Words
Good Grammar
“Did you bring anything to read?” author Brendan Detzner asked as guests walk into Bad Grammar Theater, which also happens to be his home. Detzner and fellow author Mike Penkas were standing behind a table where their books and T-shirts are displayed for sale. Behind them was an unmade futon with a partially eaten... »
Written in Blood
On a punishing day in late July, 40 years before the advent of air conditioning, four black teens plunged into Lake Michigan some insufficient distance north of 29th Street. At some point, the boys drifting carefree on a makeshift raft strayed passed an invisible border into a customarily whites-only beach and were greeted by... »
Bunches of Oats
Some 24 years before Joyce Carol Oates, the acclaimed author, read to a full auditorium at University of Chicago’s International House on May 18, John Updike wrote that her talents were wasted on the modern American public. This woman, he insisted, “needs a lustier audience, a race of Victorian word-eaters, to be worthy of... »
The Bookseller
It seems that Wilson has been a devoted boss, bookseller and man, and indeed his unassuming romanticism rolls off him in the ounceful, as he pulls up a red leather chair in his beloved shop, adjusting his glasses in earnest preparation for this interview. »
You down with G-O-D?
Last Wednesday, in Hallowed Grounds, a University of Chicago coffee shop, a crowd slowly gathered for the Muslim Students Association’s (MSA) annual poetry slam. »
Finding Neverwhere
"Neil Gaiman. When we say ‘Neil Gaiman,’ what do most people think of? ‘Top-notch fantasy author,’ maybe, or ‘renowned graphic novelist,’ or ‘Newbery Award winner.’ But I say it is betrayal!” James Kennedy shouted. »
Mark My Words
Typeforce 2, which opened last Friday at Bridgeport’s Co-Prosperity Sphere, makes a strong case for Chicago’s place as the second city of typographic design. »
Poetry by post
Sponsored by the Poetry Foundation and the University of Chicago’s Program in Poetry and Poetics, “Poetry of the Shelf: Elizabeth Bishop’s Correspondence with the New Yorker” commemorated the 100th anniversary of the birth of poet Elizabeth Bishop and of the recent publication of a collection of her letters, “Elizabeth Bishop and the New Yorker:... »
