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Punchin’ Out with The Mill Hunk Herald Magazine (1979-1989)

The Mill Hunk Herald

The Mill Hunk Herald was a newsletter, a journal of opinion, a magazine of the arts—an unsanctioned rebel institution in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the 1980s.  These writings about the Homestead, Pennsylvania steel mill and its subsequent shutdown, along with the history of its people’s lives and the fiction and poetry of the working class, were lovingly culled from the remains.

While the editorial tasks were shared collectively, largely by steel workers unemployed at the time, the principle architect of the newspaper was Larry Evans, whose house was converted into a production line with every issue.  The editorial committee included a number of talented writers, such as Jim Daniels and Peter Oresick.  

“At a time when the gap—and it is still a wide chasm, exploited by demagogues—between the blue collar people and the ‘intellectuals’ separated Americans one from the other, The Mill Hunk Herald was a candle in the darkness.”—Studs Terkel 

“It is so rare to find a publication that speaks the way actual people—not role players—do.  It’s like hearing a jazz band in full cry: all those defiantly individual voices interweaving and swinging all the way.”—Nat Hentoff

8½ x 11 inches • 208 pages • ISBN 0-931122-55-4 • $12.95