The Contributors to Pittsburgh Love Stories

Jeff Angell is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and lives in New York City.

Jan Beatty's second collection of poems, Boneshaker, from which selection is taken, was published in spring 2002 by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Her first book, Mad River, won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press, and was published in 1995.

Jason Biederman grew up in Baltimore, Md., and attended school in Pittsburgh. His poetry has appeared in The Pittsburgh Quarterly Online.

David Cherry's book, The Ridiculous Concept of Smiling, was published by Incredibly Thin, a media collective he helped to found, and now runs.

Susan Constanse is a visual artist; her work has been shown in Chicago, London, New York, Pittsburgh, and Portland, Ore. Her written work has appeared in Yawp magazine.

Margaret Emery is the features editor of The New Yinzer. Her work has appeared in In Pittsburgh and Pulp.

Gail Ghai teaches ESL and conducts poetry workshops for the International Poetry Forum, where she serves on the associate board. Her work has appeared in 5AM, Descant, Epiphany, JAMA, and Shenadoah. She is the author of three chapbooks of poetry, and presently working on a book-length collection, Windfall.

Dave Griffith is The New Yinzer's Fiction editor. He also teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts.

Lee Gutkind is founder and editor of the popular journal, Creative Nonfiction, the first and largest literary journal to publish nonfiction, exclusively, now celebrating it's tenth year of publication. His new memoir, Forever Fat: Essays by the Godfather, from which this essay was excerpted, was partially inspired by a Vanity Fair article by James Wolcott pinpointing (and lambasting) Gutkind as the “godfather behind creative nonfiction.”

Robert Isenberg is a freelance writer and theater columnist for Pittsburgh Magazine, Pulp, and other city publications.

Eric Lidji is a freelance writer in Pittsburgh currently tying up the loose ends of a college education. He has written news, entertainment, features, and fiction pieces for many publications in the city and served, for a time, as the managing editor of The Pitt News.

David C. Madden is co-founder of The New Yinzer. He lives in Lincoln, Neb. where he is working toward a graduate degree in fiction writing.

Seth Madej edits the Also section of The New Yinzer. He has written and produced national and regional projects for television, radio, theater, online media, and print.

Jennifer Meccariello is co-founder and director of The New Yinzer. She is currently an MFA candidate in creative nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh, working on a book about horses.

Matt Novak is a freelance writer and editor in chief of MAGAZiNO. He holds a degree in poetry writing from the University of Pittsburgh and was an editor of Three Rivers Review.

Stewart O'Nan grew up in Point Breeze and attended Linden School and Taylor Allderdice High School. Tobias Wolff chose his story collection In the Walled City to receive the 1993 Drue Heinz Prize. His first novel, Snow Angels, is set in Butler, his sixth novel, Everyday People, in East Liberty.

Josephine Posti's work has appeared in Poetry Motel, Curriculum Vitae, and Mothering. She and her poet husband, Steve Posti, are working on a lifelong collaboration called “Jakob and Isabela.”

Kathleen Tarr is an MFA student in creative nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh and teaches freshmen composition. Her work has appeared in the Anchorage Daily News, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and America Magazine based in Moscow, Russia.

Jaime Vodvarka is pursuing her masters degree in secondary education at Duquesne University.

Sarah Elizabeth Jones Williams is a poet, mixed media artist, and member of Carlow College's Madwomen in the Attic writing group.