Send in your encased-meat related artistic endeavors - you might just get published. more ›

If you were dismayed to find that the 2012 AWP Conference is sold out, you will be pleased that there's a bit of an overflow happening outside of the Hilton walls. The Red Rover Reading Series has alleviated us in the past with their playful attitude toward the written word. Curators Laura Goldstein and Jennifer Karmin are dedicated to conducting witty experiments with reading, and this week they are celebrating the Conference with over 100 writers reading from their work. Those of us outside of the Conference, or even those who need a breather, should be thoroughly entertained by their events happening on March 2nd-3rd. more ›

Once Friedman announced the book project on Twitter last week, we had to know more. more ›

A fabulous launch party, benefiting Share our Strength, starts at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night. more ›

If you haven't bought a copy of the Chicago Homegrown Cookbook, head to Green City Market this Wednesday, where author Heather Lalley will be signing copies. If you have already bought one, go anyway and meet Heather and swap recipes. The book, which includes recipes from many of our favorite chefs including Rick Bayless, Paul Kahan, Mindy Segal and Rob Levitt, is a beautiful testament to our vibrant local food community. What better place to get a copy than at Green City Market? more ›

Chef, writer and recent memoirist Gabrielle Hamilton visited Chicago this past weekend to support her memoir, Blood, Bones and Butter with a celebration at The Publican. Before Paul Kahan cooked up Sunday's feast (a recreation of a meal in the first chapter of Hamilton's book), we caught up with Hamilton, chef and owner of Prune in New York, to discuss how she strikes the chef-writer balance, her least favorite food trends and why she said "No thanks" to being the next Iron Chef. more ›

Patton Oswalt's comedy possesses a sharp, incisive grasp of language that shows he's spent a lot of time between the pages. Whether it's dubbing the KFC Famous Bowl "a failure pile in a sadness bowl", or entertaining hyperbolic murder fantasies involving George Lucas, Oswalt's gift for inventive invective is without question. His latest outlet for his thoughts is his first book, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, a collection of essays. Oswalt's going to be reading excerpts from Wasteland in March at Reckless Records in Wicker Park. more ›

If you're a Grant Achatz groupie, or a fan of chef memoirs, mosey on over to your favorite book-ordering location and order "Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way we Eat." Only short excerpts are available, but go read them anyway - stories of the moment Ruth Reichl told Achatz that Alinea was #1, of the day he realized he had cancer and his tryout for Thomas Keller at the French Laundry. It's unlikely that this will be as lurid as Kitchen Confidential, but we think it might be one of the most touching and informative culinary stories ever told. more ›

It's hard to believe Threadless has already been around for ten years, thus making the Chicago-based company a veritable institution of the design and marketing of a new kind of t-shirt. Crowd sourced limited runs of a truly innovative artistic bent have helped the company succeed and earn the cache it has in the creative community today. Jake Nickell took it upon himself to write a book tracing the companies history and praising many of the members of the artistic community that have been active in getting Threadless to the point its at today. We thoroughly enjoyed lingering through its pages, lushly illustrated with iconic t-shirt designs and peppered with Threadless history. The only thing that could make this book even better would be an accompanying re-release of all the t-shirt designs contained therein since we found ourselves downright coveting discontinued past classics! more ›

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Last month, we stumbled upon the wonderful photo collection of Quinn Dombrowski, showcasing the various scribbles and graffiti scattered about the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library. At the time, Quinn let us know the photos were being compiled for a book. Now, it's here for you to own and she's also having a fun little contest to promote its release: a remix contest. Quinn says: "Do something nifty with the graffiti- you choose the medium (video, song, poetry, essay, digital collage, mashup, something physical that can be photographed or mailed, etc)." You can submit entries to her at quinn(at)crescatgraffiti(dot)com through December 20; check out the contest's website for more details. more ›

According to a new book, the Obamas' marriage has had ups and downs: disagreements, career struggles, financial difficulty, and a man who was hesitant to get married. In other news, the sky is blue. The book, from Christopher Andersen, who brought us Michael Jackson Unauthorized and a slew of books about the Kennedys, wrote the book (surprise) without the Obama's cooperation. We can't wait to see this in the discount bin next month next to Blago's book. more ›

Itching to get your hands on a copy of Rod Blagojevich's new "tell-all" book The Governor? Yeah, neither are we. But, should you want one, they apparently can be had. WBBM's Steve Miller reports that he was able to pick up a copy early and that stores are already selling it. The AP also got a copy and reports on some of things within, such as Blago admitting he wanted to appoint Lisa Madigan to President Obama's vacant Senate seat and says he picked Burris for the spot because of his big ego. Without reading anything in the book, we can also (probably) boil the rest down: he did nothing wrong, he will be vindicated, it was the fault of others. There you go. more ›

Rich Miller, who runs Illinois must-read politics blog CapitalFax is having a little fun with the much touted release of former governor Rod Blagojevich's new book, The Governor. In a post on his site yesterday, he explains that he "created a tag called 'Moron'. Clicking the Moron tag shows that Rod Blagojevich's new book is already the second most prevalent product with that tag at Amazon's entire site. It does have a way to go to overtake the first place contestant, however, but Blagojevich is, in my opinion, far more deserving." And he's encouraging his readers to click the tag if they agree with the sentiment. That's a great one, Rich, but there's still a ways to go if you want to hang with 4chan. more ›

We mentioned yesterday that former governor Rod Blagojevich's book is now on-sale at Amazon for $16.47, which we're pretty sure is less than what he wanted for Obama's U.S. Senate seat. But it also gave us the first look at the book's cover, which is all kinds of magical in a "Land of Leprechauns and Unicorns" kind of way. The Governor is due in bookstores September 8. [via Sun-Times] more ›

Hell yes! Pansy Division, the first openly gay punk band from the ‘90s, is coming out all over again—a new record on Alternative Tentacles titled That’s So Gay, a documentary just released on DVD, and a memoir by founding member Jon Ginoli, Deflowered: my life in Pansy Division. more ›

Found this waiting on my doorstep last night. It's the long-awaited Alinea book. And wouldn't you know, it's a monolith. I was literally afraid to touch it for fear that I might have a mindsplosion. more ›