Jun 02
Is it wrong to feel optimistic? You couldn’t be blamed if you didn’t. Yet while the country’s economy crumbles around us and less and less funds are available for the producers of the printed word, those in the literary world are finding new and inventive ways to stay afloat. We will not go down without a fight, and progress, of course, is key. So is awareness—in order to get the word out more efficiently (and, likely, to untether itself from the uncertain future of the paper form), Printers Row Book Fair changed its name from “Book Fair” to “Lit Fest” to have a title that better fully represents the weekend’s events, in time for its twenty-fifth anniversary edition. As is our custom, we time our annual Lit 50 list to the weekend’s events; this year’s list of local behind-the-scenes literati—no straight-up authors or poets this time—covers a large spectrum of Chicago’s world of words. As with past years we sought out those behind the smaller presses as well as the monumental figures. Some new names have emerged and many staples appear again, but all tirelessly labor to bring this ancient art to the community at large. Read the rest of this entry »
Jun 02
Saturday, June 6
Dave Eggers [pictured] will be one of the first authors of the day, discussing his book “What Is the What” at the Harold Washington Library Center at 10am…Thomas O’Gorman will moderate a discussion with authors Frank Delaney, Mike Houlihan and Mary Pat Kelly at 10:30am at the Hotel Blake Burnham Room…Kim Bob, author of “Wage Theft in America” and Jon Jeter will hold a discussion moderated by Thomas Geoghegan at the University Center Lake Room…in the same location at noon C. Todd White, author of “Pre-Gay LA” and Karen Graves, author of “And They Were Wonderful Teachers” will discuss their works with Brian Bouldrey…at 1pm Newcity’s Tom Lynch will hold a discussion with Gerald Gems and Steven Riess, co-editors of “The Chicago Sports Reader,” in the Hotel Blake Burnham Room…Elizabeth Taylor will speak with Aleksandar Hemon and Joseph O’Neill at 2:30pm at the Harold Washington Library Center Read the rest of this entry »
Jan 01
Top 5 Books
“Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape,” Raja Shehadeh (Scribner)
“Netherland: A Novel,” Joseph O’Neill (Pantheon)
“Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, The End of Civilization,” Nicholson Baker (Simon & Schuster)
“Sleeping it Off in Rapid City: Poems, New & Selected,” August Kleinzahler (FSG)
“A Better Angel: Stories,” Chris Adrian (FSG)
-John Freeman
Top 5 Books
“The Lazarus Project,” Aleksandar Hemon (Riverhead Books)
“Indignation,” Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin)
“Lush Life,” Richard Price (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux)
“When You are Engulfed in Flames,” David Sedaris (Little Brown and Company)
“Crime,” Irvine Welsh (WW Norton & Company)
-Tom Lynch
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Jan 01
Top 5 Books
“Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape,” Raja Shehadeh (Scribner)
“Netherland: A Novel,” Joseph O’Neill (Pantheon)
“Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, The End of Civilization,” Nicholson Baker (Simon & Schuster)
“Sleeping it Off in Rapid City: Poems, New & Selected,” August Kleinzahler (FSG)
“A Better Angel: Stories,” Chris Adrian (FSG)
—John Freeman
Top 5 Books
“The Lazarus Project,” Aleksandar Hemon (Riverhead Books)
“Indignation,” Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin)
“Lush Life,” Richard Price (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux)
“When You are Engulfed in Flames,” David Sedaris (Little Brown and Company)
“Crime,” Irvine Welsh (WW Norton & Company)
—Tom Lynch
Top 5 Cookbooks Featuring Chicago Chefs
“From Our Hearts to Your Table: Favorite Recipes From a Greek American Family,” Dorothy Bezemes (N/A)
“Cooking with Les Dames d’ Escoffier: At Home with the Women Who Shape the Way We Eat and Drink,” Les Dames d’ Escoffier (Sasquatch Books)
“The Parthenon Cookbook: Great Mediterranean Recipes from the Heart of Chicago,” Camille Stagg (Agate Surrey)
“Alinea,” Grant Achatz (Ten Speed Press)
“Market-Fresh Mixology: Cocktails for Every Season,” Bridget Albert with Mary Barranco (Agate Surrey)
—Veronica Hinke
Top 5 New Recurring Reading Series
Windy City Story Slam, windycitystoryslam.com
Quickies, quickieschicago.blogspot.com
The Parlor Reads, theparlorreads.com
Sappho’s Salon, womenandchildrenfirst.com
Lovable Losers Literary Revue, lovablelosersliteraryrevue.com/blog
—Robert Duffer
Jun 05
The annual Printers Row Book Fair offers a its usual plethora of must-see readings, panel discussions and presentations, not to mention all those book for sale. Here’s a rundown of some highlights—for the full schedule visit printersrowbookfair.org.
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Jun 05
Chicago’s book world can be a quiet place. In part due to the solitary nature of the work, and in part due to the void of publishing parties that keep New York’s assorted gawkers journaling away, it’s easy to think nothing new is happening. Jeffrey Eugenides moves to town, Jeffrey Eugenides moves away, and no one seems to notice. Then, bam!, Aleksandar Hemon publishes “The Lazarus Project,” the comparisons to Nabokov resume and suddenly we’re the center of the universe again, if only for a moment.
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May 15
Raw, high-contrast black-and-white photography adorns the pristine walls at Stop Smiling Studio on Milwaukee Avenue. Just a few blocks from the Six Corners, trendy Wicker Park women in pashminas mingle with men in cable-knit sweaters and mussy-haired, hip college boys. “I’m a huge fan,” says Zohra Sakwall as she takes her seat. “He writes about the immigrant experience with humor and sincerity.”
Sakwall has arrived at the launch party for Aleksandar Hemon’s new novel, “The Lazarus Project.” Hemon, the local author who won praise for his previous works, “A Question for Bruno” and “Nowhere Man,” collaborated with his good friend of twenty-three years, Velibor Bozovic, on the novel.
Bozovic traveled through Poland, Ukraine and Bosnia with Hemon while researching the new book; twelve of his photographs from the trip appear in its pages. “I have always secretly been a photographer,” Bozovic explains, lighting up a cigarette just outside the studio. “When I was in high school, during the siege…I took pictures. Then one year ago I quit my job [as an aerospace engineer], left the corporate world and became a photographer officially.”
Hemon’s voice carries lingering traces of Eastern Europe, an almost inaudible monotone. “The Lazarus Project” pictures two large, graphic eyes on both covers, and when Hemon reads, it is as if the book itself is ogling the audience. “Our President once said, ‘Books are great because they sometimes have fantastic pictures in them,’” Hemon laughs. “So I felt I had to put pictures in ‘The Lazarus Project.’ Maybe now the President will read it!” (Laura Hawbaker)
May 15
Local treasure Aleksandar Hemon, already deemed a “genius” by the MacArthur Foundation, broke through eight years ago with his debut “The Question of Bruno,” a staggering accomplishment from the Sarajevo-born writer for whom English was an acquired language. “Nowhere Man” followed, which proved Hemon was not a one-hit fluke. His newest novel, his best, is titled “The Lazarus Project,” a jarring and provocative piece of work that links together a hundred years of Chicago history. The plot? In March 1908, an Eastern European immigrant named Lazarus Averbuch is unjustly shot to death by the city’s chief of police, leaving his sister alone in the unknown city. Flash forward a century, and a young writer, also Eastern European and living in Chicago, becomes obsessed with the boy’s story and sets out to learn as much as he can about his life. The characters’ stories link, as does the city’s streets, beaten and built again during these hundred years of life. The imaginative plot is only surface pleasure. Like with the best novelists, the rewards from Hemon’s prose come from a much deeper place. (Tom Lynch)
Aleksandar Hemon reads from “The Lazarus Project” as part of the “Writers on the Record with Victoria Lautman” series May 18 at the Lookingglass Theater, 821 North Michigan, (312)337-0665, at 11:45am. Free.
Feb 14
Zadie Smith might be best known as the audaciously skilled young author of “White Teeth” and “On Beauty,” but she claims her gifts lie elsewhere. “I think I’m a pretty talented writer,” she once told the poet Robert Hass. “But I’m a great reader.”
Judging by “The Book of Other People,” an anthology of stories she edited to benefit 826, Dave Eggers’ writing lab for kids, Smith might be on to something.
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