Passionate Women 2005 calendar project

The Passionate Women calendar, "a project to honor and support the lesbian and gay community in Chicago," holds a contest tonight at Star Gaze to pick models for the upcoming 2005 calendar. Sign-up between 8:00 and 9:00. The winner will be decided by the audience's votes, so be sure to bring your friends. Star Gaze: 5419 N. Clark. (773) 561-7363.

Tia Chucha Press Chapbook Release Party

Poets Mike Puican and Zada Johnson will be reading work from their new chapbooks at the Chopin Theater tonight starting at 7:30pm. The Chopin Theater is located at 1543 W. Division. Tickets for the event are just $7. Call 773-227-6117 for more information.

Stuart Dybek, James McManus & Katherine Shonk

Three noted Chicago authors will be reading from their most recent works tonight at Borders at 4718 N. Broadway. This free event begins at 7pm and will also include a discussion of Dybek's Coast of Chicago, a recent selection of Chicago's One Book, One Chicago reading program. Call 773-334-7338 for more information.

Bloomsday 100

Fans of James Joyce's Ulysses are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the day described in book -- June 16, 1904. Chicago's Irish American Heritage Center at 4626 N. Knox Avenue is sponsoring a wide variety of Bloomsday 100 events. Check out their website for a full listing of events. Tonight's festivities include the premiere of the film Bloom at the Piper's Alley theater at 7:30 p.m. A suggested donation of $10 is requested for the event. Call 773-282-7035 for more information. There's also an open-mic reading from the book at the Red Lion pub, 2646 N. Lincoln Avenue at 7 p.m.

Ellen Steinberg reading @ 57th St Books

Hear Ellen Steinberg read from her recent book, Irma: A Chicago Woman's Story, Wednesday, June 16th at 7 pm at 57th Street Books (1301 E. 57th Street).

"A wrong turn led Ellen Steinberg to a box full of diaries by one Irma Rosenthal Frankenstein, in her own words, "an obscure person who has found living...a stupendous adventure." Indeed, in Steinberg's transcription of the diaries, Irma lives through the aftermath of the Civil War, the Chicago Fire, the Depression, and two world wars. The longtime Hyde Park/Kenwood resident also reflects on friends such as Thornton Wilder and Carl Sandburg, and on an ordinary German Jewish woman's experiences of child-rearing, women's suffrage, the University of Chicago and social welfare activities. What emerges is a unique, first-person narrative of Chicago history from 1871 to 1966."