Happy Stories: Jac Jemc’s “False Bingo”
Jac Jemc’s second story collection is another imaginative foray that offers a follow-up to her critically-acclaimed “The Grip of It.”
Lit Top 5: December 2019
Poetry and music dominate December.
A Woman Before the Chicago Fire: A Review of Ann Durkin Keating’s “The World of Juliette Kinzie: Chicago Before the Fire”
Ann Durkin Keating’s book meticulously charts one woman’s course as she works within the confines of established norms to improve and build family first, church second, and community third.
Anyone Can Draw: A Review of Lynda Barry’s “Making Comics”
In this collection of exercises, Barry outlines how she encourages creativity among both confident and even first-time students in drawing their own comics.
Chronicling Chicago Gangsters: A Review of “The Kosher Capones” by Joe Kraus
“The Kosher Capones” starts with the author’s mother asking the him to “look into a rumor” about his grandfather, Max Miller.
Challenging Ghosts: A Review of Andre Perry’s “Some of Us Are Very Hungry Now”
In Andre Perry’s debut collection the essays don’t have time to wait for you. They start mid-moment, going along with wherever Perry urgently needs to take you.
The King of the Black Belt: A Review of Don Hayner’s “Binga: The Rise and Fall of Chicago’s First Black Banker”
Binga expanded the boundaries of the Black Belt for its upwardly mobile residents and newcomers, using the same tactics of white realtors to block bust and panic-peddle.
A Chain of Islands: A Review of Christine Coulson’s “Metropolitan Stories”
“Metropolitan Stories” collects short, dreamlike vignettes set within the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Presenting Poetry as Art: Poet and Musician Avery R. Young describes “neckbone”
Newcity spoke with Young about “neckbone” his anticipated debut collection of visual poetry and the companion soundtrack album “Tubman.”
Lit Top 5: November 2019
Some of the literary offerings in November.
