Paul McComas, a writer, performance artist, and musician, recruited the students in his advanced fiction-writing workshop from a noncredit beginning course he teaches at Northwestern University’s student union. The group of nine includes NU students and writers from Chicago and the northern suburbs who range in age from their 20s to their 40s. Last year they picked a theme for a short-story anthology-first-person narratives-wrote and workshopped a couple of tales each, got a $500 grant to publish them, and put out First Person Imperfect, a collection now available from iUniverse. McComas, founder of the educational campaign “Rock Against Depression,” published Unplugged, a novel about a Kurt Cobain-like star, in 2002 and contributed two stories to the anthology himself. He’ll read from one of them, “I Was a Teenage Disco Prince,” and demonstrate some dance moves when the group presents dramatic readings from First Person Imperfect at 7 on Tuesday, June 22, at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington in Evanston. It’s free; call 847-866-0300.
