Pittsburgh’s fearless features reporter Rege Behe talked “Littsburgh” with Hanya Yanagihara after his recent interview with her for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review — look for that feature in the Trib later this week!
Yanagihara — author of one of Rachel’s favorite books, The People in the Trees — is the author of, most recently, A Little Life, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize for fiction and selected as a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in Fiction.
Be sure to catch Yanagihara at Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures on Friday, April 1st.
When Hanya Yanagihara worked in publishing years ago, there was a time-worn road map for touring authors. All the major cities were on the itinerary, but Pittsburgh was never considered a place that celebrated or embraced writers and books. Thus, book tours were rarely routed through Western Pennsylvania.
That perception, and reality, has changed.
“My publisher said (Pittsburgh) is an essential stop these days,” said Yanagihara, who will appear April 1 at the Carnegie Museum of Art Theater in Oakland as a guest of Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures’ Authors on Tour — her first time in Pittsburgh. “Congratulations to you guys for doing that, because apparently it’s a really big book town. I don’t know quite how one decides to become a book town and then actually makes it happen, but it sounds like you guys have.”
As a measure of the city’s burgeoning literary reputation, even the opening of an independent bookshop — City Books on the North Side — was not news to Yanagihara. She’d already heard about Arlan Hess’ new bookshop when it was mentioned to her.
“I think (the literary scene) is dove-tailing with a great food scene, and an arts scene,” she said. “There’s been a general sort of downtown revival, I hear.”
More book coverage from The Pittsburgh Tribune Review…