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Category: readings
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MLA Comics and Graphic Narratives Forum: David Carlson and Landis Blair Present The Hunting Accident 1/4
The MLA Comics and Graphic Narratives Forum Is Delighted to Sponsor a Presentation and Social Event at Quimby’s with Creators of The Hunting Accident David Carlson and Landis Blair.
Drawing in the Imagination: The Power of Image and Text
It was a hunting accident—that much Charlie is sure of. That’s how his father, Matt Rizzo—a gentle intellectual who writes epic poems in Braille—had lost his vision. It’s not until Charlie’s troubled teenage years, when he’s facing time for his petty crimes, that he learns the truth.
Matt Rizzo was blinded by a shotgun blast to the face—but it was while participating in an armed robbery.
Newly blind and without hope, Matt began his bleak new life at Stateville Prison. But in this unlikely place, Matt’s life and very soul were saved by one of America’s most notorious killers: Nathan Leopold Jr., of the infamous Leopold and Loeb.
In The Hunting Accident, light comes from darkness, crime leads to redemption, and killers save lives. It’ll probably be a movie or Netflix show in a couple years, but for now, it’s a damn great comic book.” —GQ
“The subtitle barely captures the scope of this ambitious debut graphic novel, a mix of biography, history, social commentary, literary analysis, and more.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
For more info: Susan Kirtley skirtley(at)pdx(at)edu
Here’s the Facebook invite for this event.
Fri, Jan 4th, 7pm – Free Event
Refreshments will be provided.
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Kate Gavino Reads From SANPAKU in Discussion with Michi Trota at Quimby’s, Thurs, 8/23
In Kate Gavino’s new book SANPAKU (BOOM! Studios), the author gives voice to the insecurities that haunt teens of all cultures through the lens of her own Catholic, Filipino background. This powerful coming-of-age story about challenging the world around you stars a young woman named Marceline who’s fascinated with the Japanese idea of Sanpaku—the belief that seeing the white above or below the iris of your eyes is a bad omen. But it’s everywhere Marcine looks—her grandmother has it, some classmates at Catholic school have it, JFK had it…even Marcine might suffer from this odd condition. Eating a strict macrobiotic diet and meditating is supposed to help, but no matter how much Marcine wants it to, it can’t save her grandmother’s life or make her days at school any easier.
“[Marcine’s] cynical yet naive worldview provides a deadpan humor to a unique coming-of-age story,” raved Publishers Weekly about SANPAKU.
The work of Kate Gavino has been featured in Rookie Magazine, The Rumpus, Hello Giggles, Buzzfeed, Bustle, The Boston Globe Mashable and more. Her novel Last Night’s Reading drew universal praise as a “love letter to the literary world” (Boston Globe).
Kate Gavino will be in discussion with Michi Trota.
Michi Trota (see below) is a Chicago-based Filipina American freelance writer/editor, communications & content development manager, community organizer, and firespinning geek who collects projects like the Dominion conquers quadrants. She’s the Managing Editor of the Hugo Award-winning and World Fantasy Award finalist Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, a two-time Hugo Award winner, and the first Filipina to win a Hugo Award. She’s also President of the Chicago Nerd Social Club Board of Organizers; a board member for the Chicago Full Moon Jams Foundation; and a resident fire performer/object manipulation artist with the Raks Geek performance troupe. Michi was featured in the 2016 Chicago Reader People Issue, and was also a featured essayist in Invisible: An Anthology of Representation in SF/F (edited by Jim C. Hines).
For more info:
listing on Facebook for this event
Thursday, August 23, 7pm – Free Event
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Nate Powell Discusses Come Again on 8/9
Nate Powell’s new graphic novel Come Again (Top Shelf) is a demon-filled 1970’s Ozark fairy tale, following two families pursuing elusive dreams in their dried-up hippie community. Under impossibly close scrutiny they carve out space for their secrets, while deep within the hills something monstrous stirs, ready to feast on village whispers. Come Again explores questions of changing ideals, privacy, love, parenthood, and the horror of casualness in the face of crisis. Powell will deliver a multimedia presentation exploring the book’s themes, influences, and creative development, followed by audience questions and a book signing.
“With his work on Swallow Me Whole and March, Nate established himself as one of the premier talents in comics, but Come Again is his finest work yet. Profoundly moving, intimate, and haunting, this book will resonate with you for a long, long time.” – Jeff Lemire
In 2016, Nate Powell became the first cartoonist ever to win the National Book Award for his work on the March trilogy, chronicling civil rights icon John Lewis’ experiences in the movement. His work includes Eisner Award-winning Swallow Me Whole, Any Empire, You Don’t Say, The Silence Of Our Friends, and Rick Riordan’s The Lost Hero. He has discussed his work at the United Nations, on The Rachel Maddow Show and CNN.
For more info: seemybrotherdance.org
Thurs, August 9th, 7pm – Free Event
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Keiler Roberts Reads From Chlorine Gardens & Jessica Campbell Reads from XTC69 on 10/5
Quimby’s welcomes Keiler Roberts & Jessica Campbell on Fri, October 5th at 7pm!
Dealing with pregnancy, child-rearing, art-making, mental illness, and an MS diagnosis, the parts of Chlorine Gardens (Koyama Press) sum sound heavy, but Keiler Roberts’ gift is the deft drollness in which she presents life’s darker moments. She doesn’t whistle past graveyards, but rather finds the punch line in the pitiful.
“Keiler Roberts is forthright and adroit as she diagrams the pain inherent in memory, but it is Roberts’ idiosyncratic way of buckling you into her brilliant, uncomfortable, funny-as-fuck soul that lifts you above the ground.” — Emil Ferris, My Favorite Thing is Monsters
In XTC69 Jessica Campbell, the artist, presents the tale Commander Jessica Campbell of the planet L8DZ N1T3 and her crew are searching for men to breed with when they discover the last human on Earth, the cryogenically frozen Jessica Campbell. With a new, but familiar crewmember, the search for men continues, but will it be worth it?
“This oddball escapade delights from opening salvo to closing quip.” — Publishers Weekly
KEILER ROBERTS is a Chicago-based artist whose autobiographical comic series Powdered Milk has received an Ignatz Award for Outstanding Series and was included in The Best American Comics 2016. Her first book with Koyama Press, Sunburning, was published in 2017.
JESSICA CAMPBELL is from Victoria, BC and is an enthusiast of jokes, painting and comics. She completed her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she is a comics instructor. In 2016, she unleashed the art world and chauvinist skewering: Hot or Not: 20th-Century Male Artists.
For more info: koyamapress.com
Friday, October 5, 7pm – Free Event
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Quimby's Welcomes Slackjaw Columnist Jim Knipfel, with Andy Slater 7/19
Born in Wisconsin, Jim Knipfel was a staff writer at the now-defunct weekly alternative newspaper New York Press for thirteen years, where wrote the long-running and popular “Slackjaw” column, a cynical, misanthropic look at daily life. He is the author of ten books, including Slackjaw, Quitting the Nairobi Trio, These Children Who Come at You With Knives, The Blow-off: A Novel, and, most recently, Residue. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, The New York Post, The Village Voice, The Believer, OZY, and countless other publications. He’s also blind, and currently lives in the last remaining vestige of true Brooklyn.
Self-described local blindo, Andy Slater aka Velcro Lewis, will host the event. Slater will be sharing excerpts from his comic How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up, his new stand-up act Permission To Fail, and details of his work with the Society of Visually Impaired Sound Artists.
This event is supported by 3Arts, Bodies Of Work, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
“[Slackjaw] is an extraordinary emotional ride, through the lives and times of reader and writer alike, maniacally aglow with a born storyteller’s gifts of observation, an amiably deranged sense of humor, and a heart too bounced around by his history, and ours, not to have earned Mr. Knipfel, at last, an unsentimental clarity that is generous and deep.” –Thomas Pynchon
“Life hasn’t been easy for Jim Knipfel. He’s blind…He’s got a drinking problem. He’s been in an out of mental hospitals. He’s attempted suicide. But he’s managed to keep his sense of humor.”—Boston Herald
Thurs, July 19th, 7pm
More info:
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Robert K. Elder shares memories from THE MIXTAPE OF MY LIFE May 10th
Award-winning author, former rock photographer and journalist Robert K. Elder has composed the perfect walk down music memory lane in THE MIXTAPE OF MY LIFE: A Do-It-Yourself Music Memoir (Running Press; Trade Paperback Original; ISBN-13: 978-0762464074; 192 Pages/ $14.99).
THE MIXTAPE OF MY LIFE is a journal that guides user to write their autobiography through their music collection.
Sample questions from the book include:
What song or artist can’t you listen to because of a past romance?
What songwriter lied to or misled you?
What song allows you to time travel — that brings back a time and place so strongly that it’s palpable?No matter which musical generation you belong to, or whether your musical tastes range from doo-wop to Daft Punk, THE MIXTAPE OF MY LIFE can be instant conversation starter among friends and family.
Also enjoy work from these fine readers!
Andrew Huff
Liz Mason
Lou Carlozo“We all know that music is deeply intertwined with memory. The Mixtape of My Life is an astonishing tool for unlocking your long-forgotten histories.”
—Jason Bitner, author, Cassette From My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves
Elder is the author of seven books, including 2016’s Hidden Hemingway. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Salon.com, and many other publications. He has worked for Sun-Times Media and Crain Communications, and is the founder of Odd Hours Media.
For more info, visit: mixtapeofmylife.com
Thursday, May 10, 7pm – 8pm
Free Event
Here’s the Facebook Invite for this event!
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Esther K Smith & Dikko Faust show and tell Specimens of Chromatic Wood Type Borders &c & Purgatory Pie Press 4/19
Rustic Bride Mun! The Most Beautiful Book in the World! Esther K Smith & Dikko Faust of Purgatory Pie Press will show and tell William H. Page’s classic book Specimens of Chromatic Wood Type, Borders, &c.: The 1874 Masterpiece of Colorful Typography.
Esther K Smith first saw The Most Beautiful Book in the World at Chicago’s Newberry Library. As she turned the pages, she knew she needed to work with a big publisher to reprint the book so that she could own a copy. Specimens of Chromatic Wood Type Borders &c (Rizzoli) is a reprint of WH Page’s 1874 catalog of typography and ink from the exuberant early decades of manufactured color–available to the public for the first time. Page produced the largest and most detailed wood type which he distributed his type all over the world– throughout the US, Europe, and Asia–even Burma. One librarian said that though clothing faded and architecture was repainted, the brilliant inks inside the book retained the vivid intensity of the Victorian era. The text is found poetry which one viewer likened to Gertrude Stein. Smith and Faust will show pages from the book and talk about producing the reprint, working with six original copies in three rare book libraries. And they will discuss their own experience at Purgatory Pie Press, one of the longest running artist presses, printing and designing with wood type. Chromatic Wood Type is an opera of a book–and the opera it inspired (Soundscapes of Color) premiers April 22 at 6018 North. The composer, Michal Dzitko, will be present and they will show a short clip of the opera-in-progress.
“Take a wild ride through the polychrome world of nineteenth-century poster type. These letters are slathered with more ink and ornament than a tattooed sailor.” –Ellen Lupton, Senior Curator, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
“WOW. What a treasure to be saved and savored. And what an insane genius craftsman William H. Page was. this book is as fun to read as it is to look at, with its accidental (or perhaps totally intentional) bits of poetry, decades ahead of its time.” —Chip Kidd,
Esther K Smith is the author of the best-selling How to Make Books and Making Books with Kids, which Bank St. Education included in their Best Children’s Books of the Year. Smith collaborates with Dikko Faust making limited editions and artist books at Purgatory Pie Press. Their work is in many collections including the Newberry Library, The Metropolitan Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and London’s V&A.
For more info:
Images from the book!
Specimens-cover
detail
wood type
page
another pageesther(at)purgatorypiepress(dot)com
Facebook Event Invite for this event.
Thurs April 19, 7pm – Free Event
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Georgia Webber Reads From Dumb: Living Without a Voice 5/31
Toronto-based cartoonist Georgia Webber’s new book, Dumb (Fantagraphics Books), Part memoir, part medical cautionary tale, Dumb tells the story of how the book’s author copes with the everyday challenges that come with voicelessness. Webber adroitly uses the comics medium to convey the practical hurdles she faced as well as the fear and dread that accompanied her increasingly lonely journey to regain her life. Her raw cartooning style, occasionally devolving into chaotic scribbles, splotches of ink, and overlapping montages, perfectly captures her frustration and anxiety. But her ordeal ultimately becomes a hopeful story. Throughout, she learns to lean on the support of her close friends, finds self-expression in creating comics, and comes to understand and appreciate how deeply her voice and identity are intertwined.
“Webber wields the full power of the comics medium to address the life-changing catastrophe of being forced into silence.”
– Broken Frontier
Georgia Webber is a cartoonist living in Toronto, where she is a freelance comics in addition to editing the comics section of carte blanche. She is best known for Dumb, her autobiographical comics series about living with a vocal disability.
For more info:
Media inquiries to: cohen@fantagraphics.com
Thursday, May 31st 7pm – Free Event
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Justin O'Brien Reads From Chicago Yippie! '68
Justin O’Brien’s new book Chicago Yippie! ’68 (Garret Room Books) is a true chronicle of his experiences during the week of the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention. What promised to be a music festival and protest against the war in Vietnam turned into a “police riot,” as deemed by the official investigation report, Rights in Conflict. This historic event, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, has relevant echoes in the protests of today. Even other participants have been amazed by this detailed description of events. O’Brien’s gripping narrative is interwoven with additional eyewitness accounts and includes more than 150 color and black and white photos—most of them never before published, and three original maps help the reader pinpoint the action. Handbills, posters, newspapers, political buttons, and other paraphernalia—all from the author’s collection—provide fascinating visual references and offer graphic evidence of this historic Chicago moment.
“Justin O’Brien seemingly was ever-present during 1968’s Chicago Convention Week. His lively recollections from the streets and the parks resurrect a polarized time of counterculture protest and potential.”
—Abe Peck, Professor Emeritus in Service, Northwestern University;
Author, Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press“There is no book more loyal to the events that occurred over four August days in Chicago in 1968 than Justin O’Brien’s riveting Chicago Yippie! ’68. With his lucid, engaging prose, O’Brien effortlessly unwinds the various discordant threads that were so tightly woven into the fabric of the anti-war movements that defined the 1960s. Chicago Yippie! ’68 will take you back to a place that time may have muted, but that Mr. O’Brien has never forgotten.”
—Pat OwensWith more than 400 by-lines on a variety of subjects, Justin O’Brien has written extensively about blues music over a forty-year period, and for several decades has been associated with Living Blues magazine of the University of Mississippi. His work has also appeared in Juke Blues, Sing Out!, UIC Alumni News, Chicago Parent, Digital Chicago, Southern Graphics, and other publications. He has contributed to the Encyclopedia of the Blues (Routledge Press, 2005), Armitage Avenue Transcendentalists (Charles Kerr, 2009), and Base Paths: The Best of the Minneapolis Review of Baseball (Wm. Brown, 1991), to which, coincidentally, former Senator Eugene McCarthy, the “peace candidate” of 1968, wrote a foreword.
Friday, March 23, 7 p.m. – Free Event
For more info: garretroom.com
Facebook invite for this event here!
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Zizobotchi Rises at Quimby's: Selected Readings from Volume 2 on Friday, March 2nd
Join us for a night of selected readings from Zizobotchi Papers: volume 2, fall, 2017.
Zizobotchi Papers is a literary journal dedicated to the novella. Think double feature, with a paperback spine instead of a marquee.
Jeff Phillips will read from his latest novella, God’s Least Likely to Succeed, about the derailing of a secret agent’s first day on the job by an ancient cult’s infiltration of their operation.
Erin Makowski will read from Dan MacRae’s latest novella, The Dollmaker’s Grin, where an altercation changes a shuttle bus driver’s life, for better, and for much much worse.
Copies of the book will be for sale for $13.
Find out more about Zizobotchi Papers on the web at Zizobotchi.com
Jeff Phillips is a washed up varsity cross country skier and storefront theatre method actor. For two years he was co-host of The Liquid Burning, an apocalypse themed reading series, and for just shy of three years, he co-hosted the Chicago reading series Pungent Parlour. His short fiction has appeared in Seeding Meat, This Zine Will Change Your Life, Metazen, Chicago Literati, and Literary Orphans. He is the co-founder of Zizobotchi Papers, a literary journal dedicated to the novella and a regular contributor of short stories and essays at the site Drinkers With Writing Problems. You can find him on Twitter as @TheIglooOven or at theotherauthorjeffphillips.com
Erin Makowski has been acting and singing since her childhood. Her first production was as Gretel in ‘The Sound of Music’. Most of her younger years were spent in the Gilbert and Sullivan Company of El Paso going from the high seas in ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ to a little maid in school in Mikado. After her early schooling in the theater Erin received a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College right here in Chicago. Erin has worked with many companies in town, played extras on TV and sung her heart out for Cabaret audiences.
Fri, March 2nd, 7pm – Free Event