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 and Northwestern) 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 The2ndHand are regular outlets for short fiction and creative nonfiction. And after philanthropist Ruth Lilly dropped a $175 million bomb on tiny Poetry magazine in 2003, the Poetry Foundation became one of the largest literary foundations in the world and amped up its activities accordingly. On September 29 the organization brings Pulitzer winner Mark Strand to the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Hands down the biggest literary shindig of the year is the Printers Row Book Fair, where 100,000 bibliophiles descend on South Dearborn Street, the heart of the city’s historic printing district (in 2007 it’s June 9 and 10). Booksellers peddle their wares while a mess of author appearances, panel discussions, book signings, and kids’ programming add to the general commotion. A little more highbrow, but no less popular, the Chicago Humanities Festival brings a host of writers and thinkers to town each fall for two weeks of intensive intellectual activity, with panels, talks, film screenings, and performances organized around an overarching theme. This year’s festival, “Peace and War,” starts October 28; look for the Reader’s guides to both festivals in Section 2.
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 Hideout (1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433) on the first Friday of every month to read the results to an appreciative, PBR-gripping crowd. A bit to the north, the series RUI: Reading Under the Influence (readingundertheinfluence.com) tweaks the bar-and-bibliophiles formula even further: every month the organizers pick a theme (this month it was labor; October’s is love/hate) and writers gather at Sheffield’s (3258 N. Sheffield, 773-281-4989) to read from their own work and that of a famous author, pelting the audience with trivia questions about the famous one. Shots are done, prizes are won.
Quimby’s (1854 W. North, 773-342-0910) in Wicker Park is one of the country’s–if not the world’s–best sources for zines, comics, small press books, vintage erotica, and all manner of subcultural effluvia. It also hosts frequent readings and events that could have you snuggled up against the gay porn next month to hear from vintage Japanese baseball card collector John Gall (Sayonara Home Run!) and Iranian-via-Parisian comics artist Marjane Satrapi (Chicken With Plums). Over on Milwaukee, Myopic Books (1564 N. Milwaukee, 773-862-4882) has a a vertiginous floor-to-ceiling stash of merch that can render the most hardcore used-book junkie placid and happy. They’ll buy your old books too (details at myopicbookstore.com).
