Category: readings

After Hours 1 year anniversary! Editors’ Special!
Featuring: Justin Finley of Raging Opossum Press, Nick Rossi of Sobotka, Els Deitz of Veilance, and Kat Thanopoulos of WREATH.
Thursday 6/25, 6:30-8:30 pm
Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave, Chicago

Come celebrate the one year anniversary of After Hours! Soon after taking on ownership with Quimby’s we partnered with Chicago author and tireless lit. scene booster  Taylor Thornburg to celebrate Chicago’s incredible indie lit mags!

The stacked line up for this event features the people making it happen for four of Chicago’s most creative lit. journals:

Justin Finley of Raging Opossum Press: Justin Finley is a writer, painter, and Cancer from Chicago, IL. He changed his plans to join the U.S. Air Force after military school to obtain a Creative Writing Degree at Columbia College Chicago. Justin is color blind but enjoys the effect this has on different shades of orange and pink.

His favorite time is 8:32 PM on Fridays. Justin looks to his dreams when writing fiction and to his diary when creating non-fiction and poetry. His work has been published with Pest Control, Mulberry Literary, Soup Magazine, Jabber, and Mixed Magazine. He currently serves as Social Media Manager, Creative Coordinator, and Editor at Raging Opossum Press. More of his work can be found at justinfinley.net  [ @justincasef / @ragingopossumpress ]

Nick Rossi of Sobotka: Nick Rossi is a co-founder, editor, and designer at Sobotka Lit Magazine, Ursus Americanus Press, and No Rest Press. His work has most recently appeared in Noir Sauna, Gab Magazine, Dream.FM, from a locked room, Breakfast…?, and Works & Days. He lives and works in Chicago.

Els Deitz of Veilance: Els is a poet, image maker, and the co-creator of Veilance Press. Last night they dreamed about a de-magnifying glass and a gardenia machine which wanted to play two truths and a lie. They are currently working on curatorial projects for Veilance Solitaire and Flatline.

Kat Thanopoulos of WREATH:

Kat Thanopoulos is the founder of WREATH. Midwestern native, she’s resided in Chicago for 7 years since leaving her birthplace, the great state of Michigan. A multidisciplinary artist, she is a graphic designer and multi-genre writer. Her work can be found in publications like SARKA, Michigan City Review, and Charm School Magazine, and forthcoming in Sobotka Literary Magazine and Dunce Codex.

Join us for this first anniversary wrap up to hear readings from the editors of the lit mags we’ve featured over the last year, our usual raucous open mic, and an anniversary wrap up from  Taylor!

After Hours is a production of Taylor Thornburg in partnership with Quimby’s!

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Pay what you can afford in person or via Venmo.
Suggested: $10
Venmo: @quimbysbookstore
Please include “After Hours” in the note!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local authors, publishers, creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

Story Studio Memoir in a Year Reading
Featuring Megan Kirby, Madison Loew, Ro White, Stephanie Young, Zoe Tian, Katie Tobin, and more!
Friday 6/12, 6:30-9:00 pm
Quimby’s Bookstore 1854 W. North Ave, Chicago

Join us for the Story Studio Memoir in a Year reading, hosted by award-winning author and Story Studio teacher Rachel DeWoskin. Nine students will read excerpts from their memoirs, which span true life stories about immigration, menstruation, thespianism, lesbianism, dead mom jokes, divorced folks, and how you should sit when someone asks you to watch them take a shower.

Megan Kirby [ @dweebulous ] liked to write about things like pop music, theme restaurants, the renaissance faire, and her life in Chicago. She’s been making zines for over 20 years, and she shows no sign of stopping.

Madison Loew [ @madisonloew ]  has worked in many industries with many titles; at the end of the day, she is a student of people, trying to design a friendlier and more dignified world for all. She is writing a memoir about love, loss, and the myth making of marriage.

Ro White [ @boys_xl ] is a Chicago-based writer whose journalism has been featured in Teen Vogue, Prism, Them, and more. Ro has performed original work at the Neo-Futurist Theater, the Paper Machete, Lit Crawl, and the Moth, which featured one of Ro’s stories on NPR’s Moth Radio Hour. Last year, Ro was a finalist for North American Review’s Terry Tempest Williams Creative Nonfiction Prize.

Stephanie Young [ @stefcorrect ] is a writer, academic, and psychologist.You can find her creative work in Breakfast…?, Twenty Bellows, JAKE, BULL, Complete Sentence, and other fine literary outlets. She has published two community-focused lit zines, Invisible Friends and Uninvited. Stephanie was born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where lengthy bios are frowned upon.

Zoe Tian got her name Zoe from an anime character Hange Zoe from the anime Attack on Titan in the summer of 2013; after missing the CPS high school entrance exam due to her family’s odd time of immigration, they moved to the suburbs,  predominantly white, far from the world she’d known.. Growing up in both worlds of inside and outside, real and unreal, future and the past…

Katie Tobin hails from the policy world in DC, where she served as a top migration advisor in the White House from 2021-2024. Over the last 20 years, Katie has tackled migration and refugee policy from various vantage points – the border, the field, the courtroom, and even from the decks of coast guard cutters. She currently teaches at University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and serves as a non-resident scholar for Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

–.- ..- .. — -… -.– .—-. …

Pay what you can afford in person or via Venmo.
Suggested: $10
Venmo: @quimbysbookstore
Please include “Memoir” in the note!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local authors, publishers, creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

Midwestern Death Tour Featuring Meaghan Garvey
Thursday 6/11, 6:30-8:30 pm
Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave, Chicago

Join Quimby’s and Panamerica Books in welcoming hometown hero Meaghan Garvey for the Chicago leg of her Midwestern Death Tour for her new book Midwestern Death Trip.

Midwestern Death Trip is part memoir, part reportage, which combines the great American road trip genre with a heart-breaking coming-of-age story. Following the death of her mother, Garvey embarks on a road trip through the Midwest on a quest to understand this haunted region of the country where she grew up.

Meaghan Garvey made her bones as one of America’s funniest and most astute music critics in her profiles and essays for The New York Times, Billboard, New York Magazine, County Highway, Pitchfork, and GQ. Meanwhile, her dark, unsparing, and wildly popular Gonzo Substack Scary Cool Sad Goodbye chronicles an itinerant personal life.

Meaghan is a hilarious and entertaining reader worth celebrating in the way only her hometown can!

–.- ..- .. — -… -.– .—-. …

Pay what you can afford in person or via Venmo.
Suggested: $10
Venmo: @quimbysbookstore
Please include “Meaghan Garvey” in the note!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!

Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local authors, publishers, creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!