An event hosted by the University of Pittsburgh Library System

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

6:00 - 7:30 p.m.

Reading Room, Archives & Special Collections, Third Floor, Hillman Library

Registration is required (free)

On March 7 at 6:00 p.m., the University of Pittsburgh Library System will host an event to celebrate the digital publication of The Pittsburgh Novel: Western Pennsylvania in Fiction and Drama, 1792–2022 by Peter Oresick and Jake Oresick. The Pittsburgh Novel is an annotated bibliography of all known fiction with a significant geographical setting in any of Pennsylvania’s 26 westernmost counties. The event will feature co-author Jake Oresick, and authors whose Pittsburgh-based books are featured in the bibliography, including Stewart O'Nan; Mark Clayton Southers, representing the late August Wilson; and Ellen Prentiss Campbell.

The Pittsburgh Novel is brainchild of the late Peter Oresick, a western Pennsylvania literature scholar, publisher, professor and poet. Published last week by Penn State University Libraries’ Open Publishing program, the bibliography is all-inclusive, with more than 1,500 works by writers as diverse as Willa Cather, August Wilson, E. L. Doctorow, John Edgar Wideman, Stephen King, Stewart O’Nan, Heather Terrell, Kurt Vonnegut, Kathleen George, and Thomas Sweterlitsch. The Pittsburgh Novel includes national bestsellers like Michael Chabon’s 1988 debut novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh; award-winning works like the 1978 war film The Deer Hunter; screenplays of popular motion pictures like Groundhog Day and Flashdance; and long-lost 19th-century dime novels, children’s and young adult works, scripts of plays and television series, and obscure and self-published titles.

“I’m thrilled to help carry my father’s final project across the finish line,” Jake Oresick said. “His visionary concept, now a reality, will reintroduce Western Pennsylvania to the world through 230 years of novels, stage plays, films, and other fiction.”

The Pittsburgh Novel is available at https://openpublishing.psu.edu/pittsburghnovel/. 

Hillman Library is located at 3960 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. On-street parking is available on various streets surrounding the library; meters end at 6:00 p.m. Parking is also available at Soldiers & Sailors Parking Garage (.2 miles from the library).

The entrance to the library is located at the Forbes Avenue address, accessed by a ramp leading from street level to the First Floor plaza.