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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The results of last week’s presidential election stirred different feelings in many people: confusion, despair, melancholy, detachment, anger. I’ve seen more people on my social media feeds posting politically related […]