Meet the local writers driving Pittsburgh’s literary publishing renaissance

It’s been a tough few years for literary publishing. Supply chain snarls and inflation drove up printing costs, adding strain to already tight budgets. Considering many small publishers were overworked and underpaid (or unpaid) even before 2020, the recent flood of closures isn’t surprising. Several Pittsburgh-area publishers that existed in 2019 are now defunct, among them poetry journal 5AM and chapbook publisher Hyacinth Girl Press. Others, like BatCat Press out of Midland, Pa., haven’t officially folded but are on indefinite hiatus.

While the loss of these publishers is unfortunate, it has also cleared the way for new independent publications to bring fresh voices and opportunities to the local literary landscape. 

The end of a publishing project isn’t always a bad thing, either. Creative Nonfiction, arguably Pittsburgh’s most prestigious literary publication, announced a hiatus in January 2023. But while technology and cost concerns were part of this decision, founder Lee Gutkind had a deeper motivation. He founded the magazine to provide an outlet for what was then a new and controversial storytelling genre and, after 30 years, believed that mission “had been accomplished.“

“Creative nonfiction has become an integral part of the literary world — the undisputed fourth genre,” Gutkind says. “We went into hiatus so that we had time to decide what our next act would be.”

So far, that next act has involved a new partnership with Narratively and plans to release an anthology through Belt Publishing in the fall. In this case, the hiatus wasn’t a closure, but a springboard into a new chapter.

It’s also worth noting that publishers closing is nothing new and, like with Creative Nonfiction, these closures aren’t always permanent. Between 2000-2003, the local zine yawp Magazine published five issues — time constraints forced its founders to pause the project, but they never fully laid yawp to rest, and, in early 2024, announced a new open call. 

This iteration of yawp is associated with Poetry Lounge, a Millvale-based bar and venue opened by the magazine’s co-founder, Sean Enright. Enright expresses excitement over the level of interest literary events have garnered since he opened the venue in the space formerly occupied by a bar called Whisper Nest.

During yawp’s initial run, Enright says, “It felt like we were an outlier community that often struggled to get participation in our events.” By contrast, Poetry Lounge’s Open Mic Tuesdays series is “by leaps and bounds our best attended weekly event,” Enright says, and, since opening in September 2023, they’ve hosted a plethora of well-attended book launches, workshops, and other literary happenings. 

Enright is optimistic about the future of publishing in Pittsburgh, citing new opportunities like online print-on-demand that didn’t exist when yawp first started. “And with establishments like Poetry Lounge, a venue where they can host events and sell those books alongside their online shops, publishers don’t have to invest a large amount of money into upfront publishing costs.” 

Other new local publishers are taking advantage of these options. In April, Poetry Lounge hosted the official launch of Last-Picked Books, a new small press whose founder, Daniel Parme, was inspired to start it after seeing the literary community fracture during the pandemic. (Full disclosure: The author has previously published a story collection through last-Picked Books.)

“Then things started to get back to ‘normal,’ but that disconnection remained. Starting the press is my way of reconnecting,” Parme says. “There are so many wonderful little groups here, but I’ve always found the lack of interaction between them confusing. Pittsburghers are notorious for not wanting to leave our own little neighborhoods, and, unfortunately, the same goes for our various literary hamlets.”

Parme hopes Last-Picked Books can provide a home for manuscripts that otherwise get overlooked “because they don’t fit neatly into a box of marketability,” adding, “Those kinds of weird, out-of-the-box stories are usually my favorites to read. I figured other people must like those kinds of books, too, so why not try to put them out there?”

Sharing the billing with Last-Picked authors at the launch was Halsey Hyer, founder of the new chapbook publisher Death Drive Press. As a member of the Big Idea Bookstore collective, Hyer has firsthand experience navigating a project that funds itself but isn’t focused on profit and wanted to extend that concept to small publishing. 

“We live in a time verging on a complete monopoly in contemporary American publishing,” Hyer says. “I think now more than ever we need to take matters into our own hands, especially in the age of mass production and commercialization.”

Toward this end, Death Drive Press focuses on limited-run printings—and building a community is a major goal of theirs, too. “We want to bring words to the people by making literature happen where you might least expect it,” says Hyer. 

The next goal for Death Drive Press? Strategically placing “Vending Ma-zines” throughout the city to give readers easy, affordable access to DIY zines. This distribution approach can help to solve what Hyer sees as the biggest challenge facing Pittsburgh’s independent publishers today: increasing costs. 

Hyer sees building community as one solution to this problem, saying, “Many of us are working in ramshackle conditions if we’re not already established. It’s my dream for small presses in Pittsburgh to have a coalition of sorts — maybe one day this will be on our agenda, too.”

Hyer’s comments and yawp Magazine’s story highlight an inescapable fact of small publishing: it’s not easy to sustain. Many publishers are financially break-even-at-best, run by a small, sometimes one-person volunteer team. The burnout rate is understandably high. 

If it’s so difficult to keep a magazine or press going, why do people keep starting them? The answers are as diverse as the outfits. Program collective Write Pittsburgh added their publishing branch to provide a platform for young local writers. As publishing director Sheena Carroll says, “There are less of these opportunities available for youths as compared to adults. This is a shame because young writers also have a lot to say.” 

Write Pittsburgh’s publishing efforts started in 2018 with the Oeuvre anthology featuring participants in their youth writing workshops. In 2022, they expanded this into a biannual online journal, Starry False Lily, which published two issues in 2023 and is currently accepting submissions for its third. “As Starry False Lily grows, Write Pittsburgh hopes that it will become recognized as an accessible and fun space for young writers to share their voices,” Carroll says.

For Petrichor Magazine founder, Emma Riva, the idea of an art magazine had been percolating for a while. “I really wanted something for Pittsburgh that was by and for the city but didn’t lean into this sort of kitschy hyper-local aesthetic that leans on Yinzer stereotypes, sports, and steel,” she says. “I know from being a journalist in the city that there just aren’t a lot of outlets for more narrative or experimental types of criticism and arts writing … I see Petrichor filling a niche that’s sort of like Chicago’s Newcity but for Pittsburgh.”

Riva sees Pittsburgh as “a great city to start your own thing in.” 

“The affordability and flexibility for traveling and working here is great for a creative person,” says Riva. “We already see so many tech people flocking to Pittsburgh, and the same mindset of entrepreneurship can be applied to the arts … I listened to an interview with [New York Times columnist Ezra Klein] where he said that now is actually the best time to start your own media outlet because the big papers and bigger outlets are kind of starting to eat each other.” 

In Pittsburgh, even those bigger outlets have been limited. While the city boasts several well-regarded writing programs, as Gutkind notes, “none of the prestigious creative writing programs have literary journals that make a national impact … We publish a lot of poetry here, all to the good, but precious little fiction and creative nonfiction.” While this gap can be seen as a negative, it’s also left space for independent publishers to fill that void. 

As a fiction writer and journalist, Riva has a unique perspective on Pittsburgh’s creative scene — in her view, that scene is growing, and the sometimes clique-y niches she and Parme noted are starting to coalesce into a more unified community. “I think in the long run, we’re going to see Pittsburgh’s profile rise as an arts hub,” Riva says. 

Of course, this doesn’t mean the new ventures noted here won’t face challenges. 

“Visibility is a hurdle for many literary journals, and Starry False Lily is no exception,” says Carroll. Write Pittsburgh is working to raise awareness of the journal but this isn’t easy, in part, Carroll says, because “the literary landscape of Pittsburgh is massive—there are several different writing and publishing scenes here.”

This sentiment was echoed across the board: Pittsburgh’s creative community is large and vibrant but fragmented, and the city’s new publishers want to unify it. With so many new outlets working toward this same mission, Hyer believes there is ample cause for optimism about the future of Pittsburgh publishing. 

“We are fortunate to live in a place with such a rich history and camaraderie. I think, overall, we are all thriving,” says Hyer.

This article appears in May 1-7, 2024.