For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] Marc Kelly Smith, nicknamed “Slam Papi,” founded international slam poetry in the 1980s when he started the monumental Uptown Poetry Slam series at the Green Mill. Each Sunday night, he attracted misfits and poets from across Chicago and its suburbs to exchange words, including the likes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Patricia Smith, who provides … Read more
[ad_1] Deep in the forests of eastern Poland, the town of Kreskol lies forgotten. Through an improbable combination of bureaucratic negligence, unfriendly relations with other Jewish towns, and favorable geography, the Jews of Kreskol — the world’s last shtetl — have escaped the great onslaughts of the twentieth century (the Great War; the Holocaust; Polish … Read more
[ad_1] I am twenty-five years old and have no memory of 1999. What I know of Y2K comes from my father’s nostalgic laughter and from the Mike Judge classic Office Space. So to understand the vague paranoia underlying Thomas Maltman’s The Land, I admit to not having the proper context clues. However, I did feel … Read more
[ad_1] “It is poetry that holds the songs of becoming, of change, of dreaming, and it is poetry we turn to when we travel those places of transformation, like birth, coming of age, marriage, accomplishments, and death. We sing our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren: our human experience in time, into and through existence.” So begins the … Read more
[ad_1] Society is one of these concepts we might fail to adequately define, but we all know what it means. Ironically, even more universal than this implicit understanding is the feeling that one just does not belong. This is certainly a feeling familiar to Sayaka Murata, and it’ll be familiar to readers of her first … Read more
[ad_1] For the fifth year in a row, the Chicago Review of Books is thrilled to present the CHIRBy Awards to recognize the best fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and short essays published by Chicago-based writers. Below are the finalists in each category for 2020, along with a list of this year’s judges. Congratulations to all of these incredible writers! … Read more
[ad_1] We’re highlighting some amazing Latinx bookstagrammers who help make up the robust and beautiful book community on Instagram. They’ve shared their handles, told us a little more about who they are and why Latinx Heritage Month is so important for amplifying the voices of Latinx writers and celebrating their history and culture. Latinx stories … Read more
[ad_1] I’m tempted to say the modern idea of genre is a joke, except that it’s not funny. A sincerely curious, skilled, and committed writer can basically write whatever she wants, genre be damned. Yet certain genres are still elevated and others dismissed; the New York Times “By the Book” feature still regularly asks writers … Read more
[ad_1] Suzanne Roberts’ most recent memoir, Bad Tourist, will come as a delightful surprise to readers as she merges all of her writing strengths: a travel writer’s adventures, a memoirist’s insight, and a poet’s ear for language. Roberts, an accomplished travel writer, was named “The Next Great Travel Writer” by National Geographic Traveler magazine, and her previous book Almost Somewhere; Twenty-Eight Days on … Read more
[ad_1] Today we’re revealing the cover for Flamefall by Rosaria Munda AND the brand new paperback cover for Fireborne! Fireborne absolutely took our breath away last year, and we are EAGERLY anticipating book 2, Flamefall, coming March 23, 2021! But until then, we have an excerpt and an author Q&A to hold you over while you wait for book 2 and gaze … Read more