Hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash is in town tonight, but not to lay down beats. Rather, the artist formerly known as Joseph Saddler will be at the University of Chicago's International House to sign and promote his new autobiography, The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats. During the appearance, Flash will also discuss his life and the memoir with WGCI's DJ Timbuk2. In the memoir, co-written with music-bio veteran David Ritz (Marvin Gaye, B.B.......

Lily Koppel, 22 and fresh out of Barnard, was already late for work when she rushed out of her New York apartment in 2003. She stopped when she saw several vintage steamer trunks piled on top of the building’s red dumpster. So, like any good reporter, she and her ballet flats dove in, literally, pulling out a beaded flapper dress, an old coat from Bergdorf's, saddle shoes that fit her like Cinderella's shoes, and at......

It's that time of year again, summer is officially starting, regardless of what the weather says. And one of our favorite early summer festivals, the Printers Row Book Fair, is this weekend! Touted as the Midwest's largest literary event, Printers Row features nearly 150 vendors from Women and Children First bookstore to Featherproof press to the Art Institute of Chicago's museum store. Perusing the booths, finding new presses and finding antique books is our favorite......

Best-selling memoirist/essayist and frequent This American Life contributor David Sedaris has a new book, When You Are Engulfed In Flames (out today), and is visiting Chicago next week for a pair of appearances. First is an appearance at Border's in Evanston on Wednesday, June 11 where he'll be reading from and signing the new book. The store will begin passing out free wristbands for the signing portion of the event at 2 p.m. the day......

Barbara Walters, half of the most boring celebrity feud of all time, is currently on tour promoting her new autobiography, Audition: A Memoir, and will make a few stops in the Chicago area. Walters appeared today at a luncheon at the Union League of Chicago, and will also be participating in a cocktails and dinner event courtesy of Winnetka's The Book Stall (call 847-446-8880 for more information). She'll cap her Windy City Tour off by......

In 1992, Aleksandar Hemon was offered a chance to fly from his home in Sarajevo to the United States and participate in a journalist cultural exchange program, spending a month visiting American writers and universities. Seeing the chance to escape the brewing war in Bosnia, Hemon took the offer. While visiting, war finally broke, stranding Hemon in Chicago. With only a basic grasp of the English language, Hemon settled in Chicago and set a goal......

If you've been longing to hear a writer talk about ghosts, cadavers, and sex, today is your lucky day. Author Mary Roach is blessing the Chicago area with her expertise in all three arenas. Roach first grabbed our attention with her excellent book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, in which she explored what happens with our bodies after we shuffle off our mortal coils. Medical school, cadaver farms, organ donations; she covered it......

To celebrate the release of their 4th Annual Story Week Reader, the Columbia College Publishing Lab of the Fiction Writing Department (phew!) is hosting "Little Stories in a Big Journal: An Afternoon of Student Storytelling." The reading will consist of students reading works form the Story Week Reader journal, which can also be read (in PDF format) at the website. We're suckers for student writers, being products of a few creative writing and journalism programs......

No, not that Iron Man. Proving the Cubs aren't the only day baseball game in town, baseball great and first ballot Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr. will be in town next Wednesday to promote the paperback release of his book, Get in the Game: Eight Elements of Perseverance That Make the Difference. Just a warning, though: this is not a baseball memoir, but rather more of a self-help book. No matter, as he is......

We were going to list a bunch of great bars you could hit up tonight to try to get laid, but we decided to leave that to Chicago's Most Popular High School Paper and, instead, focus on another worthwhile reading. We picked up a copy of Joshua Ferris' debut novel Then We Came to the End the Thursday before a weekend trip last year. By the time we touched down at O'Hare that Sunday night,......

Back over Christmas, stuck at our parents' house, we plowed through Sin In The Second City, Karen Abbott's tome about Chicago's legendary brothel owners, the Everleigh sisters, and the religious battle against the houses of ill-repute. It came highly recommended as a great source to fill us in on Chicago's colorful and adventurous past. Abbott's writing breathes life into both the turn-of-the-20th-century Chicago and its inhabitants: Minna and Ada Everleigh, Vic Shaw, Bathhouse John, Ike......

We're ready for spring too, but with yet more cold weather on the horizon, perhaps it's time to hunker down with a cozy reading. The Parlor Reads is a reading series on the first Tuesday of every month sponsored by Bad at Sports, a contemporary arts podcast. In addition to the live readings, The Parlor records each event as a podcast for later listening. You can check out their first two readings here. Tomorrow's reader......

We've already covered quite a bit going on this weekend in Chicago, but if you're looking for something a little more literary-minded, we highly recommend the release party for Susannah Felt's new bookThis Will Go Down On Your Permanent Record, happening this Sunday at The Hideout. If Felt's name sounds familiar, that's because she spent several years writing for such publications as the Chicago Reader (pre-takeover) and Time Out Chicago. She now resides in sunny......

It's that time of year once again. Spring is on the upswing, and the city is ready to brush the sleep from its eyes and starting to shake off the winter hibernation. This means lots of readings and festivals. And next week our alma mater Columbia College Chicago hosts its annual Story Week, a series of panels, discussions and of course, readings by authors from all over the country. All events are free, so......

Several years ago, we read Philip Gourevitch's powerful book on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, We Wish To Inform You.... This led us to eventually pick up Samantha Power's brilliant A Problem From Hell: America in the Age of Genocide, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Power's book is a riveting look at the United States' policies, approaches -- and more than occasional avoidance -- to genocide during the 20th Century, beginning......

We're 10 days into Small Press Month, and we absolutely suggest you take a look at their recomended titles. But if you're looking for something a little more home grown, we've whipped up a sampling of our very own local indie presses and their offerings: Switchback Books: Switchback is a feminist small press, publishing two poetry books a year. They've published three books so far, and you can sample poems online from their published poets.......

The art of the postcard is a delicate thing. How does one evoke the entirety of a place, a mood, and the very essence of travel into a tiny block of text with a picture on the front? From the "thinking of you" sentimental to the "wish you were here" silliness, most often they miss the point. We come away happy for sharing, but ultimately lost on the breadth of travel in the brevity of......

Some say that all great works of art are inspired by something or someone: the ever elusive muse. For many, the muse is a real person, be it someone to impress or just someone to one up. Many times these people are the stories behind the story, which is why "For Whom" is the theme for tonight's reconstruction room reading. So saddle up to the bar and listen to stories by "lovers, fighters, funhousers and......

We know, you're a little disappointed that your short-lived run for the presidency never included any debates. If you've been waiting for the right time to speak up in public on your views, tonight Glenn Hurowitz discusses his new book, Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party. Hurowitz proposes that Democrats are lacking in political courage, and unless they can stand up to Republicans and confront their own political downfalls, they cannot win. The book......