Fiction Review: “The Shining Girls” by Lauren Beukes
RECOMMENDED When Harper Curtis happens upon a set of keys that unlocks the door to the House in 1931, he is not just gifted with a shelter from the cold Chicago streets, he is burdened with the power...
View ArticleThe Sausage King of Chicago: “Hot Doug’s: The Book” Captures the Spirit of...
By Sara Tenenbaum In his foreword to “Hot Doug’s: The Book,” the half-history, half-scrapbook of Chicago’s most famous hotdog stand, Graham Elliot suggests that Hot Doug’s serves up “edible punk...
View ArticleFree As A Bird: Debut Author Janice Deal on “The Decline of Pigeons”
By Sarah Cubalchini Janice Deal’s debut, “The Decline of Pigeons,” is a short-story collection about broken people amidst the turmoil of loss, from a woman trying to rebuild herself after losing her...
View ArticleSeventh Heaven: Chris L. Terry Chronicles Middle School Miseries in “Zero Fade”
By Greg Baldino “You know,” said debut novelist Chris Terry, “Kirkus listed ‘Zero Fade’ as historical fiction. It made me feel old because I’m actually two years older than Kevin.” Set in the early...
View ArticleCity Time Capsule: “Chicago by Day and Night” is a Lively Guide to 1890s Chicago
Chicago welcomed the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition almost twenty years after the Great Fire, inviting thousands to flood the Second City. “Chicago by Day and Night: the Pleasure Seeker’s Guide to...
View ArticleFiction Review: “The Last Good Halloween” by Giano Cromley
RECOMMENDED Around the halfway point of Giano Cromley’s debut novel, “The Last Good Halloween,” protagonist Kirby Russo is told by his reserved sidekick Julian that “I just realized this is like that...
View ArticleShouldering the Burden: “How Long Will I Cry?” Gives Voice to Youth Violence
By Naomi Huffman Standing out among the buzz of new fall books and emerging authors in this city is one very significant project: “How Long Will I Cry?” an anthology of oral stories of youth violence....
View ArticleSome Enchanted Sommelier: Pugs, Wine and Writing with “Vintage Attraction”...
By Naomi Huffman Charles Blackstone’s new novel “Vintage Attraction” chronicles the relationship between Peter Hapworth, a bored adjunct writing professor, and Isabelle Conway, a prominent sommelier...
View ArticleVeronica Roth’s “Allegiant” and the YA Dystopia: The End of the World as We...
By Megan Kirby Take the bus to Navy Pier on a dreary afternoon. Buy an overpriced ticket for the Ferris Wheel and ride alone to the top. Look out over the lake and imagine it drained and muddy, a...
View ArticleSilk Stockings and Bootleggers: An Interview with “Dollface” Author Renee Rosen
By Liz Baudler Pardon the 1920s jargon, but Chicago author Renee Rosen is the bee’s knees. Rosen’s the author of “Dollface,” the story of Vera Abramowitz, a nice Jewish girl who ends up falling in...
View ArticleFrom Where I Write: Christine Sneed
By Naomi Huffman Last winter, I interviewed Christine Sneed about her then just-released “Little Known Facts,” a novel about an aging Hollywood heartthrob named Renn Ivins, and the effects of his...
View ArticleThe Zen of Zines: “King Cat” Reigns Supreme
By Megan Kirby Today, the nineties are glorified as a golden era for independent publishing, a decade when every photocopier ran hot with the printing of punk-rock fanzines and weird-out mini-comics....
View ArticleNonfiction Review: “Meaty” by Samantha Irby
RECOMMENDED A lot of “Meaty”’s reviews can be summed up this way: “lol omg this girl is talking about how she craps her pants she’s so awesome.” Reading reviews like this, one gets the idea that all...
View ArticleOur Minds Work Against Our Hearts: Rachel Louise Snyder on Writing Suburban...
By Ted Anton In “What We’ve Lost Is Nothing,” former Oak Park resident manager and journalist Rachel Snyder tells the story of what happens when two high-school girls stay home to try ecstasy the same...
View ArticleFrom Where I Write: Gina Frangello
By Naomi Huffman I first met Gina Frangello in 2011, when I was an undergrad studying writing at Columbia College; I took a fiction seminar class she taught my senior year. When she introduced herself...
View ArticleFinding Space: An Interview with Ben Tanzer
By Liz Baudler “As far as I know, the only people who have read the book are three women, all twenty-five and under, and two of you said, ‘I have no interest in having kids, but I liked the book,’”...
View ArticleFiction Review: “Bedrock Faith” by Eric Charles May
RECOMMENDED Eric Charles May and James Baldwin share more than skin color and writing passion. They are masters of the complicated operas that unfold in a particular place, of the complexities and...
View ArticleNonfiction Review: “You Feel So Mortal” by Peggy Shinner
RECOMMENDED Peggy Shinner’s new collection, “You Feel So Mortal,” is about the intersection of the body and identity, both crafted by ourselves and forced upon us. In an essay titled “Elective,”...
View ArticleToasting the Man Chicago Almost Forgot, Nelson Algren
On March 29, the Nelson Algren Committee will host the twenty-fifth annual Nelson Algren Birthday Party to honor the man who eternalized Chicago’s “drunks, pimps, prostitutes, freaks, drug addicts,...
View ArticleRewriting the Adolescent Narrative: Megan Milks on “Kill Marguerite”
By Anne Yoder I first encountered Megan Milks’ work when we were both fledgling critics for PopMatters. Her writing stood out as intelligent, daring and quite promiscuous in its range of ideas. She...
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