Damon Young

This program will be a gathering of friends, family, neighbors and fans to celebrate Damon’s literary work and service to the broader Pittsburgh community. This will mark the first time that Damon will be reading solo from his memoir in his native city of Pittsburgh. The reading will be followed by a short discussion with audience Q&A.

Damon Young is a writer, critic, humorist, satirist, and professional Black person. He’s a co-founder and editor in chief of VerySmartBrothas—coined “the blackest thing that ever happened to the internet” by The Washington Post. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, LitHub, Time Magazine, Slate, LongReads, Salon, The Guardian, New York Magazine, EBONY, Jezebel, GQ, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. A native Pittsburgher who attended Canisius College on a basketball scholarship, Damon is also a member of ACLU Pennsylvania’s State Board. He currently resides in Pittsburgh’s Northside, with his wife, two children, and his faithful bottles of Nexium and Lisinopril.

Damon’s debut memoir—What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir In Essays (Ecco/HarperCollins)—is a 2019 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writersselection, and is a tragicomic exploration of the angsts, anxieties, and absurdities of existing while black in America. NPR called it an “outstanding collection of nonfiction” and The Washington Post “hilarious” and “unflinching.”