Littsburgh has always been a “nights and weekends” passion project, ever since we started the site back in 2015. We don’t have a staff, we’re not a non-profit. We’re just three people who have day jobs in publishing and who wanted to support our local literary community—from writers and booksellers to librarians and publishers.
And most of all, readers!
We believe books and writing have a power to connect, to bring people together and build empathy and understanding. Since you’re reading this, we’re pretty sure that you feel the same way. And we wouldn’t usually write this kind of post—so earnest, so political!—but if you’ve been following us for more than a few months, you probably know that we write books, too…
And that one of us had a book banned last year, by a tiny school district in Texas.
We’re still not sure why—we suspect the people who banned it never read a single page—but these things have a way of making the news, and (for any undecided or conflicted voters out there) we wanted to share that the fallout from that little banning had an outsized impact on the person who runs this site, a children’s book author who writes adventure stories about kids living through extreme weather events.
One of the (many) issues that we feel strongly about is the freedom to read and write. We couldn’t agree more with Gov. Tim Walz, who said “I see book bans as dangerous. Throughout history, the people who want to ban books have never been on the right side.”
Littsburgh might not be the New York Times or the Post-Gazette, but every voice counts and we’ve got a big swing-state readership, so we’re proud to stand up for the rights of writers and younger readers by sharing our endorsement of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in this year’s presidential race.
We hope you’ll vote on the issues that matter to you, and that you’ll be loud and proud with your support. If you want to forward this message to someone who might need to hear it, that’d be fine with us 🙂
Yours in books,