Review: Darkest Suburbia, Suburban Monsters, by Christopher Hawkins
Brevity is both the soul of wit and the spirit of horror. A horror novel carries its own pleasures, but…
Review: Used Records & Tapes Zine Offers Plenty of Memories and Music
According to both mainstream and social media, Generation X spends half its time being ignored and the other half feeling…
Review: A Social Media Novel Not for the Faint-hearted, [NSFW], by David Scott Hay
If ever a trigger warning was needed, it’s the one for David Scott Hay’s new novel [NSFW], which cautions the…
Review: The Artist Who Made a Difference About Injustice
If you’re at all familiar with DePaul University’s Lincoln Park campus, you’ve almost certainly been impressed by the nine-foot-tall statue…
Review: Dead Heat to Destiny: Three Lives and a Spy, by J.B. Rivard
Anyone who’s joined a beginners’ writers workshop knows the difficulty of reviewing prose that is nowhere near polished. It’s awkward,…
Review: The Marshal Who “Could Spit and Bust a Brick in Two,” Black Gun, Silver Star, by Art T. Burton
It is important that there is a book such as Art T. Burton’s Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and…
Review: Good and Bad Habits—Acid Nun, by Corinne Halbert
We rarely see the bright side of horror. Mostly connected with darkness and gloom, the genre reluctantly explores color and…
Review: The Man Who Created a Funny Flat Planet—Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes, by Rob Wilkins
Chicago doesn’t play much of a role in Rob Wilkins’s biography of his boss, Terry Pratchett, the British mega-selling author…
2022 in Review: A Lit Retrospective
What was 2022 like in the world of Chicago, Illinois, and Midwest letters? I’ve asked the Lit section writers to…
Review: The First Amendment Lives On Celebrates Hugh Hefner’s Commitment to Free Speech
How do we know if the First Amendment is working? Karen Tumulty, deputy editorial page editor for the Washington Post…
Review: The Last Stand, Beacons in the Darkness: Hope and Transformation Among America’s Community Newspapers, by Dave Hoekstra
Dave Hoekstra has loved newspapers since his boyhood in west suburban Naperville. He understands the important role newspapers play in…
Dialogs: Patti Smith, a Woman of Depth, Artistry, and Love for Humanity, Lights up the Music Box
When I hear the name Patti Smith, so many images are conjured in my mind. The 1970s at Club 950,…
