Your cart is currently empty!
Category: Local writer/artist
-
Hair Lit, Vol. 1 Anthology Event 3/15
Hair Lit, Vol. 1 is an anthology of short fiction inspired by hair metal songs of the 1980’s, and it is the latest release from Chicago-based independent publisher Orange Alert Press. A collection of original short fiction based on hair metal songs of the 1980’s and 1990’s, Hair Lit, Vol. 1 is edited by Nick Ostdick and features contributions from today’s hottest purveyors of short fiction, including Sherrie Flick, Ryan W. Bradley, Roxane Gay, Chip Cheek, Matt Rowan, Aubrey Hirsch, Adam Schuitema, Megan Stielstra, Shawn Andrew Mitchell, Lindsay Hunter, Michael Czyzniejewski, Susannah Felts, BJ Hollars, Leni Zumas, Ben Tanzer, Steve Himmer, Nick Ostdick, Sam Weller, Kyle Beachy, and Tobias Carroll.
That’s right: the songs you craved from the bands you loved are paid tribute in this collection that rocks as hard as the music from which it’s inspired. These are stories of love and heartache. Stories of sex and drugs. Stories of misspent youth. Stories of tumultuous adulthood. Stories set to a killer soundtrack consisting of bands like Warrant, Poison, Twisted Sister, Judas Priest, Vixen, KISS, and more. It’s a best-of-album-in-stories that shines a spotlight on an often overlooked period of popular music from an eclectic group of young writers who honor the source material in superb fashion, big hair and all.
Readers for the evening include Hair Lit contributors: Matt Rowan (editor of Untoward Magazine), Lindsay Hunter (author Daddy’s and the forthcoming Don’t Kiss Me) and Mike Joyce (editor of The Literary Orphans)
Nick Ostdick, the anthology’s editor, is a husband, runner, and writer currently residing in Rockford, Illinois. He holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from Southern Illinois University and is the co-editor of the forthcoming anthology The Man Date: 15 Bromances (Prime Mincer, 2013). He’s the winner of the Viola Wendt Award for Fiction and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Annalemma Quarterly, Exit 7, The Emerson Review, Main Street Rag, Fiction Writers Review and elsewhere.
For more info: hairlit.com nickostdick.com orangealertpress.com
Friday, March 15th, 7pm – Free Event
-
“Mitch O’Connell: The World’s Best Artist” Book Signing & Slideshow With Book Designer Joseph Allen Black at 3/21
Humorous and masterful, Mitch O’Connell: the World’s Best Artist by Mitch O’Connell, (Last Gasp Publishing) is a career-spanning retrospective of work from the king of kitsch, Mitch O’Connell. This full-color, 284 page tome—resplendent with a foam-filled, vinyl, glitter-enhanced cover—collects all the good stuff (the crappy art is under lock and key) from this prolific pop artist. If you appreciate the finer things in life, such as beehives, boobs, and big-eyed kittens, you will not want to miss this book.
“I am stunned by how remarkably talented he is … I’ve been jealous of him for over 30 years!”-Mark Frauenfelder, Boing Boing
“What David Lynch might read to his kids at night! Great!” – Boston Globe
Mitch O’Connell’s work has been featured in such places as: Playboy, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, and Juggs. He has made campaign art for Coke, McDonalds, KFC, Kelloggs, and more. His tattoo designs can be found on bodies belonging to people with impeccable taste the worldwide. His previous books include Mitch O’Connell Tattoos, Pwease Wuv Me, and Good Taste Gone Bad.
Mr. O’Connell will be joined by the book’s designer Jospeh Allen Black.
For more info: mitchoconnell.com lastgasp.com and jospehallenblack.com
Thursday, March 21st, 7pm – Free Event
-
Laydeez Do Comics Chicago February Edition 2/28
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) has added to branches in Leeds and San Francisco by starting a branch in Chicago.The first meeting was a smashing success and this one hopes to be as amazing!
Come hear comics creators speak about their work, their process, their plans, and whatever else they want to share with us.
February speakers will be:
Laura Szumowski (zoo-mouse-key.com)
David Mitchell (realityenginecomic.com)
and MK Czerwiec (comicnurse.com)For more info: laydeezdocomics.blogspot.c
om
and/or
comicnurse (at) mac (dot) com
As always, this event at Quimby’s is free. -
A Quimby's Commercial!
Austin Sheaffer & Jack Martind from Peace and Fjord made a Quimby’s commercial that debuted at the 30 Seconds Over Chicago Competition, and IT IS AWESOME AND HILARIOUS. What are they reading in the video? Why it’s Our Inalienable Rights by Dan Gleason and Theresa Currie, which yes, is available for purchase both here at the store and on quimbys.com.
*|VIMEO:[$vid=53517782]|*
-
Poet Carrie McGath Reads From Ohio Lonely 3/2
In Carrie McGath’s new book, Ohio Lonely, a self-published chapbook of poems and accompanying photo-collge works. “This book is my version of a genealogy including photographs I have collaged to express my memories and impressions of family members I have met or never got to meet.”
Poet Alexander Long, author of Still Life, writes of Ohio Lonely:
“Don’t mistake Carrie McGath’s project in Ohio Lonely as nostalgic in a pejoratively clichéd way, a naïve and dishonest looking back where every lost family member is steeped in sugary sepia. No. McGath doesn’t just understand what nostalgia, literally, means: the ache for that which is ours. Her nostalgia is marrow-deep. “I look for the woman inside of me through photos…”, she writes in one poem. Nothing more indelible than that manic stasis of the elegiac gaze. Yes, indeed. McGath’s poems fade not away. Thank God.”
Saturday, March 2nd, 7pm – Free Event
-
Peter Sotos & Publisher Chip Smith Discuss Controversy in Publishing 3/23
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 SwarmPeter 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
-
Quimby's Podcast Episode #7 With Authors Adam Levin & Tim Kinsella
Quimby’s Podcast Episode #7 With Authors Adam Levin & Tim Kinsella is now available for your listening pleasure. Adam you might know from his books Hot Pink and The Instructions Tim you might know from his book The Karaoke Singer’s Guide to Self-Defense, or because he’s in bands like Joan of Arc and Cap’n Jazz (among others). Adam and Tim did an event here. Then we conned them into talking to us about their work and each other, while trapped in the mysterious Quimby’s basement. You can listen to the podcast in a variety of places like finding it on I-Tunes, or download it or even stream it, with links at the the Quimby’s podbean site here.
-
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:
Tues, Feb 19th, 7pm – Free Event
-
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/
-
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