By Ella Christoph

Writer, teacher, father and Wisconsinite-turned-Chicago-transplant, Patrick Somerville’s acerbic yet tender and honest novel, “This Bright River,” is a 450-page epic replete with laugh-out-loud depictions of contemporary life and insightful tangents as winding as a Lake Michigan tributary. Somerville published his first novel, “The Cradle,” in 2009 and followed it up with a collection of short stories, “The Universe in Miniature in Miniature” that was published by the Chicago indie press Featherproof. I met with Somerville at City Provisions in Ravenswood to discuss the nerdy sense of humor he shares with “This Bright River’s” protagonist Ben, writing about Chicago and the importance of long conversations. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Sylvia Plachy

By Ella Christoph

In “How Should a Person Be?,” Sheila Heti’s new “novel from life,” Heti tracks the everyday adventures of her eponymous protagonist Sheila, who is recently divorced, struggling to complete a play and unsure how she should go about life. Toronto-based Heti, who shares many but not all the attributes of her character, is interviews editor at The Believer and creator of Trampoline Hall, a lecture series in Toronto and New York featuring speakers who are “nonexperts” on their subjects. By turns wide-eyed, deadpan and titillating, “How Should a Person Be” is unswervingly candid in its portrayal of Sheila’s adventures in figuring out how she should be. I spoke with Heti about self-help, Truth and the delights of interviewing.  Read the rest of this entry »

By Nikki Dolson

Tony Breed is the creator of “Finn and Charlie Are Hitched,” the story of a married couple living their lives, working, helping (or trying to help) their friends and—once a year—epically cooking the turkey for Thanksgiving. Breed draws the ordinary life of one gay couple, and the result is sweet—even when the couple are being snarky about who’s cooking dinner—and funny, particularly when the pair deals with getting older and major life issues like unemployment. But it is the heart that Breed infuses into his comic that makes “Finn and Charlie are Hitched” work.

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By Lara Levitan

While David David Katzman was finishing his second novel, “A Greater Monster,” he was also performing a one-man improv show. Taking a single cue from the audience, he hopped around the stage playing multiple characters, an experience he now describes as “nutty.”

“The audience, I think, was supportive because they were like, ‘Wow, this kid is working without a parachute here,’” says Katzman.

The author doesn’t do improv anymore, but in many ways he’s still a one-man show. Surpassing the standard protocol of self-publishing, Katzman established his own independent press, Bedhead Books, in order to print, promote and manually distribute both of his experimental novels, “Death by Zamboni” (1999) and “A Greater Monster” (2011). (The latter is also distributed by Last Gasp, which specializes in the subversive and underground.) He launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the printing of “A Greater Monster,” offering personalized, stream-of-consciousness style letters as prizes—a collection of which will be published by the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography. Read the rest of this entry »

By Naomi Huffman

Sergio De La Pava’s “A Naked Singularity” is an ambitious and colossal work in scope, theme, philosophy and even physical presence. “What is that?” I was asked (absurdly, all the time, as if the two covers and 678 pages in between weren’t a dead giveaway) as I carried the book with me on the El during my morning commute to work, while on a bus trip back home, to various cafes and while grocery shopping. The book does, indeed, beg for attention—the cover is a black-and-white optical illusion that makes the eyes swim, and bears the author’s name in magenta font.

After reassuring the inquirer that I was only carrying a book, the next question, notably more difficult to answer, would be, “What’s it about?” Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a community of retired people at Mather’s Cafe in Norwood Park. Some take exercise classes, some take computer classes, some bide their time in the cafeteria. Some, like Sam DiMatteo, write books.

DiMatteo worked for twenty-two years as a mechanic at Procter and Gamble. His mentor once told him, “You’ll never reach your full potential here. You’re creative, and they’ll never let you express it.”

When he retired he got an associate degree and took creative writing classes. He took photographs and took up painting. He’s also a laughing yoga instructor at Mather’s. Read the rest of this entry »

Susie Kirkwood and Jill Summers/Photo: Glitter Guts

Jill Summers and Susie Kirkwood, sisters who are known in the lit community for their work as puppeteers, bring together design and text to evoke the senses. Their past works included shadow puppet shows at reading series, beginning at the now-defunct Dollar Store. “Jill was asked to read publicly for the first time and she was nervous to do this in front of an audience,” explains Kirkwood. “It was her idea to do a shadow show using her text.” They have since gone on to work on stop-motion animation projects, notably a book trailer for Cesar Aira’s “Ghosts,” published by New Directions. Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Carroll

By Rachel Helene Swift

In 2009, Chicago cartoonist Dan Carroll cracked open the first printer’s proof of his self-published graphic novel, “Stick Figure Hamlet.” The book, which began life as a web comic in 2005, stages Shakespeare’s uncut script in simple, evocative line drawings. With an eye for comedic timing, Carroll shifts between slapstick farce and tense drama; he combines a sensitive and humane approach to character with a sly knack for literary subversion—for example, his Rosencrantz and Guildenstern look suspiciously like Bert and Ernie from “Sesame Street.”  I caught up with Carroll on the three-year anniversary of “SFH”’s publication to talk about Shakespeare, comics and how self-publishing has treated the cartoonist and his literary progeny.

What prompted you to write “Stick Figure Hamlet?” Read the rest of this entry »

By Kelly Roark

Elizabeth Crane releases her first novel this year after several successful short story collections (“When the Messenger is Hot,” “All This Heavenly Glory,” and “You Must Be This Happy to Enter”). “We Only Know So Much” centers around the multi-generational Copeland family—a husband and wife caring for their older relatives and two children. Otis, the charming nine-year-old, seeks to understand the nature of love and crossword puzzles. Priscilla, whose mother recommends she should “try not being such a bitch,” has few ideas for her future besides immediate fame through a reality show. We spoke to the author, who spent many years in Chicago, about her new book, the influence of reality television and inspiration.

How was the process of writing a novel different from your previous short stories? Read the rest of this entry »

Photo: Dan Dry

By Ella Christoph

Michael Robbins’ poetry demands to be read aloud, so long as you’re not among the virtuous. In the poem “Bubbling Under,” he proclaims, “I live by the alien logic we impose on children./Whoever smelt it dealt it. I’m glazed with K-Y/beside the Goth girls gone haywire. Talk about cathexis!” His debut collection of poems, “Alien vs. Predator,” was published at the end of March, but it was only a couple weeks ago that a drooling review on the cover of the New York Times’ Arts section helped skyrocket “AvP,” briefly, to the number one and two (paperback and Kindle) spots on Amazon’s American Poetry bestseller list. Robbins has immortalized the screenshot on his tumblr. Robbins, who completed his PhD at the University of Chicago last year, recently returned to his Andersonville apartment after a yearlong stint as a writer-in-residence at The University of Southern Mississippi. Read the rest of this entry »