Quimby’s Bookstore · 1854 W. North Ave · Chicago, IL 60622 · 773-342-0910

Category: readings

  • Daniel Makagon Reads From Underground: The Subterranean Culture of DIY Punk Shows With Photographers Patrick Houdek and Craig Kamrath 9/15

    BookCoverNoSpineIn Daniel Makagon’s new book Underground: The Subterranean Culture of DIY Punk Shows (Microcosm), he writes about DIY punk shows in the USA. The book focuses on the development of a DIY punk touring network, the emergence of punk house shows, and the establishment of volunteer-run community punk show spaces. Makagon describes how DIY punk shows provide opportunities for punks to form communities and enact social and economic alternatives to top down mainstream music industry practices. Underground weaves interviews with punk band members and show promoters to flesh out an argument about the reasons why punk shows are at the core of doing DIY.

    “Daniel Makagon was there, and he’s likely forgotten more about DIY than many of you will ever know.”
    -Adam Pfahler, Jawbreaker

    Patrick Houdek has been photographing punk shows for nearly three decades. He founded the P&S Productions cassette compilation label in the 1980s and was involved with early show promotion at Lost Cross house in Carbondale, IL.

    Craig Kamrath has been photographing punk bands in the Midwest for the past ten years. He’s documented long-lasting and short-lived show spaces in Chicago as well as some of the most important DIY spaces in the Midwest.

    Patrick’s photos and Craig’s photos are featured in Underground.

    For more info contact Daniel Makagon: dmakagon(at)depaul(dot)edu

    Facebook event post for this event is here.

    Tuesday, September 15th, 7pm – Free Event

  • AL BURIAN Reading at Quimby’s – Burn Collector 20th Anniversary 8/22

    presidents1Al Burian, best known as writer/editor of BURN COLLECTOR zine and as a musician with the band MILEMARKER, returns to Quimby’s for a rare North American public appearance. The former Chicagoan and current Berlin ex-pat was a columnist for PUNK PLANET and more recently has contributed to VICE.com. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of BURN COLLECTOR, and Burian will celebrate by presenting a panoply of zines from all eras of his publishing career, including some new publications and mini-comics heretofore unavailable in the USA. Al Burian is known as an engaging, thought-provoking, and fearlessly funny spoken-word performer. This is his only midwestern date!

    “Dark and smart and weirdly simultaneously heartfelt and cynical and journalistically ambitious, too.” – Wells Tower, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned

    “Burian is one of our generation’s great storytellers, a wily and insightful observer of the human condition.” – Davy Rothbart, Found magazine

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    Al Burian began self-publishing in the early 1990’s. He has published numerous books in the USA, including Burn Collector: Collected Stories from 1-9 (2000) and Natural Disaster (2007) as well as the novel Sämtliche Niederlagen (2013) in Germany. His writing and comics have been anthologized by PM Press, Microcosm Publishing, Pegacorn Press, Ventil Verlag, and Stickfigure Publishing.

    More info: alburian.com

    Facebook event invite here.

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  • 8/1: Caseen Gaines presents We Don’t Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy!

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    Great Scott! Come celebrate the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future along with award-winning author Caseen Gaines. He is returning to   Quimby’s Bookstore to discuss and sign copies of his brand-new book, We Don’t Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy, which has been featured in Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, People Magazine, Vulture, and positively reviewed by NPR and Library Journal.

    We Don’t Need Roads includes original interviews with Zemeckis, Gale, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Huey Lewis, and over fifty others who contributed to one of the most popular and profitable film trilogies of all time. It’s the ultimate read for anyone who has ever wanted to ride a hoverboard, hang from the top of a clock tower, travel through the space-time continuum, or find out what really happened to Eric Stoltz after the first six weeks of filming.

    Complete with rare and previously unreleased photographs, fans of the timeless can learn all they didn’t know about Back to the Future – by those who caught lightning 30 years ago.

    “Caseen Gaines has written a very compelling and enjoyable history of our trilogy. Reading it was like going back in time. And – Great Scott – there were even a few anecdotes that I’d never heard!” – Bob Gale, co-creator, co-producer, and co-writer of the Back to the Future trilogy

    “The most enlightening and informative book I’ve read since Grays Sports Almanac. Every true fan of the Holy Trilogy should own a copy. It’s your density.” – Ernest Cline, bestselling author of Ready Player One

    Invite your friends with the Facebook post for this event!

    For press inquiries, contact Mary Pomponio, mpomponio(at)penguinrandomhouse(dot)com

    Saturday, August 1, 2015 at 7:00pm

     

  • Bob Suren reads from Crate Digger: An Obsession with Punk Records 7/17

    cdig_lgCrate Digger: An Obsession with Punk Records is a funny, honest and personal memoir of thirty years in the D.I.Y. punk scene. There are stories about touring, recording studios and record stores. There are stories about success, failure, disappointment, self-actualization and heartbreak. There are 60,000+ words, 192 pages and 39 photos. The story takes place over three decades in nine countries on four continents. There are nine deaths, two basset hounds and one love poem. There are special appearances by Jello Biafra, Ron Reyes (possibly), Tesco Vee, Joey Shithead, Cheetah Chrome and one very serious FBI agent.

    

    "Really brings to life the early days of the American punk scene as it spread slowly across the country, through turntables, fanzines, and word of mouth.  His vivid vinyl recollections illustrate how good record stores and adventurous college radio stations were so essential in bringing startling new music into the lives of many previously isolated kids.  It follows the trajectory of a kid as his passion for music became all-consuming."
    

    – Jeff Nelson, Minor Threat and Dischord Records
    

    

    "A fun, easy-to-read, personal narrative of 30 years of living through "Punk Rock" - finding records, going to concerts, making discoveries, and a myriad of other experiences - that help the reader "make sense" of a still-inspiring cultural revolution and breakthrough "philosophy of life" that spawned the current "entrepreneurial culture" (where everybody wants to start their own "start-up"). D-I-Y, indeed..."
    

    -- V. Vale, founder of SEARCH & DESTROY and RE/SEARCH Publications
    

     
    

    Bob Suren has written for numerous underground music magazines over the decades such as Maximum Rocknroll, Engine, Seven Inches to Freedom and published his own magazine, Heavy Rotation. Crate Digger is his first book.
    

    For more info: microcosmpublishing.com or surentime(at)gmail(dot)com 
    

    Untitled2Fri, July 17th, 7pm
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    CAKE Presents . . . A Conversation with Eleanor Davis, John Porcellino, and Keiler Roberts Moderated by Hillary Chute 6/5
    
			
    Poster_Low-Res porcWhat better way to usher in CAKE weekend than a conversation with three of the most innovative cartoonists working today? If there’s a graphic narratives supergroup—the Emerson, Lake, & Palmer of American indie comics—this is it.
    

     
    

    Eleanor Davis’s Fantagraphics collection How to Be Happy was just nominated for a 2015 Eisner Award. Keiler Roberts’s series Powdered Milk is a consistently stunning example of why so many of us fell in love with autobiographical comics in the first place. John Porcellino’s The Hospital Suite was one of the most critically acclaimed comics of 2014. With King-Cat Comics and Stories now 25 years old and going stronger than ever, John remains one of the guiding lights of the indie comics scene and for CAKE itself. Hillary Chute, comics scholar extraordinaire, author of Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics and Outside the Box: Interviews with Contemporary Cartoonists, will moderate this exciting roundtable.
    

    Please join us for a rocking, inspiring kick-off event for CAKE 2015! For more information on this event & on the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, visit cakechicago.com . CAKE is June 6th-June 7th. Quimby’s is proud to be a co-sponsor.
    

    Click here for the Facebook invite for this event.
    

    Friday, June 5th, 7pm – Free Event!
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Jessica Hopper Reads From The First Collection of Criticism By a Living Female Rock Critic 5/29
    
			
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    Featherproof is proud to announce the publication of legendary rock critic Jessica Hopper’s newest book, The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic, in Spring 2015.
    

    Jessica Hopper’s music criticism has earned her a reputation as one of the firebrands of the form, a keen observer and fearless critic not just of music, but the culture around it, revealing new truths that often challenge us to consider what it is to be a fan.
    

    With this premiere volume, spanning from her punk fanzine roots to her landmark piece on R. Kelly’s past, The First Collection leaves no doubt why the New York Times has called Hopper’s work “influential.” Not merely a selection of two decades of Hopper’s most engaging, thoughtful and humorous writing, this book serves as a document of the last 20 years of American music making and the shifting landscape of music consumption.
    

    Through this vast range of album reviews, essays, columns, interviews, and oral histories, Hopper chronicles what it is to be truly obsessed with music, the ideas in songs and albums, how fantasies of artists become complicated by real life, and just what happens when you follow that obsession into muddy festival fields, dank basements, corporate offices or court records.
    

    PRAISE FOR THE FIRST COLLECTION OF CRITICISM BY A LIVING FEMALE ROCK CRITIC BY JESSICA HOPPER
    

    “Jessica Hopper’s criticsm is a trenchant and necessary counterpoint not just on music, but on our culture at large.” —Annie Clark, St. Vincent
    

    “In this crucial book, Hopper schools us all on the art of criticism. You’ll be reminded, as I was, why you care to read and write about (and listen to!) music to begin with. Hopper’s relationship with music is a joy to behold.” —Tavi Gevinson, Editor-in-Chief, Rookie
    

    “I read Hopper’s book with a sense of bewildered gratitude. She concedes nothing to the idea that it is dumb to care so much. The excitement in her work is that these things are worth scrapping about.” —Rob Sheffield, author of Love is a Mixtape
    

    About Jessica Hopper:
    

    Jessica Hopper’s music criticism has been included in Best Music Writing 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2011. Her first book, The Girls Guide to Rocking, was named one of 2009’s Notable Books for Young Readers by the American Library Associa- tion. She is Senior Editor at Pitchfork and the Editor-in-Chief of The Pitchfork Review. She lives in Chicago with her husband and two young sons.
    

    Click here for the Facebook invite for this event.
    

    For  press inquiries:   Dana  Meyerson   dana(at)biz3(dot)net
    

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    Josh Simmons Reads From Black River 5/7
    
			
    

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    Josh Simmons returns with his first full-length graphic novel since 2007’s acclaimed House. A group of women, one man, and two dogs are making their way through a post-apocalyptic world in search of a city that supposedly still has electricity and some sort of civilization. Along the way, they go to a comedy club, take a drug called Gumdrop, and encounter gangs of men who are fools, lunatics, or murderous sadists. In other words, all manner of terrors.
    

    Simmons is one of the field’s most distinctive voices in the genre of horror, (The Furry Trap, House) and this full-length graphic novel is his best work yet – echoing director John Carpenter’s perfect tick-tock pacing, as well as Shirley Jackson’s ability to transcend genre and turn it into literature.
    

     “Josh Simmons has concocted a hellish world in which madwomen roam a post-apocalyptic landscape – but its battlescars are nothing compared to the self-obliterating hell of their own minds. A horrifying, unforgettable vision.” 
    

    – Kier-La Janisse (House of Psychotic Women)
    

     
    

    Josh Simmons was born in Connecticut in 1977. He is the creator of the graphic novels House, Jessica Farm Volume One, and The Furry Trap. He currently lives in New Haven, CT.
    

    For more info:
    

    jhscomics.tumblr.com/
    

    http://www.fantagraphics.com/blackriver
    

    Click here to see video of pages from the book.
    

    Facebook event invite for the event.
    

    Thursday, May 7th, 7pm – Free Event
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Kristy Bowen reads from Major Characters in Minor Films 4/3
    
			
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“Get ready: Kristy Bowen’s major characters in minor films casts our favorite muse du jour in a ‘white-hot, white dress.’ Through poems that are lyrical, irreverent, and a little bit naughty, we discover the swanky, labyrinthine interior of her straight-to-DVD universe: remember, she tells us in ‘movie of the week,’ ‘Everybody loves a victim, especially the blonde, pretty kind.’ Through scathing missives to James Franco and sensual harangues directed at the moon, our wine-stained diva tempts us through vivacious non sequiturs to the ‘poem within a movie within a girl-shaped world’ in all of us.” -Sara Henning, author of A Sweeter Water
    

    “I want to be best friends with the ‘I’ of this book. She’s hilarious. She’s heartbreaking. She’s more than a little bit dangerous. Whether she’s writing about crying on the bus or hiding a knife under the sink, she deals out her words like a card shark—fast, sure, sly. What’s not to love about such a deft performance of wit, skill, and heart?” -Sara Biggs Chaney, author of Ann Coulter’s Letter to the Young Poets
    

    “In Kristy Bowen’s major characters in minor films, language moves like a camera, cutting from image to image, leaving impressions that form intriguing fragmented narratives of love, intrigue, mystery and damage. Populated with both the familiar and the strange, with rabbits and birds as well as whiskey and fire, the journey through the scenes these poems create is a wild and rich ride.” -Donna Vorreyer, author of A House of Many Windows
    

    A writer and visual artist, Kristy Bowen is the author of several book, chapbook, and zine projects including the shared properties of water and stars (Noctary Press, 2013) and girl show (Black Lawrence Press, 2014).  Her work has appeared most recently in Birdfeast, Diode, and Eratio.  She  lives in Chicago, where she runs dancing girl press & studio. For  more  info:  kristybowen.net 
    

    Click here to see Facebook invite for this event.
    

    Fri, April 3rd, 7pm, Free Event
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Offsite: Quimby's Night at LiveWire Lounge: 3 Songs, 3 Writers Reading About Those Songs 3/22
    
			
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The LiveWire Lounge (3394 N Milwaukee) asked Quimby’s if we wanted to curate a night at their lounge. And we said yes. So this is what we’re bringing, a themed mix of reading and music with a very specific focus:
    

    Quimby’s Night at LiveWire Lounge: 3 Songs, 3 Writers Reading About Those Songs
    

    Original Readings by:
    

     Mike “McBeardo” McPadden, reading about Kiss Me Deadly by Generation X
    
Celia Forrest, reading about Black and White by the DBs
    
Dan Kelly, reading about X Offender by Blondie
    

    All 3 songs performed by The Blue Ribbon Glee Club
    

    Celia Forrest is a writer, director, teacher and actress who was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. She is a new mother and couldn’t shut up about it if she tried. She is well-known in Minnesota for her work teaching theater to kids and her award-winning turn in Neil Labute’s Fat Pig. In Chicago she is mostly known for her sketch comedy writing and directing, as well for her work on The People’s Republic of Edward Snowden. Celia is also famous in a subset of radical activists as a co-host of Morning Damnit, the morning news and talk show on Q4 Radio, and the weekly program The Celia and Erik Show, which features comedy, commentary and interviews with local artists. Find her on Twitter at twitter.com/thatcelia
    

     Mike “McBeardo” McPadden is the author of Heavy Metal Movies: Guitar Barbarians, Mutant Bimbos, and Cult Zombies Amok in the 666 Most Ear- and Eye-Ripping Big Scream Films Ever! (Bazillion Points, 2014) and the upcoming Going All the Way: The Ultimate Guide to Teen Sex Comedy Films of the VHS Era (Bazillion Points, 2016). You will love him. More info at mcbeardo.com.
    

    Dan Kelly is the author of Hilaretic. He is not to be confused with the Australian judoka and mixed martial artist Dan Kelly. He occasionally writes for The Baffler and Gapers Block. He blogs at mrdankelly.com/blog.
    

    The Blue Ribbon Glee Club is Chicago’s punk rock a capella glee club, and regularly performs songs by Fugazi, Gang of Four, the Dead Kennedys, the Buzzcocks and more.
    

    Please note: This event is NOT at Quimby’s. It is at the LIVEWIRE LOUNGE | 3394 N MILWAUKEE AVE, CHICAGO, IL
    

    Facebook event post can be found here.LiveWire Lounge
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Oyez Review Issue 42 Launch Reading Featuring Donna Vorreyer& Friends 3/20
    
			
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    The Oyez Review, Roosevelt University’s award-winning literary journal, has been in publication for over forty years. Among other readers relevant to issue #42, Donna Vorreyer will read a selection of her poems including “Compline with a Dream of Folded Arms,” which is also featured in this issue.
    

    Donna Vorreyer is the author of A House of Many Windows (Sundress Publications, 2013) as well as six chapbooks, most recently Encantado, a collaboration with artist Matt Kish from Redbird Chapbook (released in April 2015). She has been a repeat nominee for the Pushcart Prize, and her work has appeared in journals such as Sugar House Review, Sou’wester, Rhino, Linebreak, and Cider Press Review. She is an assistant poetry editor for Extract(s), and her second collection is forthcoming from Sundress Publications in 2016.
    

    For more info:
    

    oyezreview.wordpress.com
    

    donnavorreyer.com
    

    facebook event post for this event.
    

    oyezreview(at)roosevelt(dot)edu
    

    Friday, March 20, 7pm – Free EventDonna Vorreyer author photo