Paul Lee was born in Hollywood, California. He attended UC Berkeley as an undergrad and earned his MFA from the University of Pittsburgh while living in Bloomfield and Friendship and sometimes a couch in the South Side. Currently he lives in Queens and is working on a novel.
Tom Lipinski is a native of Pittsburgh and creator of the Carroll Dorsey mystery series. A Shamus Award winner, he has worked as a social worker, jail administrator, in auto repossessions, and as an insurance investigator. He holds an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh and a MA from Slippery Rock University, and is presently the chair of the English and theatre arts department at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.
Nancy Martin is the author of forty-eight novels in the mystery, suspense, historical, and romance genres. Nominated for the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery of 2002, How to Murder a Millionaire won the RT award for Best First Mystery. With the 2009 publication of Our Lady of Immaculate Deception from Minotaur, she launched a new Pittsburgh-based mystery series featuring Roxy Abruzzo. Martin currently lives in Pittsburgh and is a founding member of Pennwriters.
Hilary Masters moved into Pittsburgh’s Mexican War Streets in 1984 when he joined the writing program at Carnegie Mellon University. His tenth novel, Post, will be published in 2011. In 2003 the American Academy of Arts and Letters granted his work its Award for Literature. Recently, the Independent Publishers Association awarded Masters its bronze medal for the literary short story.
Reginald McKnight is the author of The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas, White Boys, Moustapha’s Eclipse, He Sleeps, and I Get on the Bus. His many awards include the PEN/ Hemingway Special Citation, a Pushcart Prize, an O. Henry Award, the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Excellence, a Whiting Writers’ Award, the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Stewart O’Nan was born and raised and lives in Pittsburgh. His story collection, In the Walled City, received the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, and his first novel, Snow Angels, set in Butler, was recently made into a critically acclaimed film. Several of his dozen novels take place in Pittsburgh, including Everyday People (East Liberty) and the forthcoming Emily, Alone (Highland Park).
Lila Shaara is the author of Every Secret Thing and The Fortune Teller’s Daughter. Trained as an anthropologist, she has held many jobs, including (in no particular order) disc jockey, radio talk show producer, secretary, bartender, waitress, “crew member” at a fast food chain, and high school teacher. Shaara teaches anthropology at a local university, and resides in Pittsburgh with her husband, two children, and many foundling pets.