On May 8, the Guild Literary Complex holds their Annual Benefit titled "Illuminate." The theme for this 2012 shebang is none other than the very apt form of the graphic novel. more ›

The week of March 18-23 will be filled with readings from famous and emerging authors, panel discussions, and performances in both academic and club settings. All the events are very accessible: free and entirely open to the public. more ›

Columbia College does more than boast Colbert Report-worthy tweeters. The fiction writing department at Columbia College is also responsible for the ever-expanding and always interesting Story Week, a festival that gives the public free access to author readings, conversations, panels and performances. Story Week starts Sunday, March 13 with a 2nd Story performance and will continue on until March 18 with other events such as open mics and brown bag discussions; Q&As and signings from authors Audrey Niffenegger, Jennifer Egan, and Karen Tei Yamashita; and panels on topics like the future of and preparing manuscripts for publishing. more ›

Trade pizza, beer and the HDTV this Sunday to hang out with some really smart women. WBEZ’s Off-Air Series is bringing writers Anita Chandwaney, Jane Hamilton, Parneshia Joness and Audrey Niffenegger together to discuss their individual creative writing processes. Eight Forty-Eight’s Alison Cuddy will play host to an evening that will include “personal video, real-time artistic creation and discussion about the context from which each of these writers construct their unique voices.” To us, that sounds like the writers will be speaking a lot of their personal experience in creative writing. Here’s some more information about the women who will be present, all of whom have been residents at Ragdale, an artist’s retreat North of Chicago where many writers escape to work: more ›

If we know Chicago as well as we think we do, chilly weather will sweep the city shortly. For a lot of us, that means more time spend indoors. And for some of us, that means books + blankets + glasses of Bordeaux. Here’s a list of what’s on our list to read this fall. more ›

Running down a few of the great literary events going on around the city over the next couple of days. Check out more inside. more ›

We were poking through this Chicago Magazine profile of Chicago author Audrey Niffenegger (who we also interviewed here) when this line caught our eye: more ›

• Somehow, Illinois ranked 13th in the nation in terms of well-being based of a USA Today-Gallup poll. In semi-related news, the National Alliance on Mental Illness gave the Illinois mental health system a "D" grade which comes as several mental health centers in the city fight to keep their doors open.
• The compelling saga of James Douglas Wilson, a Des Plaines man sentenced to eight years in a Moroccan jail for drug trafficking, charges his family says are false.
• The Trib takes a look at how new legislation proposed by President Obama affects local efforts to dispose of nuclear waste.

The nicer the weather gets, the busier we get across the Ist-A-Verse. But we like being busy. Here's a peek at what we've been up to since last week! Chicagoist had an interview with Audrey Niffenegger, whose popular book, The Time Traveler's Wife, was based in their fine city. They also had a heated discussion about Rush Limbaugh's controversial Barack Obama parody, talked about whether Uncle Julio's Hacienda is a good place to get... more ›

Author Audrey Niffenegger more ›

For this month’s Convince Us, we asked you to recommend a love story. We picked The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. We picked it because of the Chicago connection, but also because we can’t stand to keep hearing about a book we haven’t read. The story is about Henry, a man with Chrono-Displacement disorder, or in other words, a time traveler. Henry meets and falls in love with Clare: “I met Clare for the... more ›

Remember when the readworthiness of a book was judged by the number and quality of pictures it contained? Up until first grade: the more illustrations, the more colorful, the better. In second and third grade, chapter books with colorful covers and line art inside were the coolest. By fourth grade, anything with pictures was FOR BABIES, though we still enjoyed the occasional Where the Wild Things Are, or, when the season was right, The Polar... more ›