Category: Store Events

  • Tao Lin Reads From Richard Yates

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    Richard Yates is a startling change of direction for Lin: his trademark minimalism takes on a much darker edge as he narrates the story of a young man dealing with the consequences of an affair with an underage girl.  But buried within Lin’s work is a more troubling question—what exactly constitutes illicit sex for a generation with no rules?  Tao Lin’s second novel tracks the relationship between writer Haley Joel Osment, a New Yorker in his early twenties, and Dakota Fanning, his 16-year-old lover.  Moving between Fanning’s suburban home and Osment’s Wall Street apartment, the couple increasingly shuns the outside world as they work to navigate the moral ambiguity of their love. But as they grow more obsessive and become more intimately involved, Fanning reveals her increasingly self-destructive personality.  Osment’s own guilt and anger entrap him as they find the relationship—and their lives—hurtling out of control. 

    “Richard Yates is hilarious, menacing, and hugely intelligent. Tao Lin is a Kafka for the iPhone generation. He has that most important gift: it’s impossible to imagine anyone else writing like he does and sounding authentic. Yet he has already spawned a huge school of Lin imitators. As precocious and prolific as he is, every book surpasses the last. Tao Lin may well be the most important writer under thirty working today.”
    —Clancy Martin, author of How to Sell

    For more info: http://www.mhpbooks.com and http://richardyates.info

  • Joe Janes and Friends Read From 365 Sketches

    365 Sketches

    Joe Janes does not believe in writer’s block. To prove the point, he wrote a full comedy sketch a day for a year and posted them live on his blog for everyone to read and comment on. Pretty brave for a teacher at the famed Second City and Columbia College. Many of his best friends tried to talk him out of doing 365 Sketches, but Joe decided to put his butt on the line. The general quality of the scenes were so high and the topic and styles so varied, all 365 sketches were performed at Strawdog Theater in a WNEP production earlier this year over the course of eleven nights with 26 directors and over 175 actors. The book is being lauded for not only being a fun read, but also a primer for comedy writers.

    Joining Joe Janes will be some of Chicago’s finest comedic actors; Kevin Gladish, Chloé Ditzel, Bernie Balbot and Heath Cordts. They will be performing some of the most popular comic monologues from 365 Sketches.

    For more info: http://365sketchesbyjoejanes.blogspot.com

  • Author Kyle Smith Reads from His New Novel 85A

    85A

    Kyle Smith will read from his Chicago-set coming-of-age novel out this summer from Bascom Hill Publishing Group. Set in late 1980s Chicago, 85A follows its half Johnny Rotten, half Holden Caulfield antihero, Seamus O’Grady, through a watershed day in his adolescent life. As a gay teen from a conservative Catholic home—in one of the most racist neighborhoods of a notoriously segregated city—Seamus begins to seek his niche in 1980s Chicago’s multicultural punk and bohemian circles.

    Originally from Chicago, Smith infuses 85A with the rich detail of his own experiences with the Chicago punk scene as his protagonist struggles with universal themes of identity, rebellion and belonging. Today, Smith lives in Brooklyn, New York and regularly contributes to Edge, The Brooklyn Rail, and WhiteHot Magazine.

    “Like Holden [Caulfield], Seamus serves as an important reminder of the universal urge to self-define in a world hostile to anyone who dares to be different.” – Edge on the Net

    “[Seamus’] treatment at the hands of his family and his teachers is heart-wrenching.” – Booklist

    For more information, visit: http://85anovel.com/events.htm

  • Aaron Renier Signs THE UNSINKABLE WALKER BEAN

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    Adventure on the high seas!  A cursed skull!  Fearsome pirates!  Wicked sea-witches!  And almost certain peril!    Boy inventor Walker Bean and his scruffy new friends must summon their courage to face the direst scourges of the sea in this all-new graphic novel by Aaron Renier.  For this signing, Quimby’s presents a unique event with Aaron, with a signing followed by piratical interactive drawing activities.

    “So beautiful are the drawings that I can smell the sea salt and feel the spray as giant creatures of the deep draw near the ocean’s surface.  Outrageous and wonderful!” – Jeff Smith, creator of Bone

    “Aaron’s work makes me feel ten years old again.  He makes me want to whip up a root beer float, climb into a pirate-ship-playhouse, slap on a record of sea chanteys and read Walker Bean over and over.  The guys’a bit of a mad genius.” – Lane Smith, illustrator of The Stinky Cheese Man

    “The Unsinkable Walker Bean is gorgeous.  Jump feet first into this rip-roaring, wild-eyed, high-sea adventure story.  Join up with a young, pudgy, bespectacled hero, a brave powder monkey, a terrifying girl with the best red pigtails since Pippi Longstocking, and two seriously revolting sea witches.  Be prepared.  You’re going to love it.”  — Brian Selznick, creator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret

    For more info: http://aaronrenier.com/

  • Zines On Toast Show at Quimby's

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    An evening of entertainment and information with zine writers from the UK (Rumlad, Last Hours, Hey Monkey Riot and Morgenmuffel) on tour with Portland’s Alex Wrekk (Brainscan zine and Stolen Sharpie Revolution). Join them for accounts of UK zine culture including stories from Alex’s trip to the UK last year, plus tales of the London zine symposium, vegan mass catering, UK social centres, revolution, punk rock, anarchy and more! For more info: http://zinesontoast.org

    Alex Wrekk “Author of the popular how-to guide of zine-making, Stolen Sharpie Revolution, over fifteen years of zine-making under her belt, and the most intimate details of her life photocopied, stapled, and mailed around the world, this is a woman committed to taking her experiences in life and putting them on display in a way that is not for ratings or profit. Rather, she does it for the love of writing, creating, and sharing.” (Feminist Review) www.smallworldbuttons.com

    Isy Morgenmuffel “For the past ten years Morgenmuffel comic zine has been documenting the world that Isy inhabits. A world of riots in the city of London, cooking for hundreds of punks, starting housing co-ops, local social centres, or simply hanging out with friends and drinking. Through it all Isy’s love of life, and humour, is at the heart of the stories.” (Last Hours)  www.morgenmuffel.co.uk

    Edd Baldry, a radical illustrator and editor of Last Hours, and creator of Hey Monkey Riot: “Edd’s perhaps one of the few people drawing autobio comics who actually does interesting stuff, … with an angle on activism which is celebratory rather than polemical, yet also unafraid to point out absurdities.” (Lucid Frenzy) www.eddbaldry.co.uk

    Steve Larder “Rum Lad is part comic, part scene report, part diary but all with a subtle positivity that works to remind you that being a punk is fucking awesome.” (Pete Willis)  www.stevelarder.co.uk

    Tom Fiction and Natalie of Last Hours magazine and resource for creative resistance, and the London Zine Symposium, an annual event now in its 6th year.  www.lasthours.org.uk

  • Joey Comeau Reads From One Bloody Thing After Another

    One Bloody Thing

    One Bloody Thing After Another is a funny, strange, and sad book about the horror of losing family, and the things people will do to hold on. Jackie’s mother, who died of cancer, is still around. Glowing in the dark, vomiting into the toilet, but nobody else can see her. And Jackie has a crush on a girl named Ann, though Ann has other things to worry about. Her own mother and sister have turned into violent creatures, and she has to keep them locked in the basement so they won’t hurt anyone. But they need to be fed living things, so Ann starts hunting neighbourhood pets. She’s against this idea, but, you know, family is important.

    Joey Comeau, writes the comic A Softer World, which has appeared in The Guardian and been profiled in Rolling Stone. He’s the author of Overqualified and Lockpick Pornography. You can find him online at http://www.asofterworld.com.

    “The tone is poignant, sometimes wistful, and deadpan funny . . . The novel is more eccentric than gory, and what’s really shocking about it is that all the mayhem is finally about family ties, both severed and reconnected.” — Booklist

    “Canadian author Comeau, best known for his darkly surreal Web comic, A Softer World, turns his adaptable talents to overt horror in this oddly touching novel of ghosts, friendship, bloody secrets, and family relationships. . . . the crescendos of terror are leavened by moments of unexpected humor and warmth.” — Publishers Weekly

    For more info: http://www.ecwpress.com/onebloodything

  • Susan Slaviero and Kristina Marie Darling

    When asked about her influences, Susan Slaviero points to three enduring sources: popular culture, feminist theory, and a fascination with the lyric tradition. Not a likely combination for a poet, but one that has brought forth Cyborgia (Mayapple Press), a stunning debut collection that explores the intersection of female identity, technology, and the body.  Filled zombies, robots, “nickel marionettes,” and “electric women,” Slaviero’s book presents physical reality alongside the artificial and constructed, skillfully blurring the boundaries between the two.
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    “Melding the language of sci-fi and sensuality, Cyborgia wallows delightfully in its rhythm and vocabulary, yet remains sharp and meticulous, slicing through the barriers of mechanism and the female body, of systems and viscera, where the women are filled with milk and smoke, rainwater and wristwatches, fractals and fish”—Kristy Bowen

    Also reading is Kristina Marie Darling, a St. Louis author whose first book of poems, Night Songs, was just released by Gold Wake Press.  Kristina is the author of several chapbooks, which include Fevers and Clocks (March Street Press) and The Traffic in Women (Dancing Girl Press).  Awards include residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, VCCA, and Ragdale.

  • Jon Cotner and Andy Fitch read from Ten Walks/Two Talks

    Ten Walks/Two Talks combines a series of sixty-minute, sixty-sentence walks around Manhattan with a pair of roving dialogues—one of which takes place during a late-night “philosophical” ramble through Central Park. Mapping 21st-centure New York, Cotner and Fitch update the meandering and meditative form of Basho’s travel diaries to construct a descriptive/dialogic fugue.

    TenWalks

    “Barbed with genius.” -Wayne Koestenbaum

    “Poetry in motion.” -Lynne Tillman

    “Magic… A new way of moving through our worlds.” -The Boston Phoenix

    [Five-Star Review] “Fantastic… A deceptively simple book, Ten Walks/Two Talks demands little but offers much. Cotner and Fitch invite us to experience our city with fresh pleasure and renewed awe.” -Time Out New York

    “I hate exercise, and I hate conversation, but I love Ten Walks/Two Talks.” -HTMLGIANT

    “This is a gift, a beautiful book, and nothing in it is forgettable.” -Bookslut

    Also joining the bill are Chicago authors Joel Craig, who will read from his book Shine Tomorrow (Lost Horse), and Jessica Savits, who will read from her book Hunting is Painting (&Now Books).

    For more info: http://www.uglyducklingpresse.org/catalog/browse/item/?pubID=63

  • Off-Site Event! Quimby's Co-Sponsors Clockwork Vaudeville at Exit!


    Clockwork Vaudeville is Chicago’s Premiere Steampunk Dance party, this month featuring among other things, a magician, dancers, the DJ group The Chaotic Good and even a hypnotist!  Also, fashion and invention contests, with prizes! And Quimby’s will be there with swag! For more info: steampunkchicago.com/

    This is an off-Site Event, not at Quimby’s. It will be at Exit Chicago Punk & Rock Club, 1513 W. North Ave, 773-395-2700.

  • Quimby’s Co-Sponsors Dating for Nerds Singles Trivia Night at the Holiday Club!

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    Think the brain really is the sexiest organ? Find out with other unattached smarties during a singles trivia night featuring a video quiz by local filmmaker and critic Collin Souter (“Breakup Date” and “Meet the Monkeys”), an audio quiz by staff from Record Breakers music store and guest rounds by staff from Quimby’s Bookstore, American Science and Surplus, G-Mart Comics and Abraham Lincoln Book Shop.

    How it works: Singles mingle over moderate-level trivia questions in a variety of general interest categories, including books, music and movies, with a different round dedicated to each subject. Each round, the winners score prizes and all attendees get the chance to win a themed giveaway inspired by the topic. Singles meet by rotating tables and forming new teams every round. Includes a cocktail.

    Venue: Holiday Club

    Address: 4000 North Sheridan Road, Chicago

    Date: 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 13

    Price: $20 advance/$25 door

    Registration: nerdsatheart.com <http://nerdsatheart.com> or 312-265-6085

    For more info: http://nerdsatheart.com>

    NOT AT QUIMBY’S!

    IT’S AT HOLIDAY CLUB

    4000 North Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60613-2005 – (773) 348-9600, www.holidayclubchicago.com