Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
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Thursday, April 25
Tonight! Funny Ha Ha Reading Series: Thanks A LOT, a benefit performance at the Hideout, 6:30pm.
Saturday! I Hate America! (I Love America): Who Owns Myth, Pop, Money, Race, and Terror in the Land of the Free?, a live 10 hour conversation between the U.K. and the U.S. by art collective Lucky Pierre at Defibrillator performance art gallery, 7am-5:30pm.
Sunday! Here's the Story December Show at Stage 773, 7:30pm.
— Lara Levitan
What with Turkey Day right around the corner, we here at Book Club thought we'd take a moment to recognize some of the literary happenings that made 2013 special. Here are a few things that made us bow down and proclaim, "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!" this year.
I'm thankful the entity that is Thomas Pynchon--be it James Patterson-like collective, or paranoid old New Yorker, or maybe even James Patterson--is still kicking coherently enough to pump out persistently relevant gems like Bleeding Edge.
--Diego Báez
I am thankful that daylight savings afforded me one extra hour for NaNoWriMo.
--Miden Wood
I'm thankful for Jennifer Weiner's uncompromising criticism of sexism in the book industry. Her hilarious #Bachelor tweets are an added bonus.
--Ines Bellina
I'm thankful that T.C. Boyle's Stories II, another collection of stories in addition to 23 other works of genius, will ensure I can keep reading his work until the day I die (and still probably not read it all).
--Lara Levitan
I'm thankful for the abundance of reading series throughout Chicago that support our talented literary community. And let's not forget to appreciate all the hard work their organizers put into scheduling such entertaining lineups.
--John Wawrzaszek
I'm orbiting-the-Earth thankful that the Nobel Prize committee chose to honor Alice Munro and her body of beautiful work this year. She's been getting it done for decades.
--Emilie Syberg
So tell us. What literary tidbit made you gush with gratitude this year?
— Lara Levitan
Just in time for Thanksgiving, I'd like to point out my new favorite true crime book: Survived By One: The Life and Mind of a Family Mass Murderer by Robert E. Hanlon with Thomas V. Odle. It's much more than a true crime book. After my thoughts, please read on for an interview with Dr. Hanlon.
In 1985, Thomas Odle killed his parents and three siblings at the age of 18 in southern Illinois and is now serving life in prison. This book is from the perspective of both Dr. Hanlon, a neurologist, and Tom Odle, the murderer himself. Tom reflects on his childhood in a first person point-of-view, while Dr. Hanlon assesses Tom's life experiences and how they led him to murder.
This book is haunting. Tom Odle's childhood was hell. His mother abused him, chained him to his bed, made him raise his three younger siblings, and constantly told him how much she hated him and how she wished he'd never been born. He wasn't allowed to go anywhere other than school and wasn't allowed to have anybody over, so his social skills lacked heavily. In kindergarten, Odle went to school with a shirt soaked in blood from the whip marks on his back. It wasn't until he was strong enough to fight back that she stopped the physical abuse, but the emotional and verbal abuse never ceased. Tom never had confidence or self-worth. His dad stood by and did nothing, as if he too feared Tom's mother.
— Mikaela Jorgensen
The variety reading series The Encyclopedia Show is back on Tuesday, November 26, 7:30pm at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont. The month's theme is "floods." Performers and their subjects are:
This all ages show is $9, $6 for students. The series will be ending its monthly programming in May 2014, so get to a show before it's gone!
— John Wawrzaszek
Abby Donovan, protagonist of first-time novelist E.C. Diskin's The Green Line, is a youngish, rather naïve white lawyer transplanted to Chicago from Georgia. She is so overworked and easily confused that when she tries to take the train home one evening she accidentally gets on the Green Line instead of the Brown Line that would whisk her to her Wrigleyville townhouse, and promptly falls asleep.
Within minutes of waking and disembarking at the Cicero stop in a panic, she encounters a diverse assortment of black people. They include:
An old woman ranting about how she would like to shoot all white people
Two leering "thugs" in "tattoos, gold chains, and baggy clothes" who immediately start to menace her
A crowd of 10 young black men, also wearing the telltale gold chains and baggy clothes, who also begin pursuing her at once
A couple of drunks
A drug-addicted prostitute, soon to be murdered
Add in some pregnant teenage welfare queens, and the ultimate nightmare fantasia of the white urbanophobe would be complete.
— Daphne Sidor
Tonight! City Lit Books presents writer and bicycle activist Elly Blue reading from her new book, Bikenomics, 6:30pm.
Tonight! A BINGO fundraiser for The Chicago Zine Fest at 826CHI, 7pm.
Tonight! Support college-age poets at Louder Than a Bomb University, a college slam portion of LTAB, the world's largets youth poetry festival. Tonight's verse venue is the Chicago Cultural Center. Slam starts at 5pm, and is free!
Tonight! Loose Chicks North featuring Roberta Miles, Tamale Sepp, Gandlyn Ross, Jill Howe and Deanna Moffitt at Emerald City Coffee & Grill, 8pm.
Saturday! A free NaNoWriMo Write-In at StoryStudio Chicago, 10am-4pm.
Sunday! The Chicago Book Expo at St. Augustine College, 11am-5pm.
— Lara Levitan
Long-running performance series 2nd Story presents a pre-Thanksgiving celebration, Feast: Stories of Together, next Tuesday November 26, 6pm at City Winery Chicago, 1200 W. Randolph.
This one-night-only performance will bring stories and music to celebrate the theme of togetherness. Three tremendous storytellers, Deb R Lewis, Andrew Reilly, and Jasmin Cardenas, will read alongside musical accompaniment by the Harold Washington Trio.
Tickets are $18 in advance.
The event will also be collecting food donations for Common Pantry. Help others build a bountiful feast this season and bring nonperishable items for a good cause.
— John Wawrzaszek
When I tell my friend Laura that I’m reading Jonathan Safran-Foer’s Eating Animals — an investigative examination of factory farming and the ethics of meat-eating — she recoils. “Agh, don’t tell me,” she says. “I don’t want to know!”
At his talk-back lecture for the Chicago Humanities Festival, Safran-Foer confessed that the response is pretty common, citing the countless times he’s seen book store patrons pick up his book, scan the back for its contents, and hurriedly shove it back on the shelves.
You can hardly blame them. As the woman sitting next to me put it, the book is brimming with “stuff you can’t un-know.” Considering that knowing prompted her to not only change her diet, but fly all the way from Florida to Chicago just to hear the word from the horse’s mouth, reading-reluctance is understandable. It’s a life-changer. The moment that I first cracked open Jonathan Safran-Foer’s Eating Animals, a server was setting a plate of fish tacos down in front of me. By page 197, I was munching on a vegan tofu wrap.
There’s no small amount of guilting involved in the traditional meat-is-murder argument; enough to spook any omnivore away from a whole 300-something pages of it. And sure, I could easily take this time to bombard you with descriptions of living conditions, disease, and disturbingly systematic deaths that these animals endure; but that is an old argument, growing ineffective with repetition, and there are less-trafficked points to be made. (That isn’t to say that such arguments are in any way invalid; just that a quick YouTube search will prove much more effective than any description I could write.)
You don’t have to feel anything looking into the eyes of a battered, confined, sickly pig. The fact of the matter is that whether or not you believe animals suffer, factory farming is not sustainable; it’s a hot-bed for disease, the number one cause of climate change, and participates in a whole range of human rights violations.
Vegetarianism need not be about sentimentality, or even ethics; it’s about preserving our planet while we still can.
— Miden Wood / Comments (2)
There's a lot to like about Charles Blackstone's latest novel, Vintage Attraction. The semi-autobiographical story of the romance between English teacher Peter Hapworth and world-renowned sommelier Izzy Conway invites the reader to speculate on Blackstone's own relationship with Alpana Singh. It name-drops some of Chicago's culinary haunts. There's a pug. However, one could argue that the most seductive aspect of Vintage Attraction is its depiction of the ripe vineyards of Greece, where the star-crossed lovers must face their uncertain future together.
Appropriately enough, Charles Blackstone will present his novel at The National Hellenic Museum, 333 S. Halsted St., this Thursday, November 21 at 6:30pm. He'll be joined by Jessa Crispin, editor-in-chief of Bookslut, who will lead a Q&A session. The discussion will center on Blackstone's work as well as his knowledge of Greek wines. A book signing will follow the presentation.
The event is free with museum admission. Light refreshments are provided.
Image courtesy of Goodreads.
— Ines Bellina
The Chicago Book Expo, a day to celebrate all things literary, returns after a two year hiatus this Sunday, November 24 at St. Augustine College, 1345 West Argyle. The expo showcases local authors, organizations, book sellers and more from 11am-5pm.
Tabling literary organizations include 826CHI, the Guild Complex, Chicago Women in Publishing and the Society of Midland Authors. Alongside will be local presses University of Chicago Press, Curbside Splendor, Other Voices, Switchback Books and more. Plus you can visit over 30 authors, most of who are self-publishers, who will be selling and signing books.
Over the course of the afternoon, six tracks of simultaneous programs with presenters that include Aleksandar Hemon, Samantha Irby, Christine Sneed, and Dmitry Samarov. There will be sessions with an emphasis on bilingual and nonfiction Chicago-related programming. Make sure to grab a program upon entering the expo as there are more readings and workshops not to be missed.
The expo is free and open to the public.
— John Wawrzaszek
What better way to fundraise for good-old-fashioned paper and ink than with good-old-fashioned Bingo? Chicago Zine Fest, the annual celebration of small press, indie publishers and self-published artists, is holding its third annual Bingo Night fundraiser this Friday, November 22, 7-9pm at 826CHI, 1331 North Milwaukee Ave.
Gather your lucky trolls and a $10 entry donation for a chance to win prizes from Handlebar restaurant, Laurie's Planet of Sound, Uncle Fun, and much more. Comic artist (of the graphic, not comedic sort) Rachel Foss will be hosting and snacks will be available, but you can BYOB. All proceeds will benefit Chicago Zine Fest, scheduled for March 14 & 15, 2014.
Photo courtesy of TusconCitizen.com.
— Lara Levitan
This Wednesday, November 20, Powell’s Bookstore (2850 N. Lincoln Ave.) hosts a swarm of storytellers, a gaggle of galvanizers, a PRIDE of POETS, in this latest monthly installment of Guts & Glory: Live-Lit for the Lion-Hearted.
This week, escape the rain with hosts Keith Ecker and Samantha Irby, as they are joined by local story-tellers Diana Slickman, Ian Belknap (Who just this weekend closed his solo show, Bring Me the Head of James Franco, So That I May Prepare a Savory Goulash in the Narrow and Misshapen Pot of His Skull), Katie Prout, Jennifer Anne Coffeen, and Jeremy Owens (who you may have seen this weekend hosting live lit show You’re Being Ridiculous, due for a repeat performance on the 23rd).
The line-up’s glorious, the hosts deemed “obsession-worthy,” and perhaps the trophy of James Franco’s head will actually make an appearance (#celebritysighting) (#decapitationnation)! So come on out and see for yourself. Show starts at 7pm, and is BYOB and free!
— Miden Wood
To MFA or not to MFA? And if so, where? I'd wager that most creative writers of a certain age have at least idly batted around these questions, and a new reading series at the Poetry Foundation (61 W. Superior) might help weigh in on the debate, in addition to giving regular poetry lovers something to do on a Tuesday. At each installment, The Open Door pairs faculty of two local writing programs with two of their recent or current students, giving audience members a chance to track threads of influence running from teacher to student and, if they happen to be in the market for a writing program themselves, feel out whether a school's teaching dynamic might be a good fit.
The writing programs at UIC and Northwestern University are first up on Tuesday, November 19, at 7pm--the former represented by Christina Pugh and recent PhD student Matthew Reed Corey, the latter by Rachel Jamison Webster and undergrad Peter Tolly, who's currently interested in medieval verse forms. Admission's free, and the series is set to run monthly if you miss this round.
— Daphne Sidor
Tonight! Naked Girls Reading presents the 4th annual Literary Honors award for emerging writers at Everleigh Social Club, 7 pm.
Saturday! Patrick Butler speaks about his new book, The Hidden History of Uptown and Edgewater, at the Edgewater Public Library, 11am. Co-sponsored by the Edgewater Historical Society.
Saturday! Tamale Hut Cafe in Riverside welcomes Matt Bieniek to read from his work, The Sleep Detectives, 7pm.
Saturday and Sunday! Reading and workshop featuring Jacob M. Appel, author of The Biology of Luck. (Times vary)
Saturday! Storytelling event You're Being Ridiculous at Mary's Attic, 7:30pm. This month's theme is "heroes."
Saturday! Live performative comic reading series Brain Frame returns for its fifteenth installment of mind-bending visual story. This month's performance promises "song, puppetry, animations and animatics," among other antics, all live at Constellation. Doors open at 8 pm, show at 8:30 pm. Tickets are $8, 21 and over.
Saturday! Dr. Quentin Young discusses social justice and a single-payer system at Powell's, 12pm.
Saturday! The Poetry Foundation presents Sijo Poetry with David McCAnn, 3pm.
Sunday! J. Victor Tomaszek, author of The Tatra Eagle, to read at the Polonia Book Store, 2pm.
Sunday! Graphic artist Ezra Claytan Daniels' illustrated work Black Violet will be performed at Constellation along with chamber music accompaniment from Fifth House Ensemble, 8:30pm.
Sunday! Don De Grazia, Tyler Mills, Catherine Theis, and Tony Trigilio read as part of Black Rock Pub's Sunday Salon, 7pm.
— Lara Levitan
If you happen to have a simultaneous hankering for poetry and free Korean food this weekend, you're in luck. The Poetry Foundation's Poetry off the Shelf: Sijo Poetry with David McCann (held at their headquarters at 61 W. Superior) will explore the pleasures of the Korean poetic form sijo before a reception with traditional snacks, held at 3pm this Saturday, November 16.
The event will be more workshop than lecture--attendees will include students who entered the Sejong Cultural Society's sijo contest this year--and all participants are encouraged to apply what they learn to an original work of poetry during class. That shouldn't be as daunting as it may sound: sijo is something like a roomier haiku, its three lines containing 14-16 syllables each instead of haiku's 5-7-5 pattern. That leaves a lot more space for stormy human emotion alongside images borrowed from the natural world, and for humor as well as heartbreak in the signature "twist" of the poem's final line--as in the gentle 14th-century joke on aging in the earliest known sijo (tr. Larry E. Gross):
The spring breeze melted snow on the hills then quickly disappeared.
I wish I could borrow it briefly to blow over my hair
And melt away the aging frost forming now about my ears.
You can find some of McCann's own takes on the form in his collection Urban Temple: Sijo, Twisted and Straight.
— Daphne Sidor
That medicine is highly political stuff is no secret to anyone who happened to glance at a news source during the past autumn's government shutdown. But few people know it as viscerally as Dr. Quentin Young. Now 90 years old and still going strong as one of Chicago's foremost public health experts, Dr. Young's commitment to merging healthcare with social justice dates back to treating fellow workers during the Freedom Summer of 1964 and even, at one point, working as personal physician to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
For the last several decades, he's been most active as a tireless advocate for a single-payer national healthcare system. And, as it turns out, putting some of his vast life experience on paper: in September, he published Everybody In, Nobody Out: Memoirs of a Rebel Without a Pause. On Saturday, November 16, at noon at Powell's Bookstore (1218 S. Halsted), Young will read from the book; one imagines he'll also be open to some spirited discussion of the current state of healthcare legislation.
Photo of Dr. Young and then-Senator Barack Obama courtesy of Physicians for a National Health Program.
— Daphne Sidor
Essay Fiesta is turning 4, which according to them "is about 72 in Live Lit years." Over the years, the monthly reading series has given a voice to over 100 artists, hosted nearly 200 guests, and raised close to $6,000 for 826Chi.
To celebrate their longevity, Essay Fiesta is holding an actual fiesta of first-person, non-fiction essays on Monday, November 18 at The Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln Ave. Their top-notch line up includes Moth Grandslam Champion Shannon Cason, 826CHI Director of Education Zach Duffy, solo show performer Natasha Tsoutsouris, This Much Is True co-host Stephanie Douglass, and the return of Essay Fiesta founder Keith Ecker. Join hosts Karen Shimmin and Willy Nast, of All Write Already! fame, for this special birthday bash. Here's hoping a piñata will be part of it .
The event is free, but donations to 826CHi are much appreciated. Show begins at 7 pm.
Image courtesy of Essay Fiesta's Facebook page.
— Ines Bellina / Comments (1)
For fans of historical fiction, catch J. Victor Tomaszek, author of The Tatra Eagle, on Sunday, November 17, 2pm at Polonia Book Store, 4732 N. Millwaukee Ave.
The Tatra Eagle is set in 1683 during the Ottoman Turks invasion of Vienna, Austria. Boleslaw Radok, a young Polish boy living with his family of shepherds in the Tatra Mountains, learns of his father's death and is faced with the decision to join the fight against the Turks. Like the white eagle of the Tatra Mountains, the young warrior flies into battle.
Tomaszek will read from the book and discuss with attendees, and books will be available .
— John Wawrzaszek
Donna Tartt's three novels have been published across the span of three decades--one for each. Her first novel, the wildly successful A Secret History was published in 1992, and her second, The Little Friend, rolled around in 2002. (Almost) right on time arrives her latest, The Goldfinch, which Tartt was in town to discuss with Jennifer Day, editor of Printer's Row literary journal, for the Chicago Humanities Fest on Saturday, November 2.
When discussing why it takes 10 years to write a book, Tartt partially attributed it to her willingness to wait for surprises. "[Some of the best ideas] come quietly to the back door," she said onstage at the Thorne Auditorium at Northwestern University Law School. (We can only hope that Tartt will deliver yet another masterpiece of moody genius come 2020-something.)
— Lara Levitan / Comments (2)
For a unique experience that joins graphic art and live music, look no further then Black Violet, a performance by Fifth House Ensemble this Sunday, November 17 at
Constellation, 3111 N. Western Ave., 8:30pm.
Black Violet Act I: Leagues of Despair, follows the life of a black cat named Violet in 17th century London during the outbreak of the bubonic plague. The story is written, illustrated and animated by Ezra Claytan Daniels, known for his critically acclaimed graphic novel series The Changers, and a digital animated graphic novel Upgrade Soul, which was released on Opertoon. Daniels is also the creator of the Comic Art Battle, a live art event that pits artists against one another before a crowd.
Black Violet follows the protagonist through the streets of London as she looks for her owner while staving off capture; black cats were suspected plague carriers. The beautifully drawn artwork is complemented with musical accompaniment by Chicago's Fifth House Ensemble, a versatile and dynamic chamber music group. The score celebrates the works of Brahms, Walter Piston, and Jonathon Keren, among others.
I spoke with Daniels to learn more about Black Violet's partnership of music and art. He discussed collaborating with Fifth House and preparing his graphic art and text for the show.
— John Wawrzaszek
Halloween has come and gone and you're still not spooked? Head to the Nisei Lounge for the Graveyards of Chicago book release party and Bachelors Grove cemetery restoration fundraiser. Local authors and taphophiles Matt Hucke and Ursula Bielski will be signing books and guest bartenders will be slinging festive drinks. The first 50 people to purchase books will receive a gift bag of other Lake Claremont Press titles.
Paranormal enthusiast Bielski is best known as the author of the Chicago Haunts book series, as well as the founder of Chicago Hauntings ghost tours. Photographer Hucke has visited and taken pictures of over 1,000 graveyards and mausolea.
The event takes place on Thursday, November 14, from 6 to 9 pm. The Nisei Lounge is located at 3439 N. Sheffield. A portion of the drink and book sales will support the restoration efforts of the historic Bachelors Grove Cemetery. The event is free, but please RSVP here.
Image courtesy of Lake Claremont Press
— Kathryn Pulkrabek
Move over, James Franco. He might not be an A-list Hollywood celeb, but Jacob M. Appel holds nine graduate degrees, is a bioethicist, a physician, a lawyer and a social critic, not to mention a licensed NYC tour guide. And if that isn't enough to make you wonder what you've been doing with your life, he's an extremely prolific and award-winning author of plays, short stories and novels. His latest, The Biology of Luck (Elephant Rock Books), tells the story of Larry Bloom, a NYC tour guide who writes a book about his first date with a woman named Starshine Hart before actually going on that date. (We've all been there, right?)
Donna Seaman says The Biology of Luck is a "nimbly satiric variation on Joyce's Ulysses....In Appel's clever, vigorously written, intently observed, and richly emotional tale, hilarious mishaps are wildly complicated by the intersections between life and Larry's novel about Starshine."
Appel will be in town to host a discussion on the literary marketplace at The Writers WorkSpace, 5443 N. Broadway on Sunday, November 17 from 2-3:30pm. The $18 ticket gets you a copy of the book and the opportunity to submit 500 words of your own prose for Appel's take on where you might submit your work. Tickets are limited, so get yours now. (Coffee and light refreshments will be served.)
If you can't make Sunday, catch Appel reading alongside Allison Lynn, author of The Exiles, at City Lit Books, 2523 North Kedzie Blvd., on Saturday, November 16 at 4pm.
— Lara Levitan
The reading series Solo in the 2nd City returns this Wednesday November 13, 8pm at Beauty Bar, 1444 W Chicago Ave.
The series, like a literary meet up for singles, focuses on stories inspired by being single in Chicago. This month's performers include Amy Sumpter, Josh Johnson, Angela Vela, Sarahlynn Pablo, and Sorcha Sayers. The event is hosted by Book Club contributor Melinda McIntire and Carly Oishi.
Donations will benefit the Chicago Women's Health Center.
— John Wawrzaszek
Tonight! Shame That Tune musical comedy game show at the Hideout, 6:30pm.
Tonight! Bad Grammar Theater reading series at 1743 S. Halsted, 6pm and free!
Saturday! Storytelling event You're Being Ridiculous at Mary's Attic, 7:30pm. This month's theme is "Heroes."
Saturday! Reading by We the Animals author Justin Torres as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival, 3pm. $10 or $5 for teachers and students.
Saturday! Saturday Poemtime at the Poetry Foundation, 10:30am.
Saturday! Ray's Tap Reading Series, 10pm.
Sunday! Studs' Place. Pocket Guide to Hell re-creates an episode of Stud Terkels' 1950s TV show, Studs' Place, at the Hideout, 7pm. $10 suggested donation.
Sunday! Lovely Ladies' LiveLit show That's All She Wrote puts up their monthly series of stories at Swim Cafe, 1357 W. Chicago Ave. 8pm. BYOB and free!
All weekend! Check out some of the amazing author talks, lectures, and concerts (to name a few) at the Chicago Humanties Festival before it ends on November 11! Ticket prices vary, but the content is priceless.
— Lara Levitan
The Ray's Tap Reading Series returns from the brink this Saturday, November 9 at the Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston Ave., but now it has allergies.
Sniffling through performances on the theme of allergies and the glories of the immune system will be Natalie Edwards, David Isaacson, Charlotte Hamilton, Dave Snyder, Matt Test, Ruth McCormack, Erin Kahoa, Daniel Shapiro, Mark Chrisler, Tim Racine, Mason Johnson, and Margaret Chapman. Along with the cacophony of nose blowing, live music will be provided by Tijuana Hercules. The event is hosted by the nasally congested master of ceremonies, Chris Bower.
Commemorative event buttons and posters (with artwork by Susie Kirkwood) will be available for purchase. You must, however, bring your own tissues and nasal spray. The show is $15,10pm.
— John Wawrzaszek
Photo by Megan Bearder for the Chicago Tribune
On Wednesday, Oct. 30, Elizabeth Gilbert visited Trib Nation's Printers Row to promote her new book -- and her return to fiction -- The Signature of All Things. The event took place in the Grand/State ballroom at the Palmer House Hilton and Gilbert was interviewed by Manya Brachear Pashman, the Chicago Tribune's religion reporter.
Signature tells the tale of Alma Whittaker, a 19th century botanist. At the time, botany was one of the rare sciences to which women, society's own beautiful flowers, had access. However, it was also the science of explorers, men who risked life and limb on the high seas to bring back plants from the darkest corners of the earth, especially tropical orchids. Whittaker, however, specializes in the decidedly unsexy study of moss. That's right. Moss. Gilbert realized that as a single woman, Alma wouldn't have had the freedom to travel to exotic locales. So she arranged for Alma to stumble on a great scientific discovery right outside her father's door, something that was "manageable and also enormous" and eventually allows Alma to reach the same conclusions about evolution as Charles Darwin before Darwin ever published his theories.
— Kathryn Pulkrabek
The University of Chicago presents a three-day conference, Forms of Fiction: The Novel in English this week from Wednesday, November 7 through Friday, November 9. Literary heavy hitters A.S Byatt (Possession: A Romance), Tom McCarthy (C), and others will discuss the novels Middlemarch, Pride and Prejudice, Ulysses, and The Golden Bowl (sample Pride and Prejudice discussion: "A Pudding or a Machine". TELL ME MORE). Readings, book signings, and "coffee and light breakfasts" will also be on offer. The event takes place at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 East 60th St. Advance registration is suggested for each event; the conference is free and open to all. Seriously: A.S Byatt breaking it down about Middlemarch? Stars in my eyes, you guys. Stars.
— Emilie Syberg
Tonight in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., Tuesday Funk returns for its latest round of eclectic live lit.
This month, the readers include past Book Club editor Rosamund Lannin, authors Paul McComas and Greg Starrett, medical writer and novelist Vojislav Pejović, GB contributor and That's All She Wrote cohost J.H. Palmer, and Guild Literary Complex Director John Rich.
Halloween is still in the air, and it shows itself in the Funk, too. McComas and Starrett will read a chapter from their book Fit for a Frankenstein in full costume, while Lannin will share a story of family and Halloweens past. William Shunn and Andrew Huff (uh, me) co-host -- and announce who will soon replace Shunn, who moved to New York this summer.
Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts promptly at 7:30pm. The show is free; Hopleaf is 21-and-over.
— Andrew Huff
On Sept. 30, the University of Chicago Press published Personae, the ambitiously genre-blending, polyvocal second novel by Sergio de la Pava, author of last year's award-winning, 698-page surprise hit A Naked Singularity. Initially self-published, ANS became the first novel the UCP has reissued in the entirety of its prestigious 100+ year history. And so, this second novel's publication strikes at least one curious Chicagoan as significant, since UCP had all but sworn off altogether risky indie fiction reprints.
"This is it," Levi Stahl, a publicity director at UCP, had promised his editorial staff, according to a longish review in the Trib. A Naked Singularity was brilliant, sure, but a fluke nonetheless. "This doesn't change anything," Stahl says, in an invented movie version of events (perhaps scripted by De la Pava, himself). Initially, Stahl discovered De la Pava's debut via literary critic Scott Bryan Wilson, who reviewed ANS over at The Quarterly Conversation, where Stahl serves as a poetry editor. Stahl handed the manuscript to UCP editor Maggie Hivnor, also a fan of the book, who then faced the task of convincing the imposing Board of University Publications that De la Pava's scrappy, sprawling, self-published first novel indeed carried literary merit. Fortunately, the case had quite a few things in its favor: an additional favorable review by Steve Donoghue, support from critics Steven Moore and Brian Evenson, plus the author's own unlikely back story.
— Diego Báez
Tonight! Grazyna Plebanek reads from and signs her novel, Illegal Liaisons, at City Lit Books.
Tonight! Join Kate Harding, Jessica Coen, and Claire Zulkey for The Book of Jezebel release party at the Book Cellar.
Tonight and Saturday! "Like Bread" by Poetry Performance Incubator at Free Street Theater.
Saturday! Friend. Follow. Text. #storiesFromLivingOnline book release at City Lit Books.
Saturday! Curbside Splendor's Splendorous Showcase of Poetry at Sulzer Library.
Sunday! Chicago End-of-Life Care Coalition and 2nd Story present Final Chapters: An Evening of Storytelling at Revolution Brewing; this is a fundraiser for Chicago End-of-Life Care Coalition.
Sunday! Here's the Story at Stage 773.
— Lara Levitan
For those not ready to be done with Halloween, drop by City Lit Books , 2325 N. Kedzie, for readings from All-American Horror of the 21st Century on Tuesday November 5 at 6:30pm.
Released this year on Wicker Park Press, the anthology features short fiction published in the first decade of the millennium. Edited by Mort Castle, professor of creative writing at Columbia College, the collection celebrates the unique style of American horror fiction.
At the event will be readings from contributors Sam Weller, biographer of Ray Bradbury; Wayne Allen Sallee, author of Holy Terror; New York Times bestselling author Jay Bonansinga; Wormfood author Jeff Jacobson; and Bram Stoker Award-winning author John Everson.
Books will be available, and authors will likely be signing the work, just not in their own blood. (Or will they?)
— John Wawrzaszek
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