In the October 6th issue of the The New Yorker you will find a poem by Gerald Stern, whom I know of primarily as an Autumn House author (when you’ve been the managing editor, you keep tabs on the family). The poem, “The World We Should Have Stayed In,” references my mentor and knockout poet Peter Oresick, fellow Autumn House powerhouse Judith Vollmer, and much of what is essential and inescapable about Pittsburgh.

Go read it. Right now.