A newish monthly literary reading series and potluck, Here’s the Story, is happening tomorrow night. Each month, they’ll bring five readers to Stage773 at 1225 W. Belmont. Five audience members get to tell stories, too. They can tell any sorts of stories, be they fact or fiction. Audience members get 50 points to doll out between the walk-up stories, and the person with the most points gets invited back the following month as a featured reader. We’ve been to amateur reading events, and events with only published authors, and from our own experience, it doesn’t really matter if you’ve been published in a literary journal or not; writers of all calibers have great stories to tell, so we look forward to a friendly mix of both. more ›

When New York Times reporter Janny Scott was reporting on President Obama’s campaign, she stumbled across the intriguing and untold story of Stanley Ann Dunham — Barack Obama’s mother. In 2008, Scott wrote an article about Dunham that she described as “long for a newspaper, but short for a life.” The response was so great that Scott was offered a chance to research Obama’s mother further and write a biography. A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother was released earlier this month, a result of two and a half years of research. Scott interviewed friends and family of Stanley Ann Dunham, read correspondence and archives, and visited the places where Stanley Ann Dunham lived. 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 ›

Marking the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road, a cluster of upcoming events are directly related to and inspired by the novel’s central themes and its contributions to Beat culture – including the iconic and symbolic way the manuscript was written. more ›

The Interview Show, a monthly opportunity for host Mark Bazer to rub elbows with Chicago celebs, returns tonight to the Hideout. Here’s a few queries we’d like to see answered: more ›