Fourteen of Chicago's most acclaimed live lit collectives and solo performers are teaming up for the 19th annual Fillet of Solo Festival. The festival opens Wednesday, Jan. 13 at 7pm at Mayne Stage in Rogers Park and runs for three weeks. Opening night is a free event featuring performances from Minita Gandhi, Julie Ganey, Nestor Gomez, Tyler Greene, David Kodeski, Jeremy Owens and Amy Sumpter. Festival passes will be available for purchase on opening night for a discounted rate of $25.
A full schedule of events can be found online. There will be continued coverage of the Fillet of Solo performances and an interview with festival founder and performer, Dorothy Milne, featured on Third Coast Review in January.
]]>Branden Johnson's Heaven's Forgotten begins with the story of Moira, a young single mother, and her daughter, Penelope running from the fallen angel who is the girl's father. As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that Penelope is more than she seems and her father is not the only fallen angel looking for them.
The plot is structured much like an action movie complete with cross country road trips (I counted two per character), casually graphic murder, and amateurs picking up firearms. The bright side of the action movie structure is that the pacing keeps the story moving along. The main conflict represented by the fallen angel, Michael, resolves itself one third of the way through the book with minimal fanfare, leading the larger conspiracy to take the stage. The last two thirds of the book feel like an entire season of "Supernatural" minus Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki eye candy.
]]> Where the novel suffers is in the area of character development especially of the three female characters, though two are supposed to be main characters. The female characters are reminded time and again that they are helpless from danger without the help of a man and they all react to stress with screams and tears, sometimes pathetically beating at the chests of the men in the room. Moira depends on her ex-boyfriend to drive her and Penelope from North Carolina to her hometown of Chicago to seek the help of another man, Adam, she knew before she changed her name to "Moira" to protect herself. He proposes asking for help from the richest man in Chicago, and then somehow they're on the road to Arizona to ask Jezebel for help. I had high hopes for Jezebel being a strong female character, but she lost my respect when she deceptively threw herself at the object of her unrequited love and then cried when he got angry at her.Is it fair to hold underdeveloped characters against a brave first time author? Probably not. So overlooking that, we come back to the plot that has three false endings. The first is a classic action/horror movie case of "killing the villain, but wait, they're not actually dead so we have to do it again." Then we have the happily ever after for Moira and her family, in another chapter Michael receives his reward, and finally, the last chapter wraps up the book 84 years later. I will allow that I like a neat ending as much as the next person, but I think in the case of Heaven's Forgotten, the ending is a little too neat which tells me that the book wants to be about everyone in this little family when it can end after the first "ending" chapter without losing anything substantial.
I will admit that the description of Chicago at night was my favorite thing about it: "And Moira stared at the cityscape as it came upon them. Like a titan from some ancient culture's mythology, it had many glowing eyes and so many ways to kill you" (288).
It is clear that Heaven's Forgotten is a first novel, which can explain a number of the book's pitfalls, but it also gives me hope that Branden Johnson has room to grow in order to create more nuanced characters in his next novel.
]]>FRIDAY! Dark Noise, a nationwide, multiracial, multi-genre collective of poets and writers will be in Chicago for a reading at The Poetry Foundation downtown.
SATURDAY! Nerd out as author Carly Kocurek holds a release night for her book Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade at Geek Bar in Wicker Park.
SUNDAY! The Queer Readers Book Group at Women and Children First bookstore in Andersonville discusses Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower.
SUNDAY! Curbside Splendor's reading series The Marrow is back at the Whistler in Logan Square with readings by Britt Julious, Megan Kirby, Ted Wesenberg, and Dave Reidy.
SUNDAY! Back 2 Print Publishing releases their latest chapbook Spent Seasons by high school student Liza Edwards-Levin at Uncharted Books with a reading by the author and invited guests.
]]>Here is that list, the best novels (and one novel-esque memoir) set in Chicago's suburbs. You may notice most of them were published in just the past 15 years. It's not that no one was writing about Chicago suburbs before 2000 (see The Chicago of Fiction: A Resource Guide for proof), it's just that most of those books are out of print. If I've missed any great still-in-print books set in the suburbs, let me know in the comments.
]]>The Instructions, Adam Levin (2010). Easily one of the most fascinating novels of the decade, about a messianic ten-year-old boy. The author grew up in Buffalo Grove, and the novel's Jewish day school is a "fictionalized" version of Aptasikic Junior High.
The Confessions of Al Capone, Loren D. Estleman (2013). There's plenty of nonfiction about the life of Chicago's most infamous gangster, but this taut historical novel imagines him close to death in Florida, spilling his secrets to an FBI agent posing as a priest, including his time as the King of Cicero.
The Fugue, Gint Aras (2015). Reviewed in Gapers Block just this week, the book follows a man returning to Cicero after a decade in prison.
A Good Family, Eric Fassnacht (2015). A multi-generational family dramedy in the vein of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections.
The Black Hour, Lori Rader-Day (2014). Rothbert University is a thinly-veiled stand-in for Northwestern University in Rader-Day's debut mystery about a series of deaths on campus.
Hairstyles of the Damned, Joe Meno (2004). A punk-rock bildungsroman that marked the arrival of one of Chicago's great modern writers.
Ordinary People, Judith Guest (1976). An affluent North Shore family faces not one, but two tragedies. You've probably seen the movie adaptation, directed by Robert Redford and starring Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore.
Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger (2009). Mostly set in London, Niffenegger's atmospheric follow-up to The Time Traveler's Wife features several scenes in Lake Forest, where the twins grew up with their mother.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000). It's not a novel, but this memoir by the founder of McSweeny's begins in Lake Forest (with guest appearances by Chicago and Evanston) as Eggers and his siblings deal with the deaths of their parents.
The Making of Zombie Wars, Aleksandar Hemon (2015). The protagonist lives in Lakeview, but his femme fatale Ana lives "way out in Lincolnwood, in a building that looks like a depressing dorm."
Will Grayson, Will Grayson, John Green and David Leviathan (2011). An experimental novel half-written by the author of The Fault in Our Stars about two very different boys with the same name.
Ballads of Suburbia, Stephanie Kuehnert (2009). Another (brutal) suburban coming-of-age tale, now featuring more drugs and rock'n'roll.
The Thief Who Came to Dinner, Terrence Lore Smith (1972). An overlooked novel, but the movie adaptation was well-received.
]]>While the mystery of The Fugue is intrinsically inviting and ultimately incredibly satisfying, I don't feel that is the true core of the novel. One of the more central aspect of The Fugue is more accurately seen in the complexities surrounding the refugee families and how they cope. Aras sets his tone immediately in the first chapter, detailing a character's traumatic experience in Western Ukraine. The short chapter captures many the book's themes and motifs so concisely that on my second reading I felt even more overwhelmed by it. Aras contemplates the consequences of the fear and abuses suffered by refugees. The Fugue rarely, if ever, pulls any punches. Aras has created damaged and intricate characters who don't fall prey to typical pastiche. If anything, he subverts expectations, leading characters down more personally gratifying paths.
One the most interesting ways that Aras manages to illustrate his character's unique personalities is through distinct narrative shifts. One moment you in a scene of reality before being swept up by what are often dark and nightmarish prospects. The novel is filled with passages that feel like sudden fever dreams brought on by characters moments of fear, lust, and deep thought. These imagined moments happen sparingly, it is a high point in Aras' writing. His prose really shines during these sections, giving into them without hesitation. The scenes arrive unannounced and depart with just as little caution, leaving only a residue of their full intent of on the story.
Another central theme that illuminates the core of the novel is music. Aras positions music in a complex realm just like his other characters. At times music is portrayed as a healing device, an outlet for pain and suffering. Other times it is the source of it, the initiator of uncertainty and malice. It's that contracting balance that defines the musical technique for which the book (partially) finds both its name and structure. Nearly everyone and everything in the book has the duality and repetitious quality of a fugue. Following this technique as subtly as Aras does allows for connections to be satisfyingly discovered as the story moves along, especially as Aras considers all meanings of a fugue.
There are so many aspects of the book that remind me of other great writers. Aras handles Cicero with the same intimacy that Stuart Dybek does with so much of Chicago and its surrounding towns. The reverence and importance instilled on music (and other forms of art) and how it influences novel's shape beckons to the likes of Richard Powers' The Goldburg Variations and Thomas Bernhard's The Loser. There are even instances of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky littered throughout the prose, but like all the previous elements I mentions, Aras never succumbs to them. The Fugue isn't an obscure patchwork of influences but a wholly complex original that demands to be read.
Gint Aras will be celebrating the release of The Fugue this Thursday, Dec. 17 at City Lit Books, 2523 N. Kedzie Blvd. He will be discussing the fifteen year journey of writing the book as well as reading some excepts. Aras will be joined by world-class violinist Maria Storm for a short performance of a fugue. Word is he might stop over by The Owl afterwards for a few drinks if you want to have a conversation with one of the more interesting Chicago writers.
]]>Chicago Public School teacher and writer Jack Murphy has teamed up with local freelance artist Melanie Plank to produce an illustrated book of Beatles inspired poems. The collection, titled Beware of Napkins, includes 15 poems and 23 pen, ink and crayon or crayon-like illustrations.
]]> The poems are tender snapshots of lives, familial relationships, and friendships explicated through a fondness for or an experience of the Beatles and their music. The collection includes illustrations of a series of letters from a father to his daughter in which he discusses different Beatles albums and songs. Through each letter we see the pair age, the daughter becoming an adult with a family of her own while the father becomes a retired widower. Despite the evolution of their lives, their mutual appreciation for the Beatles remains. The title of the collection comes from this series of letters. The daughter mistakes the words of George Harrison's "Beware of Darkness" for "Beware of Napkins."Most of the poems are like this, childlike, and capturing an innocence and effervescence that exists in the unbridled appreciation of music. The illustrations act cohesively with the poems. They're perfectly whimsical, bright, and fun, and reflect that place pure fanhood can take in our lives.
For less than $20, this pocket-sized poetry collection makes a great stocking stuffer for any Beatles fan. Copies can be purchased at Foursided's three Chicago locations and on the author's website.
]]>FRIDAY! Live Lit series 2nd Story will be at Pub 626 presenting their reading titled, "Please, Oh Please: Stories of Asking for the Inconceivable".
FRIDAY! Poetry Foundation holds an opening reception for Volatile!, a collaboration between design historian Debra Riley Parr and scent artist David Moltz.
SATURDAY! Drop in to Unabridged Bookstore as they celebrate their 35 year anniversary with special sales and a look back on their history.
SUNDAY! Chicago Tribune columnist and co-owner of Frontera Foods Jean Marie Brownson discusses her cookbook Dinner at Home along with cooking demos at culinary bookstore Read It and Eat It.
Readers, writers, English teachers, history buffs, and museum lovers rejoice! Chicago is set to welcome a new museum to the line-up of superb museums gracing our city.
The American Writers Museum (AWM) will open early spring 2017 at 180 N. Michigan Ave. as the first museum in the United States dedicated solely to the personal stories and literary works of American writers past and present. The museum promises themed galleries, educational programs, interactive exhibits, and special events to encourage participation from visitors of all ages.
]]>The museum will send visitors on adventures to meet writers from their hometowns using their zip codes in Writers Hall or join literary travelers on their treks across the country. Through the collaboration of AWM with a number of writers' homes and museums, visitors will be able to virtually "visit" their favorite writers' homes and fictional sites from classic American novels. Visitors will truly immerse themselves in the lives and minds of American writers in exhibits such as The Mind of a Writer, A Writer's Room, and Word Play.
AVM founder and President Malcolm E. O'Hagan expressed enthusiasm and optimism for the location of the museum. "We are thrilled to have found the perfect space in the heart of downtown Chicago, just steps from the city's major attractions. The American Writers Museum will become a beloved attraction for Chicago residents and visitors from all over the world, and will provide an exciting and unprecedented opportunity to showcase true Americana in one of the nation's most culturally rich cities."
In a city famous for its place in the live literary scene, the American Writers Museum promises to expand knowledge of the writers who came before. With support from scholars, publishers, writers, universities, booksellers, and the City of Chicago, the American Writers Museum will certainly add a new layer to the city's cultural landscape.
For more information including renderings, floorplans, and more details about the exhibits, visit the museum's website.
]]>FRIDAY! Women and Children First presents a night of readings with authors Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow, Stephanie Douglass and Mary F. Bonnett.
SATURDAY! Author Kathleen Aalto reads from her book The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh at the Newberry Library.
SATURDAY! City Lit hosts Steve Karas to celebrate his book release Kinda Sorta American Dream joined by readers Ben Tanzer, Leesa Cross-Smith, and James Yates.
SATURDAY! Live lit reading Mortified at the Promontory in Hyde Park.
SATURDAY! You're Being Ridiculous is back at Mayne Stage.
SUNDAY! Female friendly reading That's All She Wrote will be at Great Lakes Tattoo.
]]>Despite reading Upton Sinclair's The Jungle in high school or college, most Chicagoans don't realize the Union Stock Yard was one of the biggest tourist attractions in the nation, nor that it was almost a self-sustaining city unto itself, full of hotels, taverns, and 40,000 people.
]]> In his new book from the University of Chicago Press, Slaughterhouse: Chicago's Union Stock Yard and the World It Made, Dominic A. Pacyga paints a lively, fascinating picture of a bygone era. A history professor at Columbia College, Pacyga is also the author of Chicago: A Biography, hands down the city's best and most comprehensive history book. I spoke with Dr. Pacyga about Slaughterhouse, the downfall of the Union Stock Yard, and where to see its legacy today.I never realized the Union Stock Yard was such a huge tourist attraction in its heyday. What do you think drew so many people to visit back then?
At the turn of the century it is estimated that some 500,000 people visited the Union Stock Yard and Packingtown annually. Today it is difficult to understand why this became such a great tourist attraction, but in the years after the Civil War the meat industry provided innovation, but also a grand spectacle to a quickly changing world being transformed by industry. The very notion that here was the "modern" in all of its strangely perverse glory became an attraction to the crowds that made their way to see the Brave New World in the stockyards.
One of your central claims in Slaughterhouse is that the Union Stock Yard "ushered in the modern industrial age." What do you mean by that?
The Chicago Union Stock Yard and the packinghouses that soon settled adjacent to it changed the age-old relationship between livestock and mankind. The "modern" presented itself on the kill floors of Chicago. What took a skilled beef butcher and his assistant more than eight hours to do occurred in roughly 37 minutes in Chicago. The disassembly line in the packinghouses gave birth to the assembly line at Ford Motor Co. These large firms also tried and perfected a national marketing system, established huge efficient factories, and incredibly well organized general offices that employed thousands of white-collar workers across the "Square Mile." In addition, new ways of advertising and marketing were also pioneered in the district. Even the idea of government regulation of industry emerged in the stockyards as the federal government attempted to prevent monopoly and to ensure healthy meat for the nation and the world.
What's the most interesting thing most people don't know about the Union Stock Yard?
Many people think they know a lot about the yards, but in reality much of what they know is myth or a result of reading Sinclair's The Jungle, an important muckraking novel. I think that most people do not understand the significant role that the industry in general and that "Square Mile" in particular played in the transformation of the United States from a basically agricultural country to an industrial behemoth. The stockyards were more than the smell, they were central to the innovation of industry and business in general. Furthermore, they provided a spectacle that few who witnessed it ever forgot. As I tell my students, Chicago was the Cupertino (the heart of Silicon Valley today) of the period from the Civil War until after the Korean Conflict. People and ideas gathered here to seek their fortunes. The Union Stock Yard and Packingtown were prime examples of that process. The International Livestock Exposition's motto "Success Comes To Those Who Hustle Wisely" should be emblazoned on the city's crest.
How was writing this book different from writing Chicago: A Biography?
Chicago: A Biography was the result of 30 years of teaching the city's history in the classroom. I hoped to lay out a reasonable text for students and the general public alike who wanted to know about Chicago's past. Slaughterhouse was also the result of more than forty years of fascination with the stockyards. Those who know my biography might think this a more personal book, but in reality just like my earlier work, Slaughterhouse is the result of years of research and writing. Certainly the scope of the two books are very different, but I hope that both tell the story of one of America's most important urban places.
Could the downfall and closing of the yards been prevented, or was it inevitable thanks to technological progress?
Given the changes in transportation technology and the development of direct buying methods by the packers it is hard to see how the stockyards could have survived. The Union Stock Yard was born of the railroads. The motor truck and the interstate highway system, along with improved means of communication basically meant it would go into decline. There was also a great deal of pressure from the city regarding pollution and other nuisances, which made it more and more difficult for both the meatpackers and the stockyard company to stay in the city. Also the center of livestock production was continually moving west. But given all that, it would have been possible (and I argue still is) for a smaller livestock market to operate in Chicago and continue the city's tradition as a major food producer. The major problem was that the property was getting to be too valuable to be left as a livestock market. With the continued decline of livestock receipts at Chicago, the ownership decided to turn the land over to what they felt was a more profitable use.
Where are the best places to see the legacy of the yards today?
The Stone Gate still stands at Exchange Avenue and Peoria Street in the Stockyard Industrial Park. Various meat packers still operate in the area including two slaughterhouses. In many ways The Plant, a food business incubator at 1400 W. 46th St., and Testa Produce at 46th and Racine Avenue both maintain the tradition of innovation and spectacle that I write about in the book. A walk around the four neighborhoods that surround the Union Stock Yard and Packingtown: Bridgeport, Canaryville, Back of the Yards, and McKinley Park would tell volumes about the immigrant history of Chicago.
]]>SATURDAY! Chicago Read/Write Library's month long pop-up library Rewriteable Wicker Park holds their Final Friday Celebration at the installation Boombox in Wicker Park's Mautene Court.
SATURDAY! Reading series You're Being Ridiculous tackles the theme Beauty for this week's installment of the series at the Mayne Stage.
SUNDAY! Sideswiping Normal, a night of storytelling with June Huitt and Nicole Hollander, comes to Martyrs.
FRIDAY! It's the third Friday of the month which is when Bad Grammar Theater takes residence at Powell's Bookstore downtown.
SATURDAY! The Chicago Book Expo is back with a slew of workshops, readings, and discussions as well as a tabling expo of small presses, literary organizations, authors and more at Columbia College Chicago 1104 S. Wabash Ave.
SATURDAY! As part of the Chicago Read/Write Library's month long pop-up library (read more from last week's Gapers Block article), they are hosting the workshop How and Why to Preserve Your Family & Community Media.
SATURDAY! Quimby's Bookstore welcomes musician Andy Slater (better known as Velcro Lewis) for the release of his book How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up, his chronicle of being a blind pedestrian.
SATURDAY! Reading series You're Being Ridiculous is celebrating their fifth anniversary at the Mayne Stage (read a Gapers Block interview about the series too).
In 2013 John Wawrzaszek (a GB Book Club contributor) started a nonprofit aimed at fostering a common space for writers, artists, designers and self publishers. Modeled after Portland's Independent Publishing Resource Center, the Chicago Publishers Resource Center is a not-for-profit headquartered in Wicker Park. They provide a free space for workshops, community meetings, art exhibits, readings, and classes.
]]> One of the longer running programs at CHIPRC is the Wasted Pages Writing Workshop. "It was my first winter in Chicago, and Wasted Pages helped get me through it," says current workshop leader Elizabeth O'Connell Thompson. "It's not an easy thing to drag yourself into the slush when you could be warm at home, but I've found that the community spirit of the CHIPRC gets you going, and makes you want to keep going." The Wasted Pages Workshop meets weekly during December and January and accepts 12 writers of varying skill levels.In addition to Wasted Pages, CHIPRC offers a wide array of programming and makes its space available to meet needs of Chicago's eclectic arts and literary scene. Catherine Hannah found a welcoming space for what she was seeking. She says, "I wanted to find the female comics community and be a part of it." She reached out to CHIPRC to create that community, and now leads a collective of trans and cis female cartoonists, artists and writers that meets on the last Wednesday of every month.
Are you looking to join a workshop in Chicago or looking for a space to hold a reading or publish a chapbook? Maybe you should think about reaching out to CHIPRC. Elizabeth O'Connell Thompson nicely summarizes what CHIPRC has to offer when she says, "If you're outside of a creative scene, it can be intimidating to try to break in, but there is no breaking required here -- just come say hi."
Right now CHIPRC is in the midst of a fundraising effort. Check out their classes, workshops, and upcoming events, and consider joining the community.
]]>Because of your work as founder and director of the Chicago Writers Conference, you're very involved in the Chicago writing world. What are your hopes for our literary community, and what do you hope the conference can do for the community?
Another Chicago author once asked me, "Why is it so important to you that Chicago gets attention?" The only answer I can come up with is love. I'm from here. It pisses me off that Tina Fey, who got her chops here, didn't stop here on her book tour for Bossypants. A lot of times people will tour in New York and Los Angeles, and then stop in Minneapolis instead of stopping here. Honestly, I don't think Minnesota has more of a robust community than we do. My hope for the community is that it will keep growing and becoming stronger. Chicago has this huge literary community. There are over 50 publishers here, but people don't know that. Some of them are very tiny, and some of them only put out chapbooks, but there are big ones too. I'm tired of Chicago being flyover country.
]]> Sometimes it seems like Chicago just lives in the shadow of the New York literary scene.Yes, and I would say that our community is a little better than New York's. I haven't lived there, and if someone wants to prove me wrong, go ahead. But here people actually go to each other's events. People give each other suggestions. People will show up for you and share their ideas. They will give each other a hand up. Of course not everyone is like that. Chicago Writers Conference is a very small organization, and people who've worked for us have gone onto great things. I want them to. I want them to take that knowledge and run with it. I want our community to keep growing in a positive direction.
Are there particular publishers or presses that you would recommend that people might not know about?
I would recommend Chicago Review Press. They have four different imprints, and a lot of their books are Chicago focused. Agate Publishing is another of my favorites. They're actually located in Evanston. Doug Seibold, the founder, publisher, and president was instrumental in helping getting the Chicago Writers Conference up and running. Agate has great variety. They have an imprint that features African-American writers and they also have a business imprint. The business books are my favorite.
How do you balance your work on the conference and your own writing?
I would love to tell you that I parse my time out very carefully, which I used to do, but now the bottom line is just prioritizing [my own work]. I do try to stop myself from getting sucked into Facebook. During the six weeks leading up to the conference, I pretty much [work on the conference] from the moment I wake up to 9:30 at night. But I took a vacation after the last conference, and told myself I was going to write every day first thing in the morning.
I'll get up extra early [to write] and I won't check my email or go online. The other thing that helps is that I set a timer on my phone for at least twenty minutes. It's just creating a lot of habits. You do have to trick your brain into doing the thing you want to do.
What are you working on right now?
I am touching up an essay that I'm reading later this month. I'm reading at Tuesday Funk in January, so I'm working on that too. I'm also working on some personal essays that that will hopefully become a book. I abandoned my book project before, but I think I might take it up again in the next year.
]]>What was the transition from writing your short story collection to your first novel? Did anything about your writing process change?
The first several drafts of the novel were written entirely from the perspective of its main character, Simon Davies. But Simon still wasn't coming alive on the page in the ways he was in my head, so I tried a different approach, writing chapters from the points of view of Simon's mother, father, brother, voiceover agent, ex-girlfriend, and others, interspersed among chapters told from Simon's perspective. I was determined that the book would remain a novel with narrative threads that moved forward through each of the book's chapters. But I did draw upon some of my short-story-writing technique in ensuring that each of these first-person chapters was complex and, as much as is possible for a piece that is a novel chapter and not necessarily a stand-alone story, complete.
]]> You've been part of the Chicago literary community for a long time. How have you seen things grow since the publication of your first story collection?For one thing, I think that Chicago's writing programs--Columbia College, The School of the Art Institute, Roosevelt, Northwestern and others--are continuing to attract quality writers, and that many more of these writers are staying in Chicago, writing, editing, publishing, and curating their own reading series. The talent, energy, and integrity among this crowd of younger writers, editors, and impresarios are enormous. They produce work for an audience and offer themselves as an attentive audience for their fellow literary folks and, in so doing, they largely refuse to allow artificial boundaries of genre, form, race, ethnicity, or gender stand in their way. Ten years ago, when I returned to Chicago from graduate school, this phenomenon was building around featherproof books and the burgeoning live lit scene, but it's flourishing now. And now Chicago has both featherproof and Curbside Splendor Publishing, among other vibrant indies, drawing the eyes of serious literary people--many readers among them--to the work being done and the art being made in Chicago.
Your characters usually have backgrounds in the arts and entertainment industry as comedians, musicians, printmakers, basketball players and now voiceover talent. Because there is such a presence for those jobs in this city, how does being a Chicagoan influence why you've written characters with those backgrounds?
One of the things that makes Chicago such a fertile literary setting is the city's contradictions. It is the recognized home of long-form improvisation, yet it is notoriously difficult for Chicago actors to earn a living while working here. Chicago is a city of immigrants and migrants with a history of welcoming "the other" with the right hand and mistreating her with the left. In our collective consciousness, we carry a chip on our shoulder and suffer an inferiority complex, especially in the areas of entertainment and sports, especially where New York and Los Angeles are concerned. I find Chicago a particularly appropriate place to write indie fiction and make indie art of any kind because Chicago's artists must come to grips early with the fact that there is so much beautiful art being made here, and that the rest of the world's failure to take notice doesn't diminish the quality of the art.
Do you have a connection with arts and entertainment that draws you to write about it?
I've dabbled in performance. I took an improv class at Second City when I was in college, I played and sang in a three-piece band for a couple of years, and I've read my written work before live audiences many times. In some ways, performing is, for me, the road not taken--or the road not taken all the way to its end, anyway. I've heard other writers say that they write fiction because one life, defined by the irreversible choices an individual must make, could never be enough to satisfy her imagination. This take resonates with me. Fiction gives me a chance to inhabit characters whose lives could never be mine, but they give me a good taste of what I may have missed--the good and the bad of it. That cocktail of aspiration, gratitude, relief, and fear of missing out excites me and compels me to keep writing. What's more, I find the personal and professional journeys of artists (some of whom are also entertainers) fascinating. My list of favorite podcasts (WTF, You Made It Weird, Otherppl, Chicago Humanities Festival, Fresh Air, Bullseye, Sound Opinions) verifies this.
In The Voiceover Artist, you get into the details of what an audition is like and how to work with a talent agent. How deep did you conduct research to make sure there is authenticity in the details?
My first job out of college was with Coudal Partners, the famed Chicago design firm. At Coudal, I was given the chance to write radio scripts, audition and book voiceover talent, and, later in my tenure there, direct recording sessions. My bosses at Coudal Partners and the owners/engineers at Hubbard Street Studios showed me the ropes and, working with some of the city's best voiceover talent, I came to see that there was potential for humanity and even art in what some might dismiss as the cacophony of consumerism's advertising engine. Since then, I've had a chance to record a few voiceovers myself, mostly scratch tracks that would be redone later by union talent. So I was fortunate in that I didn't have to do a lot of research into voiceover. I already knew just enough to be dangerous.
Of all the professions you've written about, which do you think you'd suited for if you weren't a writer?
That's a tough one. I think there's a good chance I'm already engaged in the only creative pursuits I'm actually suited for. As far as other artistic or entertainment professions are concerned, I'm (mostly) content to leave them to those who can't imagine doing anything else, just as I can't quite imagine a life without writing.
Photo provided by the author.
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