Archive for the 'readings' Category

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Patrick Wensink and Michael Allen Rose

Apr ’10
24
7:00 pm

SexDungeonForSale

Yes, there will be (a) Sex Dungeon for Sale! at Quimby’s. The book with that title, that is.

Combine an optimistic realtor selling a home with a sexual playground, a kindergartener convinced he’s actually French, and something called “Chicken Soup for the Kidnapper’s Soul,” and you get Patrick Wensink’s hilarious collection of short stories titled Sex Dungeon for Sale! (Eraserhead Press). Join Patrick Wensink as he reads from this new book.

Sex Dungeon for Sale! takes these bold characters and a few other outrageous situations to create an unforgettable and quick literary ride. While keeping an eye focused on the surreal, but both feet firmly planted in reality, these stories dissect a modern world so strange you have to laugh. Wensink’s punchy style is perfect for the brevity-obsessed Twitter generation, but saves room in his utility belt of brief tales for humor, humanity and an extra helping of WTF?.

“A deliciously dark and funny book” –Louisville Courier-Journal

“Unputdownable” –The Next Best Book

“Wensink’s evident writerly talents make this an auspicious debut.” –James Greer, author of Artificial Light and The Failure

“Sex Dungeon for Sale!  takes facets of everyday American life and twists them until they gag out comedic gold.” -Joey Goebel, author of Torture the Artist and The Anomalies

Also joining the bill is Chicago’s playwright Michael Allen Rose, who will read from his RoShamBo Theatre production Attack Ships on Fire.

For more info: http://www.patrickwensink.com

Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz Reads From Everything is Everything

Mar ’10
1
7:00 pm
Everything Is Everything

Everything Is Everything

In a recent interior with lit blog Orange Alert, poet Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz describes her latest book, Everything is Everything, as “an odd, tender, spastic, claustrophobic and bizarre-fact-riddled book that is trying to appreciate the journey instead of obsessing about the destination.” But she was also sure to add that “the book also contains a bizarre amount of poems about giraffes who have been trained to rape humans. But only because they really existed, and not because I’m a crazy sadist.”

“Sometimes you plod through the day, bumping into people, tripping over your own feet. But then there are those remarkable days when you move through the world as stealthily as ninja. The latter is how the poems move in this book. Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz spits in her hands, grabs the sledgehammer, swings it hard, and rings that bell in poem after poem after poem. Everything is Everything is a winning collection chock full of swift, honest, smart, funny, and even tender poems that go up to 11.” – Jennifer Knox, author of Drunk by Noon

Everything is Everything is Aptowicz’s first poetry collection to be published after her acclaimed non-fiction book, Words In Your Face: Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam (Soft Skull Press, 2008). Cristin will be joined by several poets from the local Chicago Poetry Slam community, as well as her partner – poet and former surly Quimbys employee – Shappy Seasholtz, who will read from his most recent chapbook, This is All I Can Offer You.

For more info: http://www.aptowicz.com

Oyez Review #37 Launch Reading

Feb ’10
26
7:00 pm
Oyez #37

Oyez #37

A new year, a new Oyez Review and the best issue yet. The submissions have been through the editorial gauntlet, fire-proofed, crash-tested, and are now ready for readers’ consumption. Contained between these eighty-eight pages are twenty-two inspired pieces of poetry, four ripping short stories, one moving non-fiction narrative, and ten luminous photos on which to fix your gaze.

Oyez Review staffers and visiting authors will read from selected works. Authors for Oyez Review Volume 37, Spring 2010 include Ace Boggess, Brad Buchannan John F. Buckley, Meghan Cadwallader, Lydia Cesarz, Joanne Riley Clarkson, Okla Elliott, Robert Haynes, David James, Susan Johnson, Don Peteroy, Linda Scotto, Susan Slaviero, Joseph A. Soldati, John Surowiecki, Richard G. Sweitzer III, Mark Taksa, Suellen Wedmore, Alexander York, and photography by Prin X. Amorapanth.

Oyez Review is the literary magazine of the Creative Writing Program at Roosevelt University. It is published annually, edited by an all-student staff under the direction of Professor Janet Wondra. Founded in 1965, Oyez Review has featured work from such writers as Charles Bukowski, James McManus, Carla Panciera, Michael Onofrey, Tim Foley, John N. Miller, Gary Fincke, and Barry Silesky, and visual artists Vivian Nunley, C. Taylor, Jennifer Troyer, and Frank Spidale.
For more info: http://legacy.roosevelt.edu/oyezreview/

Troy Taylor Presents The Murder & Mayhem in Chicago Series

Feb ’10
20
7:00 pm

From the North Side to the South, and from Downtown to the outer edge of the West Side, every Chicago neighborhood has at some point been home to violence, gang influence, and corruption. Local Author Troy Taylor airs all of Chicago’s dirty laundry in this five-part series, chronicling the infamous destruction of the Great Chicago Fire, the most shocking crimes of the 1800s and the rise of the mafia during Prohibition leading to Al Capone’s eventual domination in the Windy City’s underworld. Discover the notorious capers, cons and killings that terrorized a city, and unearth the brutes, bank robbers and burlesque dancers that history could never forget as the Murder & Mayhem in Chicago series exposes the Second City’s darkest sins and dirtiest secrets.

Troy Taylor is the author of more than sixty books on history, crime, mystery and the supernatural in America. He was born and raised in Illinois and currently resides in Chicago.

For more info, go to www.historypress.net

Jessica Max Stein Celebrates The Rainbow Connection: Richard Hunt, Gay Muppeteer

Jan ’10
10
3:00 pm

rainbow_connection_lg

This event is a reading from Jessica Max Stein’s 84-page zine The Rainbow Connection: Richard Hunt, Gay Muppeteer. It’s a biography of the man behind such beloved characters as Statler, Beaker, Miss Piggy and Janice. Come watch over an hour of Muppet clips and learn about this tragically short-lived, hugely talented queer puppeteer with a wide range of talents.

For more info:

“The Rainbow Connection” on the Muppet Wiki:
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Rainbow_Connection:_Richard_Hunt,_Gay_Muppeteer

http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/2858/