Bob Hoover

Bob Hoover has been book editor of the Post-Gazette since 1987, when the newspaper expanded its coverage of publishing and regional literary news. Hoover also has reviewed plays, films, television, the Ice Capades, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Sesame Street on Ice, the Pittsburgh Children's Festival and at least one monster truck pull.

As a reporter, Hoover wrote about hunger in Allegheny County, cooking and nutrition, day care and other children's issues, city arts organizations such as the Pittsburgh Public Theater and the Cultural Trust, and was the one of the first local writers to profile playwright August Wilson. He was also the creator of "Lost Pittsburgh," the newspaper's account of the city's cultural history.

Since 1993, Hoover has concentrated on books and related topics, including reviewing, covering regional and national publishing news, trying to keep track of the city's literary scene and interviewing authors.

He began his reviewing career as a volunteer book critic for the old Pittsburgh Press where he was a copy editor before moving to the Post-Gazette. Highlights of that experience included interviewing the alleged author of "Dog Days at the White House,'' the ghost-written story of Traphes Bryant, who tended to the canines of the presidents.

Hoover also has worked at newspapers in Washington, D.C., Ohio and New York. A native of Pittsburgh, he has a degree in English from Ohio University.