*** Upcoming Events ***

Apr
26
6:30 pm

All events are at Quimby’s Bookstore (unless otherwise noted)
1854 W. North Ave Chicago IL 60622

APRIL

UNTIL MAY

 

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PAST EVENTS

 

Saturday, 2/7 6:30-8:30 | Peerology – Peer Learning Workshop and Reading with Charlie Danoff

Sunday, 2/8: 5:00-7:00| Closing Reception – Blonde Bombastic Exhibition by Frankie Lyne 

Saturday, 1/31 6:30-8:30| Christopher Goblin Comics Reading

Thursday, 1/29 6:30-8:30| After Hours – General Things Press

Friday, 1/23: 6:30-8:30| Blonde Bombastic Exhibition by Frankie Lyne and Show and Tell Artist Talk and Reading

Friday, 1/16: 6:30-8:30 | Keep Your Ear to the Ground: in Conversation with John Davis

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Monday, 1/12:  6:00-8:30 | Sketch / Book a Wicker Park Reading and Drawing Salon

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Friday, 1/9:  5:00-7:00 | Crepusculine Exhibition by Conor Stechschulte, Closing Reception

12/18 After Hours: Match Factory Editions

Dec ’25
18
6:00 pm

Quimby’s After Hours Reading with readers from Match Factory Editions; Paul Martínez Pompa, Carma Lynn Park, Dawn Tefft, & Snežana Žabi?! Hosted By Taylor Thornburg

In person at Quimby’s Bookstore
1854 W. North Ave, Chicago

Match Factory Editions is a brand new small press out of Chicago and LA. By the downwardly mobile for the downwardly mobile, our press champions fabulous stories that tell a deeper truth. We are a place for all who missed the gravy train or were never offered the fare.

Paul Martínez Pompa is a papa and poet whose first book, My Kill Adore Him (University of Notre Dame Press), was selected for the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize by Martín Espada. Match Factory Editions is publishing his most recent book, Domestic Corpse. Martínez Pompa’s work has been widely anthologized, including in What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Trump Era, and The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. His poetry was commissioned for a Chicago Public Radio project called In Verse, which aimed to explore the emotional weight of gun violence. He is currently on the editorial board at Packingtown Review.

Chicago-based writer, poet, and photographer Carma Lynn Park is the author of Through the Bronze Mirror: Speculative Poems and Stories, forthcoming from Match Factory Editions in 2026. Her mother passed on a love of writing, and her father gave her a taste for fantasy and science fiction. She fondly remembers sitting on the cold linoleum floor of the back porch surrounded by cardboard boxes of speculative fiction magazines.

Dawn Tefft’s poems appear in Denver Quarterly, Fence, and Witness. Her chapbooks include Gosling (Anhinga Press), Fist (Dancing Girl Press), and Field Trip to My Mother and Other Exotic Locations (Mudlark). Her debut collection Once Upon a Riot (Match Factory Editions, 2025) insists upon the necessity of resisting forms of oppression such as fascism and economic exploitation, while exploring both the challenges and the moments of beauty in raising a young child in our current political moment. Tefft volunteers as an editor for Packingtown Review and works as a union representative in Chicago, where she raises the most wonderful child and enjoys life-affirming friendships.

Chicago-based transnational writer and musician Snežana Žabi? is a co-founder of Match Factory Editions and the author of several books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including her latest poetry collection Concrete Is More Beautiful Disfigured and Stained (Match Factory Editions, 2025). She plays guitar, writes songs, and sings in Rent Party, everyone’s favorite feminist garage folk band. She teaches writing and literature as a part of the contingent academic workforce and has been a proud union member of UIC GEO, SEIU Faculty Forward, and UIC United Faculty.

Register for the event!

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Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

Pay what you can afford. Suggested $10+
Venmo or PayPal (Please include “After Hours” in the note) or make a Credit Card or Cash donation in person at the register the night of the event!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local authors, publishers, creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

11/22 Show & Tell: Conor Stechschulte

Nov ’25
22
6:30 pm

 

Quimby’s Show & Tell
with Conor Stechschulte
Saturday, November 22, 2025 – 6:30 PM
in-person at Quimby’s Bookstore 1854 W. North Ave Chicago, IL 60622

Join Conor Stechschulte for a show of original art and a conversation about the process and thinking behind his new comic, “Crepusculine 2.”

Conor Stechschulte is an Eisner-Nominated cartoonist, artist, screenwriter and educator. He is the author of the graphic novels The Amateurs and Ultrasound. His work has been translated into five languages and adapted for film. He teaches classes in comics, printmaking, and self-publishing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Register for the event!
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Pay what you can afford. Suggested $10+
Venmo or PayPal (Please include “Show & Tell” in the note) or make a Credit Card or Cash donation in person at the register the night of the event!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

By registering for this event, you’ll be added to Quimby’s newsletter to receive updates on upcoming events, new releases, and zine news. You can unsubscribe at any time.

 

11/20 After Hours: Milwaukee Ave Messenger

Nov ’25
20
6:30 pm

The Milwaukee Avenue Messenger is a quarterly arts and literary journal that celebrates and serves the vibrant communities and independent DIY artistic tradition of Chicago’s Milwaukee Avenue corridor.

Join us with Milwaukee Avenue Messenger Publisher Matt McCarthy in conversation with After Hours host Taylor Thornburg and reading by Milwaukee Avenue Messenger contributors!

Our readers for the evening are:

Matt McCarthy is the editor and publisher of the Milwaukee Avenue Messenger, the author of the rock ‘n’ roll novel Livestock! (highfalutin media), and the creator and co-host of the highfalutin podcast. He lives in Avondale with his wife and their cats.

Joel Craig is the author of the poetry collections Humanoid and The White House (both Green Lantern Press). He co-founded and hosted the Danny’s Reading Series in Chicago from 2001-2015 and serves as an artistic associate for the Lit & Luz festival. Recent work can be found in Fonograf Editions Magazine, TYPO, mercury firs and Bathhouse Journal.

Jesica Davis is a poet and technical writer from Chicago. She’s a Co-Founder and Associate Editor for Inverted Syntax and Associate Editor for Milwaukee Avenue Messenger whose work has appeared in Bombay Gin, Heavy Feather Review, The Laurel Review, After Hours, and other places. Sometimes she makes poemboxes and other sculptural interpretations of her poems. See j3s.net for more.

Sav Henderson is a writer and soil scientist located in Avondale, Chicago. Her short fiction has been published in Genuine Gold Literary Magazine and presented at the Goodenough College LGBTQIA+ Conference. Sav’s first short play was recently read at the Gloria Bond-Clunie Playwright Festival in Evanston.

Rocío Franco is a self-identified Chicana warrior poet from Chicago. She holds fellowships from The Watering Hole and Periplus Collective. The Frost Place, VONA, and Tin House have supported her work. She is a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee. Her poems have appeared in The Acentos Review, Lunch Ticket, L@tino Literatures Journal, AGNI, december magazine, Mom Egg Review, and others.

Register for the event!

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Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

Pay what you can afford. Suggested $10+
Venmo or PayPal (Please include “After Hours” in the note) or make a Credit Card or Cash donation in person at the register the night of the event!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local authors, publishers, creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

10/30 After Hours: Veilance

Oct ’25
30
6:30 pm

Quimby’s After Hours: Veilance
Thursday, October 30, 2025 – 6:30 PM
in-person at Quimby’s Bookstore
1854 W. North Ave Chicago, IL 60622

Register to Attend: Quimby’s After Hours: Veilance

Veilance is a small surrealist press run by writers, for writers. The annual issues of Veilance are guided by a theme which is intended to be transformed and transgressed by its contributors. Veilance Press prioritizes experimental work, welcoming submissions in the form of dream journals, collage, forged documents, graphs, cut-up techniques, ekphrasis, lists, found footage, images, anagrams, calligrams, talismans, erotica, theoretical essays, concrete poetry, blind contours, automatic writing, fantasies, and haikus.
Veilance Books is a new independent publishing resource. Veilance Books works one on one with a writer or artist to edit, design, and conceive their artist books, novelas, poetry collections, manifestos, plays or collected essays.
Join us with Veilance co-founders Eden Jolie and Els Deitz in conversation with After Hours host Taylor Thornburg and reading by Veilance contributors!
Eden is a writer and the co-founder of Veilance Press. Their work has been published by Temper Press and Agon Journal, they’ve read their work at the Whistler, Empty Bottle, Grunts Rare Books, Winnemac Reading Series, Links Hall, and other venues in Chicago. They received their BFAW at the Art Institute of Chicago in the spring of 2025.
Els is a writer, image maker and co-founder of Veilance Press. Their writing has appeared at The Empty Bottle, The Whistler and other bars.
Readers for After Hours: Veilance
Allegra Harvard is a Chicago based artist, playwright, curator, and director.
Vim Grace Hile lives and works as a teacher, artist, puppeteer and performer in Chicago, Illinois.
Isabel Beeman recently completed her MFA in creative writing at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she also edited prose for TIMBER journal. She writes about shame, weakness, and disconnection, and her style has been described as impressionistic and atmospheric. Her other interests include collecting rocks, decorating her apartment, and watching films. Outline is forthcoming in Issue 1 of Veilance.
Justin D’Acci is a Chicago-based clown, artist, and puppeteer. His writing has appeared in Issue 0: Eroticism (Veilance Press), Zero Degree (Blurden Press), and the self-published Book of Sooth Ob-Sooth (2021), and Clarity; or, Drivel from a Limb… (2022).

Register for the event!

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Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

Pay what you can afford. Suggested: $10
Venmo: @quimbysbookstore
Please include “After Hours” in the note!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local authors, publishers, creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!