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The 79 bus loops around the housing projects in the East Hills of Pittsburgh all day—“like a noose,” as reluctant resident Brian Broome puts it. This might be one of Pittsburgh’s least tourist-friendly neighborhoods, and Broome an extremely uncomfortable tour guide … but the trip is well worth taking. Published monthly by the editors of Creative Nonfiction magazine, each pocket-size issue of True Story showcases one exceptional essay by one exceptional writer. From issue to issue, this new mini-magazine features the widest possible variety of voices and styles and subjects. Offering a vivid report from real life, each issue of True Story is a small immersion in a larger-than-life story or experience that makes us think differently about what it means to be human. Digital subscriptions are available through the Kindle Newsstand.
25 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 18, 2017
7 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Brian Broome
4 books151 followersBrian Broome, a poet and screenwriter, is K. Leroy Irvis Fellow and instructor in the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh. He has been a finalist in The Moth storytelling competition and won the grand prize in Carnegie Mellon University's Martin Luther King Writing Awards. He also won a VANN Award from the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation for journalism in 2019. He lives in Pittsburgh.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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August 14, 2022I Love This and Will Remember It
A few pages into this story, I was so angry with its first-person narrator, that I wanted to pound on his front door immediately and verbally shame him over his arrogance, how cruelly he'd treated his suffering neighbor a few minutes earlier. Which would have been wrong of me on many levels (and of course, impossible), so I returned to the short story and the all-too recognizable character I'd already met too often in life. Loved the book and Mr. Broome's fine, focused writing. Won't forget it. Looking forward to reading "Punch Me Up to the Gods"!
A few pages into this story, I was so angry with its first-person narrator, that I wanted to pound on his front door immediately and verbally shame him over his arrogance, how cruelly he'd treated his suffering neighbor a few minutes earlier. Which would have been wrong of me on many levels (and of course, impossible), so I returned to the short story and the all-too recognizable character I'd already met too often in life. Loved the book and Mr. Broome's fine, focused writing. Won't forget it. Looking forward to reading "Punch Me Up to the Gods"!
January 8, 2026
Honestly, if this wasn't Brian Broome, I might have stopped reading because this starts out harsh, and there were people I loved and loved me that lived in the East Hills, but I knew he wasn't taking me where it seemed this might go.
October 28, 2017
Brian Broome should be required reading.
Brian's words paint a vivid picture, one that people need to see. It can be painful. It should be painful.
Brian's words paint a vivid picture, one that people need to see. It can be painful. It should be painful.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews