History & Forms of Lyric

History and Forms of Lyric:
Panel on the Poetics of Robert Hass

Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 4:30 – 6:30pm
University of Chicago, Rosenwald 405
1101 E. 58th Street


Presenter(s): Ted Cohen (Philosophy), Kelly Austin (Romance), and Richard Strier (English), Robert von Hallberg (Comp Lit), moderated by Liesl Olson
Cost: Free

Event Description: Please join faculty members as they present short papers on Pulitzer Prize winning poet Robert Hass and participate in an open discussion on the former Poet Laureate's work.

Reception to follow. Event is free and open to the public.

poetics.uchicago.ed

Sandra Lim & Cecily Parks

Sandra Lim & Cecily Parks
Wednesday, November 18, 5:30 p.m.
Columbia College
Ferguson Theater, 600 South Michigan


SANDRA LIM’s first book, Loveliest Grotesque, was published in 2006 by Kore Press. Her poetry has appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Denver Quarterly, Boston Review, and other journals. She is the recipient of a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, a Soul Mountain Fellowship, and a 2006 Pushcart Prize nomination. Lim earned her BA at Stanford University, a PhD at UC Berkeley, and her MFA at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She has taught at UC Berkeley, the University of Iowa, and Saint Mary’s College of California, and is the 2009-2010 Elma Stuckey Liberal Arts & Sciences Emerging Poet-in-Residence at Columbia College.


CECILY PARKS’s first book of poems, Field Folly Snow (University of Georgia Press/VQR Poetry Series, 2008), was a finalist for the Norma Farber Prize and the Glasgow/Shenandoah Emerging Writers Prize. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Boston Review, Kenyon Review, Octopus, Tin House, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. She is a PhD candidate in English at CUNY Graduate Center in New York and teaches in the undergraduate creative writing department at Columbia University.

New Open Mic @ The Rockbox

Monday, November 2nd
9:00pm
The Rockbox
2624 N Lincoln Ave

Hi poets and poetry lovers,
Joe Bly here with some great news.

I am hosting a monthly poetry open mic and with your help it will be Chicago's new home of the late night poet. The better news? We are making sure this isn't going to be your typical open mic. On top of having fantastic featured readers every month, we are asking readers to bring their own work as well as pieces by their favorite artists to share. At The Rockbox Jam, our goal is for you to enjoy yourselves in a community created poetic realm. This means experiencing the balance of poetry from your freshest local artists to your age old favorites. We are all about having a good time, no pretensions here, just free exchange. So come and enjoy the words, show us what you love, and let the inspiration out. I'm happy to announce this

Monday's featured readers come from Chicago's raddest and most debonair feminist press, Switchback Books!

We will have a book table with their newest titles to check out, $3 drafts and $4 Jameson shots, and an eclectic mix of music all night long. A library of poetry books will available at the bar so everyone who wants to can read a piece. I think this is going to be a great night and I can't wait to see you there. Maybe a free shot or drink ticket will float your way...

Thanks again and all my love,

Joe.

W4tB presets First Friday Classic

Friday, Nov 6

7:30pm - 9:30pm

St.Paul's Cultural Center

2215 W North Avenue

W4tB presents

Erika Mikkalo,

Pamela Miller

Larry O. Dean

& Hugh Scwartzberg

Hosted by the Waiting 4 the Bus Collective!

2+ blocks west of the Damen Blue Line stop

Street parking available

Beer, wine, soft drinks available @ cool-low prices

Free Admission

Donation Requested

The First Friday Poetry Series is a Poetry Green Zone

W4tB presents Open Mic at the Bus Stop

Monday, Nov 2

7:30pm - 10:00pm

Jaks Tap (the back room)

901 W Jackson

Feature...Wayne Allan Jones/Dave Gecic

Hosted by Buddah309 & a whole slew a jamokes

Green Zone, Dude

Granta Chicago Issue Reading

Wed., Nov. 4, 7:30 p.m.

Editor John Freeman presents the latest issue of Granta (cover by Chris Ware), which celebrates Chicago.

Barnes & Noble
1441 W. Webster
Lincoln Park

New from Orange Alert Press

now available

In his debut collection, Jamie Iredell calls on a classic and seldom used literary form to tell a story of travel, adventure, boredom, and life in general. Prose. Poem. A Novel. is a precisely written series of poems that when collected tell an addictive story. However, don’t expect to see complex titles and strict structure, this after all is a novel. Iredell masterfully pushes the reader through every detail, but as each page is turned form and genre melt quickly into a vital story.

"If Mary Robison listened to more punk, grew up in Las Vegas in the 80s before the 80s sucked, did whippits while reading Ben Marcus and scrolling the alternative personals for golden lines to crib, she might have exploded into the post-post-Beat sentence index that is Atlanta. But she didn't. Jamie Iredell did, and in reading this lean but dense meat-eater of a sui generis prose poem cycle, one realizes there might still be a way for chapbooks to compete with porn." – Blake Butler

Prose. Poems. A Novel., the third release from Orange Alert Press, is filled with brilliant and thematic illustrations from Christy Call (Literary Dispatch, Publishing Genius, and Willows Wept Press). These illustrations are in full color and add an even more vibrant visual element to Iredell’s story.

Jamie Iredell was born in Carmel-by-the-sea, California, andgrew up near Castroville. He moved to Reno, Nevada for his Bachelor’s and Master’s dregrees, and to Atlanta for his PhD. His writing has appeared in many magazines, among them The Chattahoochee Review, The Literary Review, Keyhole, Zone 3, Descant, elimae, Lamination Colony, Elysian Fields Quarterly, and Weber: The Contemprary West.

Palabra Pura, Nov. 18th

Rita María Martínez and Luis Tubens
Start: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - 7:30pm


Time: Reading begins at 7:30PM.
Cost: Free admission, all ages.
Location: Décima Musa, 1901 S. Loomis, Chicago

Rita María Martínez is the author of the poetry collection, Jane-in-the-Box (March Street Press, 2008). A graduate of Florida International University’s MFA Creative Writing Program, Martínez’s work has appeared in Gulf Stream, Ploughshares, Gargoyle, Diamgram, MiPoesias, and Tigertail: A South Florida Poetry Anthology. Her writing is also featured in Caña Quemada: Contemporary Cuban Poetry in English and Spanish (Simon & Schuster). Martínez is an Academic Services Writing Tutor at Nova Southeastern University.


Luis Tubens is a Chicago born poet/photographer who’s based his art on the experiences of living in the inner city. He’s produces cultural events that surround the themes of gentrification, ethic unity, workers rights, gang violence, & other themes that are prevalent in urban communities. Luis or “Logan Lou” is the host of The Beat Gallery; radio show on Radioarte WRTE.

Rachel Javellana Poem Writing Workshop @ CPL

Rachel Javellana Poem Writing Workshop
Date: Sat. November 21, 2009

Time: 2:30 pm

Location:
Beverly
1962 W. 95th Street
60643

About this event:

How-to Poems
Rachel will lead a workshop where participants will experiment with the endless ways of writing their own 'how-to' poems, taking the reader through steps (how to do something) and/or moving through physical space (how to get somewhere). We will look at a variety of examples that deliver their message using the form of directions.



Bio:

Rachel Javellana is a poet and teaching artist in the city of Chicago. She has taught with organizations such as The Poetry Center of Chicago, Urban Gateways, and Gallery 37 Center for the Arts, and was the 2008 recipient of the Hands on Stanzas Gwendolyn Brooks Award for excellence in teaching. She has performed in many events, including The Reconstruction Room and Elbowing Off the Stage. Rachel’s poems appear most recently in Buffalo Carp and The MacGuffin.

Women and Children First

Thursday, November 5, 2009 7:00 p.m.
Women & Children First
5233 N Clark Street

Terese Svoboda
Maureen Seaton
Gina Frangello


Tonight we are delighted to welcome three remarkable writers. Poet, fiction writer, and memoirist Terese Svoboda will be reading from her fifth poetry collection, Weapons Grade, and her new story collection, Trailer Girl. Vanity Fair praises, “Unnerve thyself: the violent and enthralling stories in Trailer Girl detonate on contact.” The New York Times called Trailer Girl, “a book of genuine grace and beauty.” Two-time Lambda Literary Award–winning poet and memoirist Maureen Seaton will be reading from her newest poetry collection, Cave of the Yellow Volkswagen, described as, “a testimony—windows up, radio rowdy—to astonishing escapes and (non)leaky endings.” Chicago-based fiction writer Gina Frangello is author of the novel My Sister’s Continent and the forthcoming story collection Slut Lullabies. She is an Executive Editor for OV Books and teaches at Columbia College Chicago and Northwestern University.

new from dancing girl press

Two new releases by Chicago area poets.


Sara Tracey is a poet and PhD student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her work has recently appeared in Hiram Poetry Review, Keep Going, Harpur Palate, Wicked Alice, Lily, Hobble Creek Review, and FRiGG.

sample poem










Jen Blair spends a lot of time personifying vegetation in writing and photography. She also makes books and pamphlets, and writes essays and poems about her social concerns. For a living Jen tells Returning Adult Students what classes to take in college, but she is perfectly happy to give you advice for free. Her work has appeared previously in wicked alice.


sample poem



also check out new releases by Deirdre Dore, Sarah Gardner, and Jacqueline Lyons...

***

the dancing girl press chapbook series was founded in 2004 to publish and promote the work of women poets and artists through chapbooks, journals, book arts projects, and anthologies. Spawned by the online zine wicked alice, dgp seeks to publish work that bridges the gaps between schools and poetic techniques--work that's fresh, innovative, and exciting. The press has published over 50 titles by emerging women poets in delectable handmade editions. Our books are available via our website, at select independent bookstores, Chicago area literary events, and through author readings.

Haki R. Madhubuti @ 57th Street Books

Haki R. Madhubuti
Tue., Nov. 3, 6 p.m.
57th Street Books
1301 E. 57th
Hyde Park


Time: Tuesday, November 3, 2009 6:00 p.m.
Location: 57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637

Renown throughout the nation as an activist and educator as well as a poet, Dr. Madhubuti has been a pivotal figure in the development of a strong Black literary tradition. Emerging from the Civil Rights and Black Arts movements of the 1960s and continuing to the present, he helped define and sustain a new energy sweeping across America. With “healing words of wisdom and dynamic action plans rooted in history,” his poetry gave words to the conflicted emotions of many.

As the most comprehensive collection of Dr. Madhubuti’s poetry, Liberation Narratives: New and Collected Poems 1966-2009 revisits work from popular volumes such as Don’t Cry, Scream (1969); Earthquakes and Sunrise Missions (1984); Black Men (1991); Tough Notes: A Healing Call for Creating Exceptional Black Men (2002); and Run Toward Fear (2004), while a section titled “Liberation Narratives” offers new poems for 2009. Included is a tribute to the late Studs Turkel, repudiations of the Bush administration, musings on the election of America’s first Black president, and a number of other gems.

Elise Paschen @ The Book Stall

Paschen reads from her latest poetry collection, Bestiary; she'll be joined by Triquarterly editor and poet Susan Hahn (The Note She Left).

Sunday, November 1st
3pm.
Book Stall at Chestnut Court
811 Elm St.
Winnetka


Elise Paschen, a poet of Osage descent, is the author of Bestiary (Red Hen Press, 2009); Infidelities (Story Line Press), winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize, and Houses: Coasts (Oxford: Sycamore Press). Her poems have been published in The New Republic, Ploughshares and Shenandoah, among other magazines, and in numerous anthologies, including Turning Back to PoeReinventing the Enemy’s Language: Contemporary Native Women’s Writings of North America; A Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women; Poetry 180, and The POETRY Anthology, 1912—2002. She is editor of The New York Times best-selling anthology Poetry Speaks to Children (Sourcebooks) and co-editor of Poetry Speaks, Poetry Speaks Expanded (Sourcebooks), Poetry in Motion, and Poetry in Motion from Coast to Coast (Norton).

Ballary Marvels

INDEX Press is pleased to announce the publication of BALLARY MARVELS, featuring pen-and-ink drawings by Ellen Lanyon and eleven "nonsense" poems by Lynne Warren. Twenty-four pages plus cover, perfect bound, trim size 10 x 8 ½.

The book is available at MCA Store, 220 E. Chicago Avenue, and Printworks, 311 W Superior Street.

It can also be purchased online at the MCA website.

Tara Betts @ Molly Malone's

Monday, November 9th

7:00 -- open mic sign-up begins

7:30 -- open mic (5 minutes per reader)

9:00 -- featured reader
Molly Malone's Irish Pub
7652 Madison Street
Forest Park, IL
708-366-8073

Join us for a very special evening with Tara Betts

The Molly Malone's Open Mic with your hosts Nina Corwin and Al DeGenova invites you to be part of one of the longest running and most highly respected open mics in the Chicago area.

$5 if you can, $3 if you can't

Poetry/fiction at Molly's is the second Monday of every month.
Feel free to forward this notice to your writing pals...we love new faces with new voices.

Rec Room Series

Reconstruction Room
Wed., Nov. 4, 8 p.m.
black rock bar
3614 n. damen
chicago, il
8:00 pm

What is the sound of one woman turning 32? Is it a sad trombone, like this? We think so. Therefore, in honor of the actual 32nd birthday of rec room founder and organizer Erin Teegarden, we bring you a night of readings and performance that celebrate the various wah wah wah waaaahhhhhh moments of our lives.

Readers/performers include Allison Gruber, Barbara Perry, Dan Godston, Eric Elshtain, Katie Hartsock, Ellen Wadey, Sunny Byers, Jac Jemc, Jacob Knabb, Mary Hamilton, Krista Franklin, and Mary Scherer.

This Week at Myopic

Lihn Dinh & Kent Johnson

Sundays at 7:00 / 1564 N. Milwaukee Avenue, 2nd Floor


THE MYOPIC POETRY SERIES — a weekly series of readings and occasional poets' talks
Myopic Books in Chicago — Sundays at 7:00 / 1564 N. Milwaukee Avenue, 2nd Floor
http://www.myopicbookstore.com/poetry.html

773.862.4882

Contact curator Larry Sawyer for booking information and requests.

E-mail: larrysawyerpoet@yahoo.com

Linh Dinh in Chicago: Friday Night (& Saturday w/ Kent Johnson at Myopic)

This begins @ 9:30 pm.

Bang, Ditto

Actress and poet Amber Tamblyn will hold a reading & signing for her new book, 'Bang Ditto' on 11/3 at 7:00 pm at the Borders, 2817 N. Clark St. in Chicago. For information call (773) 935-3909

Amber Tamblyn is an Emmy and Golden Globe Award–nominated actor and poet. She came to fame on the soap opera General Hospital followed by starring roles on the television series Joan of Arcadia and The Unusuals. She has branched out into film roles, appearing in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and many other films. Winner of a Borders Choice Award for Breakout Writing, the author currently resides in New York.

Chris Green @ The Book Cellar

Friday, November 13, 2009 At 07:00 PM
The Book Cellar
4736 N Lincoln Ave

Chris Green reads from his latest poetry book, Epiphany School. Chris is also the author of The Sky Over Walgreens (Mayapple Press, 2007). His poetry has appeared in such journals as Poetry, Verse, and North American Review. He edited the anthology A Writers’ Congress: Chicago Poets on Barack Obama’s Inauguration (DePaul Poetry Institute, 2009). He teaches poetry at DePaul, where he is also Director of New Programs for Continuing and Professional Education.

MAKE Magazine Benefit

MAKE Literary Productions, Jane’s Restaurant, Glunz Distributors, and Heritage Wine present a Benefit Soiree

Wednesday, October 28, 6:30-9:30 p.m.

at Jane’s Restaurant in Bucktown, 1655 W. Cortland

The evening will take place in Jane’s gorgeous party room and feature readings at 8:00 p.m. from MAKE editors including Don De Grazia, author of the novel American Skin, Joel Craig, author of the poetry collection Shine Tomorrow and emerging writer Kathryn Scanlan. Throughout the night, live music will be provided by LeRoy Bach with Nat Ward and Katie Weigman.

A silent auction featuring limited-edition books, original artwork, and other one-of-a-kind items is not to be missed. Guests are welcome to drop by or stay the entire evening.

Tickets are $40 and include complimentary hors d’oeuvres from Jane’s, premium beer and wine from Glunz Distributors and Heritage Wines, and a chance to wine prizes throughout the night.

Reserve tickets by contacting Sarah Dodson at 773-552-7440 or sarah@makemag.com or purchase online here:

http://makemag.com/janes/

Poem Present: Geoffrey O'Brien

University of Chicago
Rosenwald 405
1101 E. 58th Street

Thursday, November 5th, 12pm
and Friday, November 6th, 4:30pm


Geoffrey O'Brien is the author of a number of nonfiction books and poetry collections, including Hardboiled America: Lurid Paperbacks and the Masters of Noir, Floating City: Selected Poems 1978-1995, and The Hudson Mystery, and a fictional work, The Times Square Story. He is editor-in-chief of the Library of America.

New Media Poetics, Part 2

Thursday, November 5, 2009 - 4:30pm
Sullivan Galleries, 33 S. State St., 7th floor
In collaboration with the Experimental Sound Studio and the SAIC Department of Exhibitions.

New Media Poetics: a collaboration of poetry and sound arts in two parts
Part two: Sound installation (opening reception)

This project is an artistic response to the Learning Modern exhibition, with particular attention to modernist trends in poetry and the manner in which design sensibilities translate across media and are even evident in our understandings of the sonic landscape. Building on the works on display, contemporary poets design texts, which are then read in the Sullivan Galleries on Wednesday, October 7 at 6:30 p.m. Subsequently, SAIC sound students engage these poems as material for further response, reframing the auditory elements of each poem's structure into a new sound score. The resulting projects will be presented in the lobby of the Sullivan Gallery as a temporary sound installation November 6 - 25. New Media Poetics is a collaboration between Experimental Sound Studio for its 2009 Outer Ear Festival of Sound, the Poetry Center of Chicago, and the SAIC Department of Exhibitions.

Monday Night at Weeds

October 26th
9:00 sign up
10:00 reading begins

WEEDS
1555 n. dayton
ALERT!! ALERTA!! ALERT!! ALERTA!!!
its a weeds thing...

poetry contest #4
"Best Off The Wall Poem" poetry contest
possible definitions to "off the wall" ;

1) not main stream
2) totally unusual
3) something you'd rather not do in other venues
4) something you'd say "holy shit" i can't believe he/she said that"
5) in other words something that is not safe...
6) bizarre

$50.00 prize money

host: gregorio gomez

barkeep: sergio mayora

so come on by sit right down and sign up between 9 and 10pm...first poet will be on the mike by 10pm; come hell or high water...last poet by 10:45...(which means there's a limited number of slots) and the judges will retire and unanomisly choose a winning poem...

open mike will continue soon after the last poet contestant reads...

when the judges makes their determination of a winner...i will announce it and present the "prize money"...

looking forward to seeing you at weeds.

the ghost who walks
www.geocities.com/weedspoetry

Five Muslim American Poets

When: Mon., Oct. 26, 10 a.m.
10:00 - 6:00p.m.
ANNIE MAY SWIFT AUDITORIUM
1920 CAMPUS DR.
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
Reception will follow


Phone: 847-491-3170
www.english.northwestern.edu/documents/MuslimAmPoets.pdf

Poets Fady Joudah, Ibtisam Barakat, Raza Ali Hasan, Kazim Ali, and Khaled Mattawa will read from their work and conclude with a symposium "The Muslim American Poet as Self and Other."

presented by The Center for Global Culture and Communication, Northwestern University.

Fifth Wednesday @ The Book Cellar

Fifth Wednesday Journal Release Party
The Book Cellar
4736 N Lincoln Ave

Join us for a release party for the fall issue of Fifth Wednesday Journal, a literary print journal out of Lisle, Illinois.

Friday, November 06, 2009 At 07:00 PM
Url: http://www.fifthwednesdayjournal.com/

Fifth Wednesday Journal is a literary print journal published twice a year by Fifth Wednesday Books in Lisle, Illinois. We seek to bring together readers and the best poets and storytellers we can find, both established writers and fresh new voices.

Disturb the Universe: Modernism across Europe

Thursday, November 5, 6:00 PM
Disturb the Universe: Modernism across Europe
Fullerton Hall
Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Free admission


Poets W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, Rainer Maria Rilke, and others revolutionized poetic practices as novelists such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Thomas Mann delved into their characters’ minds. Artists, including Beauford Delaney and Max Beckmann, created self-portraits that reflected the stresses and strains of a modern age. Goodman Theatre actors bring the literary passages to life.

Co-sponsored by The Poetry Foundation and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Tallgrass Writers Guild at Spooktacular

October 24, 2009, 7:00p—Part of Border’s SPOOKTACULAR salute to the season, March Darin, Kathleen McElligott, Whitney Scott and other area authors present readings from Fearsome Fascinations, 13th anthology in Outrider Press’ respected “Black-and-White” series published in affiliation with TallGrass. Readings will include Panamanian author Vincent Benestante’s prizewinning tale of a boy wishing to become a werewolf; the story of a kite’s fascinating—and growing— lure; the random meeting of a vampire and a desperate woman; and the gruesome secret behind unusually distinctive craftsmanship of certain custom-built stringed instruments. Fearsome Fascinations will be available for $ 18.95 purchase and book signing following the presentation. This program, free and open to the public, is at Borders Books in Oak Park, 1144 Lake Street, 708-386-6927.

Exquisite: A Series of Corpses

Exquisite: A Series of Corpses
Oct. 30, 7 - 11 p.m.
NNWAC/St. Paul's Cultural Center, 2215 W. North Avenue, Chicago
Event takes place upstairs. CIMMFest will present short films downstairs.

Plastique Press presents a new interactive poetry/visual art series -
Exquisite: A Series of Corpses. We invite poets and writers to join artists
on stage with a live model, drawing materials, and typewriters. Poets and
writers are asked to create new works, hand or typewritten, based on the model, the art, the event, thepeople. Artists are asked to draw about the same, including the written works. The result with be a sort of immediate broadside.

Plastique Press will then publish an enhanced eBook of the works produced that night, with each poet, writer, and artist being credited as an author. Sound, text, visual art, and potentially video will become part of the final
book.

This event follows in the history of the exquisite corpse parlor games. Exquisite corpse (also known as "exquisite cadaver" or "rotating corpse") is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled, the result being known as the exquisite corpse. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. "The adjective noun adverb verb the adjective noun") or by being allowed to see the end of what the previous person contributed.

WomanMade Gallery

Looking South
WomanMade Gallery
685 N Milwaukee Ave

Sunday, November 8, 2009 / 2-4 p.m

Includes work that examines "South" as landscape, memory, and culture via music, food and language. Themes include displacement, migration, borderlands etc.

Curator: Kelly Norman Ellis, associate professor of English and creative writing at Chicago State University and one of the founding members of the Affrilachian Poets.

Readers include Kelly Norman Ellis, Toni Asante Lightfoot, Irasema Gonzalez, Diana Pando, Roger Bonair-Agard, and Caprice Banks.

Adam Lizakowski @ CPL

Poetry Reading by Adam Lizakowski
Sat. October 24, 2009
3:00 pm

Archer Heights 5055 S. Archer Avenue60632

Adam Lizakowski, one of the best Polish - American poets, will present his poems.

Adam Lizakowski is a renowned Polish-American poet, novelist, essayist. His works have been reviewed by many well-know writers and literary critics including the Polish Nobel Prize Winner for Literatury Czeslaw Milosz. Mamy critics in Poland consider him to be one of the best known Polish poets living abroad. Adam Lizakowski has lived in the United States since he immigrated from Poland in 1981. He is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, the most recent being Chicago: City of Belief which was chosen by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Polish Division as the 2008 book of the year.

Chicago Poetry Project: Poets Talking

Since 2001, the Chicago Poetry Project has brought locally and nationally significant poets to Chicago audiences. This year, the Project initiates a new series of poet’s talks. In the tradition of Bob Perelman’s Folsom Street talk series, but without the book & DVD package, or the lectures of Prof. Irwin Corey, but without the academicism, the series aims to generate discussion of issues in poetics among writers and readers outside the university umbra. This inaugural year will take up the issue of education: how does a poet get educated? and how might he or she work as an educator, in and outside of writing?

Talks will take place at the Green Lantern Gallery, 1511 N. Milwaukee Ave.
more details: http://greenlanternpress.wordpress.com/

The initial talk will feature Karl Gartung, on Tuesday, October 20, at 7:30pm.

For close to thirty-one years, Karl Gartung has served Woodland Pattern Book Center (and before that, Boox, Inc.) as a guiding force. He is a reader and writer with deep ethical commitment, vision, and a particular enthusiasm for poetry and visual work in outside traditions. His own work is grounded in the poetics of William Carlos Williams’ Paterson and in it one hears echoes of Lorine Niedecker’s deft and lightly punning musicality. His writing was charged, changed irretrievably by Paul Metcalf, Dick Higgins, Karl Young and Jerome Rothenberg. Karl’s work has appeared in 26, Five Fingers Review, Convergence, Croton Bug, Convoy Dispatch, and was featured along with Karl Young and Morgan Gibson in a special issue of Gam: Roots of Experimental Writing in Milwaukee. Karl is artistic director at Woodland Pattern and works at United Parcel Service as a truck driver, union steward and activist.

Bookslut Reading Series

Tuesday October 20th
Hopleaf Bar, 5148 N. Clark
7:30 Pm


Mary Caponegro
Matthew Gavin Frank
Stephanie Kuehnert




Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of “Barolo” (forthcoming from The University of Nebraska Press), a food memoir based on his illegal work in the Italian wine industry. His poetry manuscript, “Sagittarius Agitprop” is available from Black Lawrence Press. He is also the author of the chapbooks “Four Hours to Mpumalanga” (Pudding House Publications), a poetry sequence about his initial visit to his wife’s homeland in rural South Africa, and “Aardvark” (West Town Press), a poetry sequence that strangely engages the alphabet.




Mary Caponegro is author of The Star Café, Five Doubts, and The Complexities of Intimacy, Mary Caponegro lives in the Hudson Valley where she is the Richard B. Fisher Family Professor of Writing and Literature at Bard College.








Stephanie Kuehnert is the author of the young adult novels I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE (2008) and BALLADS OF SUBURBIA (2009) published by MTV Books.

Rock the Independent Vote!

Rock the Independent Vote!
Music, Poetry, Candidates, & more!
Saturday, October 24th
8pm-12am
Weed's Tavern
1555 N Dayton St

Old Town/River North, Chicago
312-943-7815
El: Red to North/Clybourn

CPL Workshops for Young Writers

Kevin Coval Teen Poetry Writing Workshop

Date: Thursday, October 29th
Time: 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm

Location:
Harold Washington Library Center
YOUmedia
400 S. State Street
60605
Program: CityVerse

About this event:

A short, entertaining performance of poems followed by an hour-long workshop [of writing exercises] intended to give writers confidence to tell their own stories and add to or begin their own portfolios.

Selected readings will include the topics of hip-hop, love and urban living, love of Chicago, coming of age and Jewish identity.

---

Teen Urban Haiku and Renga Poetry Workshop with Regina Harris Baiocchi
Date: Tue. November 10, 2009
Time: 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Location:
Whitney M. Young, Jr.
7901 S. King Drive
60619

Program: CityVerse

About this event:
Regina Harris Baiocchi will lead a poetry workshop that includes writing urban haiku and renga. Participants are invited to read one poem up to two minutes long during the open microphone. Teens ages 13 and up are welcome to participate!

Phone: 312-747-0039

Registration:
Registration is preferred but not required. Please call or stop by if you would like to reserve a spot!

Chicago Humanities Festival

Michael Salinger: Well-Defined, An Irreverent Poke at Vocabulary Definitions


Sun, Nov. 8 2:00 - 3:00 PMAdmission: Adults: $5.00, Educators & Students: FREE
Where: Francis W Parker School, 2233 N Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60614

Michael Salinger delivers his playful poems and also will discuss his work on stage and in the classroom as a literary advocate and poetry champion.

Michael Salinger is a poet, fiction writer, and performer. His work has appeared in dozens of literary journals published across the US and Canada and he is the author of Stingray and Well Defined - Vocabulary in Rhyme, among others. An eight-time captain and coach of the Cleveland Slam team that represented the city at the National Poetry Slam competition, he is also the founder and director of the Nova Lizard project, and chief facilitator of the teen writing and performance program at Cleveland's Playhouse Square Foundation

After writing poetry for more than twenty years, Michael Salinger had an epiphany. A veteran of the National Poetry Slam competition, he recognized the correlation between the rich rhythms of the English language and the complexities of its vocabulary. He has since created an innovative teaching method, incorporating rhyming and vocal performance, that helps youth understand and remember such challenging vocabulary words as “credulous” and “instigate.” Playful poems and Salinger’s animated delivery make this program family-friendly. Salinger will also discuss his work on stage and in the classroom as a literary advocate and poetry champion.


***


Kay Ryan and Billy Collins: Poets in Conversation



Sun, Nov. 15 6:00 - 7:30 PM
Admission: Adults: $10.00, Educators & Students: FREE
Where: Northwestern University School of Law, Thorne Auditorium, 375 East Chicago Street, Chicago, IL 60611

Note: Tickets to this event are SOLD OUT.

California-based Kay Ryan is in the midst of her second yearlong term as US Poet Laureate; New Yorker Billy Collins served a pair of terms earlier this decade. Both are wry and sly, wise and capacious, and deservedly beloved. The prospect of the two of them onstage together, trading insights and verse, fills us with delighted anticipation. Collins, winner of the 2005 Mark Twain Prize for Humor in Poetry, is the author of the anthologies Picnic, Lightning, Sailing Alone Around the Room, and Ballistics, among others. Ryan won the 2004 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Her books include Say Uncle and The Niagara River.


***

The Chicago Humanities Festival's mission is to create opportunities for people of all ages to support, enjoy and explore the humanities. We fulfill this mission through our annual festivals, the fall Chicago Humanities Festival and the spring Stages, Sights & Sounds, and by presenting programs throughout the year that encourage the study and enjoyment of the humanities.

For a complete schedule of events, visit here.

Light Quarterly

Thursday November 5th
6pm at The Oak Park Arms,
408 S. Oak Park Ave.
in Oak Park. (708) 366-0544,

www.lightquarterly.com.

Light Quarterly presents a reading of light verse: humorous poems by X. J. Kennedy, Tom Disch, John Updike, Gail White and more, read by the staff of Light Quarterly. (We are the only print magazine that regulary publishes light verse).

Rhino Workshop w/ Tony Trigillio

October 25th
1:30-4:30

Evanston Public Library -- Room 108
Church & Orrington
FOURTH SUNDAYS RHINO POETRY WORKSHOPS
and peer exchange
sponsored by RHINO/the Poetry Forum

COME AND TRY OUT YOUR NEW WORK ON US!

Past leaders and readers and all poets welcome. Drop in, have poems critiqued, and participate in an ongoing discussion of poetry and poetics. Sessions are free* and no registration is required.

Leader: Tony Trigillio

Tony Trigilio is the author of the poetry collection, The Lama's English Lessons (Three Candles Press, 2006); the chapbooks, With the Memory, Which is Enormous (Main Street Rag Press, 2009) and Make a Joke and I Will Sigh and You Will Laugh and I Will Cry (e-chap, Scantily Clad Press, 2008); and two books of criticism, Allen Ginsberg's Buddhist Poetics (Southern Illinois University Press, 2007) and Strange Prophecies Anew (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000). With Tim Prchal, he co-edited Visions and Divisions: American Immigration Literature, 1870-1930 (Rutgers University Press, 2008). He teaches at Columbia College Chicago, where he also co-edits the poetry journal Court Green.

Tony’s topic: Documentary Poetics
Bring 15 or more copies (no longer than two pages) of work you want critiqued.
*$5 donation appreciated
This project has been partially supported by a grant from Poets & Writers.
For more info: RHINOPOETRY.ORG

Documentary Poetics: Mark Nowak

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 6:30pm
TH!NKART Gallery: 1530 N. Paulina, Suite F, Chicago IL

Mark Nowak reads from his recent book, Coal Mountain Elementary. Introduction by Ray Bianchi. A reception at the gallery will follow the reading.

A singular, genre-defying treatise from one of America's most innovative political poets, Coal Mountain Elementary remixes verbatim testimony from the surviving Sago, West Virginia miners and rescue teams, the American Coal Foundation's curriculum for schoolchildren, and newspaper accounts of mining disasters in China with photographs of Chinese miners taken by renowned photojournalist Ian Teh.

"Coal Mountain Elementary is an imaginative and shocking reminder of what it means, in the most human and poignant terms, to be a miner, whether in this country or in China, or for that matter anywhere in the industrial world. It is also a tribute to miners and working people everywhere. It manages, in photos and in words, to portray an entire culture. And it is a stunning educational tool." - Howard Zinn

"Mark Nowak's vital poetry cleaves to the hard surfaces of working lives. There is an epic quality to the voices that cannot be dismissed by corporations or the state. Coal Mountain Elementary will move readers to indignation and action." - Aihwa Ong poet and labor activist heralded by Adrienne Rich for "regenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature," Mark Nowak regularly leads transnational poetry workshops between American and international trade unions. He is the author of Revenants and Shut Up Shut Down, a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice and finalist for the Academy of American Poets' James Laughlin Award. A native of Buffalo, New York, he is now the Director of the Rose O'Neill Literary House at Washington College in Maryland.

Visit the author's web site at http://coalmountain.wordpress.com

Spiking the Sucker Punch

Robbie Q. Telfer's
Spiking the Sucker Punch Book Release
October 28, 2009
7:30pm - 9:00pm
The Chopin Theatre
1543 W Division



Chicago, IL – Write Bloody Publishing releases Robbie Q. Telfer’s newest collection of poems at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W Division, on Wednesday, October 28 at 7:30 pm. Free. All ages. Refreshments provided. www.robbieqtelfer.com.

Spiking the Sucker Punch is the debut work of longtime Chicago performance poet and youth arts organizer, Robbie Q. Telfer. This book release will be a 90-minute performance with readings from the book, performances by youth and adult poets, and the work of trained house cats. There will be a reception before and after the show.

“You won’t find another poet haunting the bars and coffee shops with as much humor in his verse as Telfer… a seasoned comedian’s presence on stage, at once unassuming and unpredictable.”

—Time Out Chicago

From the back cover:
"This gloriously bellowed lyrical and linguistic chaos, this "mess of crossed wires and mixed seagulls," will make your status quo ache, your perceptions implode, your horizons widen and shatter. Robbie Q. writes us toward a primal need, the need to go absolutely insane with the possibilities of noun, verb and participles of the dangled variety. This is not spoken word on the page... this is spoken scream headed directly for that corner of your head you try to hide."
—Patricia Smith, author of Blood Dazzler, National Book Award Finalist

“Robbie Q, our dazzling shooting star sparking the gritty Chicago heavens, crackling with the surprising and contradictory rhythms of life on the run and in the heat.
Keep on, Brother Q, dance the dialectic, your wild inspired unruly convergence and conspiracy. Write on, Robbie Q, poems to spin us around, words, large enough and true. Q-man, quirky and quixotic--- quo vadis Robbie Q? Take me there, too.”

—Bill Ayers, Activist, Educator, Co-Author of Race Course Against White Supremacy

“In Spiking the Sucker Punch, Robbie Q. Telfer rocks out a bestiary of antic poetics all his own. In his open and generous hands, speech acts zoom in and out of our collective desire to live and love. You will feel alive again reading it.”

—Daniel Nester, author of How to Be Inappropriate and God Save My Queen I and II

About the author:
Robbie Q. Telfer is a touring performance poet, having been a featured performer/reader in hundreds of venues across North America and Germany - most recently with the annual Revival Tour. Previous work appears in the American Book Review, Octopus Magazine, cream city review and decomP magazinE, as well as several anthologies and DVDs. He was an individual finalist at the National Poetry Slam in 2007 and he co-wrote the video game Ninjatown DS. He lives in Chicago where he co-curates the Encyclopedia Show and is the Director of Performing Arts for Young Chicago Authors, a not-for-profit that gives creative writing opportunities and mentorship to Chicago teens. His work with YCA was featured in two documentaries from HBO and Siskel Jacobs Productions. This is his first collection of published poetry.

Tallgrass Open Mic

October 27, 2009, 7:30p—Open Mic—The October Open Mic welcomes Indianapolis poet Lylanne Musselman as Featured Author when she debuts A Charm Bracelet for Cruising, recently published by Winged City Press. She teaches at Ivy Tech Community College and the University of Indianapolis ' School of Adult Learning . She hosts a monthly open-mic in Indianapolis, and appears on WFHB public radio once a month with her autobiographical series, "L Words." Lylanne's poetry has appeared in a wide variety of online and print journals, and has appeared in seven TallGrass Writer's Guild 'black & white' anthologies and on the spoken word CD The Sounds of TallGrass. She is an award winning poet, and was most recently a winner of the Eli Jenkins' Five and Country Senses Poetry Competition. Following her presentation is the regularly scheduled open mic where everyone is welcome to perform up to 10 minutes of poetry, fiction, music and more. Cover charge for the evening is $6 reduced to $5 for students. The event is upstairs at The Bourgeois Pig, 738 W. Fullerton, Chicago, 773-883-5282.

Future Perfect Poetry + New Media Series

Thursday, November 5th
7:30 PM

Katerina's
Street of Dreams
http://www.katerinas.com
1920 W. Irving Park Rd.
773-348-7592

Future Perfect Poetry + New Media Series
presents poets

Paul Martinez Pompa
Stella Vinitchi Radulescu
Natalie Ingrisano: French Art & Cabaret Songs
Susan Aurinko (photography)
Saint Cloud

featuring poet-singer Carrie Ingrisano (bass, piano) w/ Christopher Greene (violin, electronica), Meg Thomas (exotic percussion) and Meg Lauterbach (cello, piano) will share new songs/poem-songs/contemporary (fusion/infusion lit rock) art songs



Future Perfect Poetry + New Media Series
will be recorded live for
Chicago Public Radio/Chicago Amplified & UniVerse of Poetry
Open to the public, $7 at the door.

Please share this invitation.

Sunnyoutside Press @ Quimby's

Quimby's Bookstore
1854 West North Ave
Saturday, Oct. 17, 7 p.m.


Online literary journal Sunnyoutside presents poets Nathan Graziano (After the Honeymoon), Micah Ling (Three Islands), and Charly Fasano.


Nathan Graziano lives in Manchester, New Hampshire with his wife and two children. He is the author of Teaching Metaphors (sunnyoutside, 2007), Not So Profound (Green Bean Press, 2004), Frostbite (Green Bean Press, 2002), and seven chapbooks of poetry and fiction. His work has appeared in Rattle, Night Train, Freight Stories, the Coe Review, the Owen Wister Review, and others. His third book of poetry, After the Honeymoon, will be published in fall 2009 by sunnyoutside press.

Micah Ling is the author of the collection Three Islands, which is forthcoming from sunnyoutside press. She earned her MFA at Indiana University. Her poems have appeared in Harpur Palate, Flyway, Fifth Wednesday, and others. Her chapbook, Thoughts on Myself, was published by Finishing Line Press. She teaches writing and literature classes at Indiana University and at Butler University. She also serves as Deputy Editor for Keyhole Magazine. She lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

Charly \”the city mouse\” Fasano is a poet and spoken word performer from Chicago. His stories/poems are inspired by his experiences touring with rock and roll bands, failed relationships and being lost in familiar places. He is the co founder of book publisher and cassette tape label Fast Geek Press / analog empire. He is determined to present the general public audio recordings and books that document the work of underground poets, musicians, artists and comedians in dead media formats. His monthly contribution to Lubricated Zine Online called “City Slicker Coconuts” is an examination of life in Chicago.

For more info:
nathangraziano.com
sunnyoutside.com
myspace.com/charlythecitymousefasano
http://lubricatedzine.blogspot.com
fastgeekpress.com
myspace.com/fastgeekpress

Rhino Reads!

Friday, October 30th

Open Mike 6:00 - 6:30
Featured Poets 6:45 - 7:30
Brothers K
500 Main St.
Evanston, IL





Bros. K Poetry Series!
A Monthly feature of RHINO
Featuring:
Al Degenova & Judith Valente



To order RHINO 2009, use PayPal, via our website:
www.rhinopoetry.org

With the Memory, Which is Enormous

By Tony Trigilio
Main Street Rag
www.mainstreetrag.com

New review in Poets' Quarterly by Carolee Sherwood

Wordslingers, October 18th

Apparatus Magazine Publisher/Editor Adam W. Hart will guest host October 18th Wordslingers Radio Show

How Poetry and Fiction Helps to Address Societal Fears

Apparatus Magazine (ISSN 1947-2463) is pleased to announce that ing the Wordslingers radio show on October 18th, from 8-9 PM CST, broadcasting on WLUW 88.7 FM. (The program also streams, live, on www.wluw.org.)

Following up on the Hitchcock theme of Vol. 1 Issue 4 of Apparatus Magazine – “MacGuffin & Red Herring” – Hart will have three guests on the radio show to talk about the role that poetry and fiction plays in addressing societal fears. The show will include readings by each of the guests, as well as discussion about the roles poetry and fiction play in our everyday lives.

Guests for the show will include:

• Emily Rose Kahn-Sheahan. Kahn-Sheahan is a Chicago poet, board member of Chicago Slam Works, and a collective member of Mental Graffiti. Kahn-Sheahan has been a Chair of Poetry for the Bucktown Arts Festival, a Volunteer Coordinator/Organizer for the 2009 Louder Than a Bomb teen poetry slam, the 2009 Green Mill Women's Slam Champion, and is currently a Vox Ferus resident poet. Her first book is “Cigarette Love Songs and Nicotine Kisses“ (Cross+Roads Press, 2004).

• Darwyn Jones. Jones is a fiction writer work has recently appeared in "SIN: A Deadly Anthology," "Grimm and Grimmer: Dark Tales for Dark Times," and the graphic zine The Dreaded Biscuits. Jones has appeared in various reading series throughout Chicago, including RUI (Reading Under the Influence), Homolatte, 2nd Story and Prose, Poetry and Pints.

• Donna Vorreyer. Vorreyer is a poet and middle school teacher from the Chicago suburbs. Her work has appeared in many print and online journals including New York Quarterly, Apparatus Magazine, Boxcar Poetry Review, Cider Press Review, After Hours, and Autumn Sky Poetry. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and this year, her poem "Misconception" has been nominated for a Best of the Net award. Vorreyer has participated in the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic competition at Guild Complex and was a featured reader at Woman Made Gallery in February for the humor reading "And You Think That's Funny?"

The October issue of Apparatus Magazine will be available on (or around) October 15th, online, at www.apparatusmagazine.com.

ABOUT APPARATUS MAGAZINE

Apparatus Magazine (ISSN 1947-2463) is based out of Chicago, Illinois, and operates as a monthly online literary magazine publishing poetry and short fiction from around the world. Submission guidelines are available at the Web site – visit www.apparatusmagazine.com for more details.

For general correspondence, please contact Adam W. Hart (Publisher/Editor) at Editor@apparatusmagazine.com.

Readers can also follow updates about Apparatus Magazine on Twitter – www.twitter.com/ApparatusMag - as well as on the journal’s Facebook fan page, www.facebook.com/Apparatus Magazine.

ABOUT WORDSLINGERS

Wordslingers began in November 1999 and broadcasts on Loyola University’s WLUW 88.7 FM (and also streams at www.wluw.org). The program, which broadcasts on the first and third Sunday of every month, was created by Michael C. Watson, and is currently hosted by Shelley Nation-Watson. The goal of Wordslingers is to introduce listeners to the thriving poetry community here in Chicago. For more information, check out www.wordslingers.org.

The Poet's Eye, The Artist's Voice

October 15, 2009 7:00pm
The Heartland Cafe, 7000 N. Glenwood Ave., Chicago 773.465.8005

Are these images accompanied by poems or poems illustrated by images? A collaborative performance of projected images created by the artist and haiku-like poems read aloud by the poet.

Scottie Kersta-Wilson and Carma Lynn Park explore and combine themes of war, nature, and unintended consequences. Audience participation will follow the performance. Visit the web site to share thoughts and images: www.PoetsEyeArtistsVoice.com

Shakespeare Project of Chicago

Newberry Library
60 W. Walton
Henry VIII by William Shakespeare
Saturday, October 31, 10:00 am

"I would not be a queen for all the world…"

The line between politics and love is blurred in Shakespeare's late history play. Join The Shakespeare Project of Chicago as they celebrate their 15th season of presenting all-Equity theatrical readings. Dramatizing Henry's historic divorce from Katherine of Aragon, marriage to Anne Boleyn and birth of the future Queen Elizabeth I, the show features Associate Artistic Director Peter Garino.

Admission is free. No reservation is required, but seating is limited.

POW-WOW and Little Black Pearl present Staceyann Chin
October 27, 2009 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Little Black Pearl Art and Design Center, 1060 East 47th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60653

October 27th - POW-WOW and Little Black Pearl present "Staceyann Chin: The Otherside of Paradise" performance and book signing. "The Otherside of Paradise" is POWWOW's book of the month for November.

http://www.staceyannchin.com/

Also featuring POW-WOW Protege - Deja Taylor performing from her one woman show - "Free Deja Taylor". This special event will take place from 7-9 PM at Little Black Pearl in Bronzeville, located at 1060 E. 47th Street. All ages.

After Party for the Libra's at Jeffrey Pub - 9PM until. Free admission with ticket stub or merchandise by staceyann Chin

ROCK 'N ROLL DREAMS BY BOB LAWRENCE

Title: Rock 'n Roll Dreams
Author: Robert Lawrence
Publisher: Naked Mannekin
Format: 7.5 x 5" Chapbook
ISBN: 978-1-60725-954-1
List Price: $8.00
Inquiries: nakedmannekin@gmail.com
http://nakedmannekin.blogspot.com/


Remember those old t.v. shows where aliens from Zong travel by mego-turbo-hyper-sub-sonic phenollian waves to Earth and infiltrate our society by posing as humans and they're so good at it no one knows what's up and just before they take over and turn us all into okra or guano or something equally disgusting a little kid who was wise to them all along defeats them by burping potato chip breath on them and they dissolve into dissipating waves of technicolor yawns? If you do, you'll dig Bob Lawrence's take on modern American life even though it's poetry not science fiction. And if you don't, it's about time you ended your sad cultural deprivation and read Rock ‘n Roll Dreams to see what in the name of all that's bitchin' I'm so stoked about. This is inescapable stuff. BTW: He is a man with 3 first names, you know, Robert Alan Lawrence. Like James Earl Ray and Lee Harvey Oswald. There are no coincidences.

--CHARLIE NEWMAN

Laura Kasischke at The Book Cellar

Thursday, October 29, 2009
At 07:00 PM
The Book Cellar
4736-38 N Lincoln


Reading: Laura Kasischke

Acclaimed fiction writer and poet Laura Kasischke visits The Book Cellar to share her newest book, The Pilot's Wife, a novel of marriage, motherhood, and the choices people make when they feel they have no choices left.

K. Silem Mohammed & Nick Demske

Presented by the Gothic Funk Nation and BONK! in collaboration with Series A.


Please join us for our Special Event
that will take place at The Uncommon Ground
3800 N. Clark St.
Friday, October 16th at 9 PM.


NICK DEMSKE lives in Racine, Wisconsin, and works there at the Racine Public Library. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Action Yes, Sawbuck, Blazevox, Fact-Simile and Moria among other places. He curates the BONK! performance series in Racine and is the editor of the online forum boo: a journal of terrific things

K. SILEM MOHAMMAD is the author of Deer Head Nation (Tougher Disguises, 2003), A Thousand Devils (Combo Books, 2004), Breathalyzer (Edge Books, 2008), and The Front (Roof Books, 2009). He edits the poetry magazine Abraham Lincoln with Anne Boyer, and is a co-editor of the forthcoming Flarf: An Anthology of Flarf (Edge Books, 2010). He teaches literature and creative writing at Southern Oregon University

Polyphony H.S.

Monday, October 26, 2009 At 07:00 PM
The Book Cellar
4736-38 N Lincoln


Join us for a reading with contributors to Polyphony H.S., a student-run literary journal for high school writers and editors.

Polyphony H.S. was co-founded by Paige Holtzman (Latin School of Chicago ’06) and Billy Lombardo in August 2004. At that time, there was no other magazine like it in the country--that is, a professional quality, national literary magazine for high school writers, edited by high school students from public, private, and parochial schools; and there is still nothing like it in the world.