If Rahm Emanuel solved all his critical problems and had time to think about something really important, he might decide Chicago needs a poet laureate. If so, there would […]

Papers, pamphlets, and publishers filled the auditorium of the Plumbers Union Hall last weekend. Writers, artists, and readers celebrated the community and spirit of self-publishing at the seventh annual Chicago […]

I’m Brianna Kratz, a Chicago poet and literature enthusiast. In 2016, I’m reading only women authors for my Read Only Women Experiment (R.O.W.E.). For weekly updates on challenges, conversations, and […]

On the morning of April 24, a Gmail notification appeared on my phone: “One new message from Juanna Rumbel.” Juanna Rumbel is the derby name of writer, storyteller, and stand-up comedian, […]

Celebrate the art of self-publishing this weekend at Chicago Zine Fest. It’s one of the city’s largest independent festivals. The seventh annual festival is happening this Friday and Saturday. All-ages […]

Everyone’s a critic, and yet no one seems to know what a critic’s good for. Or at least this is how New York Times film critic A. O. Scott started […]

This month, University of Chicago Press released a translation of Papi, the best selling novel by Dominican writer, Rita Indiana. This is the first english translation of Indiana’s work. Papi […]

Experimental Japanese translations. Interviews with National Book Award finalists. Mexican Twitter fiction. Ancient Babylonian texts and contemporary underground Uyghur poetry. These are just a few of the offerings from literary translation journal […]

I first heard Zoe Zolbrod read in a coffee shop in Logan Square a couple months ago. She was skinny, 40s-ish, and had arm tattoos and a mane of silver […]

I recently had the opportunity to talk to book critic, author, and fellow Gapers Block alumnus, Adam Morgan, about his newly launched site, Chicago Review of Books. As a lit-loving […]

“Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job […]

When I looked at the gathering again, almost all of the heads were turned toward me. Nearly two hundred pairs of eyes stared at me. The band stopped playing suddenly. […]