I think the word for 2020 was ‘pivot’,” Deesha Philyaw says with a bemused laugh.
Last year was shaping up to be a very big one for the East End author. The anthology “Tender,” a collection of writings by Black women in Pittsburgh that Philyaw co-edited with Vanessa German, had recently been released. The Bridge Series, a popular reading series that weds literary events with social activism, which she co-directs, was about to begin its final season. And the cherry on top: Her debut collection of short stories, “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” (West Virginia University Press) was scheduled to be published in September.