he popular literary radio program Writers on Record, hosted by Victoria Lautman and aired on 98.7WFMT, is coming to a close this Thursday evening, June 10th.  You can view the final broadcast at the Harold Washington Library Center’s Pritzker Auditorium at 6:00 pm.  The final broadcast will feature prominent Chicago writer and publisher Jonathan Messinger, owner of Featherproof Books and senior editor of Time Out Chicago’s book section.  Also featured will be Chicago Tribune book editor Elizabeth Taylor.  The evening will include a discussion of summer reading suggestions, big books for fall, and the future of publishing.  Audience participation will be encouraged.  Be sure to arrive early!

More about the book, including purchasing info, at the author’s site.

his last weekend I traveled from Chicago to Ann Arbor, Michigan to visit friends and family, and I spent a good deal of the trip messing around with the Poetry Foundation’s recently released iPhone app.  I really enjoyed it both because it contains a great selection of famous poetry, and because it has a really unique way of searching through the poems.  You can view this more clearly at their website, but they allow you to scroll through the poems using two different categories at the same time, such as Passion and Youth, or Enthusiasm and Nature.  It’s a great way to discover new poems and to find poems that suit your current mood.  And one of the best things about it is that it’s free.  You can download it at the link above or at Apple’s app store.

recently caught wind of a rumor floating around the Chicago literary community that Granta 108: Chicago was the British literary journal’s highest selling issue of all time. I spoke with Patrick Ryan of Granta to confirm this fact. “I don’t have the numbers,” he said, “but, yes, it was our highest selling issue ever. We’re very happy about it, as you can imagine.”

The Chicago literary community is very happy about it too. The extremely high sales of this issue of Granta, focusing specifically on Chicago authors and essays about Chicago, signifies both that our writers are well renowned and respected in the literary community, and that the literary community in Chicago is booming.

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espite the fact that I’m somewhat conflicted about book trailers, I can’t help but love them.  The book should sell itself, right?  It’s all about the writing, right?  I guess I’m a product of the digital age, though, because a good book trailer hooks me every time.  Check out this trailer for Chicago author Scott Turrow’s new book Innocent.

ey, everyone.  In case you didn’t get the memo, today was Free Comic Book Day (always the first Saturday in May).  Publish Chicago did a quick tour around Chicago to find out which book stores were celebrating, and if we could score some free comics.

My first stop, Brainstorm Comics, did not offer any free comics.
They had some discount if you spent over $50 dollars.  Lame. ಠ_ಠ

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ark your calendars, comic book fans.  The first Saturday in May is always Free Comic book Day, and this year promises to be a good one.

To see a full list of the comic book shops around Chicago that will be participating in handing out free comics, as well as hosting famous comic artists, visit The Chicagoist.

hicago author Cris Mazza recently released a podcast for FC2’s blog on her upcoming novel and, more generally, writing.  She goes over independent presses, editing anthologies, short story versus novel writing, and how to pick the right narrator to address subject matter in which you, as the author, don’t have expertise.

rominent Chicago Author Luis Urrea has just won an Edgar Award–sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America to highlight the best writing in their genre–for his short story “Amapola,” published in the book Phoenix Noir.

Congratulations, Luis!  Also, we love your sense of humor.

hicago is home to some fantastic letterpress studios.  Some of our most famous authors, including Audrey Niffenegger, produce letterpress art.  You can see examples of some of these presses’ work on display at the Chicago Cultural Center.  You can also check out Felt and Wire’s Inside the Studio feature on Starshaped Press.

ach month, the University of Chicago Press offers a free e-book.  April’s freebie is Nice Guys Finish Last, a baseball classic.  Visit their site for your free download, and don’t forget to check back next month for another free e-read.

‘ve just received notice that Chicago publisher Ivan R. Dee will be closing their Chicago office as of April 30th, 2010. The official notice reads:

“Our operations will move to the offices of our parent company, Rowman and Littlefield, in Lanham, Maryland, which will continue to sell our books and publish and promote books in progress…for authors, colleagues, and book lovers, it’s been a joy working together.”

You will be missed, Ivan R. Dee.

very year 826-Chi holds an annual prom/fundraiser event for its kid’s writing programs. This year’s theme? Prom Hanks. Participants are asked to come decked out in some form of referential garb, be it from Apollo 13 or the Da Vinci Code.

The event is scheduled for tomorrow night. Check out our events calendar for more details.

t’s relatively obvious why, if you look at it, Fortune 500 rejected famous Chicago comic artist Chris Ware’s cover, even after they commissioned it.  It depicts money being stolen from the U.S. Treasury by helicopters, Mexican workers slaving away behind barbed wire, and, what I can only imagine are CEOs, toasting each other with glasses of wine while dump trucks pour cash at their feet.

Personally, I love the cover, as I’ve loved most of the things Chris Ware has produced–including the cover for Granta 108: Chicago–but I can see why a magazine like Fortune 500 doesn’t want the dirty truth of corporate America displayed in bright colors on the cover of their publication.

A high-res version of the cover can be found here.

hat’s right, peeps. Or should I say: Verily, my good fellows. Today is William Shakespeare’s 446th birthday. Not only does this mean that it is Talk Like Shakespeare Day, but also, Shakespeare has decided to pass his birthday in the beautiful Windy City. That’s right, all day Shakespeare will be walking the streets of Chicago, visiting our most famous landmarks.

If you’re lucky enough to spy good ol’ William, quote some of your favorite lines from one of his plays at him, or simply toss out a nice, Shakespearean greeting and you could be the lucky winner of a trip for two to London, courtesy of American Airlines, and a trip to the Globe Theatre.

Full details can be found at talklikeshakespeare.org

Also, follow the bard’s tweets–he’ll be giving hints about his location all day via twitter (@WheresWilliam) using the hashtag #WheresWilliam.

ast night I attended the book launch event for Bump It Up at the W Hotel downtown, which was appropriately posh.  The book is a how-to manual to stay stylish during pregnancy. I have to admit, my complete lack of maternal instinct (I’m NEVER having children) left me feeling a bit out of place here. The attendees were mostly women in their early thirties squealing over strollers and breast pumps.

After I spent some time checking out the various vendors at the event I managed to snag the author away from a large group of women who appeared to be her good friends for a photo. She seemed to be more invested in talking to them than publicizing her book, however.

I snapped the photo, looked down to make sure it had turned out, and by the time I looked back up (this took maybe three seconds) Koch had already tossed the book back onto the signing table and rejoined her friends in animated conversation, a glass of white wine resting in the palm of her hand.

More photos from the event can be found on our picasa albums.