Women & Children First Books to host October ticketed events, author talks - 643 - Gay Lesbian Bi Trans News

Women & Children First will host events in October for some of the biggest books of the season: Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss, Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan, the paperback release of The Mothers by Brit Bennett, The Glass Eye by Jeannie Vanasco, and Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith. Details below and in at http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Nicole-Krauss—Jennifer-Egan—NASTY-WOMEN—Brit-Bennett—-Isabel-Allende-at-Women—-Children-First-.html?soid=1101357241095&aid=bC85MPUkKYk .

Tickets for fall events are going fast! Women & Children First will be hosting Samantha Irby, Megan Stielstra, Kate Harding, and others for an author panel for Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America. Tickets at the link: nastywomenchicago.bpt.me/ .

Our event for Isabel Allende in conversation with Luis Alberto Urrea at Senn High School on November 2 at 7 p.m. is almost sold out! Tickets at the link isabelallendechicago.bpt.me/ .

Thursday, Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m.

The Conversation: Sex & Power

Each month, we gather a group of writers, artists, and politicians together to talk about an issue of political, social, or cultural importance. These are not readings, but passionate conversations that include the audience. The September edition of The Conversation will tackle the theme of Sex & Power. The panel will feature Claire Dederer, Sarah Hepola, Ashley Victoria, C. Russell Price, and Gina Frangello and will be moderated by Kim Brooks. Each Conversation ends with a takeaway ( think of it as optional homework—an article to read, an organization to engage with, a movie to watch, a protest to attend ). Even better: after the event, the conversation continues at Las Manos Gallery ( 1515 W. Foster ), where we eat, drink, argue, and organize. These events are free and open to all, but donations for a local nonprofit will be collected at the afterparty.

Saturday, Sept. 30 at 3 p.m.

Picture Book Making Workshop with

Jill Kuanfung

Kids' Activity for ages 5 to 12

Authors and illustrators ages 5 to 12 are invited to join artist Jill Kuanfung as she teaches a variety of kid-friendly drawing techniques and applies them to narrative. Each participant will leave with an original picture book in hand. Interested in seeing some of Jill's artwork? Visit our store and look at the many author portraits on our walls!

Tuesday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m.

Feminist Craft Circle: Sarah's Circle Make socks, hats, and gloves for Sarah's Circle, a local organization that serves homeless and struggling women. Sarah's Circle is a refuge for women who are homeless or in need of a safe space. By providing life necessities, housing, case management, and clinical and social services, they assist women in rebuilding both emotionally and physically and realizing their unique potential. Sarah's Circle provides services to more than 900 women a year.

Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m.

Nicole Krauss in conversation with Aleksandar Hemon

Forest Dark

Author Conversation

In the wake of his divorce and retirement and the loss of his parents, 68-year-old Jules Epstein gives away his possessions and travels to Israel, with a nebulous plan to do something to honor his parents. In Tel Aviv, he is sidetracked by a charismatic American rabbi and the rabbi's beautiful daughter. But Epstein isn't the only seeker embarking on a journey. Leaving her family in Brooklyn, a young, well-known novelist goes to Tel Aviv, where she meets a retired literature professor who proposes a very special project. Bursting with life and humor, Forest Dark is a profound, mesmerizing novel of metamorphosis and self-realization—of looking beyond all that is visible toward the infinite. Nicole Krauss is the internationally bestselling author of three novels: Man Walks Into a Room, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year; The History of Love, a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Saroyan International Prize for Writing; and Great House, a New York Times bestseller and finalist for the National Book Award. Nicole Krauss lives in New York. Aleksander Hemon's books include The Making of Zombie Wars; The Lazarus Project, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award; and The Book of My Lives, among others. He lives in Chicago.

Thursday, Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m.

Melissa Fraterrigo in conversation with Christine Sneed

Glory Days

Author Conversation

Teensy and his daughter, Luann, face the loss of their land even as they mourn the death of Luann's mother. When an amusement park called Glory Days is erected, past and present collide, the attachment to the land is fully severed, and the invading culture ushers in even darker times. In Glory Days Melissa Fraterrigo combines gritty realism with magical elements to paint an arrestingly stark portrait of the painful transitions of contemporary small-town America. Melissa Fraterrigo is the founder and executive director of the Lafayette Writers' Studio in Lafayette, Indiana. She is the author of a collection of short fiction, The Longest Pregnancy. Christine Sneed is the author of the novels Paris, He Said and Little Known Facts and the story collections The Virginity of Famous Men and Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry. Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories, among others.

Saturday, Oct. 7 at 3 p.m.

Zumbini

Kids' Activity for 0- to 4-year-olds

and their parents

Join licensed Zumbini instructor Rhae McLoughlin for some Zumbini fun and get ready to boogie with your little ones! Develop their emotional, cognitive, social, and motor skills while dancing, moving, singing, and learning through world music and play. Silly dance moves are not required, but highly encouraged!

Andersonville Arts Week

Oct. 10 through 15

Neighborhood-wide Event

For the 15th year, Andersonville is thrilled to celebrate many of the artists and designers who live and work in the neighborhood with Andersonville Arts Week! This year, programming throughout the neighborhood has expanded to include both more days and more art forms. Check andersonville.org/aaw/ for a list of participating businesses and events. Our featured artist, Monica Trinidad, is a queer, Latinx artist and organizer, born and raised on the southeast side of Chicago. Trinidad Monica is a community-taught artist who uses watercolor prints and acrylic paintings to shine a light on issues ranging from the hyper-criminalization of Black women and girls, to the lack of documentation and memory around the leadership of queer Black women and femmes, past and present. Monica has created movement art for more than 20 grassroots organizations and efforts in Chicago and has had work shown at DuSable Museum of African-American History, the National Museum of Mexican Art, Hairpin Arts Center, and others.

Tuesday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m.

Tori Teller

Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History

Book Launch Party

A READ LOCAL EVENT

When you think of serial killers throughout history, you likely think of Jack the Ripper, John Wayne Gacy, and Ted Bundy. But what about Tillie Klimek, Moulay Hassan, and Kate Bender? In the usual narrative, women are the victims of violent crime, not the perpetrators. However, evidence suggests that female serial killers rival their male counterparts in cunning, cruelty, and appetite for destruction. Each chapter of Lady Killers explores the crimes and history of a different subject and then proceeds to unpack her legacy and her portrayal by the media, as well as the stereotypes and sexist cliches that inevitably surround her. Tori Telfer is a full-time freelance writer whose nonfiction pieces have appeared in VICE, Jezebel, the Hairpin, Chicago magazine, and elsewhere. She is a Pushcart nominee and recipient of the Edwin L. Shuman Award for Fiction, and her fiction has appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, the Moltov Cocktail, Watershed Review, and elsewhere. She majored in creative writing at Northwestern University and completed one year of an MFA at Indiana University before moving west. She lives in Chicago.

Wednesday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m.

Jennifer Egan in conversation with

Zoe Zolbrod

Manhattan Beach

Author Conversation and Book-signing

Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to visit Dexter Styles, a man crucial to the survival of her father and her family. She is mesmerized by the sea beyond the house and by some charged mystery between the two men. Years later, her father has disappeared, and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that once belonged to men. One evening at a nightclub, she meets Dexter Styles again and begins to understand the complexity of her father's life and the reasons he might have vanished. With the atmosphere of a noir thriller, Egan's first historical novel follows Anna and Styles into a world populated by gangsters, sailors, divers, bankers, and union men. Jennifer Egan is the author of several novels and a short story collection. Her most recent book, A Visit from the Goon Squad, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Also a journalist, she has written frequently in the New York Times Magazine. She was born in Chicago, but raised in San Francisco, and currently lives in New York.

Thursday, Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m.

Tales of Two Americas

Featuring Eula Biss, John Freeman, and Nami Mun

Author Reading & Conversation

From Appalachia to rural Texas, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest is now a vast chasm. In Tales of Two Americas, some of the literary world's most exciting writers examine what it feels like to live in our divided nation today. Their extraordinarily powerful stories, essays, and poems demonstrate that when experiences are shared, boundaries can be broken down and suffering be alleviated. Eula Biss is the author of On Immunity: An Inoculation, The Balloonists, and Notes from No Man's Land, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Howard Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in the Chicago area and teaches at Northwestern University. John Freeman is the editor of Freeman's, a literary biannual of new writing, and executive editor of Lit Hub. His books include How to Read a Novelist and The Tyranny of E-mail, as well as Tales of Two Cities, an anthology about inequality in New York City today. The former editor of Granta, he teaches writing at the New School and New York University. Nami Mun is the author of Miles from Nowhere. A recipient of a Pushcart Prize, she has published in numerous journals including the Iowa Review, Tin House, and other journals. She lives in Chicago.

Friday, Oct. 13 at 7 p.m.

Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America

Featuring: Kate Harding, Samantha Irby, Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Megan Stielstra, and Sarah Hollenbeck

The Wilson Abbey ( 935 W. Wilson )

Tickets available only through Brown Paper Tickets. All tickets include a copy of Nasty Women.

Join us for a celebration of the Nasty Women anthology, featuring four contributors, special guest Megan Stielstra, and DJ Maggie Tomasek, AKA MagRock ( a member of She's Crafty, Chicago's all-female Beastie Boys tribute ), who will spin tunes before the event and during the book-signing. Nasty Women includes inspiring essays from a diverse group of talented women writers, including Rebecca Solnit, Cheryl Strayed, and Katha Pollitt. They seek to provide a broad look at what led to this current political moment and the role of women in choosing how we move forward. Kate Harding is the author of Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture—and What We Can Do About It. Previously, she collaborated with Anna Holmes, Amanda Hess, and a cast of thousands on The Book of Jezebel and with Marianne Kirby on Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere. You might also remember her as the founding editor of Shapely Prose. Samantha Irby is the author of the essay collections Meaty and the New York Times bestseller We Are Never Meeting in Real Life and the founder of the popular blog bitches gotta eat. She recently became book review editor for Marie Claire. Samhita Mukhopadhyay is a writer, editor, speaker, and technologist living in New York. Currently the editorial director of the Identities vertical at Mic, she is also the former executive editor of the award-winning blog Feministing.com and author of Outdated: Why Dating Is Ruining Your Love Life. Her writing has appeared in the Nation, the Guardian, New York Magazine, and Al Jazeera. Megan Stielstra is the author of three collections: The Wrong Way To Save Your Life, Once I Was Cool, and Everyone Remain Calm. Her work appears in Best American Essays, the New York Times, Guernica, Buzzfeed Reader, and elsewhere. She teaches creative nonfiction at Northwestern University. Sarah Hollenbeck is the co-owner of Women & Children First and a graduate of Northwestern University's MFA program. She has published personal essays in Dogwood and TriQuarterly. Her essay "A Goldmine" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received a Notable Mention in Best American Essays 2014.

Wednesday, Oct. 18 at 10:30 a.m.

Mama, LOOK! Story Time

A READ LOCAL EVENT

Award-winning children's author, Patricia J. Murphy, will be reading and signing her latest picture book, Mama, LOOK!, a collaboration with Caldecott medalist David Diaz. Come for what Kirkus Reviews calls "A cheery springboard for small nature lovers to have their own Mama, look! opportunities." Then, stay for a "Mama, LOOK!" walk of your own!

Wednesday, Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m.

Anne Laughlin with special guest,

poet Beth Feldman Brandt

A Date to Die

Book Launch Party

A READ LOCAL Event

Kay Adler is a hardworking Chicago detective who seeks justice for the victims of murder. She lives for her work, so when people she knows start dying, she must look at uncomfortable parts of her past to find a suspect. And then the killer turns his sights on Kay herself. Anne Laughlin's novels The Collectors ( written under another name ) and Veritas are both Goldie winners, and The Collectors and Runaway were both shortlisted for Lammy awards. Anne's short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies. Anne was named a fellow in the Lambda Literary Foundation's Emerging Writer program in 2008, and she has attended writing residencies at Ragdale and Vermont Studio Center for the Arts. She lives in Chicago with her partner, Linda. Beth Feldman Brandt is the author of three books of poetry. The most recent, RetroLove, explores relationships before the internet.

Thursday, Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m.

The Conversation: What Is Justice? Featuring Rene Denefeld and Bernardine Dohrn, among others.

Each month, we gather a group of writers, artists, and politicians together to talk about an issue of political, social, or cultural importance. These are not readings, but passionate conversations that include the audience. The October edition of The Conversation will take on the question, "What is justice?" Panelists will include Rene Denfeld, author of The Child Finder, and activist/author Bernardine Dohrn, among others, and will be moderated by Zoe Zolbrod.Each Conversation ends with a takeaway ( think of it as optional homework—an article to read, an organization to engage with, a movie to watch, a protest to attend ). Even better: after the event, the conversation continues at Las Manos Gallery ( 1515 W. Foster ), where we eat, drink, argue, and organize. These events are free and open to all, but donations for a local nonprofit will be collected at the afterparty.

Friday, Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m.

Jeannie Vanasco in conversation with Daniel Raeburn

The Glass Eye

Join us for the an author conversation featuring Jeannie Vanasco and Daniel Raeburn. The two will be discussing Vanasco's highly anticipated memoir, The Glass Eye. The night before her father dies, 18-year-old Jeannie Vanasco promises she will write a book for him. The Glass Eye both honors that promise and is an exploration of Jeannie's obsession with another Jeanne—her half sister who died under mysterious circumstances before Jeannie was born. Jeannie Vanasco has written for the Believer, NewYorker.com, Tin House, and elsewhere. Born and raised in Sandusky, Ohio, she now lives in Baltimore and teaches at Towson University. Daniel Raeburn's writing has appeared in the New Yorker, Tin House, and the Imp, his series of booklets about underground cartoonists. He is the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the National Endowment for the Arts. He and his wife and two daughters live in Chicago, where he teaches nonfiction writing at the University of Chicago.

Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 7:30 p.m.

Brit Bennett in conversation

with Britt Julious

The Mothers

Paperback Tour

Join us as we welcome Brit Bennett to discuss her debut novel, The Mothers—new in paperback—with journalist and essayist Britt Julious. In The Mothers, 17-year-old Nadia Turner is still mourning her mother's recent suicide when she takes up with 21-year-old Luke, a pastor's son who waits tables at a local diner. The pregnancy that results from this brief romance—and the subsequent cover-up—will have an impact that goes far beyond their youth. Born and raised in Southern California, Brit Bennett graduated from Stanford University and later earned her MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan, where she won a Hopwood Award in Graduate Short Fiction as well as the 2014 Hurston/

Wright Award for College Writers. Her work is featured in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and Jezebel. She is one of the National Book Foundation's 2016 5 Under 35 honorees. Britt Julious is a journalist and essayist. She currently writes a weekly column for the Chicago Tribune and regularly contributes pieces about art, music, race, feminism, and culture to publications including the New York Times, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Vice. Britt hosts "The Back Talk," a podcast featuring stories from young women of color.

Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Patricia Ann McNair and David Trinidad

And These Are the Good Times

Joint Author Reading

Dancing to the jukebox in dark taverns; saying goodbye to her father on the last morning of his life; having sex in the backseat of a car at a drive-in movie; drinking scotch in a nightclub in Havana, Cuba, and coffee in Paris; making up stories on the run; flirting with boys on summer nights on a Chicago beach; finding the perfect sentence; gathering the entirety of her recently deceased brother's things in two plastic garbage bags—these are just a few of the raw and loving moments that Patricia Ann McNair shares in her new collection of essays. Patricia Ann McNair's The Temple of Air received the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award, Southern Illinois University's Devil's Kitchen Reading Award, and the Society of Midland Authors ( US ) Finalist Award. She is an associate professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago, where she received the Excellence in Teaching Award as well as a nomination for the Carnegie Foundation's US Professor of the Year. McNair's fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in various anthologies, magazines, and journals including Fourth Genre, Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, and others. She is also published in The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction edited by Dinty W. Moore. She's received numerous Illinois Arts Council Awards and Pushcart Prize nominations in fiction and nonfiction as well as a Rubin Fellowship to Ragdale. McNair lives in Chicago with her husband, the visual artist Philip Hartigan and their cat, Pablo. For this event, Patricia will be joined by poet David Trinidad, who will read from his new collection, Swinging on a Star. David Trinidad's latest books are Notes on a Past Life and Descent of the Dolls: Part I, a collaboration with Jeffrey Conway and Gillian McCain. His other books include Peyton Place: A Haiku Soap Opera, Dear Prudence: New and Selected Poems, and The Late Show among others. Trinidad lives in Chicago, where he is a professor of creative writing/poetry at Columbia College.

Thursday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m.

Isabel Allende in conversation with Luis Alberto Urrea

In the Midst of Winter

at Senn High School Auditorium

( 5900 N. Glenwood )

Tickets on sale now through Brown Paper Tickets. Please note: all tickets include a pre-signed copy of In the Midst of Winter

Women & Children First is thrilled to be hosting the Chicago stop on Isabel Allende's upcoming US tour. The timely new novel from New York Times- bestselling author Isabel Allende begins with a car accident that sets in motion a love story between two people who thought they were deep into the winter of their lives. Richard Bowmaster—a 60-year-old human rights scholar—hits the car of Evelyn Ortega—a young, undocumented immigrant from Guatemala—in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn. What at first seems just a minor incident takes an unforeseen and far more serious turn when Evelyn turns up at the professor's house seeking help. At a loss, the professor asks his tenant Lucia Maraz—a 62-year-old lecturer from Chile—for her advice. In the Midst of Winter takes these three from present-day Brooklyn to contemporary Guatemala to 1970s Chile and Brazil. Isabel Allende won worldwide acclaim when her first novel, The House of the Spirits, was published in 1982. In addition to launching Allende's career as a renowned author, the book established her as a feminist force in Latin America's male-dominated literary world. She has gone on to write twenty more works, including Eva Luna, The Infinite Plan, Daughter of Fortune, and Paula. Ms. Allende's beloved works have been translated into more than 35 languages and have sold more than 65 million copies worldwide. In December 2014, President Obama awarded Allende with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In addition to her work as a writer, Allende devotes much of her time to human rights causes. Following the death of her 29-year-old daughter Paula Frias, she established in 1996 a charitable foundation in Paula's honor dedicated to the protection and empowerment of women and children worldwide. Luis Alberto Urrea is the best-selling author of 17 books, including The Devil's Highway and The Hummingbird's Daughter. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of a 2017 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction. The Water Museum, a collection of short stories, was a finalist for the 2016 PEN/Faulkner award for fiction and his novel Into the Beautiful North is a current selection of the NEA's Big Read program. His books have been selected by more than 60 different cities and colleges for community reads programs. His latest novel, The House of Broken Angels, will be released in March 2018. He lives in Naperville and is a distinguished professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Friday, Nov. 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Jan English Leary

Skating on the Vertical

Book Launch Party

Jan English Leary's writing deftly offers insight into the disappointments and beauty of human love. In her new collection of sixteen stories, Leary writes about individuals who face the challenges of infertility and parenting, estrangement and intimacy, illness and recovery, loss and redemption. At the end of the stories, the characters emerge, sometimes broken, sometimes stronger, always changed. Jan English Leary is a writer living in Chicago. She received an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and taught writing to high-school students at the Francis W. Parker School and to adults at Northwestern University. Her novel, Thicker Than Blood, which deals with interracial adoption, single parenthood, and self-identity, was published in 2015.

Saturday, Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m.

Eve Ewing & Danez Smith

Poetry Reading

Join us as we welcome Danez Smith and Eve Ewing for our most anticipated poetry event of 2017! The two authors will be reading from their recently released collections—Don't Call Us Dead ( Smith ) and Electric Arches ( Ewing ). Danez Smith is the author of [insert] boy, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Smith has received fellowships from the McKnight Foundation and the Poetry Foundation and lives in Minneapolis. Eve L. Ewing is a writer, scholar, artist, and educator from Chicago. Her work has appeared in Poetry, the New Yorker, New Republic, the Nation, the Atlantic, and many other publications. She is a sociologist at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.

Tuesday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m.

Feminist Craft Circle

Make decorations for Women & Children First for the December holidays. Yarnbombing with a holiday theme, inside the store and out. We think elves on the lamp posts up and down Clark Street would look really great!!

Wednesday, Nov. 8 at 7:30

H. Melt joined by other Chicago

trans poets

Subject to Change: Trans Poetry and Conversation

Book Launch Party

Come celebrate the Chicago launch of Subject to Change: Trans Poetry & Conversation, an anthology edited by H. Melt, featuring poems and interviews that illustrate the power of trans poets speaking to one another. H. Melt will be joined by local trans writers including beyza ozer, Sung Yim, Vita E., and others.

Thursday, Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m.

The Conversation: Greed

Friday, Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m.

Timothy Stewart-Winter

Queer Clout - paperback tour

Reading, Q&A, and book-signing

Saturday, Nov. 11 at 3 p.m.

The Mad Hatters

Kids' Storytelling Activity

Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m.

Laura Shapiro in conversation with Sara Paretsky

What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food that Tells Their Stories