Gist Street Reading Series: About Gist Street

Photo: George Thomas Mendel

The Gist Street readings are held monthly and feature local and national poets and writers. The series focuses on emerging writers either publishing in national journals and magazines or publishing their first or second books.

The readings are unpretentious and fun. (More photos)

The series began in March of 2001 and is directed by Sherrie Flick along with Nancy Krygowski and Rick Schweikert. It’s held on the 3rd floor of James Simon’s sculpture studio at 305 Gist Street—Uptown—Pittsburgh. (Click for directions.) There is a $5 suggested donation, homemade bread by Antoine, and the Gist Street raffle where audience members win books, small sculptures, and vegetables from Sherrie’s garden (in season). Attendees are encouraged to bring food and drink and to socialize before and after the readings.

Socializing begins at 7:30pm and readings begin at 8:00. Sometimes there is music and sometimes Antoine brings homemade ice cream.

This project was supported by Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PA Partners), the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency. State government funding comes through an annual appropriation by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. PA Partners is administered in Allegheny County by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council.

“Oh, man, Gist Street is the place you've always wanted to be, it's the place you've dreamed about but hadn't known really existed -- it's the best crowds you'll ever read to, the best damn time you'll ever have reading.”
—Michael Byers, author of The Coast of Good Intentions and Long for This World