Books
KILLING IN THE NAME OF: Notes From the Chicago Indie Lit Scene
By Ben TanzerThe questions are as follows: what makes for an indie lit scene, and does Chicago have one? The first person I ask is Zach Dodson from Featherproof publishing, because this is Chicago, and you sort of have to start with Featherproof.
In Conversation
SUSAN SHAPIRO with Nicolle Elizabeth
By Nicolle ElizabethSusan Shapiro has written and published seven books in seven years. A professor, journalist, and author, she is credited with helping young authors to publish their own projects. Her most recent work, Overexposed, is a comic novel about careers, family, jealousy, and in its own way, (feminism and at times a lack thereof).
In Conversation
A NOBLE GESTURE How and Why We Read and Write: DAVID ULIN with Audrey Gray
By Audrey GrayIt’s Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn when I call up David Ulin in L.A. It’s 10:00 a.m. his time. There are dogs and yard sounds on his end of the line. Ulin’s new book is titled The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time (Sasquatch Books, 2010).
Hushmoney Presents Rock Nostradamus: NICK KENT
By Dr. Shathley QSometimes it’s easier to take the money. Reading nonfiction, especially this last decade, has already taught us that. In an age of social media where erudition can become entertainment and even pop culture can be weaponized, isn’t it safer to pay for play? Not Really.
Out From Under Don
By Mac BarrettIn the preface to his first collection of short fiction, 14 Fictional Positions, Eric Miles Williamson tells us that the stories contained within ought not be considered mere exercises—though, he says, that’s exactly the function they’ve served.
Unfettered
By Blake ButlerEugene Marten’s Firework is a terrifying house. This house has several levels, each of which demonstrates a unique strand of mastery in Marten’s composition style.
BEN MIROV'S Ghost Machine
By B.C. EdwardsIt is impossible to talk about any one piece in Ben Mirov’s Ghost Machine—due for its second printing this November by CakeTrain Press—without talking about this impressive collection as a whole. The poetry paints a portrait of the artist at a hyper-specific moment in his life.
Hear No, See No, Read No Evil
By Christopher VolaDavid Bajo’s Panopticon is an ethereal, well-crafted, and quietly disturbing novel, a book that slices creepily through its characters’ pasts to uncover aspects of a technologically warped present that are equally riveting and unnerving because of their pervasiveness.
To Air Is Human
By Rayyan Al-ShawafJonas Woldemariam, the diffident and aloof Ethiopian-American narrator of Dinaw Mengestu’s How to Read the Air, was born and raised in Peoria, Illinois, but is afflicted with the angst and uncertainty of a deracinated and perpetual migrant.
RAPID TRANSIT
By Jeffrey Cyphers WrightAt 44, Christian Wiman has an inside track on the subject of mortality—he has a terminal disease with an uncertain timeline.
A World to Lose
By Ida ChungJean Kwok’s debut novel is an immigration tale that reads like a Cinderella story for young adults. Girl in Translation hinges on a reversal of fortunes between a magical, handsome young prince and Kimberly Chang, the story’s protagonist. The suffering of Kimberly and her mother is beyond normal endurance, and the redemption that follows is not only hyperbolic, but also unbelievable.
