Interview: Raghav Rao Never Fails in Missy
In his debut novel, Missy, Raghav Rao keeps one foot in India and one foot in Chicago. A tale of immigration, family, and the love of place—homeland or not. His […]
Interview: Local Author Megy Karydes on Making Time for DIY Self-Care With 50 Ways to More Calm, Less Stress
When Chicago-area author Megy Karydes first wrote the proposal for her book 50 Ways to More Calm, Less Stress, “doomscrolling” had yet to appear in the dictionary. It would soon […]
Interview: Elizabeth Todd-Breland on Writing Karen Lewis’ (Auto-)Biography, I Didn’t Come Here to Lie
Karen Lewis was a teacher, labor leader, and president of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU)—among many other things. Reading through I Didn’t Come Here to Lie: My Life and Education […]
Preview: Acclaimed Hamnet Moves From Page to Screen to Stage in U.S. Debut at Chicago Shakespeare
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Hamnet makes its U.S. premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater this week—but the title is already a familiar one. Book lovers know that Hamnet originated […]
Dialogs: Cultural Icon Margaret Atwood on The Handmaid’s Tale, ICE Raids, and Her New Book of Lives
“There are many ways to do the work in this moment,” Women & Children First Co-Owner Lynn Mooney said by way of introducing prolific novelist and poet Margaret Atwood at […]
Interview: Madeline Blair and Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine
Even before its release, Sabr Tooth Tiger Magazine is something of a success. Rarely does a new arts and literary journal receive more than 300 submissions for its first call. […]
Interview: Becky Siegel Spratford’s New Anthology Asks Horror Authors Why They Love Their Genre
Horror authors are often asked where they get all their wonderful, horrible ideas, but rarely why they get them. Librarian Becky Siegel Spratford wondered about this herself. Since 2007, she’s […]
Interview: Patrick T. Reardon and the Poetry of Every Marred Thing
Writer Patrick T. Reardon has applied his chops to everything from journalism to regular book reviews for TCR. But his latest work returns to one of his favorite literary forms—poetry. […]
Words of Survival: Chicago Bookstores Respond to COVID and Book Bans
This is the third in our series of articles on The Art of Survival, in which we explore how small Chicago arts organizations are surviving post-COVID and weathering the anti-humanist and anti-diversity […]
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 […]
Interview: Poet Temperance Aghamohammadi and Her Debut Collection, Battalion Shaped Girl
Last fall, I had the pleasure of organizing a poetry reading with local poets on celebrating transformation, the unknown, and the changing of the seasons. It was then when I […]
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 […]