By SIU Press

By turns stoic and ravaged, but always with gutting honesty, E.C. Belli invites readers to consider the smallest rooms of the intimate in this first collection. With each poem pared down to an elemental language both slight and clear, Belli’s work exhibits a surprising muscularity in its poise.
Objects of Hunger explores in reflective, raw lyrics the dread and beauty of our inner worlds as expressed through our struggles against the self and the other. Each poem is a slender organism that speaks its own mind, unafraid of pathos; the emotions here have been tried on and lived in, and the work accrues, lyric after lyric, page after page.

Read More

Posted on April 29, 2019

By David Paton/The Conversation

There is a very special section of artworks known as artists’ books. These are artworks in the form of books rather than books about art. South African art collector and philanthropist Jack Ginsberg began collecting in this field in the early 1970s. He recently donated this world-renowned collection – the biggest in the southern hemisphere – to Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg. Part of the collection, which includes more than 3,000 artworks plus thousands of additional items related to the field of book arts, is on exhibition. The Conversation Africa’s Charles Leonard spoke to David Paton, co-curator of the exhibition.
How would you describe artists’ books?
Artists’ books are artworks in the form of books that explore and unpack their own material being; their bookness. In other words, artists’ books are self-conscious about their function, drawing attention to, as book artist and scholar Johanna Drucker states in The Century of Artists’ Books, the very conventions by which books normally efface their identity.

Read More

Posted on April 25, 2019

By SIU Press

“Douglas Kane, an American politician and economist, offers readers a straightforward, personal account of what it is like to run for and hold public office – the demands, conflicts, temptations, and rewards created by political, economic, and social forces . . .
“In Our Politics, Kane reflects on his nearly 50 years of active engagement in state and local politics.
“In a series of essays, he seeks to understand the forces, motivations, incentives and technologies that shape our politics and produce the consequences that we live with every day.

Read More

Posted on April 23, 2019

“Stories of Im/migration: Chicago will bring to the forefront the collections of diverse communities around Chicago and connect it to current-day discussions of immigration and migration in the U.S. and make accessible 1,000 new digital collections from six Chicago Cultural Alliance members on the Chicago Collection’s Consortium’s EXPLORE Chicago Collections portal, a free, centralized, web-based search engine,” the Cultural Alliance announced this week.
“A dialogue toolkit will accompany the collections, and will be made available for area libraries and educational institutions to talk about immigration and migration past and present.

Read More

Posted on April 20, 2019

By The Society of Midland Authors and The Beachwood Added Value Affairs Desk

The Society of Midland Authors has announced its choices for its annual awards, honoring the best books by Midwest authors published in 2018. The society will present the awards May 14 in Chicago. In each category, a panel of literary judges chose a winner as well as one or more honorees whose work was also deemed worthy of recognition.
ADULT NONFICTION
WINNER: Shane Bauer, American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment, Penguin. (Author grew up in Onamia, Minnesota.)
See also:
* NPR: Investigative Journalist Aims To Expose Ills Of Privately Run Prisons.
* New York Times: The Dickensian Conditions Of Life In A For-Profit Lockup.

Read More

Posted on April 16, 2019

By Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

For me, the news that Johnson Publishing, a great American institution, has declared bankruptcy and closed its doors is deeply personal and profoundly painful. In a word, it is heartbreaking. I grew up with Ebony. The magazine was born in 1942, the year after my own birth, on the struggling side of town, in Greenville, South Carolina.

Read More

Posted on April 11, 2019

By Aileen Teague/The Conversation

Just a week ago, President Donald Trump appeared poised to take the drastic step of closing the U.S.-Mexico border to both trade and travel. He said he wanted to stop the flood of Central American migrants entering the United States but also punish Mexico for failing to do so.
But on April 4, the president backpedaled and instead gave Mexico a year to stop the flow of drugs across the border. If that didn’t happen, he threatened, auto tariffs would be imposed – and the president suggested he might still close the border if that didn’t work.
If Trump ever follows through on his threat and puts up a closed sign at the southern border, it wouldn’t be the first time. Twice in the last half-century the U.S. has tried to use the border to force Mexico to bend to America’s will. The ruse failed both times.

Read More

Posted on April 8, 2019

WHEN: Tuesday, April 16
6:30 p.m. – FREE zine-making workshop with Chicago Zine Fest!
7:30 p.m. – Open mic sign-up begins.
8 p.m. – Showtime!
WHERE: Co-Prosperity Sphere, 
3219-21 S. Morgan St. in Bridgeport. Coming from I-90/94, get off at the 31st St exit. If you’re coming via CTA, you can take the Orange Line to Halsted and then hop on the Halsted bus, #8, south to 31st St or take the Red Line to 35th St, then take the 35th St. bus, #35, to Morgan Street.

Read More

Posted on April 5, 2019