For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] J.K. Chukwu’s debut, The Unfortunates, is so much more than a novel. It is visual art, emotional plea, nostalgia bomb, and bildungsroman all wrapped up in one. While the powerful themes explored in the novel can and will resonate in some way with anyone, this story particularly speaks to the isolation Black students often … Read more
[ad_1] Melinda Moustakis’ fiction is an expert tutorial in braiding a story’s environment with its characters’ paths, as much as it is an unveiling of how that braid is not a braid at all but an inseparability, place inextricable from human life. In her debut collection, Bear Down, Bear North, which won the Flannery O’Connor … Read more
[ad_1] Our lives aren’t movies, no matter how much we may dream of the cinematic pan out of a “happily ever after” conclusion. In real life, juries don’t reach a verdict within a 90-minute runtime, the killer doesn’t always face justice, and memories don’t play back clearly like a full scene. Oftentimes the truth is … Read more
[ad_1] We are thrilled to reprint “The Way Spring Arrives” by Wang Nuonuo, the title story in the groundbreaking anthology The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories edited by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang, now out in paperback! “The Way Spring Arrives” first appeared as 春天来临的方式 in 2019 in No Answers from Earth（地球无应答) by … Read more
[ad_1] Here in Chicago, we’re careful about declaring that spring has officially arrived, because we know that all it takes is one snow storm to throw us back into the depths of winter weather again. But it never hurts to dream, especially when the days are growing longer and our books can take us to … Read more
[ad_1] In the latest episode of The Chicago Writers Podcast, Dan Finnen talks with Sarah Terez Rosenblum, author of Herself When She’s Missing, about using teaching to learn craft, knowing when to share your work, giving yourself permission to say “I don’t know,” and more! The Chicago Writers Podcast is a Stories Matter Foundation series … Read more
[ad_1] Comparing a brand-new novel against an established piece of media is often tempting, but can be far from accurate without casting a broader lens. Your Driver is Waiting by Priya Guns has been described endlessly as a gender-bent Taxi Driver. And while there are similarities between the debut novel and the Robert DeNiro movie, … Read more
[ad_1] Elizabeth Taylor helped define the concept of global celebrity that currently dominates the pop culture landscape. She was half of one of the first celebrity power couples, paving the way for Brangelina and Bennifer, and a tireless activist during the height of the AIDS epidemic. Yet beneath all that glitz, glamour, and jewelry, she … Read more
[ad_1] The most alluring characteristic of Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s new novel, A Spell of Good Things, is its distinct use of Yoruba diacritics. The Yoruba language is tonal, and one senses an innate and appreciable linguistic dexterity in Adébáyọ̀’s sophomore novel. Unapologetically Yoruba and mostly set in Osun state, an unmistakable Nigerian verisimilitude permeates the novel. … Read more
[ad_1] The Atacama Desert is one of the best places on earth to see the stars. Because of its low light pollution, dry climate, and more than 200 cloudless nights a year, northern Chile offers a window to space—and to the past, since starlight takes so long to reach us. When she was little, Chilean … Read more