Philly Authors to Read & Support Right Now

Pulitzer Prize winner, Vanity Fair contributing editor and HBO documentary subject — Buzz Bissinger is clearly one of Philly’s most decorated authors, thanks in part to his 1990 nonfiction book about a Texas high school football team, Friday Night Lights, which became a massive television hit. But he’s equally well-known in Philly for his award-winning investigative reporting and 1998’s A Prayer for the City, which provides an up-close (and at times emotional) look at former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell’s time in office.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author called an 18th-century Bucks County farmhouse home, and Green Hills Farm is still open to visitors who want to explore Buck’s literary legacy. Her 1931 novel, The Good Earth, was a bestseller two years running, and was later adapted for stage and film.

Lorene Cary is a triple threat — author, lecturer and playwright — as well as a Philadelphia native who still lives and teaches in the city. Her works over the years include her 1992 bestselling memoir Black Ice and the novel The Price of a Child — the Free Library of Philadelphia’s very first One Book One Philadelphia selection — about an enslaved woman’s struggles in Virginia in 1855. In 2020, she debuted her first play, My General Tubman, on stage at the Arden Theatre Company, following the story of a time-traveling Harriet Tubman.

The four-book Love Walked In series opens in a Philadelphia coffee shop and follows its main characters through friendships, loves, losses and a move to the suburbs. De Los Santos, who used to live in Center City and now resides in Delaware, mixes a little bit of Philly into each novel; the series is part of her larger body of work, which includes six other novels.

Dexter won the National Book Award for his 1988 novel, Paris Trout, shortly after leaving Philadelphia. Two of his novels are set in the city, including 1991’s Brotherly Love and God’s Pocket. The latter, published in 1983 and adapted for film in 2014, follows the workers at a South Philadelphia construction site.

Eisenberg’s fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Paris Review, McSweeney’s and The New Republic. Her first nonfiction book, The Third Rainbow Girl, was published in early 2020 and earned positive reviews from The New York Times and NPR. Though the book isn’t set in Philly, the author is. In addition to living here, Eisenberg is the director of the Blue Stoop writers’ group.

Fagone spent years writing about Philly and its people during his time at Philadelphia magazine before heading to the West Coast, and his first book, Horsemen of the Esophagus, was inspired by the Wing Bowl, Philly’s former competitive-eating event. He’s since published highly praised nonfiction, including Ingenious, about innovation and disruption in the auto industry, and The Woman Who Smashed Codes, the true story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, America’s first female cryptanalyst.

Author, journalist and media personality Solomon Jones has used his platform to share his story of addiction, homelessness and recovery to help others. The Philadelphia resident writes often about these social issues, and Philly-set novels like Pipe Dream and The Bridge draw on Jones’ own experiences and the stories of people he’s encountered.

After stints in Paris, Dublin and Moscow, Kalfus settled in Philadelphia. His 2006 novel, A Disorder Peculiar to the Country, was a National Book Award finalist, and his catalog includes two additional novels and two short-story collections.

The Soloist might have put him on the nation’s radar in 2008, but Steve Lopez became a Philadelphia staple in the 1980s and 1990s. Long before his nonfiction book of a talented musician who became homeless was turned into a film starring Jamie Foxx, Lopez reported on politics and city life for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Two of his novels, Third and Indiana and The Sunday Macaroni Club, are inspired by the people he met and reported on during his 12 years in Philly.

Based in Philly with her wife, Machado has racked up honors like the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize. Following the short-story collections of Her Body and Other Parties, Machado released her memoir, In the Dream House, which The New York Times included on its list of “15 remarkable books by women” shaping 21st-century fiction.

The Song of Achilles, Miller’s first novel, earned the Philly-area author accolades right out of the gate by winning the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction — and she hasn’t slowed down since. 2018’s Circe — about a child of the Greek gods who discovers her powers of witchcraft — is a New York Times bestseller, won the Indies Choice Best Adult Fiction of the Year Award and is currently being adapted into a series for HBO Max by the writers of Jurassic World.

Napoli lives outside Philadelphia and has traveled far and wide to research and discuss some of her beloved children’s books, including the young adult (YA) novel Beast. In addition to a YA collection, Napoli also writes picture books, early chapter books and stories for middle grades.

Pizzoli’s books and graphic novels for kids provide page after colorful page of entertainment for young readers. More than 30 books star a loveable cast of characters who embark on adventures small and large.

Yes, Philly lays (partial) claim to legendary mystery writer Edgar Allan Poe. He lived in the city for six years, including the year he spent in a house in Northern Liberties (now a National Historic Site open to visitors), when he published The Tell Tale Heart and The Black Cat. His Philly days also produced The Fall of the House of Usher.

Popkin’s books take a deep dive into the city’s nuances, much the same way his writing for urban landscape publication Hidden City does. Song of the City: An Intimate History of the American Urban Landscape humanizes a century’s worth of changes and development through stories of people’s experience. And in 2017’s Philadelphia: Finding the Hidden City (co-written with Peter Woodall), Popkin explores treasures hidden in plain sight like the Disston Saw Works, Reading Railroad and lesser-known areas of City Hall.

Philadelphia native Joe Queenan — whose byline has appeared in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and The Guardian — has also written nine books. Closing Time: A Memoir tells the story of his Irish-Catholic upbringing in North and Northwest Philadelphia in the 1950s, and 1960s, calling out neighborhoods, street names and stores many long-time residents will remember.

Before it was an award-winning movie (starring Montgomery County’s own Bradley Cooper), Silver Linings Playbook was a 2012 novel about a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan hoping to reunite with his estranged wife upon his release from a mental-health facility. Quick, who hails from Camden, New Jersey, is also the author of three additional novels and four young adult novels.

Reid’s debut novel, the Philly-set Such a Fun Age, examines color lines, class and families — and earned the author immediate praise locally and nationally when it published in late 2019. Born in California, Reid now lives in Fishtown and is a hit at local bookstores. Such a Fun Age has also been featured in celebrity book clubs, and TV and film adaptations are in the works.

Currently based in Puerto Rico, River was Philadelphia’s Poet Laureate in 2018-2019 on the heels of their release of several new published works. x/ex/exis (poemas para la nación) (poems for the nation) won the 2018 Ambroggio Prize honoring American poets whose first language is Spanish and lo terciario/the tertiary received the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry.

Suspense always awaits readers of Scottoline’s courtroom dramas. The Philadelphia native and University of Pennsylvania Law School grad has written 30 bestselling novels, and many of her legal thrillers are set in Philadelphia, including the six-novel Rosato & Dinunzio series.

He’s been published in many academic and healthcare journals, but this University of Pennsylvania professor also literally wrote the book on happiness. Known for his theories about positive psychology and learned helplessness, Seligman published the national bestseller Authentic Happiness in 2002.

Fishtown-based author and literary agent Eric Smith writes and helps publish character-driven young adult stories that range from whimsical to mysterious. Many, like 2020’s Don’t Read the Comments, also tackle complicated and relatable social issues. Devout uwishunu.com readers might recognize Smith’s name from his time as the website’s very first editor in the late 2000s.

Northeast Philadelphia native Duane Swierczynski now lives in California, but Philly plays a starring role in some of his books. Novels like Revolver and Expiration Date feature some of the city’s less-talked-about neighborhoods. Swierczynsky has also written for Archie, Marvel, DC and other comic-book publishers.

Milwaukee native and Philly resident Lori Tharps has carved out a name for herself by writing, talking about and teaching courses on colorism and racial stereotypes. Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America, Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain and Same Family Different Colors: Confronting Colorism in America’s Diverse Families focus on racial and cultural identity. Additionally, Tharps helped co-write Proud, the 2018 memoir of New Jersey’s Ibtijah Muhammad, the first female Muslim American to medal in the Olympics.

Like many Philadelphia-based authors, Weiner got her start in media. She worked for The Philadelphia Inquirer before her first novel, Good in Bed, was released in 2001. It’s one of many novels the locally-based writer set in Philly, including In Her Shoes, which got the big-screen treatment in a 2005 feature film starring Toni Collette, Cameron Diaz, Shirley McClain and plenty of easily recognizable Philly spots.

The famed poet spent the last 20 years of his life in Camden, New Jersey, traveling across the Delaware River to visit Philadelphia frequently. Whitman’s seminal work remains Leaves of Grass, a poetry collection he continuously edited and updated. The city named a bridge and a neighborhood after him.