Reunion: Americans in Exile

Versatile, award-winning writer Abby Mendelson is the author of three novels, Paradise Boys, Scotch and Oranges, and The Oakland Quartet, and two short-story collections, Ghost Dancer and End of the Road. His most recent book, Spirit to Spirit: A Portrait of Pittsburgh Jazz in the New Century, chronicles Pittsburgh’s rich jazz life. In addition, he wrote the number-one bestselling The Pittsburgh Steelers Official History, in a fourth, revised edition; The Pittsburgh Steelers: Yesterday and Today; and The Steelers Experience. Also about Pittsburgh are his Arena: Remembering the Igloo; Pittsburgh: A Place in Time, about Pittsburgh neighborhoods, in a second, revised edition; Pittsburgh Prays: Thirty-Six Houses of Worship; Voices from the Hill: A Celebration of Hill House; Reckoning with Rainbows: The History of The Pressley Ridge Schools; and A Century of Caring: The History of Holy Family Institute. For Pittsburgh Born, Pittsburgh Bred, the official 250th Pittsburgh anniversary book, he contributed more than 200 profiles of notable Pittsburghers. As an editor, he has handled a variety of complex projects, including various histories and biographies, Countdown to Renaissance II, the first study of the 1970s Pittsburgh urban revitalization, and Wilderness Within, Wilderness Without, about the lives of troubled teens in a treatment center. Having written countless newspaper and magazine articles on a wide variety of subjects, he also authored by-lines pieces for Pittsburgh: Fulfilling Its Destiny, Pittsburgh Characters, and The Power of Pittsburgh. As part of a 50-year pedagogic career, he teaches literature and writing at Chatham University, Point Park University, and the University of Pittsburgh Osher Program. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pittsburgh and lives in Pittsburgh with his wife Judy.