PGHwrites: Free Association Reading Series

The Free Association Reading series, founded by Pat Hart and Marc Nieson, showcases local writers sharing new writing and works in progress. This month’s reading spotlights writers Ally Bair, Elizabeth Hoover, Deena November, and Steffan Triplett. 

“Free Association readings began in 2016 for established and emerging writers of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction,” explains Pat. “As the name implies, Free Association is not affiliated with a university or writing program but is for all, for established and emerging writers of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.”

Pat was inspired to start this series after watching a low-quality recording of a Flannery O’Connor reading on YouTube. “You couldn’t even really see Flannery, but the audience reaction was gripping, they laughed with her when it was funny and they went dead silent at the horror. It was such a powerful experience for the audience and for her as well,” said Pat.

Pat is no stranger to the fact that writing can be very isolating. She knows how hard it is to tell what works and what doesn’t. With Flannery O’Connor’s reading in mind, the Free Association Reading Series seemed like the natural choice to help bring community—and fun—back into writing.

About the Artists:

Ally Bair, a graduate of Chatham University’s MFA program, is a Pittsburgh-based writer who has been published in Black Lily and Thought Catalog. She has also acted as a contributing reader for literary magazines Barrelhouse and The Fourth River, and was the recipient of a teaching grant through Chatham’s partnership with Pittsburgh’s Environmental Charter School. During her time at Chatham, she developed a passion not only for writing, but also for performing, and she is immensely grateful to Marc Nieson for this opportunity. Throughout her writing career, she has mainly written contemporary fiction but is currently working with fellow Pittsburgh writer Kathy Ayres to explore grief and girlhood through the horror genre. She is inspired by female-led Halloween works like Practical Magic and aims to infuse the mystical with the humorously mundane. When she’s not writing, you can find her binge-watching reality TV or spending time with her cat, Sammy.

Elizabeth Hoover is the author of the archive is all in present tense, winner of the 2021 Barrow Street Book Prize, and the recipient of the Pat Holt Prize for Critical Art Writing from Lambda Literary. Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Crab Orchard Review, and Tupelo Quarterly, among others, and she has published essays in the North American Review, the Southeast Review, and StoryQuarterly. Her writing about art, pop culture, and books has appeared in Kenyon Review, Paper, The Art Newspaper and the Washington Post. She is an assistant professor of English at Webster University.

Deena November authored Mean Mama (Main Street Rag, 2017) and the chapbook Dick Wad (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2012). She has edited two anthologies, Nasty Women & Bad Hombres (Lascaux Editions, 2017) and I Just Hope It’s Lethal (Houghton Mifflin Co., 2005). Her poetry has appeared in Nerve Cowboy, Chiron Review, Women Write Resistance, Keyhole Magazine, Mom Egg Review, Pittsburgh Poetry Review and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Carlow University where she then taught in the English and Women’s Studies program. Currently, Deena teaches Creative Writing, Literature and Communications at Robert Morris University, University of Pittsburgh, Carlow University, and the Community College of Allegheny County. Deena enjoys strolling through the gardens of Phipps.

Steffan Triplett is the author of the hybrid memoir Bad Forecast (Essay Press 2024) and the essay chapbook Constraints (DIAGRAM/New Michigan Press 2024). His recent work is forthcoming or appears in Obsidian, Foglifter, Poetry Daily, and It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror (Feminist Press 2022). He is the Managing Director of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics and a Teaching Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Steffan has been a fellow for Canem, Callaloo, Outpost, and Lambda Literary and has received support from Tin House, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Blue Mountain Center, and Advancing Black Arts Pittsburgh. Steffan received his MFA from the University of Pittsburgh and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis where he was a John B. Ervin Scholar.

About Your Visit: 

The in-house restaurant Cucina Alfabeto is open for dinner from 5-10pm. Please visit Open Table or call 412-435-1111 to make a reservation.