Category: Event

  • Peter Sotos & Publisher Chip Smith Discuss Controversy in Publishing 3/23

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    Marking the roughly simultaneous re-release of Peter Sotos’ Tool  and Mine, Sotos will appear at Quimby’s Bookstore with his publisher Nine-Banded Books founder, Chip Smith, to discuss the continuing role of independent publishers in curating controversial and overlooked literature.

    “Peter Sotos is one of those rare writers who can say, ‘The words I write are me,’ or at least as close as anyone can come to communicating who they are in words.” –Thomas Ligotti, author of The Conspiracy against the Human Race

    “For this latter-day homo sacer, wounds are not to be healed but poked and worried until they bleed. Sotos is literature’s outcast, carrying stigma like a rat carries plague.” –Mikita Brottman, author of Thirteen Girls

    “…among the most important writing being done today.”
    –Dennis Cooper, author of The Marbled Swarm

    Peter Sotos is a Chicago-born writer whose work focuses on criminal psychology, sexual abjection, and the myriad aspects of pornography. (He was also an early member of the noise group Whitehouse.) Noted his unique literary style and his frank and insightful engagement with deeply disturbing subjects, Sotos’ writings are considered by many to stand as oblique social criticism. Sotos is the author of 11 published novels, including Index, Tick, Lordotics, Comfort and Critique, and Selfish, Little: The Annotated Lesley Ann Downey. He is also the editor of the Pure Filth, an annotated collection transcripts culled from the underground pornography of the late Jamie Gillis. Sotos’ writing has appeared in ANSWER Me!, Apocalypse Culture II, Funeral Party, and Ritual Sex.

    And oh yeah, he often comes in to Quimby’s (always wearing a long coat) with records he bought around the corner at Reckless Records. One time it was a greatest hits from The Smiths, prompting us to fun of him.

    For more info: ninebandedbooks.com and quimbys.com

    Sat, March 23rd, 7pm – Free Event

  • February Quimby's Newsletter

    February News

    Store announcements, new stuff, events! To see it in your browser, go to:  http://bit.ly/VzMwvO

    Want to receive our monthly newsletter in your inbox? Sign up for it at quimbys.com

  • Justin Maurer Reads From Seventeen Television with Cassandra Troyan and Dave Roche 2/19

    In Justin Maurer’s new book Seventeen Television (Vol 1 Brooklyn), these mostly true stories ebb, flow and burn through heart breaking and illuminating moments in his life. Seven humor-filled tales delve into family crisis, dead-end jobs and international exploits. Through these lucid stories and their incendiary cast of characters, we follow him into equally dangerous and touching territory.

    The work of Justin Maurer has been featured in such places as: The L.A. Record, Color Magazine, The Rumpus, Faster Times, Vice Spain, Maximumrocknroll, Razorcake and Vol 1. Brooklyn. He has been featured on podcasts and radio shows such as Life Before Wartime (KBOO), Cherry Blossom Clinic (WFMU) and Skid Row Radio. His first book, Don’t Take Your Life (Future Tense Books) received much critical acclaim. He has recorded and toured extensively with his punk bands Clorox Girls, Suspect Parts, LA Drugz and Maniac. He works and lives in Los Angeles.

    Cassandra Troyan is an artist, writer, and filmmaker who is interested in getting blunted. She is the author of THRONE OF BLOOD (Solar Luxuriance 2013), and forthcoming in Fall 2013, The Things We Embody Are The Things We Destroy (Tiny Hardcore Press 2013). She curates the reading and performance series EAR EATER in Chicago, IL where she currently lives and works.

    Dave Roche is the author of On Subbing and the zine About My Disappearance (among other things).

    For more info:

    justin-maurer.com

    cassandratroyan.com

    Tues, Feb 19th, 7pm – Free Event

  • Geneviève Castrée Presents & Signs Susceptible 2/16

    Goglu is a daydreamer with a young working mother, a disengaged stepfather, and a father who lives five thousand miles away. Drawing, punk rock, and the promise of true independence guide Goglu to adulthood while her home’s daily chaos inevitably shapes her identity. Susceptible is a devastating graphic novel debut by Geneviève Castrée about the heartbreaking loss of innocence when a child is forced to be the adult among grownups

    Praise for Geneviève Castrée:

    “With mesmerizing honesty Castrée resurrects the obscenely disorienting turning points of a childhood, the ones that haunt a person for a lifetime. After reading the last page I closed the book and wept a little bit about its simple, perfect ending.” –Miranda July,authorofitchoosesyouand noonebelongsheremorethanyou

    “[Castrée] offers three connected minimalist fables dreamily portraying a young woman’s reactions to depression, domesticity, and mother hood in delicate watercolors that, thanks largely to her keen graphic skills, made them whimsical without being cloying.” –Booklist

    “[Castrée’s work], illustrated in a delicately watercolored style that suggests Richard Scarry in the throes of an Edward Gorey obsession, is an episodic

    meditation on love, belonging, and personal identity. The visual metaphors for depression and home will break your heart; the care taken with their rendering will join the broken pieces back together on every page.” —The Austin Chronicle

    GENEVIÈVE CASTRÉE was born in Quebec. She has been drawing since the age of two. Castrée lives and works in the Pacific Northwest, where she makes visual art, and records and plays music under the name Ô PAON.

    For more info, see quimbys.com
    Preview the book here.

    Sat Feb 16th, 7pm – Free Event

  • Briefly Knocked Unconscious By A Low-Flying Duck Event 2/22

     

    Quimby’s welcomes Patricia Ann McNair, J.C. Aevaliotis, and Eric May, reading from Briefly Knocked Unconscious By A Low-Flying Duck

    In 2nd Story’s new essay anthology Briefly Knocked Unconscious By A Low-Flying Duck (Elephant Rock Books), the twenty-three contributors unveil a wide range of topics through their personal narratives. We’ve got race relations in Roger’s Park, teaching kids about Dr. King, a gay man falling in love with a high school girl in Godspell, sex clubs in Amsterdam, murder in Rockford, death at Sea World Ohio, shower dances with drag queens, Xena Warrior princess, kiss-off letter to major universities, Sam Weller getting propositioned by a porn star two weeks after his wedding, fairies appearing in backyards, a guy trying to replicate Thoreau’s Walden cabin, chaos at The United Skates of America, slaying the great dragon of addiction, a Korean girl realizing her identity as she puts on eye shadow for the first time, and the life and death nature of teaching creative writing. The uniqueness of this anthology lies within the fact that each story was once performed upon a stage before an audience.

     “…what a treat, the genre, the writers, and the Chicagoness of it all. As we said, sometimes things come to you, and they’re like a gift, and this collection is a gift, and it will linger, so please do take a look, because it just might change your life.” -Ben Tanzer, This Blog Will Change Your Life

    PATRICIA ANN McNAIR is the author of The Temple of Air, a finalist for the Society of Midland Authors Best Book Award and Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award. She’s received four Illinois Arts Council Awards and was nominated for the Carnegie Foundation US Professor of the Year. McNair teaches in Columbia College Chicago’s Fiction Writing Department.

    JC AEVALIOTIS is a Chicago-based writer and performer who holds a master’s degree in religion and theater from Yale Divinity School. He has performed with various Second City-affiliated ensembles and several live-lit outfits in Chicago, and his writing has been seen in Playboy and heard on Chicago NPR affiliate WBEZ.

    ERIC CHARLES MAY is an associate professor in the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago and a former reporter for The Washington Post. His fiction has appeared in Fish Stories and F Magazine. In addition to Post reporting, his nonfiction has appeared in Sport Literate and the Chicago Tribune.

    For more information about 2nd Story please visit www.2ndstory.com
    For more info visit www.erpmedia.net/books/Briefly.html

    Friday, February 22, 7pm – Free Event

     Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/411951955556254/?ref=2

  • Laydeez Do Comics Chicago Premieres 1/31, With Kris Dresen, Corinne Mucha and Rinko Endo


    Laydeez Do Comics,     London’s monthly comics salon founded by Nicola Streeten (Billy, Me, and You) and Sarah Lightman (The Book of Sarah, Graphic Details) is adding to branches in Leeds and San Francisco by starting a branch in Chicago! Come hear comics creators speak about their work, their process, their plans, and whatever else they want to share with us.

    Our inaugural speakers will be Kris Dresen (Max & Lilly, Manya, She Said),

    Corinne Mucha (Freshman, My Alaskan Summer, Chicago Magazine),

    Rinko Endo (Aggression Management Manga, The Cage)

    join us for our inaugural event:

    Thursday, January 31, 7pm

    and following will be the last Thursday of every month

    Free Event

    For more info: laydeezdocomics.com or comicnurse@mac.com

    Facebook event info: https://www.facebook.com/events/510206982333483/

  • Quimby's Zlumber Party 1/19-1/20

    Hey zinesters! Come to our Zine Slumber Party (Zlumber Party, geddit? Gosh we’re clever.) This is the second year in a row we’re inviting you to come in and spend the night with us working on your zine, because we had so much fun doing it last year. The store closes at 10pm on Sat the 19th and then you’re invited to spend the night here. So bring yer jammies and a sleeping bag, then leave in the morning with the zine you worked on. Interested in attending? Be sure to shoot a regular ol’ e-mail our way at info(at)quimbys(dot)com or call us at 773-342-0910 so we can have a head count.

    Facebook event info: https://www.facebook.com/events/490262824359447/?__req=9

  • Scott Jacobs on The Once and Future Bucktown 11/15

    In Scott Jacobs’ new book Never Leave Your Block (Dead Tree Press), Bucktown is the setting for 33 stories about life in Chicago’s fabled blue collar neighborhood. Jacobs recounts his first years living in Bucktown in 1974 as well as more modern adventures in a fast-gentrifying community. He spends a season with the players in the Holstein Park adult basketball league, goes gambling with the Bucktown Seniors at an Indiana casino, visits Bucktown’s barbershops and Laundromats and delves into the mystery of how Chicago collects its garbage, plows its streets and chooses its St. Patrick’s Day Queen. On this special evening, he will read excerpts from Never Leave Your Block and talk about whether Bucktown’s best days are over.

      “A born storyteller . . . What sets this book apart is Jacobs’s sharp and compulsively readable observations of family, friends, neighbors, and even places like Whole Foods . . . How going to the grocery store can captivate a reader for more than a few pages is a testament to Jacobs ability to write what he knows and write it well.”                                                                                                                 – Chicago Pipeline

     “An intriguing study of modern Chicago, very much recommended reading.”  – Midwest Book Review

     “I’ve covered Chicago for almost 50 years, and every time I want to know what people are really thinking and doing in the neighborhoods, I turn to Scott.”      – Bill Kurtis

    Scott Jacobs is a Chicago writer and filmmaker whose work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, Slate and The Week Behind. Under the pen name Stump Connolly, he has produced three books about the presidential campaigns of 1996, 2004 and 2008. His DVD collections Road to The Presidency: Inside The Clinton Campaign (1992) and True Life Video Stories (2000) ­ are also available at Quimby’s. For more info visit www.deadtreepress.com.

    Thursday, November 15, 7pm – Free Event

  • All The Writers I Know Series Presents “Things Already Said” 11/17

    Queer literary showcase All The Writers I Know will be hosting a night of spoken word performances titled “Things Already Said” about influences in queer art and life on November 17th. Co-produced by Patrick Gill and Mar Curran, ATWIK strives to showcase local queer spoken word talent in an all-ages setting.

    “Our goal is to bring queer artists together in a space that is safe for them to share their work and also affirming of their queerness,” Gill (pictured) said. Curran added, “We hope that exploring who has influenced their poetry, spoken word, storytelling, or fiction will be a way for our performers to celebrate who they’ve become. We want the audience to see it as both an homage to those before us and a love letter to who they have developed into.”

    Hosting the event is Curran, known for performing his poetry at local showcases such as Word Is Out and Homolatte, in addition to writing for In Our Words blog. Featured performers include H. Melt, Ali Scott, and Jayson Brooks; three other performers will be announced before the showcase.

    For more info: visit ATWIK’s Facebook page

    Saturday, Nov. 17, 7pm – Free Event

  • 33 1/3 Author Michael Fournier Reads Hidden Wheel With Katie Lattari

    Michael T. Fournier’s novel Hidden Wheel (Three Rooms Press) uses the author’s twenty years in and around the Boston punk scene as a springboard for an unflinching look at the difficulties of navigating art, commerce and criticism in the Digital Age. In the fictional town of Freedom Springs, bands and artists alike flock to Hidden Wheel, a DIY art/music space owned by a Chicago transplant intent on profiting from the scene. Rhonda Barrett, a onetime chess prodigy turned dominatrix, rails against the coming Singularity –and the commodification of the town’s nascent scene– with her 60-words-a-day diary paintings.

    He reads with Maine fiction author Katie Lattari, whose Zembla Vist’s American Vaudville embraces postmodern tradition with a fresh, engaging voice.

    “Fournier realizes that scenes are forged by the energy of people involved and remembered by the tomes they leave behind, and nails both perspectives. It’s managed to make me excited about albums both real and fake, which is no small achievement.” Sebastien Stirling, Newartillery.com

    Michael T. Fournier is the author of “Double Nickels On The Dime,” the 45th installment of Continuum Press’s “33 1/3” series. His writing has appeared in the Oxford American, Boston Phoenix and Pitchfork. Fournier has read with Richard Hell, Maria Raha, Sam McPheeters and Mike Watt.

    He plays drums for punk band Dead Trend, who started as a fictional band in the pages of his novel.

    For more info: michaeltfournier.tumblr.com 

    Saturday, 10th November 7pm – Free Event