Authors are frequently asked, “When is your book coming out?” I heard this question when I finished the first draft of my novel, and while I was editing the sixth draft. It was the question when I started querying literary agents three years ago, and after I signed with my agent this past fall (perseverance is key).
Few people understand how long it takes to publish a book—I didn’t when I started out. Bestselling author Madeline Miller has said it took 10 years to publish her acclaimed novel The Song of Achilles from when she first began writing. I’ve learned this is the average timeline for a debut book.
This February, writers in Chicago and beyond can learn what it takes to get from great idea to published author at StoryStudio Chicago’s Pub Crawl, a month-long series of online classes about the book industry with bestselling writers, agents, editors and more. Other upcoming lit events include book talks with women writers across the city, a running tour based on Michelle Obama’s memoir, and a novel debut at the Illinois Holocaust Museum.
Pub Crawl: Learn, Pitch, Publish
Sunday, February 2, through Friday, February 28; hosted by StoryStudio Chicago online
Free registration for select events HERE; $285 all-access class pass available HERE
For writers, learning about the publishing process—the good, the bad and the editing—can be a huge help in overcoming the psychological marathon of a first book. An incredible local resource is StoryStudio Chicago’s Pub Crawl, an annual month-long online publishing intensive. Programming for this year’s iteration kicks off on February 2 at 6pm CT with “Overview of Publishing,” a free Zoom event with StoryStudio Chicago’s artistic director Rebecca Makkai, bestselling author of I Have Some Questions for You (register online here). A second free event, “Inside the World of Booksellers,” will be held on Sunday, February 16 at 6pm CT with the owners of Exile in Bookville, The Book Cellar, and Townie Books.
I participated in Pub Crawl in 2022, and found the curriculum incredibly helpful, from panels with book editors and literary agents, to talks with debut authors about their journeys to publication and classes on all aspects of the book industry. This year’s Pub Crawl keynote speaker is bestselling author Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Dark Places, Sharp Objects). Full disclosure: I enjoyed StoryStudio’s classes so much that I am currently on the organization’s volunteer board.
Book Launch & Conversation with Julie Iromuanya about A Season of Light
Tuesday, February 4, 7pm, at Call & Response Books, 1390 E. Hyde Park Blvd
Free registration HERE
The recently opened Call & Response Books is a Black woman-owned bookshop focused on “fostering a love of reading, community, human connections, and the sharing of ideas across cultures and backgrounds,” with a focus on showcasing BIPOC authors. Coming up on February 4, local author and UChicago creative writing professor Julie Iromuanya appears in conversation with author Juan Martinez to discuss her new novel, A Season of Light. The book follows a close-knit Nigerian family living in Florida, and the wounds that get passed down from generation to generation, triggered by the abduction of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls. Iromuanya is the author of the acclaimed Mr. and Mrs. Doctor, which was a finalist for prizes including thePEN/Faulkner Award and the National Book Critics Circle Prize for Debut Fiction.
Read & Run Chicago: Becoming by Michelle Obama
Sunday, February 9, 2pm at Chicago Public Library’s Blackstone Branch, 4904 S. Lake Park Avenue
Tickets available HERE for $10–$35, including snacks and drinks
As proclaimed by Runner’s World: “this book club is faster than yours.” Launched during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 ,and still going strong, Read & Run Chicago offers guided running tours inspired by the locations of books set in Chicago, written by locals. A great way for readers and recreational runners to explore the city and support Chicago authors! Up next on February 9 is a four-mile run through Hyde Park (at an easy 11-minute/mile pace) inspired by Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming, with stops at locations that shaped her trajectory from a South Shore student to a lawyer and eventually First Lady. After the run, participants will sit down for a book club discussion with snacks and drinks.
Book Launch & Conversation with Tod Lending about The Umbrella Maker’s Son
Thursday, February 13, 7pm, at the Illinois Holocaust Museum, 9603 Woods Drive, Skokie
Free registration HERE
Tuesday, February 18, 7pm at The Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln Avenue
Chicago-based Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Tod Lending makes his novel debut with The Umbrella Maker’s Son. He will appear at the Illinois Holocaust Museum on February 13, for a conversation about the book, which tells the story of a Jewish teenager working for his artisan umbrella-making father in Poland when the Nazis invade and shatter their lives at the start of World War II. Lending’s great-grandfather, Raphael Lending, was a Warsaw umbrella maker in the late 1800s. The novel was also inspired by Polish Holocaust survivors Saul Dreier and Ruby Sosnowicz, the subjects of Lending’s documentary film Saul & Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band. A book signing follows the conversation. (Lending will also appear at The Book Cellar in Chicago on February 18.)
Strong Female Characters with Charlene Wexler and Alina Rubin
Sunday, February 16, 2pm, at Chicago Loop Synagogue, 16 S. Clark Street
Tickets available HERE for $10, including light refreshments
Local authors Charlene Wexler and Alina Rubin will discuss the strong female main characters of their novels at an event at the Chicago Loop Synagogue on February 16. Wexler’s book Farewell to South Shore is a coming-of-age story about a woman navigating her changing Chicago neighborhood in the second half of the 20th century. Rubin’s A Girl With a Knife tells the story of a young woman who wants to be a physician in 19th century England, and must disguise herself as a man to fulfill her dream. A Q&A and book signing with the authors follows their conversation.
Book Launch & Conversation with Rebe Huntman about My Mother in Havana: A Memoir of Magic & Miracle
Thursday, February 27, 7pm, at Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark Street
Free registration HERE; masks required for this event
Midwestern poet, choreographer and dancer Rebe Huntman led Chicago’s award-winning Danza Viva Center for World Dance, Art & Music for a decade, working in Latin and Afro Cuban dance. Her debut memoir My Mother in Havana is both a search for her deceased mother and a window into the world of the gods, ghosts and saints of Cuba—and their larger spiritual view of the Mother. In a launch event on February 27, at Women & Children First, Huntman will be in conversation with local author Daisy Hernández.
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