Chicago Publishing and Literary Events Calendar
Our Recent Events
  • Posted by Claire Glass -- 11/22/2011

    There is certainly wisdom behind the old adage that tells us not to judge a book by its cover. When the subject is actually a book, however, a cover can make a world of difference.  In fact, for readers bombarded with innumerable choices of what to read, good design is often the first indicator of a good book.

    Chicago Publishes will host an edition of the “Chicago Artists At Work Forums” with a panel that will ask and aim to answer, “What Makes a Beautiful (and Marketable) Book?” A distinguished line-up of experts, poised and ready to weigh in on this question of craft and capital, will gather at the Chicago Cultural Center, in the 5th Floor Washington Room, at 6 P.M. on December 1. Each installment of Artist at Work Series is designed to tackle difficult questions that can stump even those most qualified to answer them.

    The panel will feature several esteemed speakers with very different histories; James Goggin, Director of Design, Print and Digital Media at the Museum of Contemporary Art; Founder of Stepsister Press, artist, and book designer, Annie Heckman; and Ellen Gibson, Regional Marketing Manager at the University of Chicago Press, will take the stage.  Director of Publishing Industry Programs, Danielle Chapman, will moderate the discussion.

  • Posted by Claire Glass -- 10/18/2011

    Maxim’s is a darkly lit enclave of mahogany and red velvet. Intimate and under-ground, the richness of its design serves its purpose well. The space, modeled after the iconic Paris restaurant by the same name, will host “Literary Lives,” a conversation with authors and media mavens Meghan O’Rourke and Rachel DeWoskin on October 27 from 6 to 8 p.m.

    O’Rourke, author of the recent memoir The Long Goodbye, as well as the poetry collections Halflife and Once; and DeWoskin, author of the memoir Foreign Babes in Beijing and the novels Big Girl Small and Repeat After Me will be interviewed by Mark Bazer, Tribune Media columnist and host of “The Interview Show” at the Hideout. O’Rourke and Dewoskin will discuss their work, their experiences, and how to make a career as a writer in today’s changing media landscape.

  • Posted by Danielle Chapman -- 8/29/2011

    Join us at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Claudia Cassidy Theater to celebrate the launch of Chicago author Anne Elizabeth Moore’s book Cambodian Grrrl: Self-Publishing in Phnom Penh.  In this book, Moore chronicles her experiences traveling to and living in Phnom Penh and teaching young women to make their own zines and express themselves with their writing.

    Anne Elizabeth Moore is an editor, artist, and author of several books, including Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing and the Erosion of Integrity; Hey Kidz, Buy This Book: A Radical Primer on Corporate and Governmental Propaganda and Artistic Activism for Short People; and Cambodian Grrrl. She was the founding editor of Best American Comics as well as co-publisher and editor of Punk Planet, and managing editor of The Comics Journal. She teaches Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition, she is a journalist for the The Phoenix, In These Times, Alternet.org, and Truthout.org. From November 2007 to February 2008, Moore taught self-publishing to 32 girls at a high school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In addition to writing Cambodian Grrrl, she created an in-depth exhibition of her students’ work displayed in Holle Cambodia and Threewalls Gallery in Chicago.

  • Posted by Danielle Chapman -- 6/20/2011

    This past Thursday night at the Chicago Cultural Center, Publishing Industry Programs worked in conjunction with Another Chicago Magazine to put on a reading that showcased The New Chicago Style.  The reading embraced the idea that no one style is dominating Chicago writing at the moment, but rather an energetic diversity united by the “fierce independence.”  With over 100 attendees, the reading was a great success.

  • Posted by Danielle Chapman -- 6/13/2011

    The Chicago literary world has long been known as the home of Brooks, Terkel, Bellows, and Sinclair.  But what are the styles that are redefining Chicago as a literary capital right now?  We invite you to come hear a sampling of both well-known and up-and-coming Chicago authors this Thursday night at the Chicago Cultural Center.  Joe Meno, Simone Muench, Bayo Ojikutu, and Kathleen Rooney will read at this blockbuster event co-produced by Another Chicago Magazine.  RSVP now!

  • Posted by Danielle Chapman -- 6/9/2011

    On Thursday, June 16th, Another Chicago Magazine and the City of Chicago’s Publishing Industry Programs will bring together an all-star cast of Chicago writers to read from ACM‘s celebrated 50th anniversary issue.  You may remember reading about their 50th issue last winter.  In celebration of this milestone, ACM decided to feature writers from their home city.  They received such an overwhelming amount of great writing that they split the issue into two volumes, releasing the first last winter and the second this summer.

    To commemorate the release of their second Chicago-themed issue, we are presenting a special event featuring readings from select authors from the issue, including novelist Joe Meno, poet Simone Muench, novelist Bayo Ojikutu, and poet and novelist Kathleen Rooney at the Chicago Cultural Center.

  • Posted by Danielle Chapman -- 6/8/2011

    This past weekend was the Printers Row Lit Fest, Chicago’s annual outdoor book festival in the historic Printers Row neighborhood.  As always it was a great opportunity to sell books and to reconnect with  Chicago’s energized literary community.  Even the weather was wonderful, if you don’t count the mini monsoon that passed over the city late Saturday afternoon–but, then again, what would Printers Row be without the threat of thunder to keep things lively?

  • Posted by Danielle Chapman -- 6/2/2011

    This weekend is the annual Printers Row Lit Fest, and Publishing Industry Programs is going to be there!  We’re hosting the Chicago Publishers Gallery tent, which will showcase: 5th Wednesday Journal, ACM, Allium Press, Blacksmith Books, CityFiles Press, Contratiempo, Dancing Girl Press, Dream Chocolate, Haymarket Books, Lake Forest College &NOW Books, Light Quarterly, Loyola Press, NTI Upstream, OV Books, Polyphony HS, Socialist Worker, Switchback Books, and Zeus Magazine.

  • Posted by Danielle Chapman -- 5/31/2011

    It’s that time of year again, folks.  Don’s miss this year’s weekend-long Lit Fest put on by the Chicago Tribune.  This year’s Fest will feature many of the highlights of previous years.  There are fifteen different stages and locations at which there will be panels, discussions, readings, celebrations, spelling bees, cooking demonstrations, and workshops.  These events will feature many notable Chicago authors and literati, including Gina Frangello, Rick Kogan, Julia Keller, Mairead Case, Donna Seaman, Elizabeth Berg, Libby Fischer Hellman, Haki Madhubuti, Elizabeth Taylor, Luis Alberto Urrea, Kathleen Rooney, James Kennedy, Patrick Somerville, Marcus Sakey, Tom Skilling, Billy Lombardo, Wendy McClure, and Keir Graff.

  • Posted by Chicago Publishes -- 5/19/2011

    Chicago is historic as a news town, and reporters have found always found this to be a city rich with stories to dig up, report, and, every so often, celebrate.  But as social media and the internet alter the way Chicagoans get news, how is the news itself–and the way journalists report it–changing?  Next Thursday at Maxim’s, award-winning reporters Achy Obejas, Kari Lydersen, and Jon Marshall will tackle this question and much more.

  • Posted by Danielle Chapman -- 5/16/2011

    How are journalists in Chicago, a historic newspaper town, discovering and reporting stories in the brave new, digital world?  Our latest event at Maxim’s will examine this topic by bringing to the stage three innovators in Chicago’s news scene:  Achy Obejas, Kari Lydersen, and Jon Marshall.

    Achy Obejas is a fiction writer, poet, journalist, and translator whose books include the novels Memory Mambo and Days of Awe and the short story collection We Came All the Way from Cuba so You Could Dress Like This? As a journalist, she worked for more than ten years for the Chicago Tribune, writing and reporting about arts and culture, and her freelance articles have appeared in numerous publications.  During her career, she has received a Pulitzer for a Tribune team investigation, the Studs Terkel Journalism Prize, several Peter Lisagor journalism honors, two Lambda Literary awards, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in poetry, and residencies at Yaddo, Ragdale and the Virginia Center for the Arts, among other honors.  Currently, she is the Citylife blogger for WBEZ.org.

  • Posted by Danielle Chapman -- 3/7/2011

    Don’t miss the 8th annual Creative Chicago Expo–a free event that connects Chicago’s creative community with services, spaces, information, and valuable resources. This Saturday from 10 am – 5 pm at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph Street, visit a record number of 140 vendors and attend some of two dozen free workshops on topics like intellectual property, crowd-funding, starting a for-profit or non-profit, and promoting your practice. Need individual consultation? Make an appointment with an Expo Expert fluent in your interest area.

    For a full list of vendors, Experts, and workshops taking place at this year’s Expo, visit the 2011 Creative Chicago Expo online.  You can also make a reservation to speak with an Expo Expert online.  Head to our Chicago Literary Events Calendar to add the Creative Chicago Expo to your Google calendar.

    The Creative Chicago Expo is hosted by Chicago Artists Resource and the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

  • Posted by Danielle Chapman -- 2/11/2011

    Blizzards can’t stop Chicagoans.  Just one day after this winter’s infamous blizzard Publishing Industry Programs and Lake Claremont Press hosted “All Things Local” in the Chicago Publishers Gallery, an event featuring local authors reading from their books about Chicago, as well as food and drinks from local vendors. 

  • Posted by Tori Telfer -- 12/20/2010

    Freezing rain couldn’t detract from the cozy vibe and great energy of the Cricket Magazine Holiday Fair, the first of four book events hosted by the Chicago Publisher’s Gallery. The Gallery provided a perfect location for this fair, with plenty of space for kids to run from station to station in the process of creating their own magazines. Kids picked up their magazine templates at the door and wandered around the room, filling their magazines with handouts that were then stapled together at the end to create a real magazine with double-sided pages.

    At the Reading Nook, children wrote poetry and cuddled in beanbags to read Cricket Magazine Group’s five literary magazines (Babybug, Ladybug, Spider, Cricket, and Cicada).

  • Posted by Danielle Chapman -- 11/8/2010

    Though the topic for the evening was editing, it began with confessions of the heart. “I think I was entirely lost as a human being until I found books and magazines,” said JC Gabel, Publisher and Editor of Stop Smiling Books, the imprint that grew out of the arts and culture magazine of the same name that he co-edited for ten years. “If I’m going to work 80 hours a week, I might as well have it be doing something I love.”

  • Posted by Danielle Chapman -- 11/2/2010

    The question of digital publishing, e-books, and mobile media has been a subject of much interest in the last few years as  e-readers, smart phones, and other wired devices have become common among readers from all walks of life. To discuss how this digital trend is affecting the publishing world, Publishing Industry Programs hosted “Digital Innovators,” a program designed to share the wisdom earned from years of digital publishing and mobile media study from two of Chicago’s savviest literary techies.

  • Posted by Danielle Chapman -- 11/2/2010

    Four book events have been chosen to be held in the Chicago Publishers Gallery this fall and winter. The first of these, a Holiday Fair for kids of all ages, put on by Cricket Magazine Group, will take place on Dec. 11 from 2-4 PM.  In early February, Lake Claremont Press will present “Local, Local, Local,” featuring several new Chicago guidebooks and highlighting the benefits of doing business locally.