“The Songs of Betty Baach” Is a Modern…

by Jody DiPerna Glenn Taylor's home state of West Virginia inspires his fiction. He tells stories of the resilience, struggle and joy of working people. There are labor battles, timbering, and coal mining; there is…

New Book “This Is My Jail” Digs Deep…

by Jody DiPerna Melanie Newport is an historian who teaches urban history and criminal justice history at the University of Connecticut at Hartford. Her book, "This Is My Jail:  Local Politics and the Rise of…

Exiles Living in a Church

By Kristin Kovacic, Belt Magazine It certainly isn’t cool, or edgy, or funny–the things people say about what it must be like to live in a church. It’s relentless. . . . Blessed are they…

Under Kaufmann’s Clock

By Nick Ripatrazone, Belt Magazine An issue of Time magazine dated February 3, 1947 contained a short profile of architect Richard Joseph Neutra, who “ranks second only to lordly Frank Lloyd Wright.” The author explains that Neutra’s…

Rushdie and Free Speech, from Tehran to Pittsburgh

by Jody DiPerna, Belt Magazine Literature isn’t just under attack in Iran, China, or El Salvador Since the attempted assassination of the Anglo-Indian author Salman Rushdie as he prepared to speak at the Chautauqua Institution…

photo courtesy of Doralee Brooks

Doralee Brooks Opens Up About Poetry, Education and…

by Jody DiPerna Life-long educator and poet Doralee Brooks named new Poet Laureate for Allegheny County. Doralee Brooks, the new poet Laureate for Allegheny County, wants to highlight and spotlight poetry's intersections with other art…