University Hosting Event on President’s New Novel

Faculty, staff and alumni are invited to an upcoming event that will mark the publication of Duquesne President Ken Gormley’s first novel, The Heiress of Pittsburgh.

Co-hosted by John R. McGinley, Jr., chair of Duquesne’s board of directors, and School of Law Dean April Barton, the event will be held Tuesday, Nov. 30, at 4 p.m. in PNC Recital Hall at the music school. It is free and open to the public. Register online to attend.

Rick Sebak, award-winning writer, producer and WQED/PBS personality, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Maureen Kelly, L’87, will serve as moderators during the book discussion, which will be immediately followed by a reception.

Gormley spent more than 30 years working on The Heiress of Pittsburgh, in between work duties and other writing projects. The novel was published Oct. 12 with Milford House Press, an imprint of Sunbury Press.

The book has garnered national attention as well as acclaim from the likes of renowned authors Scott Turrow, John Edgar Wideman and Stewart O’Nan, who describes The Heiress of Pittsburgh as a “generous, warm-hearted paean to the Steel City.”

Gormley, a New York Times bestselling author of nonfiction books about politics and law, is donating all royalties from the book to a creative writing initiative at Duquesne University’s McAnulty College of Liberal Arts, to support new generations of young writers and inspire them to pursue their talents and dreams as future authors.