Events Wed Jul 31 2013
For a different kind of reading, join Chicago author Joe Meno and D.C.-based band The Caribbean for a conversation and performance on Saturday, August 3 at City Lit Books, 2523 N. Kedzie Ave., at 6pm.
The evening will be recorded for the Labor, a new podcast hosted by The Caribbean featuring interviews with authors and artists who share their work and process. For attendees, it'll be like you're part of a live literary studio audience.
Joe Meno latest book, Office Girl, was released last year.
— John Wawrzaszek
Author Tue Jul 30 2013
Last Wednesday night at Women & Children First, Chicago-area historical writer R. Clifton Spargo read from and discussed his latest novel Beautiful Fools, a fictional imagining of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's final vacation.
While the biography of the Fitzgeralds has been portrayed and probed by countless authors, Spago's book examines a lesser-visited moment in the couple's tumultuous, co-dependent history. Fools follows the couple on their final trip to Cuba, which occurred mere months before Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack. Since Zelda was institutionalized in the periods immediately proceeding and following the trip, the jaunt to Cuba also marks the last time the two saw one another.
While Zelda and Scott typically kept up a tireless and well-documented correspondence and happily courted the public eye, this trip to Cuba remains shrouded in ambiguity. As Spargo discussed at the reading, essentially no records of the couple's trip exists, and no letters between the two reference what occurred during their eight-day stay. This period, then, is ripe for creative exploration.
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— Erika Price
Author Tue Jul 30 2013
The Ernest Hemingway Foundation named Winnetka poet and author Susan Hahn their first writer-in-residence. Along with bragging rights, the organization's writer-in-residence is granted use of the attic at 339 N. Oak Park Ave. for an entire year. The space, in what used to be Ernest Hemingway's childhood home, has been converted into a writer's office. Hahn is also expected to provide lectures, workshops, and other cultural programs in association with the Foundation.
A Northwestern alumna, Hahn worked at the university's TriQuarterly journal for 30 years. She's written numerous poetry collections including Incontinence, Holiday, and The Scarlet Ibis; a play titled Golf; and the novel The Six Granddaughters of Cecil Slaughter, which was published by Fifth Star Press in Chicago. She is the recipient of several awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and two Pushcart Prizes.
Photo by Jennifer Girard
— Ines Bellina
Author Mon Jul 29 2013
Heavyweight Champion of Nothing is a novel by local author Zak Mucha and is published by local Wicker Park publishing company, Ten Angry Pitbulls.
The story, set primarily on the North Side of Chicago, is captivating and thought-provoking, capturing Chicago's vivid scenery. Johnny, our late-20-something narrator, is a gritty, blue collar guy employed by a moving company, alongside characters with names like Paulie, Dolly, and Irish Jay. While reading, I could picture every corner, dive bar, and neighborhood Mucha describes. The story mostly takes place in Roger's Park and Edgewater, just off Broadway Avenue, though you don't need to know Chicago to understand and enjoy, because Mucha details and captures every aspect of what Chicagoans already understand the neighborhood to look and feel like.
The unique story illustrates the blue collar lives of native Chicagoans, immigrants, poor people, and guys just trying to get by. An adult version of The Outsiders is what comes to mind, but now our version of Pony Boy is all grown up and telling his story from a new perspective. Mucha's real and captivating prose explores the universal themes of morality, the struggle to get by, family issues, romance, sex and guilt with a new and gritty spin.
Readers can identify easily with Johnny, the moral dilemmas he faces when broke and desperate, his relationship with his family, and most of all, his love and sometimes hate for Chicago as he tries to figure it all out.
Heavyweight Champion of Nothing is one of the best books I have read this year. Mucha deserves to be recognized far beyond my little review in Gaper's Block. I am looking forward to Mucha's next book, to be published later this year. Read this book, Chicago! Pick it up here.
— Melinda McIntire
Author Mon Jul 29 2013
Title onward, the theme of H. Melt's SIRvival in the Second City: Transqueer Chicago Poems is not subtle. This is a book that is emphatically about being trans. But it is also about being cisgender. (For the unfamiliar: this is simply the counterpart to transgender. As trans people identify as a gender other than the one assigned to them at birth, so cis people identify as the same gender the delivery-room nurse dealt them.) As Melt says in the book's introduction: "It is not public knowledge that trans people exist. And that cisgender people exist as well."
I've chanced occasionally on a certain strain of Internet comment in which a cisgender person encounters this term for the first time and expresses deep outrage at its existence. The default state is suddenly delineated; it turns out that it has boundaries. Such commenters may feel that their gender is now subject to some unwelcome question, however tacit. What's the point of being normal if you have to think about it?
Too bad for them. Melt writes: "This book is my attempt to stare back at those who never question gender." And if such readers are ruffled by this, they may be further irked by the place from which they (Melt's preferred pronoun) stare: these very broad-shouldered streets, home of the regular guy.
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— Daphne Sidor
Tonight! Steve Miller and Tesco Vee read from Detroit Rock City and Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79-'83 (respectively) at Quimby's.
Saturday! Printer's Ball at Hubbard Street Lofts.
Saturday! You're Being Ridiculous reading at Mary's Attic.
Saturday! Red Rover Reading Series at Outer Space Studio presents Amanda Ackerman, Toby Altman, Emily Barton, and Suzanne Scanlon.
Saturday! Michael Innis-Jiménez discusses his book, Steel Barrio: The Great Mexican Migration to South Chicago, 1915-1940, at the Vodak-East Side branch of the CPL.
Saturday! Saturday Strip: Comic Day at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Sunday! Micki LeSueur, Michael Nye, Sandi Wisenberg, and Adam McOmber read at Sunday Salon Chicago at Black Rock Pub & Kitchen.
Sunday! Brain Frame throws an evening of comics readings with performance art, smoke machines, and stilt-walking at Co-Prosperity Sphere.
— Lara Levitan
It might look like an ice cream cart, but instead of soft-serve, BiblioTreka offers scoops of Chicago-related print media. Adopted by Read/Write Library after Gabriel Levinson's Book Bike project came to a halt, the pop-up library's goal is to showcase the city's cultural history. At Printers Ball, the BiblioTreka will present materials such as community newspapers, artist books, intriguing self-published books of cocktail recipes from the '30s, and much more.
"[We hope to] get the publications and the history out there directly in the form of the words and images of the people who created it," said Nell Taylor, founder of Read/Write Library. "The experience of interacting with the BiblioTreka and encountering media in an unusual, hands-on form is also important to making it feel more accessible to the public. Giving people something fun and approachable is a great way to get them interested in the kinds of materials we have-- things that they may never notice or value otherwise."
In addition to Printers Ball, you can catch BiblioTreka this Sunday at The Parlor, and most Sundays and Thursdays at Comfort Station Logan Square.
Photo by Amanda Meeks
— Ines Bellina
Joel Craig, a founder of the Chicago literary stalwart Danny's Reading Series, has created a poetry reading for Printers Ball centered around experimental writing and poetics and the independent local presses who make such work their focus. From 2 to 3pm, audiences will hear from Devin King, editor of Green Lantern Press and author of CLOPS; Holms Troelstrup, from Bloomington, Indiana's co-im-press and author of Within Mutiny; and Jeanette Gomes, editor at Love Symbol Press and author of Small Breaks of Light.
After their individual readings, the poets will join forces in a "collaborative performance" of "Mostly About the Sentence" from Hannah Weiner's Open House, which features an array of mostly-unpublished work from Weiner, including (according to the publisher's website): "performance texts, early New York School influenced lyric poems, odes and remembrances to/of Mac Low and Ted Berrigan, and later 'clair-style' works." "Clair-style", put simply, is a term Weiner applied to poetics written using clairvoyance. In other words, it's rock and roll time.
— Emilie Syberg
Plenty of bartenders on the craft cocktail circuit might consider what they do an art. But for drink-slingers Joseph Rynkiewicz and Graham Hogan, what goes in the glass isn't their only artistic concern. As they'll likely share if you strike up a chat at their bar station during Printers Ball, all the tips they collect go directly to fund the lending art library that is Hornswaggler Arts.
It works like this: at arts events around town, the Hornswaggler crew designs and serves a one-of-a-kind menu of craft cocktails--at Printer's Ball, the theme is "summer spritzers." Then, they sink the proceeds into their unusual collection: a gallery of more than 50 pieces, including the creepy-cute organic wooden squiggles of Sighn, and the bright, intricately geometric prints from Delicious Design League, to name a few. If you like a piece in the collection, you can take it home--but not for good. Instead, you pay a small fee to cover things like transportation and installation, hang it on your wall for three months or longer, and then return it to the collection. The program, as they say on their Facebook page, is "designed to directly stimulate and activate the art community." Their refreshing drinks and conversation should help stimulate and activate anyone who stops by Printers Ball as well.
— Daphne Sidor
Author Thu Jul 25 2013
Let's say you live in Chicago, and you'd like to go get a taste of the city's abundant literary culture, but it's oppressively hot or mind-numbingly cold outside. Thankfully, you can take in some of Chi-town's best literary events without ever leaving your apartment. How? Through the magic of podcasting. Shut-ins, rejoice! Here's a list of some of the city's best literary podcasts.
All Write, Already!
Hosted and curated by Essay Fiesta hosts Willy Nast and Karen Shimmin, AWA! is a delight for aspiring writers and devoted readers alike. The bi-monthly podcast consists of three parts: first, Karen and Willy discuss a piece of recent literary news; then the hosts throw the mic to a Chicago author, who reads an excerpt of their work; finally, the cast closes with an interview with the author. This show is enlightening, inspiring and informative.
The Paper Machete
Each week, WBEZ podcasts a selection from The Green Mill's weekly, rip-roarious live magazine, The Paper Machete. Each week's episode features a short snippet from the previous week's live music performance, followed by a short, select essay from the show's full program of humorous, on-point cultural criticism. It's a great way to keep up with the show if you miss a week, and the music recording and mixing is high caliber.
Fictlicious
Chicago's one-and-only fiction reading series, Fictlicious had a delightful podcast covering the full length of each live show. Since the show only occurs four times a year, this is a fantastic way to stave off your cravings until the next live event. The show's awesome live music is included, too!
Chicago Humanities Festival
Every year, the Chicago Humanities Festival delights and frustrates the city's denizens with a massive list of amazing events headed by famous authors, artists, and commentators. While the selection is always dazzling, the sad reality cannot be ignored: no one has the money or time to attend every event. Thankfully, the Chicago Humanities Festival podcast makes it possible for the broke or time-starved Chicagoan to catch up on their culture.
Which podcasts did I miss? Hit up the comments section with suggestions.
— Erika Price /
Events Thu Jul 25 2013
Author and scholar Michael Innis-Jiménez will discuss his book, Steel Barrio: The Great Mexican Migration to South Chicago, 1915-1940, at the Vodak-East Side branch of the Chicago Public Library, 3710 E. 106th Street, on Saturday, July 27 at 1pm.
Innis-Jiménez's presentation of Steel Barrio, a history of the thousands of Mexican-Americans who lived, worked, and formed communities in South Chicago's steel mill neighborhoods in the 20th century, is sponsored in partnership with the Southeast Chicago Historical Society and the City's popular "One Book, One Chicago" program. This year's "One Chicago, One Book" selection, Isabel Wilkerson's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Warmth of Other Suns, explores the Great Migration, when millions of African-Americans moved out of the rural South to Chicago and other urban areas in the Northeast, Midwest, and West between World War I and the 1970s.
Innis-Jiménez is assistant professor and director of graduate studies at the University of Alabama. His research focuses on Latino/a immigration to the American Midwest and South, Latino/a labor, and urban studies.
— Matt McCarthy
Events Wed Jul 24 2013
This Saturday, July 27, celebrate Saturday Strip: Comic Day at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 220 E. Chicago Ave. Free with museum admission, events are scheduled from 10am-5pm. Comic Day comes on the heels of current exhibit Modern Cartoonist: The Art of Daniel Clowes showcasing the work of the legendary comic artist.
There's artwork, film screenings, and performances all day long. It begins right upon entry to the museum. The cartoonist collective Trubble Club will work on a large chalk drawing on the front plaza over the course of the day. As you step into the lobby, Quimby's Bookstore and the MCA bookstore will present a small scale comic fair with publications for sale until 6pm.
Image: Paul Hornschemeier: Bubbleheads, courtesy of the MCA website.
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— John Wawrzaszek
Sometimes it's not what you write but how it looks on paper. Paper arts are an undervalued form in our era of HTML and CSS coding, so come out to Printers Ball this Saturday for some free print shop demos with Brad Vetter and Alex Valentine.
"Alex and I will be doing rotating demos. I will be there in the afternoon (2-5:30pm) cranking out some letterpress prints. I will be using both alternative and traditional letterpress techniques to create a multiple color letterpress print. Using the 1950's era Vandercook #4 letterpress, I want to showcase that such an archaic process can still be innovative and progressive in modern times," said Vetter, who creates letterpress posters at the renown Nashville print shop, Hatch Show Print.
Co-host Valentine, a local print designer who consistently shows work around town, will be demonstrating offset printing, a type of printing done with custom made rubber stamps. Catch these two and maybe make some new art for your walls.
— John Accrocco /
Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick is a man of many talents. If you've laid eyes on one of his stunning, layered collages, you know the feeling of falling down a beautiful rabbit hole, but poetry, playwriting, and acting are all in his wheelhouse.
At this Saturday's Printers Ball, from 5pm to 6pm, Fitzpatrick will be in conversation with Fred Sasaki, associate editor of Poetry magazine, on the subject of art and friendship. (The February 2009 issue of Poetry showcased Fitzpatrick's work in response to Hurricane Katrina; check it out for some soul-stirring, eye-popping works of art.) Per a recent chat with Fitzpatrick, topics could range from the concept of collaboration--"communal energy"-- to what we can learn from our friendships artistically, to the idea that engaging in "good will" can enhance our creative lives. Artists of all stripes can identify with these themes, so the exchange is sure to provide food for thought (and friendship). As a special bonus, Fitzpatrick will be showing some new work as a part of the presentation.
— Emilie Syberg
You might expect a book with the title Sad Robot Stories to make you laugh. Sure, a robot with human emotions is nothing new. But wouldn't it be kind of funny if C3PO sang the blues? You know, if his verses were written by, say, Mason Johnson, one of the Chicago writers most likely to make me ROTFLMAO? This was my thinking, and if you're anything like me, you're already hunting-and-pecking your way through this review to find a release date (August 12th) and some purchasing information (CCLaP). Turns out, though, in Mason Johnson's Sad Robot Stories, a fictional novella rather than a blues song, we see that there's a great deal more than laughter to be found in the woes of a machine.
The title character of this book is Robot with a capital R, and he's sad because there are no more people on Earth. Some unnamed cataclysmic event wiped us all out. "Even the minute sound of blood rushing through veins and arteries, speeding through the heart and up to the brain--which sounded to Robot's technologically advanced thingymajigs like a warehouse filled with porcelain toilets constantly being flushed--was gone. Robot missed the toilet sound that was the human race." He means this in the nicest way possible. Really. Unlike many of his "siblings," or fellow robots, he seems to have genuinely liked people, more than spiders or flies or even cats. It's because of people--or, to be specific, because of a guy named Mike--that Robot is not just sad, but also has sad stories to tell, that he even knows what a story is.
You see, a couple of pages into the book, we double back; we're taken to "before the end of everything." We learn that, like his literary predecessor, Frankenstein's creature, Robot once observed life from a distance with sweet, childlike innocence, curiosity, and sensitivity, qualities you wouldn't expect from a walking heap of metal. However, unlike Frankenstein's creature, Robot is not the only one of his kind, and he didn't have to hide in the shadows for long, either. Mike came along and taught him about the ups and downs of life, and about stories and storytelling.
Later, when Robot shares some of Mike's detective novels with a new friend, a robot friend, she tells him, "These books feel so familiar. Each book feels like a piece I'd been missing. As if there were a lost screw that was suddenly found." For book lovers like myself, the same can be said about Sad Robot Stories, a book that, despite its premise, reads more like fable and allegory than campy science fiction. It may playfully explore a host of complex, timely issues, such as the mechanization of the workforce, gender nonconformity, and the looming threat of extinction. It may give us a fun, fresh, and surprisingly moving view of human nature and the human condition. But at its core it's about the magic of storytelling, a celebration of how the best stories, the "honest" stories, can make us feel whole, sustain us, connect us, and give us hope--even in our darkest hour. No matter how pressing and suspenseful the physical needs of this post-apocalyptic world, it seems the only real currency here, the only real power, is the story. And that makes Robot a superhero of sorts. That's way better than C3PO singing the blues.
— Alba Machado /
Events Tue Jul 23 2013
The 29th Annual Newberry Book Fair kicks off on Thursday, July 25th, and runs until Sunday the 29th at the Newberry Public Library, 60 W. Walton Street. The event will offer over 120,000 donated books spread out across six packed rooms, as well as DVDs, tapes, CDs, and records. The library asks that you bring your own shopping bag. But, since most of the books are priced at $2 or under, we suggest bringing your lucky wheelbarrow or sidecar.
Fun fact: At the sale two years ago I found a handwritten note stuffed in a book that was in the Old & Collectible room. It was dated 1938 and from a high school girl warning a high school boy not to get involved with her friend, because her friend was not "smart and astitute," while she, the note writer, was very smart, very astute, and really thought the beau was handsome. Gold.
The sale goes from 12-8pm Thursday & Friday, and 10am-6pm Saturday & Sunday. Admission is free and all proceeds go to the Newberry.
— Steve Kline
Awards Tue Jul 23 2013
What up-and-coming queer writer wouldn't want to spend a week with the likes of Sarah Schulman, David Groff, Samuel Delany and Malinda Lo? At this summer's Lambda Literary Foundation Writers Retreat in LA, a batch of LGBT talent that includes three current Chicagoans will get to do just that. Lambda Literary calls the competitive fellowship "the only residency in the world specifically for promising LGBT writers." Here's a quick look at the local attendees--you'll likely catch them reading their work around town in the months to come.
A Renaissance man of sorts, LeVan D. Hawkins uses his experience in theater and spoken-word to turn even more standard literary readings into engaging demonstrations of the storyteller's art. Taking inspiration from figures such as Bayard Rustin and James Baldwin, his works touch on family, masculinity and race.
Coming from a background that includes health-care work and an MFA in Bilingual Creative Writing, Blake Nemec writes poetry that sometimes sets the worldly, chatty vibe of Frank O'Hara bobbing through meditations on queer identity. His work has recently appeared in the anthology Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex and in the Rio Grande Review [PDF].
As her official Facebook page puts it, SJ Sindu "focuses on traditionally silenced voices--the immigrant, the poor, the queer, the female-bodied, the non-Christian, the non-white." As she earns her Ph.D. in English at UIC, she'll also be completing a novel about a married-for-convenience lesbian in Sri Lanka. Her creative nonfiction (and works that blur genre lines even further) has appeared in journals including The MacGuffin.
— Daphne Sidor
Awards Tue Jul 23 2013
The San Diego Comic-Con International celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards this weekend. The annual awards showcase achievements in the comic industry. Winners were announced at a gala ceremony this past Friday, July 19. Chicago was well represented in the list of notable winners.
Chris Ware won Best Graphic Album New, Best Writer/Artist, Best Lettering and Best Publication Design for his massive work Building Stories. Jeffrey Brown took home Best Humor Publication for his book Darth Vader and Son.
And for their work in the community, local comic book shop Challengers Comics + Conversation took home a Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award.
Congrats to our local winners on all your hard work.
— John Wawrzaszek
In the potluck of fun and creativity that is this year's Printers Ball, Elastic Arts is bringing the music. We're talking free jazz performances by Michael Zerang, Fred Longberg-Holm, and Paul Giallorenzo & Aaron Zarzutzki. It's what you would expect from an arts foundation that champions "innovative, non-conventional artists and art forms." If a taste of Elastic's sweet jazzy goods leaves you wanting more, you may want to visit their intimate space in Logan Square for one of the many different types of events and programs they host, including music, theater, film/video, art exhibitions, readings, and multi-disciplinary performances. Upcoming shows include a rare Chicago appearance by Bay Area saxophonist Larry Ochs and an improvised musical performance by legendary East Coast guitarist Joe Morris. This summer, in addition to performances every Wednesday at the Logan Square Night Market, Elastic is also joining forces with the Chicago Park District and Kuumba Renaissance of Madison, Wis. to bring us its "Nights Out in the Park" Culture Coach series, a traveling pop-up stage that provides music and hands-on art experiences (more than 750 activities) to ten parks on the south and west sides of Chicago.
— Alba Machado
This Thursday, Acts of Love, an international book-giving charity, will be kicking off its second-annual "Love Young People" tour by distributing over 1,000 books to children and young adults in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood. This event is the first of twelve such occasions slated to occur in Chicago throughout this month and August, in which 10,000 total books will be given to residents of various troubled communities.
Beginning at 6:30pm in Hamilton Park (513 W. 72nd Street), a team of volunteers will scour Englewood, one Chicago's most under-privileged communities, giving out book bags full of donated books to local residents. Adult residents will also be asked to take the "Acts of Love" pledge to support children in their communities and promote reading in their homes. According to the organization's Facebook page, volunteers for this kick-off are still needed, and are welcome to check-in at the Hamilton Park Play Lot at 6:30pm the night of the event.
In addition to its neighborhood visits, Acts of Love will have tents set up at several festivals in the next month, including Family Fun Fest and the Chicago Westside Music Festival. The organization will be accepting book donations at all these events, as well as distributing book gifts to local children and families in attendance.
Here is Acts of Love's full schedule:
July 25th - Englewood (Hamilton Park)
July 27th - Taste of WVON
July 28th - Garfield Park
August 1st - North Lawndale
August 9th - Humboldt Park
August 10th - Altgeld Gardens
August 11th - Roseland
August 12th - Washington Park
August 13th - Bronzeville
August 14th - Dearborn Homes
August 17th - Family Fun Fest
August 25th - Chicago Westside Music Festival
Visit the Acts of Love site for more information on the project or to make a donation of books or cash.
— Erika Price
Author Mon Jul 22 2013
The photography exhibition currently at the Poetry Foundation gallery (61 West Superior Street), Shame Every Rose: Images of Afghanistan, combines poetry and imagery in a compelling way. Seamus Murphy, an award-winning photographer and filmmaker, traveled to Afghanistan with journalist Eliza Griswold, and the results of their work--featured in the June 2013 issue of Poetry, in addition to the exhibit--are both arresting and important. These aren't images you've ever seen.
Poetry's June 2013 issue is devoted entirely to a form of poetry from Afghanistan called a landay, which functions as a couplet; it's comprised of twenty-two syllables, with nine syllables in the first line and thirteen in the second. The landay is chiefly the province of the women who belong to the Pashtun people--an ethnic group within Afghanistan--and its existence goes back centuries. Accompanying these landays are images from Afghanistan captured by Seamus Murphy over an eighteen-year period. Eliza Griswold leads the reader through the history behind the landays, and the world of the women she encounters, which is often one of subjugation and silence. Landays, however, are strong stuff--the word means "short, poisonous snake", which speaks volumes about their tone and content. death, sex, sorrow, love, Americans, the Taliban--universal and specific themes alike combine to create brief, powerful poems. Poetry becomes a form of protest.
The photography exhibit pairs the pictures in twos in order to emulate the landays, and the results are beautiful (and unnerving). In one set of images, the first shows a man peeking at a woman who watches him over her shoulder from a short distance; the second shows a blood-red slab of meat slung over someone's back. In another, stacks of scrolls are paired with birds in flight. Blood, flowers, burqa-clad women: all of these and more make appearances, and the viewer is challenged to connect the emotional dots between the words of a poem and the images of a photograph. Part of the response to any work of art is an attempt to relate, and in this instance--confronted not only by the intersection of poetry and photography, but by the existence of a world so different from our own--time must be taken to stop, look, and process. The results are rewarding.
The exhibit is free and open to the public through August 24. I highly recommend not only making the trip to see it; make sure to read the June issue of Poetry, and to watch Snake, a short film Seamus Murphy created while in Afghanistan. Appreciate the artistry behind the photographs and the beauty of the landays, but appreciate, too, the opportunity to learn more about the stories that lay behind them. These are faces that should be seen and voices that should be heard.
— Emilie Syberg
Author Fri Jul 19 2013
Kevin Kane is an MFA student at Columbia College Chicago, managing editor of The Handshake, a husband, a father, and a talented Chicago writer. Last October, Kevin was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia while his wife, Kate, was pregnant with their first child. Kevin and Kate's savings -- savings meant for the birth of their daughter and Kate's maternity leave -- have been depleted due to costly medical expenses. Kevin has been unable to work, exhausted from the chemotherapy treatments, and Kate has only been able to work part time as she is busy caring for Kevin and their baby girl, Etta.
In Chicago, our writing community is strong and tight-knit. Please help Kevin and his family by attending a fundraising event at Schubas Tavern, 3159 N. Southport, July 23 at 7:30pm.
The following entertainment will be provided: readings by Joe Meno, Lindsay Hunter and Megan Stielstra; comedy performances by Liza Treyger, Kenny Witzgall and Maggie Ritchie; and music performed by Cloudbirds and DJ Doug Hall. There will also be a raffle with some major prizes. Cost of entry is $20 or $30 including a complimentary drink and raffle ticket. Buy tickets now.
Kevin is the kind of person who would attend a fellow writer's fundraiser. Please do the same for him. Let's get together for an artistic evening and help this amazing family with an unexpected financial burden. Read more about Kevin's journey and/or donate here.
— Mikaela Jorgensen /
Tonight! Funny Ha-Ha reading at The Hideout.
Tonight! Quimby's hosts a release party for the anthology Fan Interference: A Collection of Baseball Rants and Reflection.
Tonight! Live Lit on the Lake featuring Kelsie Huff and Patrick Allen Carberry at Theatre on the Lake.
Saturday! Erica Weisz reads from One Thousand and One Words at City Lit Books.
Saturday! Nathan Hok reads from his poetry collection, The Narrow Circle, at The Book Cellar, joined by Jennifer Karmin and Catherine Theis.
Saturday! One Book One Chicago Bronzeville Tour departs from Chicago Architecture Foundation.
All weekend! Oak Park celebrates Hemingway's birthday.
All weekend! The Book Fort at Pitchfork Music Festival hosts musically inclined writers and young experimental authors (including Jac Jemc, Matt Bell, and Lindsay Hunter on Sunday at 2 p.m.).
— Lara Levitan
Spudnik Press Cooperative hosts the 9th annual Printer's Ball on Saturday, July 27 from 12pm-6pm, taking the reins from the Poetry Foundation, the event's founding organizer. This year's celebration of literary culture and printmaking, entitled "Trip & Return", will occupy seven gallery and studio spaces at the Hubbard Street Lofts, 1821 W. Hubbard Street.
In anticipation of this juicy affair-- which features readings and performances, live printmaking demos and workshops, exhibitions and food and drink tastings-- Book Club will be featuring "Printer's Ball Previews" beginning next week. These brief sketches will offer background on the artists and writers exhibiting at the Ball, and fill you in on what they plan to share.
Get excited! (And stay tuned!)
— Lara Levitan
Events Thu Jul 18 2013
Big goings-on for Papa's 114th birthday (July 21) this weekend in the author's home town of Oak Park, Ill.
The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park's "Hemingway Birthday Celebration" will feature a weekend of events including a sidewalk Hemingway book sale, tours of the Victorian house where Hemingway was born, and a program Sunday by guest speaker and scholar Liesl Olson that promises to shed light on the little-known part of Hemingway's history that took place in downtown Chicago.
Festivities will culminate at a reception Sunday evening where the Foundation's first Writer in Residence will be announced. The winner will work on his or her next work in the attic of the home where Hemingway lived until he was five years old. Tickets are $30 for adults and are good for events both Saturday and Sunday.
— Matt McCarthy /
Author Thu Jul 18 2013
On July 17th, author Kate Christensen read from her book Blue Plate Special at Women and Children First Bookstore. I'm going to be honest and say I've never read a food memoir. And again when I admit I've never read Kate Christensen's work, although she's published seven books now.
Attending readings is the perfect way to find out if you want to hear more of what the writer has to say, and when it comes to Kate Christensen, I most definitely do. Kate was engaging and hilarious. Before she began reading, she spoke about living in East Village in New York City. She was post-MFA, working crappy jobs and had no book published. Her thirtieth birthday was approaching and having accomplished none of the things she'd hoped for, she was depressed. This is when she began reading food memoirs, and she says reading about food made her feel safe.
Kate talked about the process of turning a blog about her life and love of food into a book, and about telling her story as if she herself were a fictional character. One of the chapters she read described her time in France as an eighteen year old. She was fresh out of high school and became an au pair to four boys. Learning to cook French food when she didn't know the language was a challenge. When baking a birthday cake, she put in salt instead of baking soda because she couldn't read French labels.
Kate told the audience, "My relationship with food has been rocky. It has gone back and forth from aestheticism to overindulgence many times throughout my life." She said Blue Plate Special is "what food has been and is for me."
This book is not just a food memoir. It's about the life of a passionate and funny writer struggling toward success. It's about family and being abandoned by a parent. It's about sex, alcohol, writing, and yes, it's about food. And who doesn't love food?
— Mikaela Jorgensen
Books Thu Jul 18 2013
Onward Toward What We’re Going Toward, an upcoming release by Chicago-based author Ryan Bartelmay, is as much an exploration of dependence as it is a novel. Following multiple protagonists as they struggle through decades of familial problems, Bartelmay presents human existence in units: the family, the couple, and the isolated. In so doing, his text constantly begs the question, What do people really want from people?
Protagonist Chic Waldbeezer is, externally, the pinnacle of 1950’s lifestyle: a plant worker (in the factory where his grandfather worked) who married his sweetheart, Diane, two years after he graduated high school. Internally, however, Chic is hopelessly lost, driven primarily by physical impulses. Detached from his family and lusting after his brother’s wife, Lijy, Chic seems to be in crisis throughout the entire text, attempting to negotiate his own desires with his expected identities as father and husband.
Elsewhere in Illinois lives Mary Norwood, the book’s second protagonist. Mary, like Chic, is directionless, but is instead driven by emotional dependence. (This is not so subtly conveyed when, toward the beginning of the text, she drunkenly asserts, “I need someone to take care of me. I need someone to take care of me. I need someone to take care of me.”) When her husband of less than a year (husband #10), Green Geneseo, suffers a stroke that leaves him paralyzed and unable to speak, the juxtaposition of physical and emotional dependence proves especially compelling.
The title of the novel is a strong indicator of its tone. Onward Toward What We’re Going Toward is at once playful and fatalistic, implicative of an aimless trajectory. Such directionlessness is the defining characteristic of the protagonists within, which raises the question: can a novel successfully be built around the theme of aimlessness?
Continue reading this entry »
— Miden Wood /
Events Wed Jul 17 2013
There's still time to register for this weekend's Five Powers of Poetry seminar at the Poetry Foundation (61 W. Superior St.). A three day intensive held this Friday, Saturday and Sunday (July 19, 20 and 21), this program is designed to provide secondary school teachers with a greater comfort level in the reading and teaching of contemporary poetry. Registration is free and limited to 30 attendees. You must be able to attend all three sessions.
— Rebecca Hyland
Events Wed Jul 17 2013
The Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia Ave., presents Funny Ha-Ha this Friday, July 17 at 6:30pm. This edition's theme is "Hot and Bothered."
Hosted by Claire Zulkey, featured readers include Erin Shea Smith, Homer Marrs, Kate James, Keith Ecker, Steve Delahoyde, and Carly Oishi. $5; proceeds benefit the Neighborhood Writing Alliance.
— Rebecca Hyland
Events Wed Jul 17 2013
'Tis the season to celebrate America's Pastime, so join Zisk Zine in the release of their anthology Fan Interference: A Collection of Baseball Rants and Reflection on Friday, July 19 at Quimby's Bookstore, 1854 North Ave. at 7pm.
Zisk Zine, a "baseball magazine for people who hate baseball magazines", has been published since 1999. Edited by longtime writers Mike Faloon (Go Metric zine) and Steve Reynolds, the anthology covers the last 15 years of the publication. Contributors range from punk musicians, writers and, of course, fans of the 3-2-6 double play. The issue includes work by Sean Carswell and Todd Taylor (founders of Razorcake magazine), Brian Cogan (The Encyclopedia of Punk), John Shiffert (author of Base Ball in Philadelphia), Charlie Vascellaro (the Washington Post, the Chicago Sun-Times), and Rev Norb (musician and former writer of Maximum Rocknroll).
Faloon and Reynolds will be joined by Jake Austen (know locally as the face behind Roctober magazine, as well as the author of TV-A-Go-Go: Rock Music on Television from American Bandstand to American Idol) for a reading and discussion that is sure to cover baseball from past to present.
Books will be available at the event.
— John Wawrzaszek
Chicago is replete with live lit events and reading series. Nearly any weekday of the month, you can spit and land on a bookstore, bar, coffee shop, or combination thereof full of writerly-performery people reading things they've created. These events span all topics and probe all levels of analysis: there's the personal but professional-grade creative nonfiction of Essay Fiesta; the witty sort-of journalism of The Paper Machete; the personal, confessional narratives of Story Club, Guts & Glory and The Moth; there's the eclecticism of Seven Deadly Sins and Tuesday Funk; the vigorous debate of Write Club. Hell, there's poetry too, in the form of Uptown Poetry Slam.
But in this performative literary oasis, there are barely any fiction reading series to be found. The one exception is Fictlicious, which delivers original fictional work from Chicago-area writers with a side of live music, but sadly, it's only a quarterly event. You can find fictional pieces in, for example, Seven Deadly Sins; there is character work in The Paper Machete. And if you really are starved for fictional narrative, you can always go to a book signing at Women & Children First or The Book Cellar and find an author reading a snippet. But there is no regularly-schedule sample platter of fictional literary creations.
Continue reading this entry »
— Erika Price /
Events Tue Jul 16 2013
New York-based Blonde Art Books is sponsoring a summer tour with a stop at the Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 S. Cornell Ave., this Thursday, July 18 at 5:30pm.
Blonde Art Books promotes independent publications by artists and small presses with their blog and bookstore. The tour looks to begin dialogues and make connections with artists and writers working on self publications. To spark the discussion, there will be a traveling collection of materials curated by Sonel Breslav, the founder Blonde Art Books.
"The tour allows me to share the books that I have curated into exhibitions, written about on my blog and sold out of my shop in Brooklyn," says Breslav. "I am physically bringing the books to a new audience that may otherwise not have access to them. In turn I am gaining insight into print and self-publishing culture in cities outside of New York."
Continue reading this entry »
— John Wawrzaszek
Events Mon Jul 15 2013
Calling all kids (and parents)! Join local author, illustrator and teacher Erica Weisz on Saturday, July 20 at 11am for an afternoon of "One Thousand and One Words" at City Lit Books, 2523 N. Kedzie.
Weisz's book One Thousand and One Words tackles the tough subject of bullying in schools. Her character, Theodore, deals with bullying issues and devises solutions on overcoming them.
This free event is suitable for children aged 5-9. It's a great way for parents to start a discussion with their kids, and to enjoy a summer afternoon out.
— John Wawrzaszek
Tonight! Bad Grammar Theater reading series in Pilsen.
Tonight! Sarah Bruni reads from her debut novel, The Night Gwen Stacy Died, at Women & Children First.
Tonight! Author Eleanor C. Whitney moderates DIY success panel with Selena Fragasi, Rebecca Ann Rakstad and Bradley Adita at Quimby's.
Tonight! Poems While U Wait are typewritten poems on demand as part of the Buena Park Arts Expo.
Saturday! Go support us at the Gapers Block Hot Dog cookoff at Schubas.
Saturday! Comic artists Sara Pichelli and David Messina sign their books at Challengers Comics + Conversation.
Saturday! Pilsen Walking Tour hosted by The Chicago Architecture Foundation in partnership with Chicago Public Library and its One Book, One Chicago selection The Warmth of Other Suns.
Saturday! The Dollhouse Reading Series in Ravenswood.
Sunday! Janet Stickmon and Laura Kina discuss their work at Women & Children First.
Sunday! Poetry Made of Persistent Editions hosted by Love Symbol Press at Uncharted Books.
— Lara Levitan
Richard Nash (former runner of Soft Skull Press, now a consultant/guru of sorts for Publishing At Large), has written an illuminating essay called "What is the Business of Literature?"
In the essay, Nash projects broad, provocative, conceptual contemplations across the history of one the strangest industries known to modern man: publishing. Among many revelations, Nash points us to how the invention of copyright law helped to rein in an otherwise unwieldy proliferation of texts; and how it, thus, helped to move control of the literature market into certain hands.
Nash's thinking should be at the forefront of many a small, formally ambitious publisher (of which Chicago has many) confused about how to proceed as the cost and means of dissemination are made ever easier in the hyper-digital age; as the public's love for text objects is reconsidered, and as productive, distributive, curatorial, and community models of literature must be thought of anew.
Read the essay here.
— John Wilmes
Events Tue Jul 09 2013
Does what you do for a paycheck match what you daydreamed of doing as a kid? If not, head to Quimby's (1854 W. North Ave.) this Friday, July 12 to hear Eleanor C. Whitney read from Grow: How to Take Your Do It Yourself Project and Passion to the Next Level and Quit Your Job. Whitney is a writer, rock musician, educator, and arts administrator who has led various workshops on zine making, social media, grant writing and fund raising. Amy Cuevas Schroeder of Venus Zine and the DIY Business Association says, "Eleanor Whitney breaks down the daunting process of earning a living as a creative person into chewable, bite-size bits. With easy-to-digest, step-by-step tips and tangible examples from working artists, Eleanor's expert advice is some of the most sought-after content."
Whitney will be joined by local creative professionals Selena Fragassi (Boxx Magazine), Rebecca Ann Rakstad (Rarrar Press), and Bradley Adita (PopPunk.com). 7pm.
— Rebecca Hyland
Books Tue Jul 09 2013
While reading Sarah Bruni's debut novel The Night Gwen Stacy Died, I remembered, quite wistfully, all the stupid things I did when I was 17. Granted, I was no Sheila Gower, Bruni's bored teenage protagonist who allows herself to be kidnapped at gunpoint by a restless, cab-driving stranger who calls himself Peter Parker (as in Spider-Man). But thanks to Bruni's thoughtful prose and carefully-drawn characters, I can understand why she goes for it, absconding with him for weeks in Chicago, where neither knows exactly what they're doing, or why (until a wild coyote Sheila is drawn to begins to clear that up for them).
I like Bruni's Sheila -- she has no friends (except for the equally marginalized Anthony Pignatelli ("The 'G' is fucking silent anytime it comes before an 'N'," he says; I wished there was more of him!), she works in a gas station in small-town Iowa, and she confides in a taxidermied museum coyote, whom she'll probably miss when she finally delivers herself to Paris after graduation. She's the quintessential unimpressed-romantic-loner-teenage girl, and if a movie based on this book is ever made, Christina Ricci should totally teleport the 1998 version of herself to play the role.
One of Bruni's deftest moves was her choice of title. The Night Gwen Stacy Dies is also the name of issues #121-122 of The Amazing Spider-Man comic book series, in which Spider-Man battles the Green Goblin and -- spoiler alert! -- his girlfriend Gwen Stacy dies at the end. When Peter begins to refer to Sheila as Gwen Stacy and she goes along with it, even wearing a Gwen-esque dress and doing comic book-y things, my concern for her fate kept me turning the pages right through an unpredictable, impressionistic, and lyrical denouement.
You don't have to know the Spider-Man story, or even be curious about it, to enjoy this book. Read it if you have a soft spot for teenage loners and star-crossed lovers, or for coming-of-age novels that are not your typical coming-of-age novel.
You can pick up a copy of The Night Gwen Stacy Died this Friday, July 12 at 7:30pm at Women & Children First Bookstore, 5233 N. Clark St., where Bruni will read and sign books.
Photo courtesy of the author's website.
— Lara Levitan
Do you find yourself wandering the aisles of Chicago book stores, looking for your next great read? Do you seldom need to be convinced to go to an author reading or a live lit event? Is Chicago's great literary tradition what keeps you from booking it to California every winter? Then we want to hear from you!
Book Club is looking for new contributors to help beef up our coverage of all things literary in Chicago. We're looking for general Book Club writers, but also those interested in covering specific beats, such as: poetry, live lit previews and reviews, classic Chicago book reviews, bookstore profiles, author profiles, local indie publishing, and any other beat you can drum up!
If you're able to write about Chicago's lit scene a couple times a week, plus a monthly feature-length piece, we'd love to have you join us. (Please note: this is not currently a paid position; we're all volunteers here on Gapers Block.) Send a few writing samples along with a beat preference (if you have one) to lara@gapersblock.com. Don't delay!
— Lara Levitan
Events Mon Jul 08 2013
Reading Under the Influence didn't party too hard last week so they could host their July reading, themed "dependence," on Wednesday, July 10 at Sheffield's, 3258 N. Sheffield.
As they do, RUI mixes two all-American activities: drinking and writing. Each reader takes a shot and then reads twice: once from original work, once from published work relating to the theme (followed by a round of trivia).
Featured readers this month include Newcity editor Brian Hieggelke, Write Club host Ian
Belknap, author Tina Jens (The Blues Ain't Nothin'), and Germania Solorzano, an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago.
The $3 cover supports a friend of RUI, author and co-founder of The Handshake magazine Kevin Kane, who is battling cancer. RUI encourages you to to donate whatever you can to help.
— John Wawrzaszek
Tonight! Free Encyclopedia Show at Theatre on the Lake.
Saturday! Pocket Con II at Gary Comer Youth Center.
Saturday! Quimby's welcomes Dan Gleason and friends.
Sunday! Curbside Splendor's Pop-Up Book Fair at the Empty Bottle.
Sunday! Graze magazine presents Print to the Future at Revolution Brewing.
Sunday! Rixonland: Author Rick Perlstein (Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America) in conversation with writer Claire Conner at Seminary Co-op Bookstore.
— Lara Levitan
Events Wed Jul 03 2013
The theme of the 24th annual Chicago Humanities Festival is (drum roll)..."Animal: What makes us human?" 
More than 100 programs exploring that theme will take place throughout October and November in addition to the following speakers:
- Jonathan Safran Foer author of Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Eating Animals
- Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), author of A Series of Unfortunate Events and the All the Wrong Questions series (also, he's an accordionist)
- Poet and fiction writer Anne Carson
- Latin Grammy® Award-winning soprano Ana María Martínez
- Conceptual artist Mark Dion
- Yale Law Professor and authority on crime prevention and community capacity building Tracey L. Meares
- Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers, authors of Zoobiquity: The Astonishing Connection between Human and Animal Health
- Craig Packer, leading expert on African wildlife and founder of the Serengeti Lion Project
Tickets go on sale to CHF members on Tuesday, Sept. 3 and to the general public on Monday, Sept. 16. Tickets range from $5-28, with free and reduced-price tickets available for students and teachers (with valid ID). The full schedule and a listing of all programs will be available at chicagohumanities.org in August.
— Lara Levitan
Events Wed Jul 03 2013
The folks at Curbside Splendor Publishing are back with their third Pop-up Book Fair Sunday, July 7 at the Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western.
The fair welcomes back over 40 local independent publishers, presses and organizations for an expo market from 12:30pm until 5pm. Quimby's Bookstore will be on hand with a selection of self-published books and zines. Other expo participants include 826chi, Another Chicago Magazine, Chicago Zine Fest, Haymarket Books, Criminal Class Press and more. There will something for every lover of the printed word.
To complement the visual component of the expo, there will be audio accompaniment throughout the day. Live DJ Sets are scheduled by DJ Nagasaki, DJ Goldie Bear, DJ "2nd Cousin, Twice Removed", DJ Kale Party, KRUBREDNUF, DJ Heavy Inspinuation, & DJ DG.
Don't forget, the bar will be open for those early afternoon cocktails. There is a $5 cover, but free if you RSVP. 21+ unless minors are accompanied by an adult.
— John Wawrzaszek
Events Mon Jul 01 2013
On Tuesday July 2 the Put 'Em Up series at Public House Theatre, 3914 N. Clark, showcases a live reading from Scottsman turned Chicagoan Irvine Welsh. Welsh will read from a work-in-progress called Creatives (working title). The piece, said to be a dark comedy thriller, is co-written by fellow Chicago author Don De Grazia (American Skin). Both authors are known for gritty, slice-of-life storytelling.
The reading begins at 7:30pm, a $7 cover includes a free drink.
— John Wawrzaszek
