Bill Deasy

Singer/Songwriter Bill Deasy is among the featured speakers at the 10th annual Pitt-Greensburg Writer's Festival, going on this week in the Village Hall coffeehouse on campus. 

On Friday, March 18 at 7 p.m. Deasy will talk on songwriting, followed by a performance and book-signing. 

Here is an excerpt from Bill O'Driscoll's article, "We comment on 50 pages each of four recent local fiction releases."  O'Driscoll reviews "Ghost Tree," Deasy's most recent novel.  

It's a sentimental premise, even corny: A dying man's last words (along with interest from a local independent filmmaker) inspires efforts to reunite a short-lived but semi-legendary rock band whose legacy is limited to one concert in their small Pennsylvania town. The former members, now ensconced in middle age, include a Catholic priest, a college administrator, a coffee-shop manager, and the semi-reclusive but seemingly ageless lead singer. This is the third novel for Deasy (the local singer-songwriter who formerly fronted The Gathering Field), and he makes it work. Sure, his narrative voice tends to be prosaic, and the dialogue too. But if his characters say "or something" a lot, they're an engagingly earnest lot, searching for answers and understanding. And if you've ever harbored a youthful dream, the promise of the band's reunion show makes for a thoughtfully pleasing, generally good-humored page-turner.

Bill O'Driscoll is the Arts & Entertainment Editor at Pittsburgh CityPaper.  Check out the full article here, which includes a review of Dave Newman's book, "Please Don't Shoot Anyone Tonight."