Last year I won a fellowship from Creative Nonfiction to develop a piece of researched literary journalism on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Each of us involved in the Writing Pittsburgh project worked on one neighborhood of that city.  My longform nonfiction piece focused on the Hill District, a neighborhood of rich culture and history and also deep poverty.  I wrote about the struggles and successes of middle school students who are learning to play squash as a ticket to college, and all the identity crises and personal changes that accompany such a commitment.

Read the piece at Sport Literate, which publishes excellent work at the crossroads of literature and leisure: http://sportliterate.org/2016/12/squash-on-the-hill/

Student from Steel City Squash program in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania