Category: Store Events

  • Pop-Up Book Fair at the Empty Bottle 12/9 2pm-7pm

    In conjunction with Chicago Writers House and The Chicagoan, Curbside Splendor Publishing presents:

    A POP-UP BOOK FAIR!

    Chicago’s finest independent publishers will be on hand hocking their goods. Quimby’s Bookstore will also stock a table with a selection of books/zines penned by Chicagoans. The bar will be open so grab a cocktail and listen to live music all afternoon as you ogle some books and satiate your bibliophiliac needs!

    FREE with an RSVP at:

    http://www.emptybottle.com/show/3188944/

    Otherwise $5 at the door.

    This tasty event is 21+ unless minors are accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

    Current list of participating Chicago literary folks (check the Facebook Event Page for constant updates) :
    &Now Books
    7 Vientos
    826chi
    Allium Press
    Anobium Literary Magazine
    Another Chicago Magazine
    ANTIBOOKCLUB
    Anything Goes Publishing
    Artifice
    Burial Day Books
    Chicago Center for Literature and Photography (CCLaP)
    Chicago Zine Fest
    contratiempo
    Convulsive Editions
    Curbside Splendor Publishing
    Dancing Girl Press
    Dream of Things
    Graze Magazine
    The Handshake
    Kenning Editions
    MAKE Magazine
    Other Voices (OV) Books
    Quimby’s Books
    Solace in So Many Words
    Switchback Books
    Two With Water

    Sweet Tunes provided by:
    Good Evening
    Mr. Mayor and the Highballers
    Wooden Wing
    & more!

    Please note: This event is NOT at Quimby’s. It is at the Empty Bottle at 1035 N. Western Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60622.

    Click here to go to the Facebook event page for this event.

  • 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

  • Granta’s Best of Young Brazilian Novelists Launches at Quimby’s 11/13

    As part of a global event series, Granta is coming to Chicago to launch The Best of Young Brazilian Novelists. Visiting Brazilian authors Cristhiano Aguiar, Miguel del Castillo and current Chicago-local Chico Mattoso will join Granta editor John Freeman to read from and explore their first works translated into English. From the story of a family marked by guerilla resistance to the military dictatorship in Uruguay to the memory of lost love to a man whose ennui drives him to check out of his life by checking into a hotel, these are the bold, cosmopolitan new voices of Brazil. Granta 121: The Best of Young Brazilian Novelists is the English-language edition of the best-selling collection from Granta em portugues, Granta’s Brazilian partner.

     ‘Here are Jorge Amado’s vibrant offspring; proof that one of the great pleasures of reading is finding the unexpected, the voices we didn’t even know we needed,’ says Freeman.

    Chico Mattoso is currently studying screenwriting at Northwestern, is the author of two novels and has worked as a magazine editor and journalist. Writer and essayist Cristhiano Aguiar is a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley and was the editor of two experimental Brazilian literary magazines. Once an architecture student and editor of Noz architecture magazine, Miguel del Castillo is a prize-winning author who also works as an editor at Cosac Naify publishing house. 

    Tuesday, November 13th, 7pm – Free Event

    For more info: granta.com

  • All The Writers I Know Series Presents “Things Already Said” 11/17

    Queer literary showcase All The Writers I Know will be hosting a night of spoken word performances titled “Things Already Said” about influences in queer art and life on November 17th. Co-produced by Patrick Gill and Mar Curran, ATWIK strives to showcase local queer spoken word talent in an all-ages setting.

    “Our goal is to bring queer artists together in a space that is safe for them to share their work and also affirming of their queerness,” Gill (pictured) said. Curran added, “We hope that exploring who has influenced their poetry, spoken word, storytelling, or fiction will be a way for our performers to celebrate who they’ve become. We want the audience to see it as both an homage to those before us and a love letter to who they have developed into.”

    Hosting the event is Curran, known for performing his poetry at local showcases such as Word Is Out and Homolatte, in addition to writing for In Our Words blog. Featured performers include H. Melt, Ali Scott, and Jayson Brooks; three other performers will be announced before the showcase.

    For more info: visit ATWIK’s Facebook page

    Saturday, Nov. 17, 7pm – Free Event

  • 33 1/3 Author Michael Fournier Reads Hidden Wheel With Katie Lattari

    Michael T. Fournier’s novel Hidden Wheel (Three Rooms Press) uses the author’s twenty years in and around the Boston punk scene as a springboard for an unflinching look at the difficulties of navigating art, commerce and criticism in the Digital Age. In the fictional town of Freedom Springs, bands and artists alike flock to Hidden Wheel, a DIY art/music space owned by a Chicago transplant intent on profiting from the scene. Rhonda Barrett, a onetime chess prodigy turned dominatrix, rails against the coming Singularity –and the commodification of the town’s nascent scene– with her 60-words-a-day diary paintings.

    He reads with Maine fiction author Katie Lattari, whose Zembla Vist’s American Vaudville embraces postmodern tradition with a fresh, engaging voice.

    “Fournier realizes that scenes are forged by the energy of people involved and remembered by the tomes they leave behind, and nails both perspectives. It’s managed to make me excited about albums both real and fake, which is no small achievement.” Sebastien Stirling, Newartillery.com

    Michael T. Fournier is the author of “Double Nickels On The Dime,” the 45th installment of Continuum Press’s “33 1/3” series. His writing has appeared in the Oxford American, Boston Phoenix and Pitchfork. Fournier has read with Richard Hell, Maria Raha, Sam McPheeters and Mike Watt.

    He plays drums for punk band Dead Trend, who started as a fictional band in the pages of his novel.

    For more info: michaeltfournier.tumblr.com 

    Saturday, 10th November 7pm – Free Event

  • Off-Site event: Quimby's Co-Sponsors Karaoke Idol at the Beauty Bar Chicago 10/18


    The next installment of Chicago’s favorite live karaoke battle KARAOKE IDOL cheeses up the stage at Beauty Bar Chicago on Thursday, Oct 18th at 8PM! This is a bi-monthly series benefitting different cool Chicago-based companies and organizations. One singer from each the following organizations will battle it out to determine who will benefit.

    This month, competitors representing these fine organizations will compete:
    Chicago Zine Fest
    One Tail at a Time
    Young Chicago Authors
    Reversible Eye
    & Graze

    Celebrity Judges Mason Johnson, Amy Guth, & Jacob Knabb, and KJ Gods “Shameless Karaoke” will preside.

    Show up at 8PM to compete in an epic hour-and-a-half long karaoke free-for-all! Sign up to sing your ass off for a chance to be chosen as the 6th contestant by our celebrity judges!

    Tune in at 10PM as 2 FINALISTS are chosen from the field of 6 to compete in Chicago’s ultimate karaoke death-match.

    YOU DECIDE THE WINNER! Ultimately CHICAGO DECIDES who wins based upon audience applause so come ready to cheer for your favorite performer!

    Be sure to stick around afterward for OPEN KARAOKE. Just come early or stay late so you can sign up & belt out your favorite songs when your turn arrives.

    KARAOKE IDOL is brought to you every other month at Beauty Bar Chicago by Curbside Splendor Publishing, Another Chicago Magazine, & Quimby’s Bookstore.
    21+
    $5 cover

    Please note: this event is NOT at Quimby’s. It is at the Beauty Bar at 1444 W Chicago Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60622

    More info:
    Click here for the FB page for the event.
    Click here for the Karaoke Idol Chicago FB page.
    Click here for the Beauty Bar site.
    curbsidesplendor.com

  • Dame Darcy Reads Handbook for Hot Witches: Dame Darcy's Illustrated Guide to Magic, Love, and Creativity

    Just in time for Halloween! Quimby’s is excited to welcome Dame “Meat Cake” Darcy for her new book Handbook for Hot Witches.

    Plenty of artwork to satisfy her comics and illustration fans both young and old, Dame Darcy combines a graphic novel with a dash of crafts, a sprinkle of feminist fairy tales, and a whole cauldron of spells and voilà! Handbook for Hot Witches: Dame Darcy’s Illustrated Guide to Magic, Love, and Creativity is the guide for girls who want cool things to do and great friends to do them with, who aren’t afraid to be their different, awesome selves. It’s a celebration of powerful, creative girls—the sort of girls who may have been called “witches” once, but who, as this book proclaims, are “hot,” because of their talent and their uniqueness. With sections on banjo playing, beauty spells, palm reading, and much more, this fully illustrated handbook will send girls of any age on their way to independence, creativity, and magic DIY-style.

    “Part graphic novel, part New Age primer, with dashes of astrology and crafts and pinches of beauty hints, the book packs a lot into its 200 pages.” —School Library Journal

    What others have said about Dame Darcy:

    “Darcy’s comics are aesthetic manifestos. . . . Darcy is a star.” —The New York Times

    “I think she’s exquisite, let’s put it that way. I wish I knew her in high school.” —Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth

    Praise for Meat Cake:

    “[Darcy] has created a childlike, otherworldly realm, a land that hovers in the twilight space between the whimsical and the macabre. Ghosts and goblins, foul-tempered stepmothers, lovesick mermaids and charmed forest are all rendered in Darcy’s distinctive hand, loose and flowing lines reminiscent of the work of Edward Gorey.” —The Los Angeles Times

     Dame Darcy currently resides in New York City and Savannah, Georgia. She is known worldwide as an illustrator, writer, fine artist, musician, filmmaker, animator, environmentalist, and Cabaret Mermaid. Her illustrated titles include The Illustrated Jane Eyre, and she has been publishing her comic book series, Meat Cake, for twenty years. More info about her at damedarcy.com.

  • Scott Campbell Discusses Great Showdowns


    Since the beginning of time, there has been struggle. The epic clash of being against being. Tyrannosaurus Rex vs. Triceratops. Giant Squid vs. the Sperm Whale. The Circle vs. the Square.  The struggle is forever. It makes the world turn around. These are the struggles that make us stop what we are doing and sort of check things out… wondering what the eff. Scott C. chronicles some of the greatest confrontations in FILM HISTORY. The greatest moments of melee. These are the GREAT SHOWDOWNS. And they sort of enjoy that they are the great showdowns.

    With equal parts style, humor, and insight, Scott C. has delighted an international fanbase with his unique watercolor paintings, illustrations, and drawings. Amazing Everything: The Art of Scott C. is his first monograph, the best and most imaginative works of art in his emerging career.

    Admirers and collectors seek out Scott C.’s appearances at such diverse venues as Comic-Con in San Diego and Galerie Arludik in Paris to see his unusual depictions of pop-culture subjects and original creations: Victorian-era dinosaurs at high tea; lumberjacks and their sometimes-awkward relationship with trees; and ninjas lounging in their living room at home. These and other reflections of Scott C.’s artistic vision have kept him on the radar of such pop-culture trend outlets as Flavorpill and Hi-Fructose.

  • Jobie Hughes Celebrates Release of At Dawn

    Based on Jobie Hughes’ own life journey, Jobie Hughes’ new novel, At Dawn, presents a raw and gritty coming of age tale that powerfully captures the angst and big questions of today’s generation. Set against the background of the recent American recession, former high school wrestling champion Stratton Brown, escapes a dark past in his small Ohio hometown for a new beginning in the Windy City. Beneath the gruff labor of building a new life, he eventually discovers a way past the ghosts of his past and a new path to the American dream.

    “Hughes combines coming-of-age tale, portrait of the artist as a young man, and father-son saga in a well-crafted novel…[with] pathos, wit and insight into the relationships that define our lives.” ––Publishers Weekly

    Jobie Hughes is a graduate of Columbia University’s School of the Arts. He made national headlines as “Pittacus Lore,” the mysterious co-author of the # 1 New York Times science-fiction bestsellers I Am Number Four (co-written with James Frey) and The Power of Six  which have sold over a million copies worldwide. His work has been translated into twenty-six languages and published in forty-eight countries.

    For more information on Jobie Hughes, visit jobiehughes.com

    Thurs, Oct 25, 7pm

  • Thomas Frank Reads From Pity the Billionaire 10/23

    From the bestselling author of What’s the Matter with Kansas?, this witty and highly provocative book asks a simple question: How is it possible that the disastrous collapse of the free market economy in 2008 could have heralded a popular revival—of the right?

    In Pity the Billionaire, a brilliant, funny, and disturbing tour de force, Thomas Frank analyzes the sleight of hand involved in the right’s resurgence—all the upside-down grievances that have transformed economic suffering into valentines for the rich and powerful. This great chronicler of American paradox dissects the contradictions at the heart of the country’s politics, and in this “dazzling” book once again shows himself as “one of the best left-wing writers America has produced” (The Guardian).

    Founding editor of The Baffler, Thomas Frank is the author of One Market Under God, The Conquest of Cool and other titles. He is also a contributor to Harpers, The Nation, and the New York Times op-ed pages.

    Tues, Oct 23rd, 7pm