Kristofer Collins

Dec 3, 2024 | pittsburghmagazine.com | Kristofer Collins

Rachael Lippincott & Alyson DerrickSimon & Schuster, $19.99If basic cable programming has taught me anything, it’s that what people want most of all this time of year is a good rom-com. The proliferation of holiday-themed lovey-dovey flicks (I’m looking at you, Hallmark Channel) clearly scratches a particular itch in the zeitgeist. Meet-cutes, opposite attractions and will-they-or-won’t-theys just feel better when they’re wrapped up in cozy sweaters, cocoa and picturesque snow-covered hamlets.

Nov 11, 2024 | pittsburghmagazine.com | Kristofer Collins

Adam Charles HartOxford University Press, $39.95The filmmaker George A. Romero is a legend in the movie business as well as a beloved local fixture. Romero’s classic 1968 chiller “Night of the Living Dead” was a landmark for independent cinema as well as the horror genre. His follow-up “Dawn of the Dead,” shot almost entirely in the Monroeville Mall, was so successful that it put Pittsburgh on the map as The Zombie Capital of the World.

Sep 4, 2024 | pittsburghmagazine.com | Kristofer Collins

Clare BeamsDoubleday, $28Bodily autonomy, IVF and a woman’s right to choose are all highly charged and divisive topics in our current zero-sum political climate. These incredibly personal issues have sadly become public fodder, and deeply difficult decisions that should be given the respect of privacy have been weaponized and turned into talking points by disingenuous politicians and callous members of the media class.

Aug 8, 2024 | pittsburghmagazine.com | Kristofer Collins

Colter HarperUniversity Press of Mississippi, $30Pittsburgh, perhaps more than other cities, feels like a loose confederation of neighborhoods rather than a distinct singularity. New Yorkers are unequivocal in their New York-ness. Chicagoans may divide themselves along the demilitarized zone between the Cubs and White Sox, but are united as denizens of Carl Sandburg’s City of the Big Shoulders.

Jul 2, 2024 | pittsburghmagazine.com | Kristofer Collins

Lynn EmanuelUniversity of Pittsburgh Press, $18Lynn Emanuel writes tightly coiled poems that writhe and click like a simmering swarm. There is rage and sadness in her work but also an undercurrent of desperate self-preservation. Her latest collection, “Transcript of the Disappearance, Exact and Diminishing,” revisits familiar territory for the poet.