The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook

Book excerpt: Explore Pittsburgh through poetry and essays with this probing guide to the Steel City’s diverse locales. Pittsburgh is made up of more than ninety different neighborhoods. And while The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook can’t detail every last one of them, it does its best, exploring the contrasts and contradictions that define the city’s neighborhoods and how they play out through the personal narratives of those who live there. Edited by Ben Gwin, in these pages you’ll find stories about: · Old Lawrenceville, Garfield, and Squirrel Hill · Swisshelm Park and Oakland in East Pittsburgh · Crafton-Ingram, Thorn Street, and the bars of Dormont · And much more In over thirty poems and essays by lifetime residents, transplants, and transients, The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook offers a portrait of a city that’s constantly being hailed for its renaissance but that is still marked by the old remnants of wealth inequality, gentrification, and racism. The newest installment in Belt’s Neighborhood Guidebook Series, The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook is a book for anyone who thinks they know Pittsburgh, or just wishes they did.