Category: fiction

  • George R.R. Washington Presents A Game of Groans 3/27

    A GAME OF GROANS
    A Sonnet of Slush and Soot By George R.R. Washington

    It’s the story fans of George R.R. Martin’s series A Song of Fire and Ice know and love—well, sort of. In the wayward world of GEORGE R.R. WASHINGTON’s A GAME OF GROANS:  A Sonnet of Slush and Soot (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Griffin; 1-250-01126-4; March 27, 2012; Trade Paperback Original; $9.99) seasons can last decades. And trouble is brewing. The warmth is returning, and in the thawing tundra of the North of Summerseve, something wicked is coming. A GAME OF GROANS  is the story of the Barkers of Summerseve, headed by Lord Headcase Barker and Lady Gateway Bully Barker, and their children including Allbran, Bobb, Malia, Sasha, and of course, bastard Juan Nieve (all followed by their pet direpandas, natch).

    The Barkers are a family unit as hard and unforgiving as the pronunciation of “Daenerys Targaryen” and nothing will be the same after a visit from King Bobbert Baronme and the royal family. Swooping from this land of sweater weather to a balmy kingdom of equestrian delights and outdoor fornication, here is an epic of novella proportions. Amid plots and counterplots, wizards and warriors, poor reception and no wireless, the future of the Barkers, their BFFs, and their enemies dangles in the balance, as each strives to star in that funniest of concepts: a parody of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones

    GEORGE R.R. WASHINGTON is the author of many novels. As a writer-producer, he has worked on The Outer Limits, Teen Wolf, and many other films and pilots that are currently stored in the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository. He lives with the lovely Natalie in Chicago, Illinois.

    Tues, March 27th, 7pm

  • Joyland Magazine and Dzanc Books present The Fiction Feed: AWP Edition 3/1

    Joyland Magazine and Dzanc Books present
    The Fiction Feed: AWP Edition

    Joyland Magazine and Dzanc Books are two innovative publishers pushing fiction with great writing and new means of print and digital distribution. Join us for an evening with four writers, hailing from Chicago, New York and Vancouver. Hosted by Joyland co-founder Brian Joseph Davis and Dzanc co-publisher Dan Wickett.

    READERS

    Eugene Cross has published work in Narrative Magazine, American Short Fiction, Story Quarterly and Callaloo, among other journals. He is the recipient of scholarships from the Chautauqua Writers’ Festival and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. He currently lives in Chicago. Fires of Our Choosing (Dzanc) is his first book.

    Kevin Chong is the author of four books, including his acclaimed debut Baroque-a-Nova (Penguin) and the travelogue Neil Young Nation (Douglas & McIntyre). His new novel from Arsenal Pulp is titled Beauty Plus Pity. He lives in Vancouver and is a section editor for Joyland.

    Jeff Parker is the author of the novel Ovenman (Tin House) and the story collection The Taste of Penny (Dzanc). He co-edited the anthologies Amerika: Russian Writers View the United States and Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia. His nonfiction book Igor in Crisis: A Russian Journal is forthcoming from HarperCollins.

    Megan Stielstra is a writer, storyteller and the literary director for 2nd Story, Chicago’s urban storytelling series. She has performed for the Goodman Theatre, the Chicago Poetry Center and National Public Radio. She teaches in the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College. Her debut collection of stories, Everyone Remain Calm, is now available from Joyland/ECW Press.

    For more info: joylandmagazine.com and dzancbooks.org

    Thursday, March 1, 7PM

  • Advance pre-print event: Graham Rae Reads Soundproof Future Scotland 2/17

    SOUNDPROOF FUTURE SCOTLAND is a linguistically deranged trip into a dead-end, techno-punk future that lies firmly within our sight.

    Scotsman Graham Rae’s new book Soundproof Future Scotland (Creation Books) is a sort-of futuristic meditation on his old home country. Welcome to the end of the known world. Set in the 22nd century in an independent Scotland, it details the lives and loves and hates of Johnny Certex and Ratsoup. These young cyberdrunk boyz spend their weekend boozing, band practice, drinking, digigames, hacktivism, skarboarding, chopping maul madness. The the book follows them as they drink and play digigames and ponder their small-town world (the center of Satellite Town, the rubbish dump where they live) before they start their crappy jobs as holographic refuse collectors. They plan to go to see their all-time fave band live, Empty Vessels, as the inescapable gravitational pull of Wavesound drags them closer to The Best Gig Ever.

    Soundproof Future Scotland is more Charles Bukowski than William Gibson; a raw, lyrical, hilarious, thought-provoking trawl through the underbelly of a Scotland that may yet come to be.

    This book is not in print yet, so Quimby’s will have vouchers valid for digital download  that will be on sale at the event.

    SOUNDPROOF FUTURE SCOTLAND has already drawn significant praise:

    “New writers, like yourself, will always keep appearing, thank God, + shock + delight a new generation of readers.” -JG Ballard

    “If Henry Miller decided to rip off both William Gibson and William Burroughs, it might read like this gritty sexplosive novel set in the 22nd century.” -Richard Kern

    “Aside from creative heckling, the highest praise one could pay Scottish ex-pat Graham Rae on the occasion of his rip-roaring novel Soundproof Future Scotland is to say that the writing crackles with the wit, (unintentional) wisdom, and sheer, unadulterated energy of great rock ‘n’ roll. Irvine Welsh, move over, and Lester Bangs, I think you’d be proud.” -Jim DeRogatis

    “Graham Rae makes heterosex sound quite appealing. Which is of course the test of any great fiction writer.” -Mark Simpson

    Graham Rae’s work has been featured in Realitystudio.org, Filmthreat.com, American Cinematographer, Cinefantastique, and 3ammagazine.com. His work has also appeared in the Deep Red Horror Handbook, and the anthology Please: Fiction Inspired by The Smiths. He has also appeared on BBC Radio Scotland as a film critic.

    Fri, Feb 17th, 7pm

    For more info: www.creationbooks.com

  • The CWG Presents: Prompts/Prompted Here at Quimby's 9/23

    The Creative Writing Guild presents it’s latest publication, Prompts/Prompted. The dual issue is a compilation of instructions for experimental writing, and the CWG’s own written results. Five CWG contributors will read selections from the books, explain instructions, and share recent summer writing. Bring a pen and paper.

    The Creative Writing Guild aims to share experimental and traditional writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago writing community.

    cwgsaic.blogspot.com

    Fri, Sep 23rd, 7pm

  • Rebekah Mercuri Reads From Weeding the Seeds of Deceit 9/15

    Many of the events experienced by the main character of Rebekah Mercuri’s debut novel echo the true-life experiences of the author, who herself, was involved in a Christian Cult.

    Weeding the Seeds of Deceit is a story of Hope Locker, a young woman seeking closure to the haunting and vivid memories of an impoverished life, beginning with the manipulations and contradictions from a Christian Cult her parents joined in her youth.  When the prophet of the cult threatens their lives, the family escapes to Texas to live with Hope’s paternal grandfather. The deep affliction her parents feel from dragging the family into such annihilation leads them down an even more despairing and destructive path. Despite the cult experience, Hope maintains her faith through prayer, and music later becomes her sole outlet from life’s chaos, and provides her with the inspiration to follow her dreams.

     

    REBEKAH MERCURI is a writer and mother of two. She had a unique and nomadic childhood as a member of a Christian cult. Her experiences inspired her to pen her debut fiction novel, Weeding the Seeds of Deceit. Mercuri was born in Anaheim, California and was educated at Columbia College Chicago, where she received a Bachelor’s degree in Fiction Writing. She also holds an Associate’s degree in Marketing and Business Management from Cincinnati State Community College. She resides in Chicago, Illinois and is currently working on a her next novel.

     

    Thurs, Sep 15th, 7pm

  • CCLaP Releases American Wasteland: Bleak Tales of the Future On the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11

    With all the talk of “hope” and “honor” that was bound to arise during the tenth anniversary of September 11th, the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography (CCLaP) thought it was important to also remind the future of what the last ten years have REALLY been like. That’s why the center put together this latest anthology, which took a dark science-fiction conceit as its core and then invited a series of writers across the nation to pen stories set within that alternative universe. In this case, the stories look back from a fictional twentieth anniversary of 9/11, but one where John McCain won the 2008 and ’12 elections, then Sarah Palin in 2016 and ’20; and with no government bailouts, no withdrawals from the Middle East, and no attempts to move away from an oil-based economy, the US has become a much bleaker and more terrible place, a nation that is now used to rolling electricity blackouts two or three days a week and that is just about to go to war with Mexico, where the permanently unemployed squat in half-finished McMansions out in crumbling suburbs that almost completely lack both gasoline and fresh fruit. A sobering reminder of what life under Tea Party rule would likely be like, “American Wasteland” is an antidote to the false cheeriness and optimism that has come with the tenth anniversary of 9/11, a more realistic look at all the mistakes this nation has made between then and now.

    Various local contributors to this anthology will be performing at Quimby’s that night, including DELPHINE PONTVIEUX (“ETA: Estimated
    Time of Arrest”), MARK R. BRAND (“Life After Sleep”) and LAWRENCE SANTORO (“Just North of Nowhere”). CCLaP itself (cclapcenter.com) is a
    mostly online organization that has been open since 2007, a regular publisher of both electronic and handmade paper books, as well as such other activities as a podcast, 150 book reviews a year at its blog, and half a dozen live events annually at various venues across the city.

    Friday, September 9th, 7pm

  • Christopher Boucher reads from How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive with Adam Levin (The Instructions) 8/24

    By the time Christopher Boucher reaches Chicago he will have driven nearly 3,000 miles across America in his 1972 Volkswagen Beetle, reading from How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, playing the novel’s theme-song on his banjo, and reading to people, roadsigns, potholes, old barns, paramedics, flowers and railroad tracks. “I see this tour as a natural extension of the book,” he says. “The novel was written in a whimsical, playful style, but it was inspired by…my father, and the sense of wonder that he instilled in me.  That sense of wonder propelled every sentence in the book, and I want it to fuel the tour as well.”

    In How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive Christopher Boucher has created a zany literary universe, a place where metaphors shift beneath your feet, familiar words assume new meanings, objects talk, trees attack, and time actually is money. Modeled on the cult classic 1969 hippie handbook of the same name, How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive is an astonishing tour-de-force that calls to mind the off-kilter comedy and inspired fabulism of Richard Brautigan, Kurt Vonnegut, and George Saunders. The prose summersaults, but the book also tackles some of life’s biggest questions: How do you cope with losing a parent? What’s the secret to raising a child? How do you keep love alive? How do you get your car to start?

    “Writing to save your life—and your 1971 Volkswagen—is at the heart of this wildly imaginative debut… Readers are in for a fresh, memorable ride with this inventive ‘collage of loss’”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

    “A new, exuberant novel-world. Goofiness and grief are in perfect harmony in this impressive, moving debut.”—Sam Lipsyte

    Also joining the bill is Chicago author Adam Levin, author of The Instructions (McSweeney’s).

    More info: mhpbooks.com vwalive.com theboucher.com mcsweeneys.net

    Wed, August 24th, 7pm

  • “Cinco De Awesome” J. Bradley Reads From The Serial Rapist Sitting Behind You Is a Robot

    When asked about his influences, J. Bradley points to three enduring sources: failure, 80s cartoon, unrequited love. Not a likely combination for a writer, but one that has brought forth The Serial Rapist Sitting Behind You is a Robot (Safety Third Enterprises). A collection of prose-poems from J. Bradley in his first foray into fiction. Bradley’s swift cuts and unapologetic style still remains intact in this new frame delighting in tales of Jurassic Park, sexual liaisons, and sexual disgust. Even in the darker times of the twenty story collection the Florida poet goes for a dirty bountiful laugh.

    “Rabbit punches are illegal in boxing because they are a potentially fatal blow. “The Serial Rapist Sitting Behind You Is A Robot” is a series of rabbit punches comprised of poetry, wit, sex and sick.  J. Bradley attempts to kill with each piece; packing their tiny structures full of a power reserved for breaking the teeth of cheating spouses.  Each piece makes an impact that stuns strong and spreads circular in a visceral ring that will leave the reader wondering, “What just happened here?” After they stagger to their feet, they will taunt him to hit them again and again.” – xTx, author of Normally Special

    Also joining the bill are Chicago author Ben Tanzer, who will read from his book You Can Make Him Like You (Artistically Declined Press), James Tadd Adcox, editor of Artifice Magazine and Brandon Will.

    For more info: http://iheartfailure.net

  • Cleveland Confidential Book Tour at Quimby's 4/2

    Smog Veil Records announces the Cleveland Confidential Book Tour returns to the road in April, with a stop at Quimby’s in Chicago on April 2.  The tour features three author-musicians also from Cleveland, Ohio including Cheetah Chrome (Rocket From The Tombs, Dead Boys, Batusis), Mike Hudson (The Pagans) and Bob Pfeifer (Human Switchboard, Tabby Chinos, former Senior Vice President A&R/Epic/Sony Records and President of Hollywood Records). Each will read excerpts from their book, answer questions from the audience and discuss their books and careers with each other. Authors will be available to sign books at each appearance.

    Cheetah Chrome – A Dead Boy’s Tale From The Front Lines Of Punk Rock is the no-holds-barred autobiography of Cheetah Chrome, lead guitarist of the Dead Boys, one of the greatest punk bands ever. It’s a tale of success and excess—amazing music, legendary antics, epic drug use, and eventual resurrection—that only a true rock and roller could deliver. As a songwriter Chrome’s work has been covered by artists such as Guns n Roses, Pearl Jam and the Beastie Boys. He still performs and records with Rocket From The Tombs and Batusis (with Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls). He lives in Nashville with his wife and son.

    Mike Hudson will read from Jetsam and Diary of a Punk. The 32 short pieces that make up Jetsam were written and published between 1977 and 2009. His lean and unsentimental prose style is apparent in even the earliest entries here. Diary of A Punk is Hudson’s autobiography. He is the founder of the seminal American punk rock group, the Pagans, formed in 1977. His work has appeared in Hustler, the Associated Press, Master Detective, Field & Stream and many other publications here and abroad. He is currently the founding editor and CEO of the Niagara Falls Reporter, a New York tabloid specializing in politics and organized crime.

    University of Strangers is Bob Pfeifer’s first novel. In a sensational case that made headlines all over the globe, the American student Amanda Knox was convicted of the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher, in what Italian authorities described as a sadistic sexual encounter. Pfeifer’s novel details the efforts of a secret society, comprised of famous contemporary figures from the worlds of literature, show business and politics, to clear the girl’s name. A unique blend of fact and fiction the book is a spellbinding account of the violence, corruption and celebrity worship that characterize much of 21st century life. Pfeifer was Senior Vice President A&R/Epic/Sony Records and President of Hollywood Records. Artists he’s worked with include Alice Cooper, Ornette Coleman, The Screaming Trees, also soundtracks like the Crow: City of Angels and Lion King. He is a founding member/songwriter of Human Switchboard and Tabby Chinos. He lives in Los Angeles with his son.

    Saturday, April 2nd, 7pm

  • Deb Olin Unferth Reads Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War With Adam Levin 3/7

    Deb Olin Unferth offers a new twist on the coming-of-age memoir in this utterly unique and captivating story of the year she ran away from college with her Christian boyfriend and followed him to Nicaragua to join the Sandinistas.

    Unferth is the author of the story collection Minor Robberies and the novel Vacation, winner of the 2009 Cabell First Novelist Award and a New York Times Book Review Critics’ Choice. Her work has appeared in Harper’s, McSweeney’s, The Believer, and the Boston Review. She has received two Pushcart Prizes and a 2009 Creative Capital grant for Innovative Literature.

    “This is a very funny, excoriating honest story of being young, semi-idealistic, stupid and in love. If you have ever been any of these things, you’ll devour it.”—Dave Eggers

    Also joining the bill is Chicago author Adam Levin, author of the novel THE INSTRUCTIONS.  His collection of short stories, HOT PINK, will be published next Fall by McSweeney’s.  He lives in Chicago, where he teaches Creative Writing at the School of the Art Institute.

    For more info: us.macmillan.com/revolution-1

    http://www.mcsweeneys.net/books/aboutinstructions.html

    Monday, March 7th, 7pm