Archive for the 'fiction' 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.

For more info: joylandmagazine.com and dzancbooks.org

Thursday, March 1, 7PM

Advance pre-print event: Graham Rae Reads Soundproof Future Scotland 2/17

Published on December 15, 2011 0 Comments
Feb
17
7:00 pm

SOUNDPROOF FUTURE SCOTLAND is a linguistically deranged trip into a dead-end, techno-punk future that lies firmly within our sight.

Scotsman ’s new book (Creation Books) is a sort-of futuristic meditation on his old home country. Welcome to the end of the known world. Set in the 22nd century in an independent Scotland, it details the lives and loves and hates of Johnny Certex and Ratsoup. These young cyberdrunk boyz spend their weekend boozing, band practice, drinking, digigames, hacktivism, skarboarding, chopping maul madness. The the book follows them as they drink and play digigames and ponder their small-town world (the center of Satellite Town, the rubbish dump where they live) before they start their crappy jobs as holographic refuse collectors. They plan to go to see their all-time fave band live, Empty Vessels, as the inescapable gravitational pull of Wavesound drags them closer to The Best Gig Ever.

Soundproof Future Scotland is more Charles Bukowski than William Gibson; a raw, lyrical, hilarious, thought-provoking trawl through the underbelly of a Scotland that may yet come to be.

This book is not in print yet, so Quimby’s will have vouchers valid for digital download  that will be on sale at the event.

SOUNDPROOF FUTURE SCOTLAND has already drawn significant praise:

“New writers, like yourself, will always keep appearing, thank God, + shock + delight a new generation of readers.” -JG Ballard

“If Henry Miller decided to rip off both William Gibson and William Burroughs, it might read like this gritty sexplosive novel set in the 22nd century.” -Richard Kern

“Aside from creative heckling, the highest praise one could pay Scottish ex-pat Graham Rae on the occasion of his rip-roaring novel Soundproof Future Scotland is to say that the writing crackles with the wit, (unintentional) wisdom, and sheer, unadulterated energy of great rock ‘n’ roll. Irvine Welsh, move over, and Lester Bangs, I think you’d be proud.” -Jim DeRogatis

“Graham Rae makes heterosex sound quite appealing. Which is of course the test of any great fiction writer.” -Mark Simpson

Graham Rae’s work has been featured in Realitystudio.org, Filmthreat.com, American Cinematographer, Cinefantastique, and 3ammagazine.com. His work has also appeared in the Deep Red Horror Handbook, and the anthology Please: Fiction Inspired by The Smiths. He has also appeared on BBC Radio Scotland as a film critic.

Fri, Feb 17th, 7pm

For more info: www.creationbooks.com

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The CWG Presents: Prompts/Prompted Here at Quimby’s 9/23

Published on August 27, 2011 0 Comments
Sep ’11
23
7:00 pm

The Creative Writing Guild presents it’s latest publication, . The dual issue is a compilation of instructions for experimental writing, and the CWG’s own written results. Five CWG contributors will read selections from the books, explain instructions, and share recent summer writing. Bring a pen and paper.

The Creative Writing Guild aims to share experimental and traditional writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago writing community.

cwgsaic.blogspot.com

Fri, Sep 23rd, 7pm

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Rebekah Mercuri Reads From Weeding the Seeds of Deceit 9/15

Published on August 16, 2011 0 Comments
Sep ’11
15
7:00 pm

Many of the events experienced by the main character of ’s debut novel echo the true-life experiences of the author, who herself, was involved in a Christian Cult.

Weeding the Seeds of Deceit is a story of Hope Locker, a young woman seeking closure to the haunting and vivid memories of an impoverished life, beginning with the manipulations and contradictions from a Christian Cult her parents joined in her youth.  When the prophet of the threatens their lives, the family escapes to Texas to live with Hope’s paternal grandfather. The deep affliction her parents feel from dragging the family into such annihilation leads them down an even more despairing and destructive path. Despite the experience, Hope maintains her faith through prayer, and music later becomes her sole outlet from life’s chaos, and provides her with the inspiration to follow her dreams.

 

REBEKAH MERCURI is a writer and mother of two. She had a unique and nomadic childhood as a member of a Christian cult. Her experiences inspired her to pen her debut fiction novel, Weeding the Seeds of Deceit. Mercuri was born in Anaheim, California and was educated at Columbia College Chicago, where she received a Bachelor’s degree in Fiction Writing. She also holds an Associate’s degree in Marketing and Business Management from Cincinnati State Community College. She resides in Chicago, Illinois and is currently working on a her next novel.

 

Thurs, Sep 15th, 7pm

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CCLaP Releases American Wasteland: Bleak Tales of the Future On the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11

Published on August 16, 2011 2 Comments
Sep ’11
9
7:00 pm

With all the talk of “hope” and “honor” that was bound to arise during the tenth anniversary of September 11th, the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography () thought it was important to also remind the future of what the last ten years have REALLY been like. That’s why the center put together this latest anthology, which took a dark science-fiction conceit as its core and then invited a series of writers across the nation to pen stories set within that alternative universe. In this case, the stories look back from a fictional twentieth anniversary of 9/11, but one where John McCain won the 2008 and ’12 elections, then Sarah Palin in 2016 and ’20; and with no government bailouts, no withdrawals from the Middle East, and no attempts to move away from an oil-based economy, the US has become a much bleaker and more terrible place, a nation that is now used to rolling electricity blackouts two or three days a week and that is just about to go to war with Mexico, where the permanently unemployed squat in half-finished McMansions out in crumbling suburbs that almost completely lack both gasoline and fresh fruit. A sobering reminder of what life under Tea Party rule would likely be like, “” is an antidote to the false cheeriness and optimism that has come with the tenth anniversary of 9/11, a more realistic look at all the mistakes this nation has made between then and now.

Various local contributors to this anthology will be performing at Quimby’s that night, including DELPHINE PONTVIEUX (“ETA: Estimated
Time of Arrest”), MARK R. BRAND (“Life After Sleep”) and LAWRENCE SANTORO (“Just North of Nowhere”). CCLaP itself (cclapcenter.com) is a
mostly online organization that has been open since 2007, a regular publisher of both electronic and handmade paper books, as well as such other activities as a podcast, 150 book reviews a year at its blog, and half a dozen live events annually at various venues across the city.

Friday, September 9th, 7pm

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