Blog

Saturday April 10th 2PM at Quimbys
Rich Mackin of Book of letters, Dear Mr. Mackin, and Thank You For Your Continued Interest along with Blair Vail, a blues and jazz inspired singer, songwriter & poet. Will Perform.
 
Rich Mackin has been harassing corporate America for over a decade now with his ongoing letter writing campaigns that he reads from as “Consumer Defense Corporate Poetry”. He returns to Quimby’s with his latest collections of letters, including the Gorsky Press trade paperback, Thank You For Your Continued Interest and the 18th issue of his acclaimed zine, Book of Letters. See what happens when Rich tells McDonalds to die, hear Rich ask George W about beef jerky, and marvel at Starbucks haiku. Rich will also tell stories about cross-country travels and the drama of this past year.
 
Blair Vail is a blues and jazz inspired singer/songwriter/poet. Born and raised in Rochester, NY and now residing in Portland, OR, she has performed at a host of poetry and music venues, cafes and pizza parlors as a spoken word poet, solo performer and member of the experimental poetry band, Dream Engine. This tour coincides with the release of her new CD, Entanglements and Disconnections, which expands on ideas touched upon in her 2001 album, Voice. She joins Rich Mackin on a tour of zinedom with a new chapbook of her poetry.
 
www.richmackin.org

A Reading of tales filled with hope, despair, agony, real human emotion, and words, brought to you by Gregory Jacobsen, Patrick Bertram, and Daniel Gleason.
Thursday February 26th 8:00PM
 
This is your chance to meet three of Alexandre Dumas’s most valued ghost writers during the period in which he ‘wrote’ Count of Monte Christo, and more importantly, Le Chevalier De Maison-Rouge. Come hear them read stories they did not totally get screwed out of credit for on this magical night. And please-remember to wear your most frilly 19th Century garb!
 
Gregory Jacobsen paints pictures. He performs in a band called “Lovely Little Girls.” He cuts up pulp novels, cookbooks, encyclopedias, and medical books to write his concrete prose.
 
Patrick Bertram is a local resident. He is moving though, and would like to spend more quality time with his friend Dan, so he is glad to be here. May your time here tonight refresh you.
 
Dan Gleason writes incessantly because no one will talk to him. He is a scotch guard huffer. He sells 9 books at Quimby’s because it makes him feel like ‘a somebody.’ Dan is currently in his house nursing a large boil under is right ear lobe.

Sex Crimes reading with Lawrence Santoro and Wayne Allen Sallee
Friday January 9th 7PM
 
Sex Crimes, the latest title from Chanting Monks Press (this in tandem with Boneyard
Press) has been released and hits with all the impact of a kidney punch delivered by a Chicago hit man wearing brass knuckles. Featuring 15 tales by denizens of the fiction world\’s seedy underbelly, this anthology is packed with stories no other publishers wanted: orphans, the editors refer to them as, and all the stragglers in this orphanage have been abused.
 
Sex Crimes contains fiction by the likes of: David J. Schow (The Crow, LEATHERFACE: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, Red Nails), Wayne Allen Sallee (For You, the Living, Bumpyface, Year’s Best Horror and Sci Fi), Christa Faust (Hot Blood, Control Freak), Hart D. Fisher (Poems for the Dead, The Garbage Man), Joseph M. Monks (The Night Terrors, Stuff Out’a My Head, Cry For Dawn), Stephen Elliott (Jones Inn, Politically Inspired, What It Means to Love You), Stephen Bissette (Taboo, Swamp Thing) and others. Among the illustrators providing the graphic backbone for the tales are: Frank Forte (The Vampire Verses), Stephen Bissette, John Cassaday (Captain America, Dark Angel), James Helkowski (LEGION), Bryan Baugh (The Jackie Chan Hour, Agony in Black) and horror legend Bernie Wrightson (Stephen King’s The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Callah, Creepshow, Heavy Metal, The Stand) and others.
 
15 tales dealing with the topic of sex and crime with no boundaries, no holds barred, and no pulled punches. Stories other anthologies and publishers were afraid to publish.
 
Local authors Lawrence Santoro and Wayne Allen Sallee will be reading and signing copies of Sex Crimes
 
For more info see www.chantingmonks.com

Monday April 5th 6PM
 
Scott Mills is the Eisner and Harvey award nominated creator of the graphic
novels BIG CLAY POT, TRENCHES, MY OWN LITTLE EMPIRE, ZEBEDIAH THE HILLBILLY ZOMBIE REDNECK BITES THE DUST, and THE MASTERPLAN. He won the Ignatz award for Outstanding Story for the book TRENCHES and the Xeric award for the mini-comic CELLS. He is currently at work on the anthology series SEAMONSTERS & SUPERHEROES for Slave Labor Graphics, and the syndicated strip PIPE DREAMS.”
 
He will be on hand to sign his comics and maybe other people’s too if you make him.
 
For more info: www.scottmills.net

Saturday Feb. 21st
5:00 PM
 
Roosevelt University’s Oyez Review is dedicated to bringing you the quality prose, poetry and art you need to get you through your day. It’s delicious and nutritous, tastes just like chicken. This will be an event to celebrate the new issue.
 
Featuring:
 
Robert Vivian who’s first book, Cold Snap As Yearning, was published by the Univ. of Nebraska Press. His essays and poems have appeared in Harper’s, New York Quarterly, Georgia Review and others. He teaches English at Alma College in Michigan.
 
Michael Brownstein is an elementary school science teacher in the Chicago public schools. His work has appeared in The Cafe Review, Kings Estate Press, Ariel and others. Awards include, The Ommation Press Best Chapbook and the Triton College International Poetry Prize. He currently writes for The Southstreet Journal.
 
and photographer Stephanie Dean

Ed Rosenthal aka “Ask Ed” speaks and reads
Friday December 5th 7PM
 
Mr. Rosenthal is recognized worldwide as a leading authority on marijuana. Over three decades he has written or edited more than a dozen seminal books about marijuana cultivation and social policy that have cumulatively sold over one million copies around the globe. Notably, his first book, Marijuana Grower\’s Handbook, is the only title on marijuana cultivation to be reviewed by The New York Times Book Review. His trademarked \”Ask Ed\” advice column has been in circulation for two decades & continues to answer questions on all matters marijuana from readers around the world. He also hosts \”The 420 Report,\” a monthly radio show on KPFA-Berkeley that blends politics and culture with news, music and call-ins.
 
He will be reading from and discussing some of his many books on
marijuana

Wild Chicago invades Quimby’s
Sunday Nov. 23rd 4pm
 
Join Will Clinger, Mindy Bell, and Harvey Moshman as they celebrate the release of the Wild Chicago, Companion Guidebook.
 
More details TBA

Beth Bosworth,
author of A Burden of Earth and Other Stories.
Tuesday, November 18, 7:30pm
 
Beth Bosworth – Brooklyn, NY-based novelist and short story writer, author of the collection A Burden of Earth and Other Stories, and the novel Tunneling, which the Chicago Tribune termed “inspired” and the Boston Globe termed “a hallucinatory rush… a wildly original moon shot of a novel”. She is also a founding editor of the Saint Ann’s Review.

Ayun Halliday author East Village Inky
reads from No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late
Thursday December 11th 7PM
 
In addition to being the sole employee of The East Village Inky, Ayun Halliday is the author of No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late and The Big Rumpus. She lives in Brooklyn, but before that she spent 11 years in Chicago where her biggest claim to fame was her ability to sculpt the fat around her navel into a bagel, in the interstitial spaces of Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind.
 
She will be reading and signing her new book No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late
 
more info at www.ayunhalliday.com

Zine Guide & Tail Spins Magazine present an evening of Love and Hate
Wednesday December 10th 8PM
 
In keeping with the holiday spirit, Zine Guide and Tail Spins Magazine, in conjunction with Diatribe zine and Random Life In Progress zine, present an evening of readings concerning “Love & Hate,” featuring:
 
Grant Schreiber (Judas Goat Quarterly – www.geocities.com/egospark)
Brandon Wetherbee & Greg Smith (Foul zine – http://foulinc.com)
Michele Walker (www.michelewalker.com)
Seth Emily (Americant zine – www.palpalpal.net/home/home.html)
Alex Zander (MK Ultra -www.mk-magazine.com)
 
This event is also brought to you by the Self-Publishers Events Council of
Chicago.
 
For more info please visit www.zineguide.net and www.diatribemedia.com.