Community Ink: Ed Simon

Ed Simon joins us to discuss the paradoxes of our region in his new book: The Soul of Pittsburgh: Essays on Life, Community and History

Ed Simon is the Executive Director of Belt Media Collaborative and the Editor-in-Chief for Belt Magazine and an emeritus staff writer at The Millions, as a monthly columnist for both 3 Quarks Daily and LitHub. A 2023 listed notable in The Best American Essays edited by Vivian Gornick, Simon is the author of over a dozen books.

His essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Paris Review Daily, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Poetry, McSweeney’s, Aeon, Jacobin, Salon, The New Republic and The New York Times among dozens of others, while his anonymous reviews appear in Publishers Weekly.

Originally a native of Pittsburgh, he has lived in New York City, Boston, Washington DC, and now his hometown again. He holds a PhD in English from Lehigh University and has taught as a college instructor for two decades, in disciplines including English literature and composition, journalism, rhetoric, religious studies, and political science, at institutions including Point Park University, Duquesne University, Lehigh University, Bentley University, American University, Mt. Aloysius College and Carnegie Mellon University.