We're so thankful to the writers and readers who have given us such a strong start! Here's our roundup of the most read stories from our first four months. pghrev.com/the-ten-most...

Every Part Strengthens a Part: Max Callimanopulos reviews and reflects on James Salter’s “Light Years” for its fiftieth anniversary. pghrev.com/every-part-s...

"Chain link is the most lyrical of fences. Also known as hurricane fence, wire mesh lets wind pass without resistance—while paper trash collects at the bottom among thistle and chicory." Object Lessons Impressions with Emily Farranto. pghrev.com/chain-link-f...

“One time…at a $5 punk salon… a guy with jiggy clippers… said, ‘Are you a model?’ and I, feeling model beautiful, indestructible, let him do whatever and ended up looking like a city rat gnawed my scalp bloody on one side.” A new essay by Lori Jakiela. pghrev.com/shining-glea...

Archives, McCarthyism, and the Legendary Pink Capra-Corn: An Excerpt from “Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy” by Vaughn Joy. @gvaughnjoy.bsky.social pghrev.com/archives-mcc...

Merry Christmas Eve, darlings! For Christmas, @pghreviewofbooks.bsky.social published an excerpt of Selling Out Santa in which I discuss finding 7 pages of a rumored lost Frank Capra script in his archives, a script I traveled two days to find because I knew it'd change everything. AI could never.

“In these pages, we recognize that no amount of hatred and isolation should keep us apart. It is this unconditional love that brings us together and orients us toward a better year ahead.” Joseph Ashenden on children's lit as liturgy at Christmas. pghrev.com/childrens-li...

"A frigid Sunday afternoon, and I’m reading Marx’s Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte online. That’s what I sat down to do about an hour ago, and I made it through the opening lines of chapter one." Jonathan P. Eburne on ADHD, the latest in Object Lessons Impressions. pghrev.com/adhd/

What books are you spending time with at the end of 2025? Our editors and contributors shared their picks: pghrev.com/the-books-we...

Our #NewsMatch fund drive continues! Did you know memberships cover nearly all of our operating expenses? All new gifts are matched thru 12/31: your $5/mo gift unlocks $60 in matching funds – which goes straight to paying writers for their work! Can we count on your support? beltmag.com/membership/

“But if nobody uses tarot cards, can they maintain any utility as a literary symbol and metaphorical stand-in for seeking answers from unseen forces?” Mason Stockstill of @thirdpersonlimited.bsky.social on the meaning of tarot cards. @stockstill.bsky.social pghrev.com/what-tarot-c...

“Lei shows the paradox at the heart of modern government: how enlightenment has been turned into management.” Yushan Wang on the rationalized state in China. pghrev.com/the-rational...

“Tyrants’ obsessive aspiration to undermine truth is due to their inability to accept any such external imposition on their wills.” Read "Truth, Enemy of the People" by Omri Boehm. pghrev.com/truth-enemy-...

Pittsburgh activist Julia Whiteker bears witness for those disappeared by ICE. By Jennifer Bannan. @jenbannan.bsky.social pghrev.com/giving-voice...

“[These newspapers] articulated African diaspora organizational and intellectual history and criticized class and gender politics in local communities.” Read "The Fate of a 'Political' Press" by Leslie James. pghrev.com/the-fate-of-...

“It’s important to sound the alarm on the losses of a rich counterculture as it hits the mainstream and the content machine does what the content machine must do.” Suzy Liss on what we lose when fanfic sells out. pghrev.com/what-we-lose...

The deadliest coal mining accidents in both West Virginia and Pennsylvania occurred in December 1907. What do the memorials erected since then say about a changing Appalachia? By Greg Barnhisel. @gbarnhisel.bsky.social pghrev.com/dark-as-the-...

“Succinctly, The Great Gatsby has become the representative novel about the American Dream. As we approach New Year’s, however, a different American literary anniversary deserves acknowledgement.” Trevin Corsiglia on that other 1925 classic American novel. pghrev.com/that-other-1...

Happy birthday, Jane Austen, born on this day in 1775. I was pleased to be invited to write this piece pghrev.com/jane-austen-... for @pghreviewofbooks.bsky.social

"In the middle of the night, in Nietzsche’s loneliest loneliness, the soft light of my lamp connects me to the labor of billions. I could not do this without all of you."

"When I was a kid and couldn’t sleep, I would read late into the night. My parents, concerned that I was staying up too long, began unplugging my reading lamp from the wall..." Object Lessons Impressions on Electricity. By Michael Peterson. pghrev.com/electricity/

“However, the impassioned response to these two acts of cultural suppression proved that Pittsburgh was no monolith.” Read "Pete Seeger in Pittsburgh Town" by Jodie Childers. pghrev.com/pete-seeger-...

Quantum Theatre’s Visionary Founder Karla Boos is retiring. She sits down with editor Ed Simon to talk about what’s next. pghrev.com/karla-boos-c...

The 2026 Bridges and Borders conference theme is Material Actualities, which can be understood as narratives, generally accepted facts, or theoretical frameworks that help us to engage with and make sense of expectations, beliefs, and material reality. Check out the CFP: pghrev.com/bridges-and-...

“What is the difference between Old and New World antisemitism? Nadell responds ‘Unlike in Europe, in America violence was not state-sponsored.’ Is that a comfort?” Beth Kissileff on America’s shameful history of antisemitism. pghrev.com/americas-sha...

"There can be no single interpretation of the Holocaust. No event so all-consumingly destructive could inspire unified understanding. Among the few common threads in responses to the Holocaust are two questions: why and how."--Simon Reich pghrev.com/the-banal-th...

Olena Boryshpolets, a Ukrainian writer in Pittsburgh, contemplates exile, architecture, and her dying mother as America chooses its next president. pghrev.com/little-dirty...

In this conversation with Aakanksha Agarwal, the acclaimed novelist Gish Jen discusses “Bad Bad Girl,” the Shanghai-born mother who shaped her, and the blend of fact and fiction she used to understand a life left largely unrecorded. pghrev.com/gish-jen-on-...

So glad I got to chat with Beth Macy about PAPER GIRL for @pghreviewofbooks.bsky.social. Talking to Beth is like talking to a neighbor back home. <3

Born in the Mon Valley, Phillip Bonosky transformed from a devout Catholic into a committed Communist writer, chronicling the struggles of working-class immigrants. Richard Gazarik tells his story. pghrev.com/phillip-bono...

“My name, Margo Webster; my age, fifty-two; my phone; and the simple fabric of the clothing—at that moment this was all I knew about myself.” An excerpt from EXPEDITION by Valerie Vogrin, out now from @utampapress.bsky.social. pghrev.com/expedition/

"This fall, our oven stopped working. First the upper range wouldn’t produce heat, and then the lower range quit. (But the broiler still worked, which mystified me.)" Object Lessons Impressions on the Oven Igniter, by Christopher Schaberg. pghrev.com/oven-igniter/

Silver Eye Center for Photography’s biennial turns a three-hundred-mile boundary into a curatorial tool. By Sarah Fleming Steinberg. pghrev.com/a-radius-of-...

A guide to Alain Mabanckou, the “African Beckett," by Anderson Tepper, curator of world literature at City of Asylum @cityofasylum.bsky.social. pghrev.com/a-guide-to-r...

“Arresting, pricky, and resilient, they help us to see how his mind works with clues that may ultimately provide new ways of looking at his many puzzling talents.” Alan Wald @awald.bsky.social on the wartime letters of Leslie Fiedler. pghrev.com/what-makes-f...

"Afterwards I went to the University Library to read magazines and poke about idly in its shadowy world." PRoB is honored to present an unpublished World War II letter by the seminal critic Leslie Fiedler. pghrev.com/an-unpublish...

“But if the Rabbit novels are obviously realist in most of their aspects, their representation of the social may be less apparent.” David Shumway @nearleft.bsky.social on the work of John Updike. pghrev.com/updikes-real...

Good work, @pghreviewofbooks.bsky.social, now I gotta get @nearleft.bsky.social’s book.

Amazon’s Upload treats digital dystopia like a rom-com, and that might make it the most honest show about our AI future. Sophia Richardson on TV's treatment of our next decade. pghrev.com/why-were-all...

Coming soon to you, Steel City! Loved this conversation with the great Neema Avashia.

Three new books about the future that never was: Jonathan White’s IN THE LONG RUN, Dorian Lynskey’s EVERYTHING MUST GO, and Glenn Adamson’s A CENTURY OF TOMORROW. By Christopher Cappello and Madhav TR. pghrev.com/back-to-the-...

Thanks to those who have donated so far! Only two more donations until we reach our #GivingTuesday goal! Can we count on your support?

Giving directly to the Pittsburgh Review of Books is another way to support our department! The journal gives our students critical experience in editing and publishing that leaves them well-prepared for the world beyond campus. #GivingCMUDay

“I can’t quite remember when the thought first appeared — to write a children’s book about Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614), the first woman to open her own studio.” Emanuele Lugli, asst professor of art history at Stanford, on art history literature for children. pghrev.com/catch-them-e...

We've had a very strong start in our first months, but being well-funded - especially so early in our existence - is crucial to make sure that we can continue publishing. Any support you can share on this #GivingTuesday will help us keep up the momentum! givenow.cmu.edu/schools/Carn...

Object Lessons Impressions on Letters. By Karen McCall. pghrev.com/letters/

"What has happened to home? What has happened to us? And where do we go from here?" Neema Avashia interviews Beth Macy on her latest release, “Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in Fractured America.” @avashianeema.bsky.social @bethmacy.bsky.social pghrev.com/talking-abou...

“I looked at her, shining with the pride of the housewife who controls the galaxies.” An excerpt from THE LORD, Soraya Antonius’s novel about Palestinian life before 1948. pghrev.com/the-lord/

Since launch, we've published 100 pieces, including essays, interviews, reviews, and excerpts, and authors including Pulitzer Prize nominees, Guggenheim fellows, NYT editors, + first-timers, while compensating staff for their work. Can you support our mission? givenow.cmu.edu/schools/Carn...

Since launch, we've published 100 pieces, including essays, interviews, reviews, and excerpts, and authors including Pulitzer Prize nominees, Guggenheim fellows, NYT editors, + first-timers, while compensating staff for their work. Can you support our mission? givenow.cmu.edu/schools/Carn...