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Checking Out Local Writers

By Marcus Gilmer in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 18, 2008 3:04PM

We love to read and write, and not just our own posts here on the World Wide Webs. We’ve been working on our first novel for years. It’s a love story involving time-traveling unicorns and so far we have about 850 pages of it written, but we don’t know when we’ll get it published (fingers crossed!). As such, we have a soft spot in our heart for local writers who have been a tad more successful. Luckily we live in a city that gives us a chance to here these talented scribes read!

One of the most interesting events on the calendar is the upcoming Literary Gangs of Chicago presentation, “Young Chicago Authors Louder than a Bomb”. Teen slam poets work their magic and showcase their verbal acrobatics in preparation for the upcoming “Louder than a Bomb” city-wide competition that “invites 400 Chicago-area teens to compete in the nation's largest, team-oriented, teen poetry slam, February 28 to March 9, 2008. All poets are ages 19 and under and represent dozens of neighborhoods and suburbs in and around Chicago.”

Tuesday, February 19, 6:30 – 8:00 PM - The Museum of Contemporary Art, Puck's Restaurant, 220 E. Chicago Ave., Admission is free

If the Blues is more your thing (and how could it not be with this weather), and as long as you don’t mind a bit of a drive, check out local writer and blues enthusiast Karen Hanson read from her new book Today’s Chicago Blues. More information on the book and the Chicago Blues scene can be found on Karen’s blog.

Tuesday, February 19, 7:00 PM, Roden branch of the Chicago Public Library, 6083 N. Northwest Hwy., Admission is Free

2008_02_alexispride.jpgThe popular Lincoln Square shop The Book Cellar presents another of its popular Local Author Nights. This month’s local author is Alexis Pride who will read from her debut novel Where the River Ends, about a young woman’s life in 1950’s South Side Chicago. Also scheduled to appear are Gary D. Wilson, reading from his debut novel Sing, Ronnie Blue and acclaimed Iraqi writer Mahmoud Saeed, author of books Saddam City and Two Lost Souls.

Wednesday, February 20, 7:00 PM, The Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln Ave., Admission is Free


Alexis Pride photo courtesy of Columbia College Chicago