Stuart Dybek Sails through University of Chicago

By Melissa Feldsher in Arts & Entertainment on May 19, 2009 4:00PM

As the official Kestnbaum Writer-in-Residence at the University of Chicago, Stuart Dybek is no stranger to the South Side. A Little Village and Pilsen native, Dybek’s works often chronicle the ethnic shifts that occurred in these neighborhoods over the past fifty years, including the masterful coming-of-age tale I Sailed With Magellan.

Perhaps most famous for his fiction--The Coast of Chicago was a "One Book One Chicago" selection in 2007—Dybek’s short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, and The Atlantic, while his poetry has produced two collections: Streets in Their Own Ink and Brass Knuckles. Additionally, he has been awarded the MacArthur Prize, the PEN/Malamud Award, and a Guggenheim fellowship, to name a few.

With a resume like that, it’s no wonder the Kestnbaum Writer-in-Residence program, which has hosted prominent writers such as Art Spiegelman and Zadie Smith, has snapped Dybek up. He will be reading from his work tonight and lecturing tomorrow in Hyde Park. You’ll be remiss to miss it.

Stuart Dybek reading, May 19th, 4:30 p.m., University of Chicago’s Swift Hall, 1025 E. 58th Street., free.

Stuart Dybek lecture, May 20th, 5:00 p.m., University of Chicago’s Classics Building, 1010 East 59th Street, Room 110, doubly free.