🎥 This bridge is closed for filming

US Steel Deal is Delayed

The Tokyo-based Nippon Steel Corp. postponed its expected $14.1 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by three months following the U.S. Department of Justice’s request for more documentation. Shareholders approved the sale last month, but workers — aligned with President Joe Biden — say they want to keep U.S. Steel American-owned. Even if U.S. Steel changes hands, Nippon leaders say its headquarters will remain in Pittsburgh, where it was founded in 1901. [Associated Press]

• 🏭 Here’s why the White House cares about U.S. Steel. [🎧 City Cast Pittsburgh]

Juneteenth Celebrations Continue Downtown

Look for live music, fireworks, the annual Grand Ju­bilee Parade, and more at Point State Park this year June 14-16, despite a pullback in funding from the City of Pittsburgh. The city has officially sponsored Juneteenth since 2014, but says this year, they may throw their own, separate celebration. Long-time organizers Stop the Violence Pittsburgh say they’re frustrated by changing parameters and a new bidding process. [New Pittsburgh Courier]

• ❌ Canceled! The annual Black Music Festival, usually held at Point State Park in mid-July by the same organizers as Juneteenth, is canceled this year due to scheduling conflicts.
• 🌳 Who can hold events at Point State Park? Pittsburgh Pride organizers say they had to move its location to Allegheny Commons on the North Side after the state unexpectedly denied their application. [🎧 City Cast Pittsburgh]

Sixteenth Street Bridge Closed for Filming

The David McCullough (or Sixteenth Street) Bridge in the Strip District will be closed periodically for filming “Mayor of Kingstown” starting today from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. It will remain closed through Friday, then will close another three times. Find details here to plan your detour. [KDKA]

Want to celebrate our city’s rich literary community for free? The annual Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books will welcome nationally renowned authors with ties to Pittsburgh, dozens of poets, book and comic stores, entertainment, publishers, and more on May 11 at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Find a lineup of local authors below!

Know before you go: Whether you love romance novels, want to take a workshop, plan to bring your kids, or are a die-hard yinzer, there is a genre guide to help you plan your perfect day.

Clare Beams

Beams’ book “The Illness Lesson,” is a New York Times Editors’ Choice and her story collection, “We Show What We Have Learned,” won the Bard Fiction Prize. Beams, a Pittsburgh resident and teacher at the Randolph MFA program, recently released her newest novel, “The Garden.” She was also a 2014 NEA fellow and a finalist for the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.

• 📖 Beams’ horror and historical fiction author talk is at 10:15 a.m. with Russian-born American novelist Irina Reyn.

Elwin Cotman

Cotman is the author of four collections of speculative short stories: “The Jack Daniels Sessions EP,” “Hard Times Blues,” “Dance on Saturday,” and his most recent, “Weird Black Girls” is an “irresistibly unnerving collection of stories that explore the anxieties of living while Black.” His debut novel “The Age of Ignorance” will be published by Scribner in 2025.

• 📖 Catch Cotman’s author talk focused on short stories at 12:15 p.m. with Creative Nonfiction Editor Elizabeth Abeling.

Alyson Derrick

Derrick, who lives in Pittsburgh with her family, is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of “She Gets the Girl” and the author of “Forget Me Not,” which was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s literature.

• 📖 Derrick will be speaking on a panel, “From Pittsburgh with Love,” with wife Rachael Lippincott at 11:15 a.m.; a book signing at 12 p.m.; speaking on a panel, “Family Ties,” with Jennifer Baker and Shannon C.F. Rogers at 2:15 p.m.; and another book signing at 3 p.m.

Toi Derricotte

Cave Canem co-founder Toi Derricotte’s sixth collection of poetry, “‘I’ New and Selected Poems,” was shortlisted for the 2019 National Book Award. She won the Pegasus Award from the Poetry Foundation in 2023, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets in 2021, and the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America in 2020.

• 📖 Derricotte will be reading in the Poetry Tent at 3 p.m. Find more festival poets here.

What Does Pittsburgh Smell Like?

On its bad days, Pittsburgh has some weird smells – rotten eggs, from pollution along the Mon Valley. That urine scent from all the ginkgo trees. And sometimes when it rains, it smells like wet dog. But these aren’t the scents that local perfume makers think should define the city. We’re bringing back a conversation with City Cast’s Elizabeth Kauma to talk about a few Pittsburgh scents that hit all the right notes.