No Longer Waiting for the Bombs: Rebecca Makkai Discusses her New Book of...
By Kim Steele In the final story of Rebecca Makkai’s collection “Music for Wartime,” “The Museum of the Dearly Departed,” a young graduate student inherits his grandparents’ apartment when a gas leak...
View ArticleStill Bullish: Bill Hillmann Chronicles His Goring and other Glories in “Mozos”
By Brendan Buck When during the summer of 2014 Bill Hillmann made the news for getting gored by a bull, I was shocked but not surprised. When I heard him read publicly months before, my former Columbia...
View ArticleMemory and Guilt: Ryan Spooner Talks About his Essay Collection “Regret”
By Toni Nealie A young man argues about how to make a martini. It’s a performance, both in the bar and on the page. The man’s friend says, “Look at yourself. Look at how you’re acting.” So the writer...
View ArticleNonfiction Review: “Two” by Melissa Ann Pinney
RECOMMENDED “Two” is a compelling book of photographs by Evanston photographer Melissa Ann Pinney. Edited and introduced by Ann Patchett, interspersed throughout are ten essays on the theme of twoness...
View ArticleBig-Hearted and Bawdy: Tony Fitzpatrick’s “Dime Stories” Speaks Truth to Power
By Amy Friedman “Whatever you do in this life, make sure you’re the only one who can do it,” Tony Fitzpatrick’s father advised him in the third grade, and hell if he didn’t listen. Artist, author and...
View ArticleNonfiction Review: “Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the...
RECOMMENDED “Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science” is a strange mix of disheartening, enraging and uplifting. It’s the subject matter—scientific...
View ArticleLooking at Longing: Chicago Poet Sandra Marchetti Debuts with “Confluence”
Sandra Marchetti’s debut collection of poems, “Confluence,” is an intimate and carefully wrought look at longing and the relationship between person and place. In the opening poem, “Never-Ending...
View ArticleAsking No One’s Permission: Jessica Hopper Discusses Her New Collection of...
By Liz Baudler Jessica Hopper’s byline connotes two things: vivid, confrontational description, and criticism with an unabashedly feminist and social conscience. “The First Collection of Criticism by a...
View ArticleFiction Review: “Almost Crimson” by Dasha Kelly
RECOMMENDED “Almost Crimson,” the newest novel by Def Poetry Jam alum Dasha Kelly, traces the life of Ce-Ce, short for Crimson Celeste, a bright and capable black woman born to an out-of-frame father...
View ArticleThere Are No Myths: A Close-up on a Film Noir Icon in “The Lives of Robert Ryan”
By Hugh Iglarsh “Lives” indeed. It’s a fitting title for a biography of actor Robert Ryan, who lived on multiple planes, which he did his best to keep widely separated. In his richer roles, Ryan came...
View ArticleFiction Review: “Resonance” by Erica O’Rourke
RECOMMENDED “Resonance” is an action-packed and emotional follow-up to Erica O’Rourke’s 2014 young adult novel, “Dissonance.” In this sequel (still set in a version of the Chicago area) we see main...
View ArticleNonfiction Review: “The Little Magazine in Contemporary America” edited by...
RECOMMENDED Starting a little magazine is like embarking on parenthood: Its founders begin with a vision, with no idea as to what it truly takes to raise their baby to adulthood, day by day. These...
View ArticleTransformation Through Narrative Structures: Book and Paper Artist Teresa...
Chicago 1986: Teresa Pankratz and her husband are out on the town, familiarizing themselves with their new neighborhood on the North Side shortly after moving to a new apartment. Artistically, nothing...
View ArticleNews: Lee Sandlin Way—Late Chicago Author Remembered With Honorary Street Sign
As of Saturday, a brown street sign at the corner of North Artesian and West Wilson Avenues in Ravenswood Gardens celebrates the memory of the block’s former resident: Chicago author Lee Sandlin. The...
View ArticleDiving Deep: Re’Lynn Hansen Discusses “To Some Women I Have Known”
By Toni Nealie In her memoir of prose poems and essays, Re’Lynn Hansen captures what she calls the “prismatic moment,” the color burst, the distilled essence of past. It’s sweet-sharp. Beauty, loss and...
View ArticleNews: At It Again—Elizabeth Taylor and Adam Cohen Reunite to Launch The...
Fifteen years ago, Elizabeth Taylor and Adam Cohen collaborated to bring us “American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley: His Battle for Chicago and the Nation.” The duo, each widely accomplished in their...
View ArticleFiction Review: “Marvel and A Wonder” by Joe Meno
RECOMMENDED “Marvel and A Wonder’—Joe Meno’s latest novel—is an emotionally honest exploration of the human need for connection. The story centers on widower and Korean War vet, Jim Falls, and his...
View ArticleSouth Side Experiences: Nate Marshall’s “Wild Hundreds” Poems Tackle Young...
Fans of the 2010 documentary “Louder Than A Bomb” will remember Nate Marshall as the then-teen whose performance closed out the film. I say “will remember” because his performance is unforgettable. In...
View ArticleNonfiction Review: “The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune, 1915-1964”...
RECOMMENDED When Greg Bellow’s memoir about his father, Saul, came out in 2013, the Independent headlined its review, “Great author, terrible father.” Between the younger Bellow’s book and the three...
View ArticleNonfiction Review: “Behind the Smile: A Story of Carol Moseley Braun’s...
RECOMMENDED “The year of the woman,” 1992, was a time of idealism and anger brought to the fore after the 1991 Senate confirmation of Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court. A Judiciary Committee of...
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