THOUGH CHICAGO MAY lack the industrial infrastructure of a publishing powerhouse like New York, there’s a lot going on here if you know where to look. Home to two respected university presses (at the University of Chicago andNorthwestern) and established operations like Chicago Review Press and the Afrocentric Third World Press—which had a breakout hit this year with the Tavis Smiley project The Covenant With Black America—Chicago’s seen a surge of publishing activity in the last few years from upstarts like Evanston-based Agate Publishing, Punk Planet Books (an offshoot of Punk Planet magazine), and OV Books (from the literary journal Other Voices). Locally published journals like Another Chicago Magazine, Make, and the broadsheet
Want to get out and throw down with other book nerds? Both local and touring authors pop up regularly at the bookstores (see below), but if literary events are your thing, there are plenty of lively alternatives—though to attend many of them you need to be 21 or older. TheReader’s Readings & Lectures listings in Section 2 has a complete rundown of what’s happening around town each week.
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Once a month or so, Bookslut editor Jessa Crispin (bookslut.com) entices three or four writers to an upstairs room at the Hopleaf Bar (5148 N. Clark, 773-334-9851); a few weeks ago a crowd of 30 quaffed Belgian brews from the bar’s extensive beer list as novelist Pagan Kennedy and others read from new work by the light of the vintage jukebox; coming up on the 27th are Ned Vizzini, Brian Evenson, and Cristina Henriquez. The monthlySunday Salon Chicago series takes over the homey (and nonsmoking) confines of the Charleston (2076 N. Hoyne, 773-489-4757) on the last Sunday of the month; reading on the 24th are Megan Stielstra, L.C. Fiore, and David Treuer. For the popular Dollar Store series (dollarstoreshow.com), cohosts Jonathan Messinger, who also runs the fledgling Featherproof Books, and comedian Jeremy Sosenko challenge their guests of honor to write an original short story based on random items picked up at a dollar store. Participants take the stage at the
Women and Children First (5233 N. Clark, 773-769-9299) carries an extensive stock of—surprise—books of particular interest to women, from fiction to feminist theory, and children. The Book Cellar in Lincoln Square (4736 N. Lincoln, 773-293-2665) does double duty as a wine bar and cozy cafe. Lakeview’s Unabridged Books (3251 N. Broadway, 773-883-9119) is distinguished by its informed staff recommendations and a large selection of gay and lesbian titles—though the store carries a lot of general interest titles as well.
Powell’s Bookstore—the progenitor of the legendary store in Portland, Oregon—has three outposts in Chicago. The Hyde Park shop (1501 E. 57th, 773-955-7780) specializes in used scholarly books covering the spectrum of academic disciplines; the Lakeview store (2850 N. Lincoln, 773-248- 1444) carries a lot of fiction, art, architecture, and photography, and includes a rare books room; the South Loop location (825 S. Wabash, 312-341-0748) is the retail warehouse and, in their words, stocks “a little bit of everything.”
A selection of some but not all not-to-be-missed Chicago books, with apologies to Saul Bellow (The Adventures of Augie March), Theodore Dreiser (Sister Carrie), James T. Farrell (the Studs Lonigan trilogy), Studs Terkel (Division Street), and a multitude of other contenders.
Crossing California | Adam Langer | A formerReader contributor’s wry take on growing up Jewish in the 70s in West Rogers Park.
