Last Minute Plans: Dan Ozzi Is A “Sellout” At Gman Tavern
Music critic Dan Ozzi is well known for his sharp insight and even sharper wit in his writing. So I was excited about his decision to tackle a topic largely […]
Review: A Soldier in the Struggle: Daring to Struggle, Daring to Win, by Helen Shiller
Helen Shiller—a longtime radical activist and the new alderman in Chicago’s 46th ward—turned 40 on November 24, 1987. Two days later, she went to City Hall for an 11am meeting with […]
Review: Chi Boy: Native Sons and Chicago Reckonings, by Keenan Norris
Chi Boy: Native Sons and Chicago Reckonings by Keenan Norris may be the perfect book for the Halloween season. And not because its stories of racial discrimination and poverty are […]
Review: Gay Old Times, Last Call Chicago, by Rick Karlin and St. Sukie de la Croix
Last Call Chicago is not a narrative book. Rather it is an extensive listing with brief descriptions of 1,001 LGBTQ and LGBTQ-friendly bars and such. But it is also a […]
Dialogs: How Chicagoans and Russians Write—CHF’s Chat with Author George Saunders
Oak Forest native to the “political left of Gandhi,” essayist and award-winning author George Saunders returned to Chicagoland to talk about writing with Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me host Peter Sagal. “The Art of the Short […]
Return of the Living Featured Creatures: Chicago Horror Creators Share Favorite Fictional Terrors
It’s Halloween, and everyone’s entitled to one good scare. Lucky you. Third Coast Review has once again asked several Chicago area horror writers and artists for their recommendations on the […]
Review: Jasmine Sawers’ The Anchored World Is an Eerie, Haunting Voyage
Like the very best tangled and violent folklore passed down to us, Jasmine Sawers’s The Anchored World: Flash Fairy Tales and Folklore, (Rose Metal Press), is eerie and beautiful. A […]
Review: A Spooky Morality Play—The Merchant’s Curse, by Antony Barone Kolenc
Antony Barone Kolenc’s The Merchant’s Curse is a historical mystery with a strong supernatural element, set in 12th-century England and written for children and young teens. Even more, it’s a […]
Interview: Making Fun—Jeffrey Breslow’s 30+ Years of Toy and Game Making
Some jobs don’t sound like work. A perfect example: Jeffrey Breslow’s decades-long career as a designer, developer, and partner at one of the most successful toy- and game-making companies of […]
Review: Laughing at the Race with No Rules, Woman Without Shame, by Sandra Cisneros
In her new book of poetry Woman without Shame, Sandra Cisneros looks aging in the face and laughs. She laughs at the frenetic lusts and couplings of youth—at broken hearts and […]
Review: Cora’s Kitchen Shines a Light on Women’s Hopes and Dreams During the Harlem Renaissance
Cora James lives in the heart of the Harlem Renaissance. She works in the Harlem Library, rubbing shoulders with the best and the brightest Black writers in New York City. […]
Review: Henry Gerber, Father of the Gay Rights Movement—An Angel in Sodom, by Jim Elledge
As a title, An Angel in Sodom is evocative and a bit ambiguous. The subtitle of Jim Elledge’s book is much more direct: Henry Gerber and the Birth of the Gay […]