New to the UPP Blog, Poem from the Vault aims to celebrate our diverse poetic history by highlighting backlist poetry from the Pitt Poetry Series. Ed Ochester has been the editor and creative force behind the series since 1978. Our first selection comes from Jim Daniels third book of poems, M-80. DIGGER, DEEP SNOW A sudden day off. You invite neighbors over to shoot pool in the basement to fill the deep silence. You drink fast to get inspiration to talk about something besides snow. After a few drinks, Tony rips the felt with his cue when Gus kids him about…

On September 19th, the University of Pittsburgh Press and author Patricia M. DeMarco celebrated the publication of her book Pathways to Our Sustainable Future: A Global Perspective from Pittsburgh. An enthusiastic crowd of about 100 filled the Tropical Forest area of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Oakland. Attendees included Max King, President and CEO of The Pittsburgh Foundation and his wife Peggy, David Feingold, President of Chatham University, Bernard Goldstein, former Dean of the Pitt Graduate School of Public Health and Member of the National Academy of Sciences and his wife Rossalyn, Terry Collins, Theresa Heinz Professor of Green…

This Father’s Day let dad brush up on his Pittsburgh sports history with The Slide: Leyland, Bonds, and the Star-Crossed Pittsburgh Pirates by father-son writing duo Richard and Stephen Peterson and Chuck Noll: His Life’s Work by Michael MacCambridge. The Petersons trace Pirates baseball history from the 1970s to today, including the twenty-year bump along the road. MacCambridge gives life to the man who brought the Pittsburgh Steelers to the forefront of the National Football League, but removed himself from the spotlight. This is the first comprehensive biography of Chuck Noll.  With both books, you get a newfound understanding of the…

In a comprehensive guide, Butterflies of Pennsylvania: a field guide by James L. Monroe and David M. Wright, the butterflies that traverse the state are described in stunning detail, with over 900 color photos to complement them.  Here is a selection of ten out of the one hundred and eighty-six species that make up Pennsylvania’s unique butterfly population. Zebra Swallowtail So aptly named for the mammal that it resembles, male Zebra Swallowtails puddle, or rest in sandy or gravely areas to absorb salts and amino acids, which aid in their reproduction. Diana Fritillary The Diana Fritillary is incredibly rare, and…

Get inspired by some of our recent books featuring a feminist perspective. Scald Denise Duhamel POETRY “As much a manifesto as it is a book of poems, Scald is Denise Duhamel’s great feminist statement—by way of pantoums and villanelles, of course. But more than a feminist, I would say that Duhamel is a humanitarian. Her words dignify the disenfranchised. Glory to Denise Duhamel for her formal ingenuity and her gleeful political imagination.”—David Trinidad   Blood Memory Colleen McElroy POETRY “She is the last woman of her line. Her new poems end and begin with A. Phillip Randolph and Pullman Porters,…