One of the many things I love about Chicago (in addition to sunrise at the lake path and Hot Doug’s hot dogs) is the One Book, One Chicago festival. It’s such a fantastic concept – that we, as a city, should read and experience a single work of literature together. Sure, not everyone participates (I’m sure only a fracture of the city even knows about One Book, One Chicago) but it’s a truly inclusive and literacy-loving idea. And it’s getting larger every year: Last year, the Library selected Sandra Cisneros’ beloved book The House on Mango Street, and partnered with Steppenwolf Theatre Company in its festival planning. The partnership resulted in Chicago Public School students not only reading the book and participating in the Library’s many events (which included a reading by Sandra herself) but most also saw a full-scale production of the The House on Mango Street at Steppenwolf. It really felt like a citywide endeavor- a citywide book club even - and I felt privileged to be part of it (I work over in the Education Department at Steppenwolf).
This year, the Library has selected Colm Toibin’s new coming of age novel Brooklyn for the One Book, One Chicago festival. The story follows Eilis, a young Irish immigrant, as she tries to navigate the streets of New York in the early 1950s. And this time, the Library has partnered with The Gift Theatre’s Artistic Director Michael Patrick Thornton (also known as Dr. Fife on Private Practice) to create a dramatized version of the novel to be performed at the Irish American Heritage Museum on April 11th. Colm Toibin will also be speaking at the Library on April 21st. So if you haven’t yet read Brooklyn now is the time – after all, when else can you read a novel with your city?
For details and information on additional One Book, One Chicago discussions, events and courses, pick up a copy of the resource guide at your local library or bookstore, visit http://www.chipublib.org” or call (312) 747-8191.
Last month, I blogged about Poets&Writers Magazine’s huge database of writing competitions. While that post may have only been a few weeks ago, there’s already a whole new crop of contests to check out! This month, P&W’s Submission Calendar lists forty-five contests with deadlines falling between March 15th and April 15th, sponsored by a variety of literary magazines and journals. If you’re looking to get your work out there or just indulge your competitive streak this month, check it out!
If you’re looking for more camaraderie than competition, Poets&Writers’ has another great resource to help you find exactly that: a new database of conferences, residencies and festivals to help you stay in touch with or expand your own literary community. And if you’re looking to connect even more, be sure to check out the Poets&Writers’ calendar of events, offering a range of readings, workshops and literary events to help fill your days this Spring!
Columbia College’s 14th Annual Story Week Festival of Writers kicks off Sunday, March 14th! Known as Chicago’s own Literary Lollapalooza, the festival features readings, panel discussions, performances and more as free events around the city. This year’s theme, “Genre-Bending: The Faces of Fiction,” examines the blurring boundaries between the literary novel and genre fiction, and features writers who have explored (and perhaps further blurred!) these blending forms within their own work.
Among the featured guests this year is Joyce Carol Oates, author of over one hundred novels in many genres, including We Were the Mulvaneys and The Gravediggers’ Daughter. Ms. Oates will be giving a question and answer session (moderated by Gavin Cologne-Brooks) at the Harold Washington Library Center (Cindy Pritzker Auditorium) on Monday, March 15th at 2:30 PM; at 6 PM (same location), she will be discussing her work with Chicago Public Radio book critic Donna Seaman.
But that’s not even close to all the festival has to offer! For more information on this upcoming literary smorgasbord, taking place from March 14th – March 19th, please visit the Schedule of Events on Columbia College’s website.
Ellen Blum Barish, the fearless leader of our Monday night Personal Essay Writing class, recently let it slip that ‘Modern Love’ is a staple in her New York Times Sunday reading regiment. Stuck in the middle of the Sunday Styles section, ‘Modern Love’ doesn’t jump out as the most scholarly of choices. Every week, The Times devotes roughly 1,000 of its high coveted words to the same topic: How we life and love in the modern world.
I should confess that I am ‘Modern Love’ junkie and was delighted to learn that a Story Studio teacher I like and respect feels the same way I do about the column. Before I dutifully read the Sunday Book Review or recession-ridden front page, I turn always turn to ‘Modern Love.” The topics range from internet dating to long-distance relationships, from lost love to second chances. The tenor is at times light and hilarious (like the one I recently read about a man who forced his grandfather to “de-friend” his ex-girlfriend on Facebook) and other days strikingly heartfelt (like the one a few weeks back about the single mom who decides to let her estranged husband back into her son’s life, after the husband learns he has terminal cancer).
For anyone interested in the art and craft of the personal essay, ‘Modern Love’ is an excellent place to start. Accessible in topic and manageable in length, these wonderful little essays are often prime examples of personal essay at its best. After all, ‘Modern Love’ is an open submission process (See? Anyone can get published in The Times!) so the chosen essays are usually the best of the best of the best. Plus, they are totally economical: given the world-count constraint on these essays, their writers are forced to get to the heart of the matter – and quick.
So if you’ve never perused ‘Modern Love’ on a Sunday morning, I definitely recommend it. And if you don’t trust me – listen to Ellen Blum Barish! She is, after all, employed here.
Writers on the Record with Victoria Lautman presents an interview with Lionel Shriver at 6 PM on Thursday, March 11th, at the Harold Washington Library Center (Cindy Pritzker Auditorium). American born but UK-based, Ms. Shriver is the author of ten novels, including We Have to Talk About Kevin and The Post-Birthday World. She will be discussing her most recent book, So Much For That, due to be released Tuesday, March 9th.
For more information, check out the event listing at the Chicago Public Library’s website.
Can’t make the live interview? Not to worry – it will be rebroadcast on Sunday, March 14th at noon, on 98.7 WFMT Radio.
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