hris Force, editor and publisher of ALARM, a Chicago-published magazine focusing on music, art, and culture shares how the Chicago Public Library helped get his publication off the ground.
Chicago Public Library powers ALARM Magazine from Not What You Think on Vimeo.
dvertising itself as the magazine for high-minded low-lifes, Stop Smiling is one of my favorite magazines in Chicago, though it’s a bit bittersweet to feature it here. Their next issue will be their last, as they’re converting to a book press thanks to a deal with Melville House/Random House. I’m sure there are still great things to expect from them, though the magazine will be missed.
Each issue has a different theme, such as Chicago jazz, or hip-hop, or 20 interviews. The articles are well written, their website rocks, everything about them is great. I have to admit to loving their advertising scheme as well. The non-smiley gets me every time. ¶ View In Entirety… ⇒
Michigan Avenue Magazine represents the posh side of Chicago. If you want to follow Chicago celebrities, high-brow events, designer fashion, and read articles by Chicago big-wigs like Mayor Daley and Oprah Winfrey, this is the magazine for you. The magazine has a dazzlingly high class quality to it, from the ads right down to the glossy, Vanity Fair-esque cover. This magazine deserves a shout out because it represents the fancy-shmancy side of our city–one that is often overlooked.
Ebony may be the single most successful magazine in America focusing on African American interests. The magazine is published by the Johnson Publishing Company, which is the world’s largest African-American-owned and-operated publishing company. The company also publishes Jet magazine. Johnson Publishing company was founded in 1942 by John H. Johnson as little more than a dream, but the company exploded into great success.
I chose Ebony for this list simply because the magazine is so important and well written. It focuses on issues important to African Americans ranging from fashion and entertainment to politics and technology. No matter what your race is, this is an important magazine for an informed citizen to read.
hicago’s latino/a community is growing, and with it is the number of spanish/english and spanish-only publications in the city. As of 2004, Contratiempo has operated as a nonprofit magazine and publication company serving the latino/a community. Contratiempo publishes both books and a montly magazine. In their own words:
Chicago Wilderness Magazine is a publication that accompanies the work of several hundred nonprofit organizations working to protect the environment. The magazine itself is less concerned with the conservation movement and more concerned with connecting Chicagoans with the natural world around them. If you’re looking to learn about the outdoors in and around Chicago, this is the magazine for you. In their own words:
o list of publications would be complete, in this day and age, without an online publication. Narrative Magazine is an online literary publication of prose, poetry, and anything in between. In their own words:
“Narrative is the leading online publisher of first-rank fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. A nonprofit organization, Narrative is dedicated to advancing the literary arts in the digital age by supporting the finest writing talent and encouraging readership around the world and across generations. Our online library of new literature by celebrated authors and by the best new and emerging writers is available for free.”
So go read, enjoy, and donate if you’ve got some coinage.
hy do I like Poetry Magazine? First and foremost: it promulgates a lot of good poetry. Also, I love the simple cover design. I’m a fan of the Poetry Foudation, which publishes the magazine. They only accept online submissions, which is so much better for the environment and for author’s nerves. They pay their writers, which is also unusual but much appreciated. Finally, their website rocks. They have poetry podcasts and poems of the day and even *gasp* featured prose. They’re all about good writing, and I can get into that.
Today’s Chicago Woman is a women’s interest magazine that focuses on more than just clothes, dieting, and make-up. Though fashion is a part of the magazine, it’s audience is career oriented women and so it’s articles focus on interviewing successful women in Chicago, healthy family relationships, food and cooking, and career advice. In many ways, Today’s Chicago Woman reminds me of O Magazine. Its audience and its focus is similar. It’s nice, however, to read a magazine that focuses on your own city and community. It’s website is also well put together, featuring articles from the magazine, an events calendar, and more. This month’s cover story is an interview with Chicago’s City Treasurer Stephanie Neely paints a good picture of what this magazine is all about: successful female Chicagoans.
hether you’re in Wicker Park, the West Loop, the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, or almost any residential neighborhood of Chicago, one of the first thing you’ll notice is that dogs are extremely popular in the Windy City. To serve Chicago’s pet owning community, Tails Pet Media Group, Inc. created Tails Magazine. The magazine is not just for dog owners, it runs features on all kinds of pets. In its most recent issue, Tails has articles on office-friendly pets, trips to take with your dog, and various foods and treats for pets.
o list of the best periodicals in Chicago could leave out Chicago Magazine and Chicago Home and Garden, both of which are published by the Tribune Company. The magazine encompasses every aspect of Chicago’s social scene and major events. Chicago Magazine reaches about 1.5 million readers, and they both are of the most successful periodicals in the Windy City.
As I’ve stated earlier, one of my favorite things about Chicago Magazine is that it knows its audience. The magazine is clearly targeting adult readers that live in and around Chicago, are interested in cultural events, and have some disposable income to devote to entertainment and leisure. It covers events that its audience would be interested in, like new restaurants and social hot-spots, literary events, interview with important Chicago personalities, extensive event calendars, and special features like their Salary issue, which feautures various salaries of hundreds of Chicagoans of various occupations.
The final reason I’m such a fan is that they know how to use cyberspace exceptionally well to market their magazine. They entice readers in with a nice design and a few articles from each issue. Chicago Home and Garden keeps a running blog of design ideas on their website that’s insightful and well written.
If you want to be keyed in to whats happening in Chicago, you’ve got to read Chicago Magazine.
s many of you know, April is National Poetry Month. In celebration, Publish Chicago is featuring various publishers who specialize in poetry from the Windy City. Chicago has a fantastic poetry scene, with many publishers focusing purely on publishing books and chapbooks from little-known poets. In short, this is a great place to find undiscovered writers doing fantastic things with language. If you’re interested in poetry publishers, stay tuned throughout the month, or check out our links and resources for a complete listing of publishers specializing in poetry in Chicago. If you’re interested in poetry events, check out Literago, which has a fantastic events calendar for the literary events happening around the city, many of which involve a lot of poetry.
Imagine the feelings of a whole
continent, I said. A sheer blank
space of delightful mystery, its black
thoughts, its body
at rest in the middle of blessings.
If such is the meaning
of a French steamer, and it was, were
we who had pronounced a judgment upon
the whole population cleared into
the heart of an unknown planet? We could for a
while, of massacres, of
craven terror, of burning noble words.
It was very grave, were we
who had gone mad, completely.
-taken from a light heart, its black thoughts, written by Gnoetry and Eric Scovel, published by Beard of Bees
Beard of Bees Press is a small, independently owned Chicago press focusing on experimental poetry. ¶ View In Entirety… ⇒
“Even in Chicago, a city steeped in mob history and legend, the Family Secrets case was a true spectacle when it made it to court in 2007. A top mob boss, a reputed consigliere, and other high-profile members of the Chicago Outfit were accused in a total of eighteen gangland killings, revealing organized crime’s ruthless grip on the city throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
“This book is the first in English to consider women’s movements and feminist discourses in twentieth-century Taiwan. Doris T. Chang examines the way in which Taiwanese women in the twentieth century selectively appropriated Western feminist theories to meet their needs in a modernizing Confucian culture. She illustrates the rise and fall of women’s movements against the historical backdrop of the island’s contested national identities, first vis-à-vis imperial Japan (1895-1945) and later with postwar China (1945-2000).
“Simply put, Family Affair answers the question, “What does it means to be black in America today?” Through personal stories and essays, Family Affair cleaves through the physical, social, political and historical characteristics that have come to define the African-American community in the 21st century.
“Unless you live in a haunted house, the eyes on your paintings probably don’t follow you around. However, with a couple of motion sensors, two motors, a few transistors, resistors, diodes, and wires you can convert a Van Gogh print into a macabre masterpiece with a mind of its own. Haywired proves that science can inspire odd contraptions. Create a Mona Lisa that smiles even wider when you approach it. Learn how to build and record a talking alarm, or craft your own talking greeting card. Construct a no-battery electric car toy that uses a super capacitor, or a flashlight that can be charged in minutes, then shine for 24 hours. Written for budding electronics hobbyists, author Mike Rigsby offers helpful hints on soldering, wire wrapping, and multimeter use. Each project is described in step-by-step detail with photographs and circuit diagrams. Includes Web sites listing suppliers and part numbers.”
-from the publisher’s site
“KJ Bradley and Alyson Beaton created Grow to take a child (2-5 years of age) through a typical day, implementing a “normal” routine that is environmentally and socially sound. The sharply designed book helps parents teach children very early on how easy it is to take steps for a cleaner earth. The text focuses on words like “share” and “grow” to instill basic social concepts that resound in larger impacts, and the images encourage the child to actively participate in the daily routine and timeline that follows along the bottom of the pages. The book was based on the developmental findings of Clotaire Rapaille, which say that as a child’s vocabulary develops he or she makes connections to specific items. For example, if a child associates the word “coffee” with “starbucks” the word “starbucks” will likely be an association for life. Grow hopes to instill brandless, positive routines that can benefit community, health, and an awareness of self that’s connected to the larger world.
“‘Nobody sings like Melba, and nobody ever will,’ proclaimed the impresario Oscar Hammerstein in 1908. Like many others of his time, he considered her the world’s greatest singer. The wild acclaim showered on her by American fans led to the coining of the word ‘Melbamania.’ Year after year she toured America on the ‘Melba’ train, bringing opera and concerts to out-of-the-way cities and towns; thanks to the new gramophone, she could also be heard in the remotest locales. Ann Blainey’s beguiling life of Nellie Melba tells the story of a woman who-in an era when no woman was prime minister, chief justice, head of a church or financial firm, or a universal film star-became perhaps the most famous woman in the world.