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The Chicago Reader

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Reader, Announcements Sep 22, 2020
We’re winners!

The Reader brought home some AAN Awards.
- By John Dunlevy
- Tags: Announcements, Chicago Reader, Association of Alternative Newsmedia, AAN Awards, Maya Dukmasova, Sujay Kumar, feature stories, Mari Cohen, writing, long-form news stories, music writing, Leor Galil, Philip Montoro, Mike Sula, Kate Schmidt, board games, Aimee Levitt, Ben Joravsky, Sue Kwong, David Alavarado, Best of Chicago, special sections, Jamie Ramsay, Lisa Predko, Brian Gladkowski, Karen Hawkins, Jamie Ludwig, Catey Sullivan, Salem Collo-Jullin, Kerry Reid, Deanna Isaacs, The TRiiBE, multimedia

Columns & Opinion, Staff notes Aug 26, 2019
Note from an editor
- By Aimee Levitt
- Tags: Staff notes, Aimee Levitt, Chicago Reader, Gage Gallery, 11 E. Illinois, Hyde Park, Chicago Reader staff, friendship, writing, Hideout, parties, bylines

Arts & Culture, Lit Feature Jul 26, 2017
Megan Stielstra interviewing Samantha Irby: The right way to meet in real life

Two rising literary stars talk shop on the occasion of their new books.
- By Aimee Levitt
- Tags: Lit Feature, Megan Stielstra, Samantha Irby, Kalamazoo, Once I Was Cool, Curbside Splendor, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, The Wrong Way to Save Your Life, New York Times, Kirsten Jennings, Abbi Jacobson, Jessi Klein, Northwestern University, Michigan, writing, gender politics

Arts & Culture, Feature Feb 21, 2017
The Chicago education of George Saunders

The celebrated short-story writer and recent debut novelist discusses his formative years in and around the city of his birth.
- By Tal Rosenberg
- Tags: Feature, George Saunders, interview, Lincoln in the Bardo, Oak Forest High School, New Yorker, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hemingway, Stuart Dybek, Gage Park, Oak Forest, Chicago Christmas, 1984, Tolstoy, Dorothy Day, Bo Jackson, New York Times Magazine, Tenth of December, fiction, nonfiction, Donald Trump, Esquire, Superman Comes to the Supermarket, Norman Mailer, Hans Vollman, Clinton, Aaron Copland, Doobie Brothers, Allman Brothers, air force, Johnny Tremain, Esther Forbes, writing

Blogs, Bleader Dec 16, 2015
826CHI and CPS team up to produce an anthology of monster stories from young authors

Students at Brentano Math and Science Academy learn how to write, with proper grammar and punctuation—and they like it.
- By Aimee Levitt
- Tags: Arts, Books, Education, Chicago Public Schools, Brentano Math and Science Academy, 826CHI, writing, Amanda Lichtenstein, Willie Filkowski, Alex Borkowski, Seth Lavin, Mark Harlan

Blogs, Bleader May 16, 2014
Curiosity's Cats and the joys of research

A new essay collection shows just how exciting dusty old libraries can be.
- By Aimee Levitt
- Tags: Books, Arts, History, Curiosity's Cats, writing, research, Bruce Joshua Miller, Margot Livesey, library

Arts & Culture, Lit Feature Apr 15, 2014
Spring Books Issue: Secrets

Julia Glass, Colson Whitehead, Cristina Henríquez and other writers try to harness the power of the unknown in a crop of new books.
- Tags: Lit Feature, secrets, New York Times, families, Stuart Dybek, Northwestern University, books, film, Jack Nicholson, writing

Arts & Culture, Lit Feature Apr 15, 2014
Chicago authors
share their secrets

Jeffrey Renard Allen, Tim Kinsella, and other writers with spring books coming out discuss combating writer's block and more.
- Tags: Lit Feature, Chicago authors, books, secrets, Scott Simkus, Chicago Review Press, baseball, Chicago Cubs, history, professional baseball, Major League Baseball, Negro leagues, Chicago City League, Logan Squares, Bloomer League, House of David, accidents, Tim Kinsella, Curbside Splendor, musicians, novelists, James Klise, Algonquin Young Readers, librarians, schools, Henry Darger, Peoria, Jeffrey Renard Allen, Graywolf Press, UIC, University of Illinois at Chicago, Tom Wiggins, writer's block, reading, writing

Arts & Culture, Feature Jan 15, 2014
Playwright Rebecca Gilman's moral dilemmas

Luna Gale, Gilman's seventh Goodman production, shows the humanity behind a battle to determine the fate of an infant.
- By Aimee Levitt
- Tags: Feature, theater, plays, playwrights, Rebecca Gilman, Luna Gale, Robert Falls, Goodman Theatre, tragedy, comedy, complexity, moral dilemmas, writing, University of Iowa Writers Workshop, Northwestern University, Circle Theater, Mary Beth Fisher, Frontline, documentaries, trust, characters, criticism

Food & Drink, Key Ingredient Dec 24, 2013
2013: The year of our 100th Key Ingredient

The past year of our chef-to-chef challenge has included lobster guts, durian, sun-dried tomatoes, and pig uterus (some of it a little burned).
- By Julia Thiel
- Tags: Key Ingredient, Julia Thiel, Chicago Reader, 2013, writing, Key Ingredient, Phillip Foss, David Posey, Thomas Raquel, Dana Cree, chefs, pastry chefs, Matthew Kirkley, Dave Beran, Ryan LaRoche, Lee Wolen, Aaron Arnett, Peter Coenen, Andres Padilla, John Asbaty, Abraham Conlon

Arts & Culture, Feature Nov 13, 2013
What we learned at the Chicago Humanities Festival 2013

Discussed: The ideal number of robots. The meaning of crows' sounds. The Jewish roots of Bambi. The utility of pigs. The evolution of fairy tales.
- By Steve Bogira, Aimee Levitt, Janet Potter, Connie Vaughn, and Sam Worley
- Tags: Feature, James McLurkin, robots, SwarmBots, robotics, race, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, fairy tales, Maria Tatar, folklore, history, pigs, Peter Mancall, Donna Tartt, pens, novels, writing, napkins, DNA, Anne Carson, crows, poetry, neanderthals, John Hawks, anthropology, Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler, Frank Miller, Alan Moore, comics, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, David McKean, Jenette Kahn, DC Comics, Paul Reitter, Felix Salten

Arts & Culture, Culture Vultures Oct 2, 2013
Culture Vultures: Illustrator Matthew LaFleur recommends the webcomic Space-Mullet

Plus: Chicago Urban Art Society founders on contemporary art mags and Supernatural Chicago's Neil Tobin on Lisa Alvarado's Still, Life
- Tags: Culture Vultures, Matthew LaFleur, Space-Mullet, webcomics, websites, Supernatural Chicago, Neil Tobin, Lisa Alvarado, Chicago Urban Art Society, Lauren Pacheco, Peter Kepha, Kolaj magazin, Elephant magazine, bookstores, magazines, Kroch's and Brentano's, contemporary art, writing, performance, first-person narratives, illustrators, Daniel Warren Johnson, science fiction

News & Politics, Chicagoans Jun 13, 2013
This week's Chicagoan: Margie Kruse, court reporter

"The closed captioning on your TV—that's a court reporter. I know, right? That's us back there."
- By Anne Ford
- Tags: Chicagoans, court reporters, Margie Kruse, court reporting school, closed captioning, transcription, Congressional Record, court hearings, trials, depositions, speeches, board meetings, typing, writing, steno machine, litigation, Dan Webb, James R. Thompson, judges, homework, attorneys, legal system, body language, lie detection

Arts & Culture, Lit Feature May 30, 2013
Susan Nussbaum's next act

The celebrated playwright and disability rights activist put down her pen for nearly a decade. But in a new novel, Good Kings Bad Kings, she picks back up where she left off, creating disabled characters who are funny, angry, and vividly human.
- By Sam Worley
- Tags: Lit Feature, Susan Nussbaum, Barbara Kingsolver, Twitter, writing, Carrie Sandahl, profiles, Remains Theatre, theater, Highland Park, Mike Nussbaum, Roosevelt University, Goodman School of Drama, DePaul University, Theatre School at DePaul University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, writers, Mike Ervin, Smart Ass Cripple, blogs, books, Roger Ebert, radio theater, Jerry Lewis, novels, plays, Empowered FeFes, Utne Reader, Access Living, playwrights, Algonquin Books, documentaries, disability, Jerry's Kids, Fidel Castro, Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, disability activism, Venceremos Brigade, Organization of Disabled Revolutionaries

Columns & Opinion, On Media May 1, 2013
Rick Kogan might be sentimental—just don't call him a sentimentalist

The storied Tribune columnist gets a "mea culpa" from Trib theater critic Chris Jones.
- By Michael Miner
- Tags: Michael Miner on Media, Chicago Tribune, New York Time, Chicago Sun-Times, Rachel Shteir, Chris Jones, Rick Kogan, Nelson Algren, Studs Terkel, Roger Ebert, writers, writing, Neil Steinberg, radio, WGN, sentimentalism, WFMT, books, Chicago Daily News, Panorama, Marcel Marceau, Mort Sahl, Dawn Turner Trice, Studs Terkel Media Award, media, Sam Zell, Billy Goat Tavern, Tempo, Brendan Behan, Bruce Elliott, Old Town Ale House, Herman Kogan, Marilew Kogan, AA, WBEZ, Chicago Theatre

Arts & Culture, Lit Feature Apr 3, 2013
The Books Issue: Violence

In which we explore works that confront violence in its many forms. Read together or on their own, what do these books have to tell us?
- By Reader staff
- Tags: Lit Feature, books, gang violence, Chicago authors, Chicago Reader, Frank Bill, novels, violence, racial violence, gendered violence, economic violence, Louise Erdrich, Dan Baum, Karen Russell, David McConnell, interviews, authors, writing, Mara Shalhoup, Natalie Moore, Lance Williams, gangs

News & Politics, Chicagoans Apr 3, 2013
This week's Chicagoan: Tricia Jolliff, fan-fiction writer

"We get people who submit to us, and the story is predictable and lame, and there’s so many misspellings. The guy always gets the girl, or the girl always gets the guy."
- By Anne Ford
- Tags: Chicagoans, fan fiction, writing, writers, Tricia Jolliff, Celeb LuvGasms, Chris Brown, celebrities, Twitter, airlines, Trey Songz, Beyonce, celebluvgasms.com, Lance Gross

Arts & Culture, Culture Vultures Mar 28, 2013
Image
This week's Culture Vultures recommend:

The Rebuilding Exchange, the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, and the Other People podcast
- By Hannah Lorenz and Hannah Gold
- Tags: Culture Vultures, Daniel Evans, FRTCRT, books, Dmitry Samarov, Other People, podcasts, Domestic Workwear, Rebuilding Exchange, DIY, Pedal to the People, bicycle repair, Radical Mending Class, classes, workshops, mending, worm composting, rewiring, steam heat, Rasa Gierstikas, The Shit Show, Shaw Chicago, French language, dance, lessons, Pilates, yoga, George Bernard Shaw, Widowers' Houses, Lesley Arfin, Girls, writing, writers, David Shields, Bernie Glassman, American Zen Movement, WTF with Marc Maron, Brad Listi, Ruth Page Center for the Arts

Columns & Opinion, On Culture Mar 25, 2013
Silk Road Rising's "Mosque Alert" enlists the global community

A play in progess finds six characters in search of a conversation.
- By Deanna Isaacs
- Tags: On Culture, Sil Road Rising, Jamil Khoury, writing, playwriting, crowdsourcing, Ground Zero, plays, theater, readings, Mosque Alert, monologues, controversy, mosques, Muslims, Islam, Naperville, immigration, homophobia, women's rights, Christians, Christianity, religion, vignettes, Khurram Mozaffar, Fox News, Republican Nation Convention

Arts & Culture, Theater Review Jan 30, 2013
Recommended
A writer picks at the family scab in Other Desert Cities

Jon Robin Baitz tells the secrets of a Palm Springs family.
- By Zac Thompson
- Tags: Theater Review, writing, Jon Robin Baitz, Henry Wishcamper, Brooke Wyeth, Tracy Michelle Arnold, Chelcie Ross, Deanna Dunagan, John Hoogenakker, Goodman Theatre, Recommended

Blogs, Bleader Jun 26, 2012
More on Joe Meno's Office Girl

The Book Cellar hosts a release party for Joe Meno's Office Girl on Thursday, June 28th
- By Sam Worley
- Tags: Books, Do This, Arts, Joe Meno, Office Girl, Columbia College, writing, Gapers Block

Columns & Opinion, On Media Nov 23, 2011
The fragile legacy of literary journalism

Peter Smith's memoir A Cavalcade of Lesser Horrors traces his ancestors' contributions to the long-shuttered Daily News
- By Michael Miner
- Tags: Michael Miner on Media, Chicago Daily News, Clem Lane, Peter Smith, Henry Justin Smith, journalism, Chicago journalism, writing, John Justin Smith

Blogs, Bleader Sep 8, 2011
Augie March-inspired flash fiction contest

Submit your 750-word version of the Great American Novel to a flash fiction writing contest.
- By Sam Worley
- Tags: Lit & Lectures, Books, Flash Fiction Writing Contest, One Book, One Chicago, Stuart Dybek, MacArthur Foundation, writing, flash fiction, Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March, Chicago Public Library

News & Politics, Media Feb 3, 2011
What a Deal! 50% Off Your Job Prospects!

Groupon wanted me to sign a noncompete clause, even though I might never work there either.
- By Christopher Flores
- Tags: Media, Groupon, Groupon Academy, noncompete clauses, writing

Blogs, Bleader Jun 11, 2008
Writing workshops at 826Chi 6/18-8/13

Writing classes for kids include art criticism and sportswriting.
- By Peter Jackson
- Tags: Free Shit, Swag, 826CHI, writing

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