Author Reading

In her new book, Nigeria native Toyin Ayeni argues that her homeland is much more
than a producer of terrorists or con artists. Hoping to increase awareness of
the positive aspects of her West African country, Ayeni contends that the
problems associated with Nigeria are global in origin and that global problems
require global solutions. A past president of the Chicago chapter of
Toastmasters International, Ayeni hold a B.S. in microbiology from the
University of Ibadan and an M.S. in information systems management from Loyola
University Chicago. Join us for this special event celebrating the fiftieth
anniversary of Nigeria's independence.

7:30 p.m.

Sappho’s Salon: A Provocative Night of Lesbian Diversions

Featuring Nikki Patin, Sissy Van Dyke, and DJ SpinNikki

$7-$10 sliding scale includes food and wine.

            This
month’s installment of our monthly salon night for lesbians and their
friends features award-winning and internationally acclaimed spoken work
artist Nikki Patin. A teacher, activist, and artist, Patin has
performed on HBO’s Def Poetry Slam, was a member of Chicago’s 2001
Mental Graffiti National slam team, and received the gold medal in slam
poetry at the 2006 International Gay Games. Author of “The Phat Grrl
Diaries,” she also fronts the rock band, “Like A Hundred.” Joining Patin
will be writer, stand-up comic and punk rock musician Sissy Van Dyke.
As usual, Sappho’s house DJ SpinNikki will round out tonight’s show with
an eclectic array of pop, electronica, soul, world music, and dance
tracks. Proceeds benefit the artists and the Women’s Voices Fund.

Ordinary Women: Extraordinary Heroines – A New Paradigm for the Modern Heroine

She Writes reading featuring Audrey Niffenegger, Zoe Zolbrod, Teri Coyne, and others.

Hosted by She Writes and Teri Coyne.

            Join author Teri Coyne (The Last Bridge) and authors from the ground-breaking web community She Writes (www.shewrites.com) for a special reading celebrating the extraordinary heroics of “ordinary” women; fresh female characters who are often flawed but willful protagonists who rely on intelligence, wit, and survival skills to find themselves or shake things up. She Writes is the leading online destination for women writers. Since June 2009, more than 10,000 women writers from more than 30 countries and all 50 states have signed on to share knowledge, support, and network.

Along with Coyne, Audrey Niffenegger and Zobrod, authors Amina Gautier and Emily Gray Tedrowe will be joining the reading. Gautier has been anthologized in the 2009 and 2010 editions of Best African American Fiction, and Tedrowe is the author of Communters.

Love Like a Dog

            The illegal underworld of dog fighting, the complexities of the pit bull breed, and the ethical dilemma of animal cruelty is at the heart of School of the Art Institute of Chicago writing professor Calcagno’s (Pray for Yourself) new novel. When teenager Dirk finds an abandoned pit bull in a dumpster behind his father’s store, it sets in motion a series of events that changes his life forever, as Dirk is torn between the desire to please his father and do what is right for the animals he deeply loves. Intended both to educate and entertain, Love Like a Dog is informed by Calcagno’s ride alongs with the Chicago Police Department’s Animal Abuse Control Team.

Danielle Dutton

S P R A W L

Kate Zambreno

O Fallen Angel      

            Join us as we welcome two authors whose latest releases cleverly and inventively ponder the banality of contemporary American life. Featured in Harper’s magazine and The Bomb, Danielle Dutton’s S P R A W L  is an engaging, absurdly comic evocation of the sprawl of the American landscape and the American mind, through the mercurial inner life of one suburban woman. The winner of Chiasmus Press’s “Undoing the Novel – First Book Contest,” Kate Zambreno’s O Fallen Angel is a triptych of modern-day America set in a vapid Midwestern suburbia.

How We Move the Air

            In the spirit of Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, Columbia College professor Garnett Kilberg Cohen’s How We Move the Air tells the story of musician Jake Doyle’s suicide and how, over time, it affected those who knew him. In seven linked stories, Cohen explores the complex ways in which people choose to remember – or not remember – the past. Cohen has been the recipient of numerous literary awards and her work has appeared in publications such as American Fiction, The Antioch Review, and Other Voices. How We Move the Air is her second story collection, after Lost Women, Banished Souls.

My Maasai Life: From Suburbia to Savannah

            As a teen in Schaumburg in the 1980s, Robin Wiszowaty yearned to learn about more of the world beyond the suburban Midwest. In college, she found the opportunity she was looking for when she enrolled in a program that would send her to live in a Maasai household in Kenya for a year. Joining her eight-member Maasai family in their cow dung hut far from any city, and enduring drought, malaria, and typhoid, Wiszowaty adapts to a new way of living and new understandings of the world. Currently director of Kenya’s Free the Children program, Wiszowaty’s inspiring tale about how even the most average of us can choose to change the world has enthralled thousands, and she has shared stages with such luminary social activists as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Robert Kennedy, Jr., and Mia Farrow.

Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers

Ten-year Anniversary Reading & Discussion

            Join local contributors Karen Dwyer, Beth Kohl, Sara Levine, Molly McNett and Dan Libman, Tracy Mayor, B. E. Pinkham, Sharla Stewart, and Gale Renee Walden for a reading and discussion commemorating the ten-year anniversary of Brain, Child magazine, the only literary magazine dedicated to motherhood. Refreshments will be served.

Room: A Novel

            In her unforgettable new novel, beloved lesbian author and anthologist Emma Donoghue (Landing, Slammerkin) marks a stunning thematic shift. Experienced through the perceptions of five-year-old Jack, Room tells the story of a mother and son held in captivity, of the mother’s struggle for survival, and Jack’s innocent acceptance of the only world he’s ever known. While carefully unraveling the mystery of their imprisonment, Donoghue explores the unconditional bond between mother and child in a way few, if any, writers have. Our own Linda Bubon described Room as “one of the most memorable and best books I have ever read.” Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Donahue read from what is certain to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

“Room is that rarest of entities, an entirely original work of art.  I mean it as the highest possible praise when I tell you that I can’t compare it to any other book.  Suffice to say that it’s potent, darkly beautiful, and revelatory.”

-Michael Cunningham

Body Work Book Launch Party

            We’re always delighted when one of our favorite writers releases a new book. Body Work, Paretsky’s fourteenth V. I. Warshawski mystery, may be her most compelling and timely one yet. When a controversial young artist is murdered, V. I. is pulled into a case that touches on some of the most important issues raised by the war in Iraq. In addressing the personal and political implications of art and war, Paretsky boldly places Warshawski at the center of an investigation that cuts to the heart of society today.

            Tonight’s launch party will include free refreshments, giveaway t-shirts, and a chance for one lucky attendee to have a character named after him or her in the next V. I. book!

Featuring Fay Jacobs, Ellen Rosner, and DJ SpinNikki
$7-10 sliding fee includes food and wine

This month, our popular salon night for lesbians and their friends includes
humorist Fay Jacobs, author of the lesbian memoir As I Lay Frying, and the sequel, Fried
and True: Tales from Rehoboth Beach; and local favorite Ellen Rosner. With a voice that
Windy City Times music writer David Byrne describes as “a young Chrissie Hynde, Chris
Issak or Melissa Etheridge,” with influences of Ruth Brown and Mavis Staples, Rosner
has opened for artists such as Joan Armatrading, Sophie B. Hawkins and Nelly Furtado.
DJ SpinNikki will play us in and out of sets with her eclectic playlist of pop, soul,
electronica, and world music.
Door proceeds benefit the artists and the Women’s Voices Fund.

Rich Boy

Robert Vishniak, favored son of a working-class Jewish Philadelphia
neighborhood, employs his good looks, charm and cleverness to scale the social ladder.
Gliding from his hardscrabble beginnings to an elite New England University, he
ensconces himself among scions of unimagined wealth and influence, building a future he
believes will eclipse his humble past. But as is so often the case, it takes but a fleeting,
single occurrence to change Robert’s life, threatening to undermine his achievements and
unravel his carefully constructed identity. Ten years in the making, Pomerantz’s debut is
a sweeping saga of class, sexual rebellion, money, and love.

Half-Baked: The Story of My Nerves, My Newborn, and How We Both Learned to
Breathe

Flotsam blogger and NPR commentator Alexa Stevenson has been a self-
proclaimed worrywart for most of her life: avoiding amusement park rides, skateboards,
and other activities that would just be “borrowing trouble.” But the series of worst-case
scenarios that comprise her journey to motherhood—including the birth of her daughter
Simone, more than 3 months early—force her into a Zen-like acceptance of uncertainty
and absurdity; a journey she recounts in this uniquely sharp, funny, vulnerable, and
ultimately, hopeful memoir.

J: The Woman Who Wrote the Bible

When Janaia, oldest daughter of King David of Judah, is secretly initiated into the
art and magic of writing, she finds she must master the sublime powers and visions that
come with this new kind of knowledge. From the caves of Judah to the glories of
Solomon’s Temple, Janaia discovers through heartbreak and sacrifice that the knowledge
of good and evil brings with it both frightening powers and jubilant freedom. In her quick-
paced debut novel, Chicago native Burns has crafted a tale that will appeal to fans of the
feminist historical fantasies of Starhawk, Jane Auel, and Marion Zimmer Bradley.

A Dog’s Purpose: A Novel for Humans

W. Bruce Cameron is a nationally syndicated humor columnist and author of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter. His latest book takes a fictional turn, offering a dog’s-eye view of the world. Dubbed by Kirkus as Marley and Me combined with Tuesdays with Morrie, A Dog’s Purpose is the remarkable story of one endearing dog’s search for purpose over the course of several lives, exploring the universal quest for an answer to life’s most basic question: why are we here? In addition, it makes a strong case for why potential dog owners should choose rescue shelters to find their pets, over breeding farms or city pounds. Both friendly dogs and their humans are invited to attend tonight’s event.
 
“I loved the book and couldn’t put it down. It really made me think about the purpose of life. At the end, I cried.”
--Temple Grandin