About this item
In Vertical Bridges: Poems and Photographs of City Steps, Paola Corso celebrates public stairways in her native Pittsburgh and around the world. Inspired by her Sicilian grandfather, a stonemason who built concrete steps, and her Calabrian grandfather and father, steelworkers who once climbed them to the mill, Corso is a storyteller. She shares memories of her family, the history behind Pittsburgh having more public staircases than any other city in the country, and curiosities about some of the world's most famous steps. Vertical Bridges includes photos by the author along with archival photos from the University of Pittsburgh Library's Pittsburgh City Photographer Collection.
About the Author
Paola Corso is the author of fiction and poetry books set in her native Pittsburgh where her Italian immigrant family found work in the steel mills. Writing honors include a Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award, New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellowship, and inclusion on Pennsylvania Center for the Book's Literary and Cultural Map. She recreates her family's immigrant journey in CATINA'S HAIRCUT: A NOVEL IN STORIES, on Family Tree Magazine's "Recommended Genealogy Reading List." Corso's other books include GIOVANNA'S 86 CIRCLES AND OTHER STORIES, a John Gardner Fiction Book Award Finalist, THE LAUNDRESS CATCHES HER BREATH, winner of the Tillie Olsen Award in Creative Writing, and ONCE I WAS TOLD THE AIR WAS NOT FOR BREATHING. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Women's Review of Books, Christian Science Monitor, The Progressive, U.S. Catholic, and more. She is a graduate of Boston College, where she received a bachelor's degree in Sociology, and the City University of New York, where she received a master's degree in English and Creative Writing. She splits her time between New York City and Pittsburgh.
