Reader of the Banned: City Lit Theater Presents Books on the Chopping Block
Devoting one’s life to banning books undoubtedly cuts into one’s reading time. Those too busy to read the volumes they work so hard to keep others from perusing should consider […]
Review: A Limited Concept and Beautiful Prose Make for Mixed Reading in Love and Industry: A Midwestern Workbook, by Sonya Huber
In her new book Love and Industry: A Midwestern Workbook Sonya Huber offers a collection of effective essays mostly about her Midwest identity. A longtime essayist and Fairfield University professor, […]
Printers Row on Saturday: A Celebration of Community
Near the end of Saturday at this year’s Printers Row Lit Fest, an 80-year-old Italian painter from the North Shore told me she’s going to have a huge party if […]
Dialogs: Kathleen Rooney and Ignatius Aloysius Discuss Creation of Her New Novel at Writers Museum
Chicago author Kathleen Rooney writes in many genres—fiction, non-fiction, essays, poetry—even Poems While You Wait. She has written several historical fiction novels in her own distinctive style. Heavily researched, novelized, written in […]
Review: Truest Metal: Heroes of the Metal Underground, by Alexandros Anesiadis with Yannis Skarpelos
Metal, as a genre, is an amusing blend of arrogance and earnestness. Look past the leather and chains, wind-milling manes, and tight animal print pants with padded baskets…ignore the kayfabe […]
Interview: Kathleen Rooney on Silent Film Stars, Fairies, and Her New Book From Dust to Stardust
I first encountered Chicago author Kathleen Rooney years ago at The Neo-Futurists’ funky New Year’s Eve bash, where her collective Poems While You Wait was delightfully typing up custom poetry […]
Review: A Riveting Account of a Nation of Fear, I Surrender: A Memoir of Chile’s Dictatorship, 1975, by Kathleen Osberger
Kathleen Osberger’s account of her three harrowing months as a religious volunteer with a community of Catholic nuns in Chile a half century ago brings the reader deep into the […]
Review: Wonder and Joy and Questions, The Happy Prince & Other Tales, by Oscar Wilde
It’s something of a surprise to be reminded that Oscar Wilde—the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray and the subject of a scandalous 1895 trial over consensual homosexual acts—wrote […]
Review: Julia Fine Weaves an Alluring Gothic Fairy Tale in Maddalena and the Dark
Vividly set amongst the winding cobblestone streets and shadowy canals of 18th century Venice, Chicago writer Julia Fine’s Maddalena and the Dark is a wonderfully moody, gothic fairy tale about […]
Review: Jeffrey Sweet Updates His Second City History—Now With That Elusive Viola Spolin Interview
Forty-five years ago, Jeffrey Sweet wrote a book—the story of Second City, which was then only about a decade old. But Chicago’s preeminent comedy theater had a much longer history, […]
Review: An Important Story, Lost in the Details, Jolliet and Marquette: A New History of the 1673 Expedition, by Mark Walczynski
The expedition of discovery Louis Jolliet, a merchant-explorer, and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit priest, undertook with five other men in 1673, was a pivotal moment in the history of North […]
Review: Fighting for the Marginalized, Ed Marciniak’s City and Church: A Voice of Conscience, by Charles Shanabruch
In late 1972, Ed Marciniak, a perennial social critic and justice activist, became president of the Institute of Urban Life, a small program affiliated with Loyola University Chicago. He had just […]