Century of Caring: The History of Holy Family Institute. For Pittsburgh Born, Pittsburgh Bred, the official 250th Pittsburgh anniversary book, he contributed more than 200 profiles of notable Pittsburghers. As an editor, he has handled a variety of complex projects, including various histories and biographies, Jewish and secular, including Countdown to Renaissance II, the first study of the 1970s Pittsburgh urban revitalization, and Wilderness Within, Wilderness Without, about the lives of troubled teens in a treatment center. As part of a 60-year writing career, he’s written countless newspaper and magazine articles on a wide variety of subjects, both Jewish and secular. A noted writing, literature, and Jewish studies instructor, he’s held a wide variety of positions, including both Chatham and Point Park Universities, the University of Pittsburgh Osher Program, the Mt. Lebanon Library, and many others. A continuing Jewish studies instructor, speaker, and volunteer prison chaplain for Aleph Institute, he also holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pittsburgh.

Part of our Fall Into Writing series through November!