Archive for the 'books' Category

Joyland Magazine and Dzanc Books present The Fiction Feed: AWP Edition 3/1

Published on December 15, 2011 0 Comments
Mar
1
7:00 pm

Joyland Magazine and Dzanc Books present The Fiction Feed: AWP Edition

Joyland Magazine and Dzanc Books are two innovative publishers pushing fiction with great writing and new means of print and digital distribution. Join us for an evening with four writers, hailing from Chicago, New York and Vancouver. Hosted by Joyland co-founder Brian Joseph Davis and Dzanc co-publisher Dan Wickett.

READERS

Eugene Cross has published work in Narrative Magazine, American Short Fiction, Story Quarterly and Callaloo, among other journals. He is the recipient of scholarships from the Chautauqua Writers’ Festival and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. He currently lives in Chicago. Fires of Our Choosing (Dzanc) is his first book.

Kevin Chong is the author of four books, including his acclaimed debut Baroque-a-Nova (Penguin) and the travelogue Neil Young Nation (Douglas & McIntyre). His new novel from Arsenal Pulp is titled Beauty Plus Pity. He lives in Vancouver and is a section editor for Joyland.

Jeff Parker is the author of the novel Ovenman (Tin House) and the story collection The Taste of Penny (Dzanc). He co-edited the anthologies Amerika: Russian Writers View the United States and Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia. His nonfiction book Igor in Crisis: A Russian Journal is forthcoming from HarperCollins.

Megan Stielstra is a writer, storyteller and the literary director for 2nd Story, Chicago’s urban storytelling series. She has performed for the Goodman Theatre, the Chicago Poetry Center and National Public Radio. She teaches in the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College. Her debut collection of stories, Everyone Remain Calm, is now available from Joyland/ECW Press.

http://www.joylandmagazine.com

http://www.dzancbooks.org

Thursday, March 1, 7PM, free

David David Katzman reads from A Greater Monster With Illustrator Caitlin McKay 11/10

Published on October 15, 2011 0 Comments
Nov ’11
10
7:00 pm

’s second novel, (Bedhead Books), is a groundbreaking multimedia work that includes 65 pages of illustrations, numerous graphic design elements, visual text poetry, and links to two websites, one of which features original music composed to mirror events in a scene of the book and another featuring an animated sequence.

This story itself is a psychedelic fairytale for the modern age, influenced by Alice in Wonderland, Williams S. Burroughs, and graphic novelist Grant Morrison. This darkly poetic tale takes you on a trip into a twisted alternate reality that reflects civilization like a funhouse mirror. A Greater Monster breathes new life into the possibilities of fiction.

“Brilliant, insane, and utterly unique…”—Jen Knox, author of To Begin Again (2011 Next Generation Indie Book Award winner)

“I can’t express how brilliant my favorite scenes in A Greater Monster are. In this extraordinary work, Katzman pushes language to do things, which are truly astounding.”—Carra Stratton, Editor, Starcherone Press

“This is bizarro fiction at its most intense. It contains scenes and unique designs that seem engineered by some Mad Hatter and Chuck Palahniuk cross-breed.”—Lavinia Ludlow, author of alt.punk

David David Katzman’s first novel, Death by Zamboni follows anti-hero Satan Donut through a world of mimes, TV stars, zombies, blockheads, mad scientists, riot grrls, and werewolves. It continues to be an acclaimed cult success. Katzman ‘s work has been published in Bridge Literary Magazine and Tailspins. He has a Master’s Degree in English Literature from University of Wisconsin-Madison and has performed as an actor and improviser throughout Chicago.
Also in attendance will be the book's illustrator Caitlin McKay, who contributed over 60 pages of sequential illustrations to the book!

For more info:
daviddavid.net
goodreads.com/daviddavid

Thurs, November 10th, 7pm

Click here to download the press release for this event.

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Kevin Coval Performs Poetry From L-Vis Lives!: Racemusic Poems

Published on September 17, 2011 0 Comments
Oct ’11
12
7:00 pm

Spoken-word poet Kevin Coval, co-founder and Artistic Director of Louder Than a Bomb: The Chicago Youth Poetry Festival, will perform at Quimby’s in support of his third collection of poetry L-vis Lives! Racemusic Poems (Haymarket Books, September).

Coval, who has been hailed as “a new glowing voice in the world of literature” by Studs Terkel, explores the dynamic intersection of race and culture in America today with “L-vis,” an imagined persona and pastiche of artists who have used and misused Black music. In Coval’s poetic novella, L-vis’s story is equal parts autobiography and forgotten and re-imagined history. We see shades of Elvis Presley, the Beastie Boys, and Eminem, and meet some of history’s more obscure “whiteboy” heroes and antiheroes. A free audio preview of L-vis Lives!, with poems read by Coval and beats by Coolout Chris, can be heard here: http://bit.ly/oXSIxZ
“This book is bold, brave and morally messy – twelve rounds of knock-down, drag-out shadowboxing against a shapeshifter. The dark humor, intellectual fervor, and emotional rigor Coval brings to bear animates these pieces, turns caricatures to characters…”
—Adam Mansbach, author, Go the F**k to Sleep

For performance, interview, and review requests, contact: Jon Kurinsky, Haymarket Books, jon@haymarketbooks.org

Wed, Oct 12th, 7pm

from hero to most
i am a hero
to most. the great hope
of something other.
a complex back-story.
something other than
the business of my father.
bland’s antonym.
jim crow’s black sheep.
the forgotten son
left to rise in the darkness
among the dis
carded in the wild
of working class, single
mother hoods.

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Todd Dills and Friends Celebrate All Hands On: THE2NDHAND After 10 on 10/3

Published on September 3, 2011 0 Comments
Oct ’11
3
7:00 pm

THE2NDHAND’s founding editor, , joins contributors to launch the mag’s 10th-anniversary anthology: : THE2NDHAND After 10

THE2NDHAND began its life as an 11-by-17-inch block of black text on white paper peppered variously with photo-illustrations, comics, line drawings and distributed in storefronts first in Chicago, then in an ever-growing list of cities around the U.S. New writing, simply, has been its focus since editor and publisher Todd Dills (author of the novel Sons of the Rapture) founded it in 2000—a small format its physicality, but a loud mouth and a big heart its most important parts.

“And without Quimby’s, where we began hosting readings shortly after we launched,” says Dills, “we would never have built the community of writers and readers we now enjoy.”

After a successful Kickstarter campaign raised funds to print the book, All Hands On: THE2NDHAND after 10 arrived in August to lay down the best of the mag’s 10+ years of publishing writing by the budding insurgents of the American lit landscape—and others, no doubt. True to form, the book begins with a section of new, as-yet unpublished work, and follows with sections devoted to some of its best repeat writers, including those on the program for this event.

Joining Nashville, Tenn.-based Dills at this event them are Time Out Chicago books editor and Featherproof Books publisher (Hiding Out) and longtime THE2NDHAND contributors and Chicago residents and . For more about the book, as well as the writers, visit the2ndhand.com/THE2NDHANDTXT/books

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Quimby’s Podcast Episode #4 is up!

Published on August 27, 2011 0 Comments

This episode features a discussion with Jon Kristiansen and Tara G. Warrior talking about Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries (Bazillion Points Publishers). Jon started it in Norway in 1985 and put out 20 issues over the span of 25 years. The zine covered a variety of extreme metal bands, including Emperor, Slayer, Kreator, Nihilist, Celtic Frost, Bathory, Cathedral, Entombed, Morbid, Napalm Death, and more. The Onion AV club called Slayer zine founder “one of the best primary sources for facts and stories about Mayhem, Varg, and what really happened back in the day.” The Chicago Reader called this book “a chronicle of death and black metal at their births but also a personal coming-of-age story.” It’s an awesome 744 page hardcover with tons of pictures and reproduction pages from every issue, and there’s even material from the precursor Live Wire zine. It’s also part memoir. Co-editor Tara interviewed Jon all about his experiences with the zine, and then together they decided what to include.

Yes, we have : The Slayer Mag at Quimby’s. It is $39.95. You can come and get in the store or order it here on line!

Jon and Tara were at Quimby’s for a Chicago release event for the book on 6/8/11. But we conducted this interview in our dark and creepy basement beforehand.

You can listen to all our podcasts quimbys.podbean.com either streaming live or in downloadable formats. Or you can click on the link there to get it on I-Tunes. Or you can just look up Quimby’s Bookstore Podcast on I-Tunes and subscribe to us there.

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