Today, I got another scam email targeting writers. This one purported to be from the PGH Book Fest. The email described my book Tree Fall with Birdsong and referenced my “recent work in poetry and translation.” It’s been quite a while since I published any translations, and this sounded a lot like some other AI slop I’ve received in scam emails, so my guard was already up. They also claim to be still reviewing applications for the festival that takes place on May 30. That would be insane.
I searched, and the PGH Book Fest is a real thing. They have also posted a warning on Instagram about reports of fake emails from someone charging a fee to register for the festival. Thanks to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh who posted the notice about the fake PGH Book Fest emails. It didn’t take me too much searching to find it.
The sender on this email was authors.pittsburghbooklitfest@gmail.com. Does that look suspicious? It should. A) because it’s a gmail account. B) because no one would have thier name as part of their account (rather than as their domain). C) because their domain does not include “booklitfest,” but is “pittsburghbookfestival.org.” D) the email looks like it was AI generated.
I’ll ignore this one and delete the email. But I wanted to write about it because it probably won’t be the last attempt to scam me with a book festival invitation. Be careful when you get these. Check them out before replying, and only reply when all the details line up and you can tell it is a legitimate offer.
I’m sure the real PGH Book Fest is a wonderful event. It’s infuriating that someone would try to scam writers by impersonating them and charging a fee to participate.
Kendall Dunkelberg 