For a paper whose tag line is “Street Smart Chicago,” the Lit 50 list or “Who really books in Chicago” reads a lot more like a who’s who of big box stores and historical movers-and-shakers whose current status is in “transition” than any episode of “Literature: Life on the Streets/Chicago.” If I thought this was the real state of literature in Chicago, I’d be very nervous. Hell, I’d be sad. But I know better. Most of the people who have been in the trenches for years – through every kind of economy – the same people who the big box stores and library branches call when they want some “local flavor” – they never make the list. But I know how hard these literary warriors work for meager compensation, if any, all for the love of literature. To not give them their due is “Crime and Punishment”-able (sorry for the pun, I couldn’t help it.)

Don’t get me wrong. There are some great choices for tips of the hat here. My beef isn’t as much with who is on the list as who is not. My first concern is that if this is the lethargic writing style that’s going to migrate to the just launched Newcity Lit website, I’m going to have to take a NoDoz before I visit. We all know that web writing is different than print writing, but this print text barely has a pulse. The bios are filled with professional designations, recent titles, publication dates and little else. How does that give you any idea of how these people “book” in the Chicago literary scene? (Can I tell you that I cringe every time I read that pun? I like mine better. [Don’t we all think our jokes are the best?] Didn’t “book” go out as a verb in the 70s? Wasn’t that what Pete used to say to Linc when they had to run after the perp in Mod Squad?)

Ms. #1: I know that Oprah still has her studios here in Chicago and that she stays here part of the time – but, heck, even wikipedia says that she lives in California. Is she really THE most influential person in the CHICAGO literary scene? When was the last time that her book club featured a Chicago writer – or even a living one? (Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Jonathan Franzen – who was technically born in Chicago but didn’t live here long enough to learn that we’re a city of average-Joes and Janes who watch Oprah and whose money to pay for a book is just as good as – if not more hard-earned – than those graduate students and professors that he was so worried would turn their noses up at him because he got Oprah-ed and that meant he might be read by the unwashed masses – but I digress.) I think her effort to get more people to read is laudable, but I don’t see how it’s got any more impact on Chicago than New York or Santa Barbara…where she lives. I’ve got the same problem with listing the owner of Barbara’s Bookstores, who lives in New Mexico. How exactly does he impact Chicago writers other than taking our money to pay his real estate taxes somewhere else?

#12: My heart sank for Francesco Levato. Let me repeat that – Levato, L-e-v-a-t-o, not “Flevato” as printed on the list. (I’m as big a fan of alliteration as anyone, but this is the guy’s name for crap sake.) One error is a typo. But they misspelled his name in the synopsis too – in an attribution for a quote, no less. That’s just lazy. Or should I say f-lazy? (Was Snoop Dogg one of the list’s contributors?) The Poetry Center has been going through some tough transitions over the last couple years. When the Poetry Foundation came into being, the Poetry Center’s programming became the most vulnerable for competition from the newly bequeathed 600 pound gorilla in the Chicago literary living room. I’m very hopeful that they’ll come out the other side stronger and better for it – and it will be due in no small part to Francesco Levato helping them weather the storm. But, in the last five years, the Poetry Center has had three different directors – each with very different personalities and programming priorities. Why do they always seem to be in about the same place on the list? And how can I trust this designation when the list editors clearly don’t even know the guy’s name?

For that matter, if you google the Lit 50 list for these last five years – you will see mostly the same names with a little shifting in order. But the paper tries to make it seem like each year is a big reveal. If this were one of my students at Columbia College, I’d tell them their paper read like something they wrote for another class and just “freshened up” a bit for mine. Chicago’s literary scene is scrappier, more entrepreneurial, and, definitely more variable, than this list. Like I said before, it reads like a map at a shopping mall, which takes me to my next point.

#16/#17: The fact that Barnes & Nobel and Borders are on the list is beyond a joke. And the fact that they’re number 16 and 17 respectively is insulting. No writer – particularly no poet – and if the people who compile this list knew more about Chicago literature, they would know that poetry is BIG here – would consider these two chains anything other than retail stores that happen to sell books. Have they gone to one of these stores lately? Have they seen the confused look on the staff member’s face when you ask them if they’ve heard of a book – say, Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban – and they can’t scurry to their computer terminal fast enough while asking over their shoulder, “What was the name of that travel book you wanted for Cuba?” These chains don’t care if it’s books or sweaters or running shoes or ladies’ lingerie. It’s about moving the units – period. The fact that the list editors mentioned that Barnes & Noble is “based out of New York, (but) was originally founded in 1873 as a printing business in Wheaton” is worse than Tournament of Roses Parade banter. (If only there was a marching band or two between these entries to liven them up a bit.) And, the greatest accomplishment of Borders, number 17 – meaning they’re more important than nearly two-thirds of the rest of the list – is that they announced they’ll be closing their “flagship Michigan Avenue spot in 2010.” I’m sure a bunch of us Chicago writers will be there to help these old friends pack up and move because they’ve always been there for us. Wait, they don’t pay honoraria for readings – though they make money on book sales. They don’t book author tours to help emerging, mid-list or even well-known writers sell their books. (Books always sell at readings.) I think I just got a future backache on moving day. Touting these two chains as key proponents of literature is like saying that Wicked and Mary Poppins are the best theater that Chicago has to offer. Ridiculous.

#41: I have to mention my own entry. Please understand that I could care less about this stuff – except when I see hardworking people left out. (And you can accuse me of protesting too much, it’s a fair shot.) If I wanted fame and fortune, I definitely haven’t taken the right career path. I’ve always worked at small shops because I believe in the power of grassroots work. But the description of the Guild Complex – which is really what my entry is – isn’t even accurate. We haven’t offered workshops in nearly four years – though we list examples of past workshops on our website. Our most successful program in those last four years has been Palabra Pura, our bilingual poetry series which has gotten national attention, and the editors of this list would know that if they even had an inkling about the Guild Complex. For example, Ada Limón, who we featured in November 2006, just had a piece published in The New Yorker. Paul Martinez Pompa, who read at the inaugural event, was just selected by Martín Espada for the Andrés Montoya Prize. But, hey, let’s highlight our fathom limb workshops instead. They also mentioned our “sponsored readings.” What does that mean? We’re a reading series. We always have been. Who’s the sponsor besides us? Huh? (Are you sure Snoop Dogg isn’t on this committee?)(Oh, and in at least one other listing, the editors straight out quote from the person’s website. Isn’t that kind of weird? Aren’t newspapers supposed to do their own homework? Isn’t that what started all their trouble in the first place?)

I’ve taken up enough space here with my rebuttal of Newcity’s list. If you’d like to see some names I wished that I’d seen on the list but didn’t, please visit http://www.guildcomplex.org. I’ve compiled a list of who I think really “books” in Chicago. Okay, Dano?

With good-natured poking,
Ellen Wadey, Guild Complex