As soon as we enter Donika Kelly’s Bestiary through its first poem, “Out West”, we undergo a transformation. Under Kelly’s invitation to “rely… on the thrumming wilderness of self,” we expand into sprawling […]
Najeeb’s childhood dream was to become a goatherd. His dream comes true, but in the form a nightmare. Benyamin’s Goat Days follows the twisted turns of Najeeb’s life. First published in 2008, Goat Days […]
Special thanks to the Facebook group Chicago Activist Writers who supplied many of the events and descriptions in this round-up. If you’re looking to attend readings and events surrounding and protesting the […]
Without debating whether it’s appropriate to say 2016 was a hard year, it’s undoubtedly been a pivotal year, especially for the Chicago lit scene. The Chicago Review of Books, a literary review […]
“I was about to speak to her/ but hesitated when I realized/ she was browsing through/ the Self-Help section,” writes Barry Gifford in his poem “In a Used Bookstore.” Appearing mid-way through […]
Standing onstage, Laura Jane Grace is the embodiment of a punk rocker. Part Joan Jett, part Debbie Harry, Grace commands her pop-punk band Against Me! with ease and a crooked smile. Yet, after […]
Illusions of Magic: Love and Intrigue in 1933 Chicago resurrects three little-known aspects of history: the 1933 assassination attempt on Franklin D. Roosevelt that killed Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, the resulting political […]
Ron Faiola is no stranger to supper clubs, especially those scattered throughout our neighbor state to the north. Wisconsin Supper Clubs: Another Round is his second glossy coffee-table book focusing on these out […]
Movies are a global business. This is something close to an axiom given how Hollywood iconography has swaddled the globe. Audiences from Berlin to (formerly) Bombay became acquainted with silver screen legends […]
Our guest author is Bill Savage, who teaches Chicago culture at Northwestern University and the Newberry Library. His essays, articles, and reviews have run in the Chicago Tribune, ESPN.go.com, and the Chicago […]
Ted McClelland will be doing a reading and signing for the launch of How to Speak Midwestern at the Book Cellar (4736 N. Lincoln) at 7pm tonight, Thursday, December 1. A few years […]
Nelson Algren was a star in Chicago’s bright literary firmament, but his light dimmed in the years after he won the 1950 National Book Award for The Man With the Golden Arm […]
