A Conversation with Virginia Montanez: “Nothing. Everything.”
Online tickets are no longer available for this event. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door. Join the Heinz History Center for an evening conversation with author, humorist, and popular Pittsburgh writer Virginia Montanez to celebrate the launch of her debut novel, “Nothing. Everything.”
Montanez will be joined by legendary WTAE-TV anchor Sally Wiggin.
Published by Winding Road Stories, “Nothing. Everything.” is a fictional story of trauma-damaged, panic-addled Ellis Sloan, an irreverent YA author who is forced to face the secrets of the past before time runs out on her second novel and her first shot at real happiness.
Montanez will discuss how her passion for Pittsburgh’s history and culture have shaped her life and career to this point, and how those experiences and challenges helped inspire her first book.
The conversation will be followed by a book signing.
Admission
Tickets are $15 for non-members and $10 for History Center members. “Nothing. Everything.” will be available for purchase in advance and at the event. The program will take place in the museum’s first floor Great Hall and light refreshments will be served.
Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. so that visitors can tour the History Center’s new Smithsonian exhibition, The Negro Motorist Green Book, which explores the story of a directory published from 1936 through 1967 that helped African Americans travel the country safely, and with dignity, during the time of segregation.
About the Author
Virginia Montanez is a longtime humor writer who gained national acclaim as the once-anonymous blogger behind the popular website “The Burgh Blog.” After being fired from her nonprofit Pittsburgh job for revealing her identity, she spent a day as one of the most-Googled names in the country and was featured on the home page of CNN.com. Montanez went on to publish a successful follow-up blog about Pittsburgh and then became the humor columnist for Pittsburgh Magazine before leaving to focus on writing novels. She is the volunteer founder of Make Room for Kids at Mario Lemieux Foundation, a program that has placed hundreds of XBOXes in nearly every in-patient room at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She serves as the vice chairperson of the Board of Directors of Write Pittsburgh and writes a quarterly history-focused column for Pittsburgh Magazine. She is the creator of the artifact-mapping project Pittsburgh Remains to be Seen. Her awards include the “Blog of the Year” from the City and Regional Magazine Association for her work with Pittsburgh Magazine, as well as multiple Golden Quill nominations and wins. Mayor Bill Peduto declared May 30, 2014, “Virginia Montanez Day” in the City of Pittsburgh. She is a history graduate student (remote) at UMass-Boston, a single mother of two teenagers, and has been profoundly hearing impaired since birth.
About “Nothing. Everything.”
“Nothing. Everything.” tells the story of trauma-damaged, panic-addled Ellis Sloan, an irreverent YA author who is pretty sure she’s broken. She spends her days fooling her teens into thinking she’s just fine since their lives fell apart. No, she’s not spending hours on the couch staring at the ceiling wondering where it all went wrong. No, she’s certainly not pretending to be writing that second novel while actually typing gibberish into a document entitled SFDJKLJF.
She long-ago buried her emotions in the same deep grave she placed her marriage, her happiness, her words, and her painful memories, but when one such memory moves in next door, Ellis is forced to face the secrets of the past before time runs out on her second novel and her first shot at real happiness.
“Nothing. Everything.” is a story of humor, a story of heart, a story of hope, and a story of what happens when a woman finally decides to fight for herself.