Dear Chatham humans,

Book lovers of all ages are invited to The 2025 Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books which will take place tomorrow Saturday, May 31 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in Oakland. 

This free event will include:

• poet and author presentations, meet and greets, and book-signing sessions
• entertainment
• bookstores
• publishers
• children’s activities
• food trucks
• vendors
• and more! 

The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books was founded by Marshall Cohen in 2022. His mission was to create a space for authors from around the world to connect and celebrate the city’s thriving writing circle and love for literature. 

Even if you are not in the Pittsburgh-area, you can still join in the fun! Below is a round-up of 5 Pennsylvania-based authors that are a part of this year’s festival. If you are looking for books to add to your summer reading list, this is the blog post to read! 

Sharon G. Flake is a New York Times Bestselling Author from Pittsburgh. She embraces her inner city Pittsburgh roots which is what inspires the characters and setting in her novels. She pursued many majors in college but landed on English while attending the University of Pittsburgh. Her first book, The Skin I’m In, was inspired by her daughter and has sold over 1.5 million copies since its release in 1998. Since the release of The Skin I’m In, Flake has published over 12 novels like The Life I’m In (2021), Once in a Blue Moon (2023) and one of her most recent releases The Family I’m In (2025). Flake has received many awards and recognitions like the Coretta Scott King Honor Award, NAACP Image Award Nominee, Book of the Year from the National Association of Black Librarians and more. To learn more about Flake, please visit this link: https://www.sharongflake.com/

Will Bardenwerper lives outside of Pittsburgh and is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and Princeton University where he studied English. He served in the military as an infantry platoon leader, Airborne Ranger and a Presidential Management Fellow at the Pentagon where he worked with the Office of the Secretary of Defence. After serving in the army, Bardwenwerper worked in the Washington Bureau of The New York Times. His work can also be seen in The Washington Post, Newsweek, Huffington Post, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and more. His book titled The Prisoner in His Palace: Saddam Hussein, His American Guards, and What History Leaves Unsaid, was published in 2017 and received praise from many authors like Andrew Carroll, Peter Bergen, Matt Gallagher, and Kai Bird. In March of this year he published a book titled Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America. To learn more about Bardenwerper, please visit this link:  https://www.willbardenwerper.com/

Kelly Starling Lyons is from Pittsburgh and began writing at an early age, using her environment to inspire her poetry and fictional stories. In high school she admired writers like Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and Lorraine Hansberry. She published her first book titled NEATE: Eddie’s Ordeal in 2004. Since then Lyons has published over 10 books centered around her memories as a child and trailblazers in the Black community. To learn more about Lyons, please visit this link: https://kellystarlinglyons.com/about/

Originally from New York City, Emma Copley Eisenberg, now resides in Philadelphia. She is the author of multiple novels that have received multiple recognitions like The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia (2020) and Housemates (2024). She received her BA from Haverford College and her MFA in fiction from the University of Virginia. Eisenberg has taught creative writing at Bryn Mawr College, Wesleyan University, Haverford College, Temple, and the University of Virginia. Look out for Eisenberg’s newest title Fat Swim set to release in April of 2026. To learn more about Eisenberg, please visit this link: https://www.emmacopleyeisenberg.com/

Ashton Lattimore is an author, award-winning journalist, and former lawyer from New Jersey now based in Philadelphia. She attended Harvard College, Columbia Journalism School and Harvard Law School. She is the editor-and-chief of a nonprofit news publication called Prism which tackles tough topics around race and identity. Lattimore’s work can also be seen in the Washington Post, CNN, and Essence. Her book All We Were Promised (2024) highlights three young women living in pre-Civil War Philadelphia. To learn more about Lattimore, please visit this link:  https://ashtonlattimore.com/

If you add any of these authors to your summer reading list, please let us know in the comments below!