Archive for the 'fiction' Category

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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 (CCLaP) 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, “American Wasteland” 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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Christopher Boucher reads from How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive with Adam Levin (The Instructions) 8/24

Published on July 27, 2011 0 Comments
Aug ’11
24
7:00 pm

By the time Christopher Boucher reaches Chicago he will have driven nearly 3,000 miles across America in his 1972 Volkswagen Beetle, reading from How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, playing the novel’s theme-song on his banjo, and reading to people, roadsigns, potholes, old barns, paramedics, flowers and railroad tracks. “I see this tour as a natural extension of the book,” he says. “The novel was written in a whimsical, playful style, but it was inspired by…my father, and the sense of wonder that he instilled in me.  That sense of wonder propelled every sentence in the book, and I want it to fuel the tour as well.”

In How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive Christopher Boucher has created a zany literary universe, a place where metaphors shift beneath your feet, familiar words assume new meanings, objects talk, trees attack, and time actually is money. Modeled on the cult classic 1969 hippie handbook of the same name, How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive is an astonishing tour-de-force that calls to mind the off-kilter comedy and inspired fabulism of Richard Brautigan, Kurt Vonnegut, and George Saunders. The prose summersaults, but the book also tackles some of life’s biggest questions: How do you cope with losing a parent? What’s the secret to raising a child? How do you keep love alive? How do you get your car to start?

“Writing to save your life—and your 1971 Volkswagen—is at the heart of this wildly imaginative debut… Readers are in for a fresh, memorable ride with this inventive ‘collage of loss'”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A new, exuberant novel-world. Goofiness and grief are in perfect harmony in this impressive, moving debut.”—Sam Lipsyte

Also joining the bill is Chicago author Adam Levin, author of The Instructions (McSweeney’s).

More info: mhpbooks.com vwalive.com theboucher.com mcsweeneys.net

Wed, August 24th, 7pm

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“Cinco De Awesome” J. Bradley Reads From The Serial Rapist Sitting Behind You Is a Robot

Published on April 7, 2011 0 Comments
May ’11
5
7:00 pm

When asked about his influences, J. Bradley points to three enduring sources: failure, 80s cartoon, unrequited love. Not a likely combination for a writer, but one that has brought forth The Serial Rapist Sitting Behind You is a Robot (Safety Third Enterprises). A collection of prose-poems from J. Bradley in his first foray into fiction. Bradley’s swift cuts and unapologetic style still remains intact in this new frame delighting in tales of Jurassic Park, sexual liaisons, and sexual disgust. Even in the darker times of the twenty story collection the Florida poet goes for a dirty bountiful laugh.

“Rabbit punches are illegal in boxing because they are a potentially fatal blow. “The Serial Rapist Sitting Behind You Is A Robot” is a series of rabbit punches comprised of poetry, wit, sex and sick.  J. Bradley attempts to kill with each piece; packing their tiny structures full of a power reserved for breaking the teeth of cheating spouses.  Each piece makes an impact that stuns strong and spreads circular in a visceral ring that will leave the reader wondering, “What just happened here?” After they stagger to their feet, they will taunt him to hit them again and again.” – xTx, author of Normally Special

Also joining the bill are Chicago author Ben Tanzer, who will read from his book You Can Make Him Like You (Artistically Declined Press), James Tadd Adcox, editor of Artifice Magazine and Brandon Will.

For more info: http://iheartfailure.net

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Cleveland Confidential Book Tour at Quimby’s 4/2

Published on March 4, 2011 0 Comments
Apr ’11
2
7:00 pm

Smog Veil Records announces the Cleveland Confidential Book Tour returns to the road in April, with a stop at Quimby’s in Chicago on April 2.  The tour features three author-musicians also from Cleveland, Ohio including Cheetah Chrome (Rocket From The Tombs, Dead Boys, Batusis), Mike Hudson (The Pagans) and Bob Pfeifer (Human Switchboard, Tabby Chinos, former Senior Vice President A&R/Epic/Sony Records and President of Hollywood Records). Each will read excerpts from their book, answer questions from the audience and discuss their books and careers with each other. Authors will be available to sign books at each appearance.

Cheetah Chrome – A Dead Boy’s Tale From The Front Lines Of Punk Rock is the no-holds-barred autobiography of Cheetah Chrome, lead guitarist of the Dead Boys, one of the greatest punk bands ever. It’s a tale of success and excess—amazing music, legendary antics, epic drug use, and eventual resurrection—that only a true rock and roller could deliver. As a songwriter Chrome’s work has been covered by artists such as Guns n Roses, Pearl Jam and the Beastie Boys. He still performs and records with Rocket From The Tombs and Batusis (with Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls). He lives in Nashville with his wife and son.

Mike Hudson will read from Jetsam and Diary of a Punk. The 32 short pieces that make up Jetsam were written and published between 1977 and 2009. His lean and unsentimental prose style is apparent in even the earliest entries here. Diary of A Punk is Hudson’s autobiography. He is the founder of the seminal American punk rock group, the Pagans, formed in 1977. His work has appeared in Hustler, the Associated Press, Master Detective, Field & Stream and many other publications here and abroad. He is currently the founding editor and CEO of the Niagara Falls Reporter, a New York tabloid specializing in politics and organized crime.

University of Strangers is Bob Pfeifer’s first novel. In a sensational case that made headlines all over the globe, the American student Amanda Knox was convicted of the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher, in what Italian authorities described as a sadistic sexual encounter. Pfeifer’s novel details the efforts of a secret society, comprised of famous contemporary figures from the worlds of literature, show business and politics, to clear the girl’s name. A unique blend of fact and fiction the book is a spellbinding account of the violence, corruption and celebrity worship that characterize much of 21st century life. Pfeifer was Senior Vice President A&R/Epic/Sony Records and President of Hollywood Records. Artists he’s worked with include Alice Cooper, Ornette Coleman, The Screaming Trees, also soundtracks like the Crow: City of Angels and Lion King. He is a founding member/songwriter of Human Switchboard and Tabby Chinos. He lives in Los Angeles with his son.

Saturday, April 2nd, 7pm

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Deb Olin Unferth Reads Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War With Adam Levin 3/7

Published on January 15, 2011 0 Comments
Mar ’11
7
7:00 pm

Deb Olin Unferth offers a new twist on the coming-of-age memoir in this utterly unique and captivating story of the year she ran away from college with her Christian boyfriend and followed him to Nicaragua to join the Sandinistas.

Unferth is the author of the story collection Minor Robberies and the novel Vacation, winner of the 2009 Cabell First Novelist Award and a New York Times Book Review Critics’ Choice. Her work has appeared in Harper’s, McSweeney’s, The Believer, and the Boston Review. She has received two Pushcart Prizes and a 2009 Creative Capital grant for Innovative Literature.

“This is a very funny, excoriating honest story of being young, semi-idealistic, stupid and in love. If you have ever been any of these things, you’ll devour it.”—Dave Eggers

Also joining the bill is Chicago author Adam Levin, author of the novel THE INSTRUCTIONS.  His collection of short stories, HOT PINK, will be published next Fall by McSweeney’s.  He lives in Chicago, where he teaches Creative Writing at the School of the Art Institute.

For more info: us.macmillan.com/revolution-1

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/books/aboutinstructions.html

Monday, March 7th, 7pm

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