JenniferEgan/Photo: Pieter M. van Hattem

“Class Acts” is the theme of this year’s Story Week Festival of Writers in more ways than one. The fifteenth anniversary edition of Columbia College’s seminal literary event explores how the notion of class comes into play in fiction, and it features some big literary stars, including Jennifer Egan and Irvine Welsh. Other highlights include a panel on the future of publishing chaired by, among others, Chicago-based writer Joe Meno and Rahm Emanuel Twitter impersonator Dan Sinker. Also in the lineup: a playwriting class with Goodman Theater’s Regina Taylor, 2nd Story Storytelling at Martyrs’, and readings by Columbia College undergrads and faculty. Story Week concludes with Chicago Classics, a series of readings hosted by the Chicago Tribune’s Rick Kogan, in which twenty “guests from Chicago’s literary community”—including Newcity’s editor and publisher Brian Hieggelke—read works by their favorite Chicago authors. All events are free and open to the public. In its fifteen-year history, Story Week has evolved from a small junket for students to rub elbows with great writers to a smorgasbord of events from intimate readings and conversations to high-energy events at venues all over the city. “This is certainly the most jam-packed schedule we’ve ever attempted,” says artistic director Sam Weller. “There’s something for everyone.” (Benjamin Rossi)

Visit the Story Week website for complete details.

Sam Weller, Ray Bradbury, Black Francis (who wrote the new book's intro) in LA at the end of June 2010/Photo: Nathan Kirkman

The premiere episode of “Q&A” on the Newcity Video Network

By Brian Hieggelke

On the cover of a new collection of interviews with Ray Bradbury, the legendary author proclaims “Sam Weller knows more about my life than I do!” It’s probably not far from the truth, since Weller can claim to have gotten his start even before he was born: Weller’s father read Ray Bradbury to him in the womb.

Ray Bradbury was born and raised in his early years in Waukegan Illinois, just forty miles north of downtown Chicago. His family moved west to Los Angeles during the Great Depression, and Bradbury went on to be one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated writers, crafting such classics as “The Martian Chronicles,” “The Illustrated Man,” “Fahrenheit 451″ and hundreds of stories, screenplays and television scripts. His career has taken him far from his idyllic youth in Waukegan, but not too far:  those formative years in the Midwest were forever captured in his most celebrated stories.

Chicagoan Sam Weller has spent the better part of a decade on the Bradbury beat: first in crafting the definitive biography of the author, “The Bradbury Chronicles” and now, on the eve of Bradbury’s ninetieth birthday, he’s assembled “Listen to the Echoes, The Ray Bradbury Interviews.” Needless to say, he’s developed a special relationship with the author. Read the rest of this entry »

Illustration: Pamela Wishbow

A strange and unpleasant wind blows through the literary land. Our obsession with technocultural toys, whether iPhones, iPads or Kindles, makes the foundation of thought almost since thought was recorded, that is ink on paper, seem increasingly destined to be twittered into obsolescence. And it’s not just mere media frenzy, either. Massive upheaval among major publishers these last few years has left some of Chicago’s finest writers stranded in a strange land: that is, the work is finished, but no one is around to put it out. Who knows, maybe in two years when this version of Lit 50 returns, some, if not all, of our authors will be publishing mostly, if not entirely, in the digital realm. If that’s the case, let’s enjoy an old-fashioned book or two while we can. Read the rest of this entry »

Stop Smiling may have stopped publishing a magazine in favor of books but, if their plans for their debut release are any indication, they won’t let the rarefied airs of book publishing force them to dial down their promotional festivities. And an unusual debut it is, in which music scribe Dave Tompkins (The Wire, Vibe, Village Voice, The Believer) crafts “How to Wreck a Nice Beach—The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop: The Machine Speaks” which is exactly what its title promises, a loose history of a once-top-secret tool for wartime communication and later an over-the-top gadget for special music effects. How often do you get Adolf Hitler and Fab Five Freddy into the same conversation? Fortunately, Tompkins is a wordsmith with ample verve and rapier wit. He augments the potentially dry first half of the book, the science and war stuff, with a nice selection of old photographs of bulky machines and the serious-looking folks who manned them, the kind of pictures that get used in ironic advertising mashups nowadays, Read the rest of this entry »

Stop Smiling occupies a small storefront on Milwaukee Avenue, but inside big changes are occurring. The long-running locally produced magazine, thick with interviews with anybody from George Plimpton to Pete Rock, has transitioned to the book world. Stop Smiling Books launches this week in partnership with New York’s Melville House Publishing. Editor-in-chief JC Gabel explains, “I never really cared to deal with advertising. it was just a necessity of running a periodical. With the books we could eradicate that from the business model and just sell the medium. The medium is the message.” Gabel also talks of economic issues and the desire to keep the Stop Smiling team together. “It was becoming an impossibility to afford to do [the magazine]. And really the most important thing was we wanted to keep our creative team together. With the books we had a little bit more flexibility.” The first title under the Stop Smiling name comes out this week, Dave Tompkins’ “How to Wreck a Nice Beach” followed by the June release of Chicago native Sam Weller’s “Listen to the Echos: The Ray Bradbury Interviews.” Gabel, who is in New York helping to promote Tompkins’ book, remembers conversations with authors and friends where they felt they had just not been taken care of by their publishers. “We’re going to take a lot of the guerilla marketing and D.I.Y. approaches we had with Stop Smiling,” says Gabel. Look for Stop Smiling to host a handful of events later this month and early May. (Peter Cavanaugh)

RECOMMENDED

The 2010 edition of Columbia College’s week-long festival kicks off Sunday and through the next seven days offers an array of readings and discussions with highly acclaimed authors, local and beyond.  At Martyrs’ on Sunday night, Randy Albers, Kim Morris, Sam Weller and more read as part of “2nd Story.” On Monday, literary legend Joyce Carol Oates examines her work as part of two separate discussions at the Harold Washington Library. Later that night, Sheffield’s Beer Garden hosts the “Down and Dirty Grad Reading,” with Jeff Jacobsen, J. Adams Oaks and Alexis Pride. On Tuesday evening at the Harold Washington Library, authors Achy Obejas and Alexandar Hemon discuss “Genres from Afar,” with John Dale and host Patricia Ann McNair. Wednesday afternoon at Harold Washington Library, Joe Meno hosts “Genre Bending—The Faces of Fiction” with Mort Castle, Maggie Estep, David Morrell and Kevin Nance; later that evening at 6pm Sam Weller hosts a similar discussion at the same location. Events continue through Friday, with appearances by Marcus Sakey, Rick Kogan, Sean Chercover, Stephanie Kuehnert and more. More details can be found on Newcity’s lit events page. (Tom Lynch)

Columbia College’s Story Week runs March 14-19 at various venues. The festival’s official website can be found at colum.edu/storyweek.

RECOMMENDED

John McNally writes funny. He writes sharp. “Swift” is a term often used to describe his work. His breakthrough book, “The Book of Ralph,”  was a charming ode to youth in seventies-era Chicago. A few years later, with his short-story collection, “Ghosts of Chicago,” McNally injected life into Chicago’s famous, notorious and epic characters. His new novel, “After the Workshop,” seems close to the author’s own experience—hero Jack Sheahan graduates from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, publishes a story in the New Yorker and works on his novel for years and years, only to become a media escort while the manuscript sits under his bed. McNally did Iowa, worked as a media escort. A fictionalized memoir, if you will. “After the Workshop” develops much like McNally’s other work; striking, witty observations, satirical comedy, moments of abundant heart.  While his narrator is surrounded by writers practically at all times, the misadventures are endless, and McNally’s casual style lends the book a quick, fun-loving pace. Tonight, Sam Weller and Brian Costello also read from their work. (Tom Lynch)

John McNally reads from “After the Workshop” March 4 at Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln, (773)293-2665, at 7pm. Free.