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Xeric Grant winner Cathy Hannah presents her graphic novella Winter BeardSaturday, May 6th, 5:30 PMFREE
 
Cathy Hannah is a 25-year-old comics artist, art historian, and self-proclaimed nerd. She was awarded the fall 2005 Xeric Grant to self-publish her graphic novella, Winter Beard. An 80 page autobiography chronicling one winter on Cathy?s life, Winter Beard tells the story of having a crush on your best friend and all the scheming, hoping, & sadness of telling them how you feel.
 
Cathy Hannah is a graduate student at The School of the Art Institute in art history. She attended The Savannah College of Art and Design for her undergrad and got a degree in Sequential Art. This is her first solo-published work and comics debut.

Ducky DooLittleauthor ofSEX WITH THE LIGHTS ONSigning and Q & AMay 17th 7PMfree
 
Few sex educators are as well-matched to the task of dispensing safe, honest, affirming sex advice as Ducky Doolittle, a former Times Square stripper, who emerged from behind the peepshow glass to climb to the top ranks of advisors on all matters sexual. For more than a decade, she has toured the country with her one-woman show, visiting hundreds of cities, where she has answered sex advice queries from thousands of women and men-partnered and singled, straight and gay. Ducky’s winning humor and rich knowledge of human sexuality have allowed complete strangers to open up and reveal their most intimate thoughts.
 
In Sex with the Lights On she shares for the first time the most-often asked questions, which include: What’s the best oral sex technique? Does every woman have a G-spot-and what are the top tips for locating her own? Can men have multiple orgasms? How does a couple introduce anal sex into their relationship? Why do anti-depressants lower sex drive and how can that be avoided? Ducky not only answers each question with a sex-positive open-mind, she gives readers permission to laugh and relax and to create the sex lives that best suit their own desires.
 
ADVANCE REVIEWS:
“Absolutely essential guide for everyone with a body! Incredibly detailed, informative, compassionate, funny, wise and sexy as hell.”- MARGARET CHO
 
“Something sexy, smart, and inspirational happens every time you turn a page of this book. Ducky is a national erotic treasure.” – SUSIE BRIGHT
 
“Ducky is a delight! She?s a brilliant sex educator – truly one of a kind. Besides being lots of fun to read, this body-positive, heartfelt book will deliver sex skills you can use tonight and can carry with you the rest of your life.” – ANNIE SPRINKLE.
 
More info at: www.duckydoolittle.com
 

Madison Clell author of CuckooFriday April 28th8:00PM Free
 
Former multiple personality disordered Madison Clell will be answering questions and reading from her acclaimed graphic novel CUCKOO. A compilation of 13 comics issues under the same name, its readers include author/lawyer Andrew Vachss, who called CUCKOO
 
” ..a gleaming scalpel, expertly wielded against the tumor of evil. This is a stunning achievement, both artistically and personally, graphically illustrating the cosmic distance between ‘survivor’ and ‘transcender.’ ”
 
Dr. Patch Adams, who subscribed to the entire comics series said, ” ..I would make CUCKOO required reading. “, and then he penned the novel’s intro.
 
Madison is one of the featured artists for Chicago’s Cultural Center show, HUMANS BEING, and a participant in Bodies of Work; The Chicago Festival of Disability Arts & Culture this April 20-30.

McSweeney’s presentsYannick Murphy reading fromHere They ComeMonday, April 10th, 7:00 PMFREE
 
Splitting time between a garbage-strewn apartment and an overly affectionate hot dog vendor, the observant thirteen-year-old who stands steadily at the center of Here They Come gives lyrical voice to an unforgettable instant?1970s New York, stifling, violent, and full of life. Balanced between her enigmatic siblings, borderline parents, and a quiet sense of the surreal, she recounts a year of vivid, mundane moments with dark humor and deadpan resilience. By Yannick Murphy, author of the New York Times Notable Book Sea of Trees .
 
?This is a hell of a book. You might not be able to finish Here They Come in one sitting, but it will haunt you till you do. What detail! What characters! I can imagine both Jane Austen and Raymond Carver pouring over this masterly novel.?
 
?Frank McCourt, author of Angela?s Ashes
 
?Yannick Murphy is a uniquely talented writer who manages to turn everything on its head and make dark, funny, shocking and beautiful prose out of the detritus of growing up poor, fatherless, and cockeyed. She is fearless.?
 
?Lily Tuck, winner of the 2004 National Book Award
 
?Yannick Murphy?s long-awaited Here They Come is a unique combination of rare linguistic lyricism with brutal and brilliant prose. It is an unrelenting portrait of family, terrifying for its honesty, its willingness to be ugly and elegant. Haunting.?
 
?A.M. Homes, author of The Safety of Objects and The End of Alice

Ken Foster, Elizabeth Crane and Furry FriendsMonday April 24th7:00PMFree
 
This is a reading and benefit for Furry Friends Foundation, a Chicago area no-kill shelter. Featuring: Ken Foster is the author of The Dogs Who Found Me and The Kind I’m Likely to Get; he is also editor of Dog Culture and the KGB Bar Reader. Elizabeth Crane is the author of Oh The Glory of it All and When the Messenger is Hot. Plus other friends, including Furry Friends Foundation.
 
Praise for The Dogs Who Found Me:
“Generosity and gratitude power this compelling account of the reciprocal nature of rescue. Ken Foster illuminates a profound lesson about saving a life: Doing it makes you able to do it.”
?Amy Hempel, author of The Dog of the Marriage and Reasons to Live
 
“I read this at once, and could hardly bear to put it down. This is a wonderful, strange book, beautiful and funny and moving. It’s about the necessity of dogs, and about the necessity of the heart. It’s for people who love dogs, and for people who don’t yet know how to. It delivers something crucial about bravery, the human spirit, and the place that dogs occupy in our landscapes. It’s about confronting need, vulnerability and love, and responding.”–Roxana Robinson
 
“Ken Foster writes about the human/canine bond with wisdom, insight, and great heart. This is a fascinating and useful book, full of great stories and practical knowledge every dog lover needs. Ken’s dogs are lucky to have found him, and so are his readers.”
–Sean Wilsey, author of Oh The Glory of it All
 
Websites:
www.ken-foster.com
www.furryfriendsfoundation.com
 

Jessica Abel signs booksSaturday, April 8th, 7:00 PMFREE
 
La Perdida is the story of Carla, an American estranged from her Mexican father, who heads to Mexico City to ?find herself.? Her intense desire to make a connection with Mexico and her unwillingness to see the impact of her own history on her understanding combine to turn an innocent journey down a dark path. A story about the youthful desire to live an authentic life and the consequences of trusting easy answers, La Perdida?at once grounded in the particulars of life in Mexico and resonantly universal?is a story about finding yourself by getting lost.
La Perdida originally appeared in serialized form from 2001-2005, published by Fantagraphics Books.
 
Jessica Abel is a cartoonist and writer. Born and raised in Chicagoland, she moved in 2000 to Brooklyn, New York, after a two-year pit stop in Mexico City. In her ?free? time, she likes to build things, garden, and cook, and hopes that doesn?t make her sound like the biggest dork ever. Along with La Perdida she is also responsible for the popular comic Artbabe.

Radio Plays Release EventSaturday, April 1st7:00 PMFREE
 
C T Ballentine proudly presents the first issue of RADIO PLAYS!
 
RADIO PLAYS is not a traditional zine; it is actually an audio periodical in CD format containing exclusive performances of two radio dramas. One play is an excerpt from a forthcoming novel by Todd Dills entitled, Sons of the Rapture, which tells the tale of a desperately indebted young man\’s Ryder truck journey to freedom. The other play is a surrealistic little jaunt written by CT Ballentine called, The Cowboy and His Blazing Trumpets. The audio tale of the mysterious and dangerous Sam, who is out for the doctor\’s blood with nothing standing between them but a robotic secretary of indeterminate gender.
 
For this event both radio plays will be presented and there will also be readings from:
Todd Dills (the2ndhand)
A.B. Drea (Banana King)
Jeb Gleason-Allured

Artist Winston Smith LIVEFriday, March 24th, 6:30 PMFREE
 
Winston Smith, is a collage artist best known for his surrealistic and satirical montage book cover and album cover art since the late 1970s Punk Era (Dead Kennedys, DOA, etc.) up through the present with Green Day, George Carlin, Greg Palast, among others. He will be in the store to sign copies of his monographs and possibly some album covers if you bring them.
 
More information including interviews and examples of his artwork is available on the web site: www.winstonsmith.com

The real Brian Costello, Enchanters vs. Sprawlburg Springs release party.Saturday, March 11th, 7:00 PMFREE
 
Celebrate the release of Brian Costello?s first novel Enchanters vs. Sprawlburg Springs with an evening of readings featuring:
 
Brian Costello teaches fiction writing at Columbia College Chicago, drums for the Functional Blackouts and hosts The Brian Costello Show with Brian Costello, America’s first and only live talk show. The Enchanters is his first novel.
 
Megan Stielstra is a writer, teacher and waitress living in Chicago. She edits Sleepwalk magazine and was artist-in-residence for Barefoot Productions where she created collaborative storytelling with musicians and filmmakers. She’s performed for Storyweek, Undershorts Film Festival, Piece by Piece and 2nd Story.
 
Gary Johnson is an accomplished writer, teacher and activist. He currently teaches at Columbia College Chicago.
 
All three will read from original work and Brian will sign copies of his new book, they’ll serve some sort of tasty beverage, and for the faithful, they might even dish out some cough syrup.

Sex Machines slide show and lecture with author Timothy ArchibaldFriday, March 31st, 7:00 PMFREE
 
Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews unveils an astonishing American subculture and the homespun inventors and users who propel it. Meet a laid-off tech industry exec who transforms a thrift store pasta maker into a high-powered sexual appliance and a new career, an apocalyptic visionary who builds a sex machine prototype for female survivors of a future without men, and an Idaho cowboy who intends to use his device as a form of Christian-based marriage counseling. Sex Machines celebrates the spirit of American ingenuity and bold approaches to an ever-changing sexual landscape.
 
Author and photographer Timothy Archibald?s photographs have appeared in New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, GQ, The New Yorker, and Outside Magazine. His photographs are included in the permanent collection of The Catskill Center for Photography in Woodstock, N.Y. and The Museum of Sex in New York City. Archibald lives in San Francisco with his wife, Cheri, and two sons, Elijah and Wilson. Sex Machines: Photographs and Interviews is his first book.
 
For this event Timothy Archibald will presents slides from the book and discuss his experiences making it.