Category: Store Events

  • Chicago Zine Fest Zine Reading

    Quimby’s Bookstore will help kick off the Chicago Zine Fest by hosting a zine reading, Friday, March 12 at 7pm. Reading will be authors who span the range of self-publishing, from minicomics, to fiction, to cultural criticism. Three of the Zine Fest’s special guests, John Porcellino, Anne Elizabeth Moore and Jeffrey Brown will read alongside five zinesters who were selected by random lottery among exhibitors.
    CZF2010posterforweb
    John Porcellino draws the minicomic, King Cat, which he has been self-publishing since 1989.

    Anne Elizabeth Moore is the author of Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing and the Erosion of Integrity. She is the former editor of Punk Planet, and teaches at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago.

    Jeffrey Brown is the award-winning comics artist behind the graphic novels Clumsy, Funny Misshapen Body, and the Incredible Changebots.

    Amber Forrester, a long time feminist zinester, writes about small town revolutions and queer (in)visibility.

    Monica Anderson writes and draws comics in her personal zine Endless Escalators.

    Michelle Aiello is a Chicago-based writer, stationary designer and organizer of the Ephemera Festival.

    Anthony Marvullo is a Boston-based poet, author of Various Segments of Industry, a chapbook about power tools.

    Sarala Bee is a Montreal-based writer whose zines dealing with depression, love, and sex.

    Quimby’s staff will start the event with an opening ceremony, which will include the presentation of the inaugural Quimby’s Long Arm Stapler Award. The award is designed to recognize and encourage an individual or group’s enthusiasm, inspiration, and commitment to self-publishing and the self- publishing community. The award’s recipient has yet to be announced.

    For more info about the zine fest: http://www.chicagozinefest.org

  • Nancy Stohlman Reads From Searching for Suzi

    What happens when an ex-stripper in her mid-thirties, married with children, awakens one day questioning what brought her to a current life of complicated domesticity? Compelled to return to Omaha after seventeen years, the narrator we only know as Natalie begins a quest into her past, an adventure that takes the reader from childhood beauty pageants to the sex and glamour industries. Natalie’s search becomes an intrepid journey through her own sexuality, a woman not only claiming herself but also accepting her contradictions. With inquisitive perception and agile use of perspective, Searching for Suzi (Monkey Puzzle Press) is an investigation into the tragic shadows of a past preferred to be forgotten.

    “Sexy, gutsy, raw and mature. A literary strip tease, Nancy Stohlman lures us through the layers of her dark world with the promise of exposing the ultimate sparkle…and ends up revealing something profound.”  -Raymond Federman, Author of Double or Nothing

    For more info: http://www.monkeypuzzleonline.com and http://www.nancystohlman.net

  • Penny Arcade Reads From BAD REPUTATION

    PArcade_BookCoverWhen asked about her influences, Penny Arcade points to three enduring sources: growing up Southern Italian, immigrant, peasant ,working class in New Britain, Connecticut, the New England factory town that was a center of working class intellectualism, her debut at 17 with the glitter, glam, rock and roll, political, seminal queer, NY theatre, The Playhouse of the Ridiculous which influenced everyone from Bob Fosse and Fellini to Iggy Pop and David Bowie, while a teenage superstar for Andy Warhol’s Factory. No mean feat, they were the two opposing artistic camps that fueled the late 60’s downtown NY art scene and her innate and rampant curiosity, which she claims as her most prominent personality trait. A trait that led the reform school graduate to maintain her oppositional outsiderness without losing her humanity or stunting her intellectual growth.

    Arcade will be reading from her new hard cover book BAD REPUTATION, Semiotext(e) a partial collection of her work, replete with essays on her large body of writing that has earned her the title Queen of Performance around the world. Don’t be surprised you have never heard of her. Arcade is widely thought of as America’s best-kept secret, a unique and stellar voice you won’t soon forget. Long considered the queen of the New York Underground, Arcade is one a handful of 1980’s artists who invented Performance Art (for which she apologizes profusely to everyone) and has performed in venues that don’t normally host underground or performance artists, from Royal Festival Hall to Sydney Opera House to Casa Ruiy in Rio de Janerio. A highly acclaimed writer, poet and performer. “The silver tongued Penny Arcade is a writer of scorching comedic candor with a mind like a steel trap”” raved critic Michael Billington of UK’s Guardian, usually a tough man to please. Her writing is for everyone; direct, poetic with a honed, unique, philosophical point of view, filled with hard won wisdom. You can dine out for a month on her one liner’s alone. Did we mention that Arcade “is a wonder to behold, and manages to entertain, absorb, and broaden the audience simultaneously” and that she is “Provocative, intellectually stimulating, perceptive and hilariously funny and combines the anarchy of Lenny Bruce with the pathos of Judy Garland.” Or as The Scotsman wrote “If Penny Arcade was a cult, I would join!”

    Penny Arcade may well be the most prolific, intelligent performance artist you’ve never seen. Penny Arcade (born Susanna Ventura) is clearly a force to be reckoned with. Her tough, street-wise persona was crafted by junkies, whores, criminals, and “deviants,” and infused with the discipline of the Italian-American working class. Arcade incorporates all of it in her work, and does so with amazing intelligence and a sense of humor. Penny Arcade has never sought the agreement of anyone, nor has she toned down the hard edge of her performances to facilitate mass consumption. Yet she may still have the last laugh. –Bay Area Reporter January 2010

    For more info: http://www.pennyarcade.tv/

  • Nik Jajic and Mike Czerniawski sign The Big Bad Book

    The Big Bad Book
    The Big Bad Book

    Nik Jajic (co-creator/writer) and Mike Czernaiwski (co-creator/additional art/letterer) present to you—the extremely attractive, and exceptionally brilliant reader—a twisted comedy that insists on blending genres, inducing panic attacks, and occasionally causing motion sickness, all in the form of their deliciously perverse new graphic novel The Big Bad Book from Alterna Comics. It’s been described as Clash of the Titans meets Office Space with a clown and a monkey… yeah, pretty sweet. What’s that?! Still not convinced?! Well then, listen to what a couple of extremely prestigious and very well endowed reviewers had to say:

    “The Big Bad Book is a fun and breezy read, there are a lot of good ideas, and Jajic’s handle on dialogue is top notch” -aintitcool

    “The Big Bad Book is a locker room humored trip through the absurd and bizarre… with devious clowns and thunder powered monkeys. Gotta’ love that!” -geekinthecity

    Yes, it will be awesome, and yes you can get a signed copy, just mark it on your calendar, already! And don’t forget to wear something provocative! Purr!

    For more info visit www.alternacomics.com

  • Jim Goad Reads From Criminal Class Press

    Jim Goad is the world’s bravest man or so says his wildly hilarious politically extreme website JimGoad.net. With an obscenity trial, a prison sentence and an emergency life-saving brain surgery to his credit he may not be too far off with that claim. Goad is the author of the Red Neck Manifesto a book which is extremely anti-PC became a New York Times Best Seller in a time when PC was the thing to be. Jim got his start as a writer publisher and editor of the ANSWER Me! magazine. The magazine would land him an obscenity trial for the Rape Issue. Jim has also written Gigantic Book of Sex.

    Chuck Palahniuk had this to say about Jim Goad’s writing, “brutally honest without worrying about being correct.”

    Vice Magazine had this to say about Jim Goad’s Gigantic Book of Sex, “This entire book is gross and hilarious.”

    Jim’s memoir titled Shit Magnet chronicles a wild spiral of love, lust, death, and his imprisonment after a violent altercation with a lover whom he had a restraining order on at the time.

    Also joining the bill is Chicago Criminal Class Press Editor and Chief Kevin Wheatley and Staff Writer Bill Hillmann both will be reading from the newest edition of Criminal Class Press, that which Goad has contributed to.

    For more info: www.jimgoad.net and  www.criminalclasspress.com .
    crimclassprs2.3cvr

  • Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz Reads From Everything is Everything

    Everything Is Everything
    Everything Is Everything

    In a recent interior with lit blog Orange Alert, poet Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz describes her latest book, Everything is Everything, as “an odd, tender, spastic, claustrophobic and bizarre-fact-riddled book that is trying to appreciate the journey instead of obsessing about the destination.” But she was also sure to add that “the book also contains a bizarre amount of poems about giraffes who have been trained to rape humans. But only because they really existed, and not because I’m a crazy sadist.”

    “Sometimes you plod through the day, bumping into people, tripping over your own feet. But then there are those remarkable days when you move through the world as stealthily as ninja. The latter is how the poems move in this book. Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz spits in her hands, grabs the sledgehammer, swings it hard, and rings that bell in poem after poem after poem. Everything is Everything is a winning collection chock full of swift, honest, smart, funny, and even tender poems that go up to 11.” – Jennifer Knox, author of Drunk by Noon

    Everything is Everything is Aptowicz’s first poetry collection to be published after her acclaimed non-fiction book, Words In Your Face: Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam (Soft Skull Press, 2008). Cristin will be joined by several poets from the local Chicago Poetry Slam community, as well as her partner – poet and former surly Quimbys employee – Shappy Seasholtz, who will read from his most recent chapbook, This is All I Can Offer You.

    For more info: http://www.aptowicz.com

  • Oyez Review #37 Launch Reading

    Oyez #37
    Oyez #37

    A new year, a new Oyez Review and the best issue yet. The submissions have been through the editorial gauntlet, fire-proofed, crash-tested, and are now ready for readers’ consumption. Contained between these eighty-eight pages are twenty-two inspired pieces of poetry, four ripping short stories, one moving non-fiction narrative, and ten luminous photos on which to fix your gaze.

    Oyez Review staffers and visiting authors will read from selected works. Authors for Oyez Review Volume 37, Spring 2010 include Ace Boggess, Brad Buchannan John F. Buckley, Meghan Cadwallader, Lydia Cesarz, Joanne Riley Clarkson, Okla Elliott, Robert Haynes, David James, Susan Johnson, Don Peteroy, Linda Scotto, Susan Slaviero, Joseph A. Soldati, John Surowiecki, Richard G. Sweitzer III, Mark Taksa, Suellen Wedmore, Alexander York, and photography by Prin X. Amorapanth.

    Oyez Review is the literary magazine of the Creative Writing Program at Roosevelt University. It is published annually, edited by an all-student staff under the direction of Professor Janet Wondra. Founded in 1965, Oyez Review has featured work from such writers as Charles Bukowski, James McManus, Carla Panciera, Michael Onofrey, Tim Foley, John N. Miller, Gary Fincke, and Barry Silesky, and visual artists Vivian Nunley, C. Taylor, Jennifer Troyer, and Frank Spidale.
    For more info: http://legacy.roosevelt.edu/oyezreview/

  • Tainted Reality presents J-Rock bands GPKISM and Seileen Signing

    Put on your goth-loli duds, pop open your Vivienne Westwood parasol, and meet the Japanese rock (J-Rock) bands GPKISM and Seileen, who will be signing their merch here at Quimby’s. No, they’re not playing any sets here. They’re just signing stuff. Only their stuff you buy here. Later that day, they’ll be J-rockin’ out at the Subterranean, down the street from Quimby’s.

    gpkism

    GPKISM (see above) is the gothic/industrial group consisting of Gothique Prince Ken and Kiwamu (former guitarist of BLOOD). GPKISM is the manifestation of baroque essence fused with electro/industrial sound, creating a unique world both decadent and sublime. GPK’s (Gothique Prince Ken) operatic vocals, and Kiwamu’s gothic guitar come together to create a dramatic sound, which combines baroque and EBM styles. Their current music is themed around the “Bloody Lady of Cachtice”, Countess Elizabeth Báthory. Visit www.myspace.com/gpkism

    Seileen (see below) is the goth/industrial dance group started by Selia and SiSeN in 2005. The group’s sound puts a mystic emphasis on Selia serene, mysterious vocals set to SiSeN’s dark electro DJ styling. Half of the band is DJ SiSeN, a professional model who showcases for Japanese clothing designer, Takuya Angel. His unique fashion sense and blazing DJ style have made him a world-renowned icon of the Japanese cyber goth and club scenes. Visit myspace.com/sisen and myspace.com/seliasisen

    seileen

    Bands play at 7pm down the street at Subterranean, 2011 West North Avenue. Opening band: Buranden, and DJ set before the show by DJ SiSeN.

    Tainted Reality is the premiere source of J-Rock entertainment in the U.S., which hosts an internet radio network dedicated to Japanese musical programming, organizes tours, and produces a variety of media. Visit www.taintedreality.net.

  • Amelia Klem Osterud Reads From The Tattooed Lady: A History

    TattooedLadyCover

    Amelia Klem Osterud is an academic librari¬an from Milwaukee who is working diligently on becoming heavily tattooed. Osterud has a master’s degree in history from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and writes and lectures on the subject of tattooing. She is the author of “A Life of Her Own Choosing: Artoria Gibbons’ Fifty Years as a Tattooed Lady,” published in the Wisconsin Magazine of History. This is her first book.
    “Tattooed ladies were a part of forgotten American history, often dismissed in print as second-rate circus freaks or as monstrous, yet sexy anomalies,” explains author Amelia Klem Osterud.
    There is shockingly little documentation recounting the women (and men) who launched the cultural movement of tattooing. Publicity photos show up in general tattooing books, but the real stories behind these sideshow marvels remain a mystery, until now.

    The first book of its kind, The Tattooed Lady explores the duality of life on- and offstage for these gutsy women. Through photographs, interviews, work histories, and newspaper articles, women such as Artoria Gibbons, Nora Hildebrandt, and Irene Woodward are fully fleshed out, allowing us a greater understanding of why they got tattooed, the rewards and regrets that came along with that career path, and the women behind their onstage, larger-than-life persona.

    Visit Amelia Klem Osterud’s author blog at www.tattooedladyhistory.vox.com . For more info: www.fulcrumbooks.com

  • Troy Taylor Presents The Murder & Mayhem in Chicago Series

    From the North Side to the South, and from Downtown to the outer edge of the West Side, every Chicago neighborhood has at some point been home to violence, gang influence, and corruption. Local Author Troy Taylor airs all of Chicago’s dirty laundry in this five-part series, chronicling the infamous destruction of the Great Chicago Fire, the most shocking crimes of the 1800s and the rise of the mafia during Prohibition leading to Al Capone’s eventual domination in the Windy City’s underworld. Discover the notorious capers, cons and killings that terrorized a city, and unearth the brutes, bank robbers and burlesque dancers that history could never forget as the Murder & Mayhem in Chicago series exposes the Second City’s darkest sins and dirtiest secrets.

    Troy Taylor is the author of more than sixty books on history, crime, mystery and the supernatural in America. He was born and raised in Illinois and currently resides in Chicago.

    For more info, go to www.historypress.net