by Rosellen Brown

It isn’t easy to make a mark in the world by being a good guy, a friend, an acute observer more kind than critical. Those qualities don’t sound dramatic enough to constitute a career but Alex K, soft-spoken and content to stay out of the limelight, has brought us a number of remarkable portraits made accessible by the way he watches, listens, sympathizes…

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by Miles Harvey

What Alex Kotlowitz remembers about his first apartment in Chicago is lugging dozens of cinderblocks up three flights of stairs to build makeshift bookshelves for his growing library. He remembers the downstairs neighbor who ran an informal bike-repair shop out of his first-floor flat and the heroin addicts across the way who ended up breaking into the young writer’s apartment through the…

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by Michael Antman

“Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley,
The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter?
All, all are sleeping on the hill.

“One passed in a fever,
One was burned in a mine,
One was killed in a brawl,
One died in a jail,
One fell from a…

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By Robert Chiarito

Mike Royko: The Toughest Man in Chicago, writer and actor Mitchell Bisschop’s nostalgic love letter to Mike Royko, opened this weekend and provided a feast for those who grew up reading and loving the legendary columnist. For others who are not familiar with Royko, it may have been a meal lacking some courses.

The one-man show…

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by Barbara Egel

I couldn’t stop writing.
I wrote myself angled and tress-topped
I wrote myself hero, I wrote myself white,
Cherokee, cheerleader, distressed damsel in Alan Ladd’s arms,
I wrote myself winged, worshipped.
– “Related to the Buttercup, Blooms in Spring”

In this poem from her 2006 collection, Teahouse of the Almighty, Patricia Smith falls desperately in love. She…

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by Donald G. Evans

Chicago means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It’s personal, how you think about it. We mentally form a composite sketch that includes iconic buildings, beloved restaurants and bars, L stops, historical events, places where we grew up or grew old, memories. We populate our own Chicago with people that make it home—sports stars and celebrities, sure,…

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by Dmitry Samarov

In 2021 I wrote about a bookstore coming to Bridgeport; in 2024, I personally move a majority of its 60,000 titles next door to a new location. It’s been a voyage of discovery, as ad-copy might put it.

I stop by the window and watch the storefront fill with…

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Harboring

I remember it was a Sunday when I discovered I was pregnant because Franz went off to church and I stayed home.

Franz was never gone. All except for Sundays of course. He’d set off in the mornings, then extend his leave into the late afternoon when he’d luncheon with the other adherents of the church. I went once. The people were amiable and…

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The Herring Net - Winslow Homer

my spine ached parallel to the sea surface,
clashing to the sides of the sailwood, Welch’s fingers in between
the fish-filled net, in exhaustion as dusk rose
my hands slippery hanging off the rim
tilting the boat slightly left,
With rain tingling on my hat, the waves transport us toward our enemies.
a bronze-outlined…

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