(Legendary Chicago-based photographer Art Shay has taken photos of kings, queens, celebrities and the common man in a 60-year career. In this week's look at his archives, Art shares the secret to telling a good story.) more ›

Ever wonder what your cat does all day while you're at work? This cartoon book has some theories. more ›

Patrick Somerville’s momentum has been gaining momentum. His first book of stories, Trouble, was published in 2006 and Time Out Chicago named it the year’s Best Book by a Chicago Author. He then published The Cradle, his first novel, in 2009 and was also awarded the 2009 21st Century Award, given annually by the Chicago Public Library. And now, he’s back again with another collection of stories. The Universe in Miniature in Miniature is about a guy who is given a supernatural helmet that allows him to see inside the minds and souls of people around him. The short stories in the book are their stories. The book release for The Universe in Miniature in Miniature is Thursday night at The Hideout, so we chatted with Somerville about the book and his writing. Stay tuned for more on the book tomorrow. And if you’d like to learn more about the author, check out this interview with Bookslut. more ›

My idea of a road trip conjures up the image of a typical American family driving a typical American car on a typical American highway. The first page of How to Read The Air perfectly mirrors every aspect of that image. There’s a seven-year-old Monte Carlo, a 484-mile trip from Peoria to Nashville, and Josef and Miriam, an immigrant couple from Ethiopia who are doing their best to look, speak and feel American. But this road trip is just the start of what is a complex but finely woven story about a series of journeys. How to Read The Air not only describes the couple’s physical journey, but also that of their son and narrator Jonas, who decides to retrace their steps thirty years later. Along the way, both Jonas and his parents reflect on the past and present and how their experiences have shaped the people they have become. more ›

Pilcrow. That's the word for that funny little paragraph marker that pops up when you press the wrong formatting button in Word. But lately, Pilcrow has come to mean something else entirely: Chicago's first summer literary festival. It's pre-summer, technically, but the second-ever book-centric event kicked off with drinks and merriment Sunday night at the Elbo Room. It continues throughout the week at venues throughout the city, bringing together everyone from the indie people who write the books to indie presses that publish 'em. more ›

Michael Pollan, one of our favorite advocates of healthy, ethical eating, will be appearing at the Harold Washington Library Monday, May 18th at 6:00. Pollan, the author of The Omnivores Dilemma and, more recently, In Defense of Food, will be engaging in a "dynamic conversation" with Chicago journalist Bill Kurtis. With his mantra of "Eat Food, Not too Much, Mostly Plants," Pollan is trying to start a nation-wide dialogue about the best ways to eat - and you can be a part of it. Admission is free, but we're sure this will be a popular event, so arrive a little early. The presentation is part of the "Chicago Matters/Beyond Burnham" series of events. more ›

Break out your college-lined notebook and your frilly pink pen, StoryStudio Chicago is hosting its fourth annual In-Town Writers Retreat. StoryStudio bills itself as a “growing community of writers building Chicago’s premier center for writing and related arts.” This translates to classes on everything from blogging to screenplays, to the ambiguously titled “LifeWriting” course and the less ambiguously titled session, “Writing Sex.” more ›

It’s November 1, which means it’s National Novel Writing Month, celebrating it’s 10th year this year. National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, encourages anyone who wants to participate to finish a novel in the course of 30 days. In other words, 175 pages of prose equalling 50,000 words. more ›

Amanda Boyden knows a thing or two about gritty. Her first novel, the excellent Pretty Little Dirty, explores two midwestern girls' delving into the punk scene of the early 1980's. After a childhood that saw her raised in Minnesota, and the Chicago and St. Louis areas, Amanda settled in the swampy revelry of New Orleans where she attended the Creative Writing program at the University of New Orleans and has been there ever since. [Full disclosure: Amanda and her husband, Torontoist-approved writer Joseph Boyden, were colleagues of mine at the University of New Orleans.] more ›