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Anchoring Our Communities

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

by Jarrett Neal

Coming out of the destabilization and devastation of the pandemic, worldwide protests over systemic racism, and an increasingly histrionic political climate, place has never meant so much to our daily lives. Our connections to our communities as well as the histories and inhabitants that shape those communities has been amplified by the propulsion of current events. When the world races past and…

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Independent Bookstore Day, April 24, 2021

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Inside for Indies: Live on Independent Bookstore Day
11 a.m. Until Noon
via Zoom
Free and Open to the Public
Registration Required


by Donald G. Evans

This pandemic. We're more than a year into it and I think we all feel like we deserve some kind of return to normal. We miss all those things, sometimes tiny,…

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Five Chicago Baseball Books I Really Like

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

By Donald G. Evans

I have not read nearly all of the Chicago books on baseball. In fact, I own several dozen more than I’ve read, always looking for an opening to move one or more of those onto my nightstand. The insincerity of any “best” list is the insinuation that the author’s opinion is definitive, when in fact it is most often a consensus based…

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Our Cultural Community in Full Force

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

by Donald G. Evans

In a ceremony on Saturday, March 13, from 7-8 p.m., Sandra Cisneros is to be honored with the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s Fuller Award for lifetime achievement. It is CLHOF’s highest honor for a living writer. Sandra joins an illustrious list of honorees that includes Gene Wolfe (2012), Harry Mark Petrakis (2014), Haki Madhubuti (2015), Rosellen Brown (2016),…

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In Memoriam: Harry Mark Petrakis (June 5, 1923 – February 2, 2021)

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

By Donald G. Evans

Harry Mark Petrakis, one of Chicago’s great literary figures, died, unofficially of old age, last Tuesday, Feb. 2, near his longtime home in Chestertown, Indiana. He was 97 years old.

Harry gained a reputation as a foremost Greek-American author, but anybody who's read him knows that his accomplishments defy such a narrow definition. Stuart Dybek, in a blurb for one…

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Chicago (Love) Classics

Monday, February 1, 2021

By Donald G. Evans

Chicago (Love) Classics
Saturday, Feb. 13
7-8 p.m.
Free and Open to the Public
Advanced Registration Required

Valentine’s Day isn’t for everybody, and, now, thanks to our ongoing health pandemic, it’s not really for anybody. There will be no fancy restaurants, no romantic getaways, no parties, no a lot of stuff.

Chicago, anyway, with…

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Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Saturday, January 30, 2021

by Donald G. Evans

Strong associations between drinking and writing, for better or worse, continue to be the stuff of legend, especially in Chicago. Hard drinking literary heroes like Ernest Hemingway (not to mention Terkel and Royko etc. and etc.) earn much of the attention, though more polite imbibement also populates the literary landscape. Here, there are a variety of regular live lit programs, such…

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“Today A Reader, Tomorrow A Leader”

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

By Donald G. Evans

What: 14th Annual MLK Literacy Festival When: 12:30-4 p.m. on Monday, January 18. Where: Facebook Live / Zoom Register at: https://linktr.ee/Projectyes

The very fact that Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday offers a profound civics lesson for all of us observing recent events and wondering how in the world we might overcome the hatred, ignorance,…

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Chicago Writers Association’s 10th Annual Book of the Year Awards

Sunday, January 10, 2021

By Randy Richardson

On January 16th the Chicago Writers Association will host its 10th annual Book of the Year Awards. This year the celebration will be virtual.

For the past nine years CWA’s book awards were held at The Book Cellar, the charming little bookstore in the heart of Lincoln Square. It has always been a joyous and warm celebration, with standing-room-only crowds…

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Patricia McNair’s Responsible Adults Launches Sunday, Jan. 3

Sunday, January 3, 2021

By Donald G. Evans

Life is hard in author Patricia Ann McNair’s new collection, Responsible Adults. It is hard in ways inherited, and hard in ways self-inflicted, and hard in ways merely unlucky. But what’s telling about these uncommonly good stories is that that difficulty is assumed, never spoken of or lamented so much as dealt with. Life is like that in the world…

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