Banned Books Week: Writers Recall the “Forbidden” Books of Their Youth
It’s Banned Books Week, and while it’s not a week to celebrate, per se, it’s one to faithfully observe. Those who would ban books offer different reasons for their desire […]
Dan Kelly has been a writer and editor for 30 years, contributing work to Chicago Magazine, the Chicago Reader, Chicago Journal, The Baffler, Harvard Magazine, The University of Chicago Magazine, and others.
Interview: Chapter and Multiverse: Christopher Hawkins’ I Contain Multitudes
When I last spoke with author Christopher Hawkins, he was writing about monsters and a deadly rain that threatened to tear a house and family apart. More recently, Hawkins wrote […]
Review: Crumbs from the Master’s Table, Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life, by Dan Nadel
Cartoonist Robert Crumb is, inarguably, a master of his craft. For 60 years he’s created a distinctive style and memorable characters, while inspiring generations of artists. He’s also a polarizing […]
Chicago Lit/Arts Zine The Ground Is Uneven Seeks Contributors
When it came time to choose between literature and the law, Adam Kaz went with the written word. Now the writer, editor, and critic (and regular contributor to Third Coast […]
Interview: Witches, Pirates, and LGBTQIA+—A Talk with Horror/Romance Writer Damian Serbu
Damian Serbu has often found inspiration in Chicagoland. Several characters in his Realm of the Vampire Council series, for instance, dwell in the Windy City itself. Self-described as an “author […]
Review: This Is Life: Rediscovered Short Fiction, by Frank London Brown
We mostly remember movements through supernaturally charismatic entities who said the right thing at the right time, sparking action, winning souls, and rewriting history. In reality, every movement is made […]
Book Smarts: Secret World Books of Highland Park—Third Space for the North Shore
Capitalism abhors a creative gathering place—otherwise auto dealerships would put on poetry slams and hardware stores would host book clubs, wouldn’t they? While coffeehouses and restaurants often step up to […]
Interview: “Body Horror at Every Turn”: Peter O’Keefe and Counted with the Dead
Born in Detroit, writer Peter O’Keefe now lives in one of Chicago’s neighbors to the north, Racine. Through the years he’s written for everything from “word processing temp jobs” to […]
Event: Electric Presbyterian—Elisha Gray, Great Grandfather of Electronic Music
Music has an abundance of guitar gods, but who resides in Synthesizer Olympus? If you’re an ’80s kid, a small list of synth heroes suggests itself—Thomas Dolby, Herbie Hancock, Gary […]
Review: “Dark Omen Indigo,”Postmortem, by Courtney Lund O’Neil
Brushes with fame create anecdotes; brushes with infamy leave scars. Such is the case with author Courtney Lund O’Neil’s mother Kimberly Byers-Lund, and by extension O’Neil herself. In her book […]
Best of 2024: The Third Coast Review Lit Section
The Third Coast Review Lit section has continued to grow in its coverage of the city and region’s ongoing literary scene. Below, several of TCR’s Lit writers share their favorite […]
Review: They All Stand Up, Louis Sullivan: An American Architect, by Patrick F. Cannon and James Caulfield
Can something be both overexposed and unseen? After years of black and white images of Louis Sullivan’s buildings being demolished or in the midst of eradication, we tend to think […]