Jimmy Carter, PW Bookstore of the Year Nomination, and more!
March Events
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PW Bookstore of the Year Nomination
Women & Children First has been named one of five finalists for this year's Publishers Weekly Bookstore
of the Year Award. We are delighted that our hard work and vision is
being recognized by our industry peers in this way. Other finalists this
year include Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle; Green Apple Books, San
Francisco; McLean & Eakin, Petosky, Michigan; and Prairie Lights,
Iowa City. We are proud to be included in their company. The Publishers Weekly Bookstore of the Year Award will be presented during BookExpo America in New York City in May.
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Read Local
This month we are launching a new brand, "Read Local,"
to call attention to the many events we do with local
literati--authors, editors, and publishers. Women & Children First
has always taken great pride in working with the local writing
community. We hope our new Read Local designation
will help build audiences for and focus attention on the work of the
extraordinarily talented writers of Chicago, now and into the future.
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Wednesday, March 5th -
Editor Avital Norman Nathman and contributors Deborah Siegel and Gina Crosley-Corcoran
7:30 pm
As
a culture, we are obsessed with the notion of what it means to be a
"good" mother. In this refreshingly honest collection of essays, The Good Mother Myth: Redefining Motherhood to Fit Reality,
wonderful writers reflect on and challenge the stereotypes and
expectations about what it means to be a mother today and encourage
women to form a community that refuses to compete against societal
expectations-or one another. Avital
Norman Nathman is a writer whose work places a feminist lens on a
variety of topics, including parenting, maternal health, gender and
reproductive rights. She has been featured in Bitch magazine, the New York Times, CNN.com, among others. In addition to her blog, The Mamafesto, she has a regular series, "The Femisphere," for Ms. Magazine's site, and a regular feminist parenting column, "Mommie Dearest," for The Frisky. The Good Mother Myth is her first book. Please join her, along with contributors Deborah Siegel and Gina Crosley-Corcoran, for a reading, discussion, and signing.
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Thursday, March 6th -
Editor Janet Burroway,
with contributor Rosellen Brown
7:30 pm
This
collection celebrates a critical generation of women writers who
challenged the status quo and helped pave the way for future
generations--in addition to finding success for themselves. The
essayists and poets featured in A Story Larger than My Own
describe the pressure, the highs and lows, the all-too-frequent crises
of confidence, the challenges of a changing publishing scene, and the
difficulty of combining writing with the ordinary stuff of life--family,
marriage, jobs. The contributors, all now over the age of sixty, also
confront the effects of aging, with its paradoxical duality of new
limitations and new-found freedom. Taken together, these stories offer
advice from experience to writers at all stages of their careers and
serve as a collective memoir of a truly remarkable generation of women.
Janet Burroway lives in Lake Geneva. Rosellen Brown is the author of
many books, including Before and After and Half a Heart, and now teaches in the MFA in Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A Read Local event.
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Sunday March 9th - Patrick Dati
4:30 pm
When
he was nine years old, Patrick Dati was raped by notorious serial
killer John Wayne Gacy. After surviving this horrific ordeal, Patrick's
trauma continued, as he became the target of his older brother's
constant bullying. Overwhelmed by shame and guilt, Patrick hid that he
was gay, which led to two heterosexual marriages, both ending in
disaster. In this memoir, Patrick shares his story of self-discovery in hopes that others will find strategies for recovery and healing. Patrick
graduated with a BA in Broadcast Communications from Columbia College
and has spent the last decade as a marketing professional in the
publishing industry. He is now a nationally recognized child advocate. A Read Local event.
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Sunday, March 16th - Katey Schultz
4:30 pm
From
the perspectives of a U.S. soldier, a pragmatic jihadist, an Afghan
mother, a ghost, and others, this short story collection questions
stereotypes by bearing witness to the shared struggles of those touched
by the War on Terror. Through personal moments of fear, introspection,
confusion, and valor, Flashes of War serves as a universal plea
for reconnection. Katey Schultz earned her MFA from Pacific University
and is the recipient of the Linda Flowers Literary Award from the North
Carolina Humanities Council. Flashes of War, her first book, won the 2013 Gold Medal Book of the Year for literary fiction from the Military Writers Society of America. She lives in a 1970 Airstream trailer bordering the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina.
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Tuesday, March 18th - Rachel Herron
7:00 pm
Three
years after a horrible tragedy took her son and tore her family apart,
artist Kate Monroe is beginning to pick up the pieces of her life and
move on. Then, Kate's world is rocked once more when the daughter she
gave up for adoption twenty-two years ago suddenly reenters her life. In
this novel by Rachel Herron, creator of the popular blog Yarnagogo.com,
a family must confront its long-buried secrets and haunting betrayals.
Rachel's previous titles include the romance novels Wishes and Stitches and How to Knit a Love Song, as well as the memoir A Life in Stitches. She is an accomplished knitter and lives in Oakland with her wife, Lala, and their menagerie of cats and dogs.
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Wednesday, March 19th - Achy Obejas and Megan Bayles, joined by contributors Aleksandar Hemon and Emma Ruby-Sachs
7:00 pm
Immigrant Voices: 21st Century Stories
As
debates about immigration rage across America's political spectrum,
twenty-first-century immigrant literature both reflects and shapes the
shifting definition of American identity. Immigrant Voices: 21st Century Stories,
the newest publication by the Great Books Foundation, showcases fresh
perspectives on the immigrant experience by writers from around the
world. Join the co-editors, award-winning author Achy Obejas and cultural studies scholar Megan Bayles, for a reading and discussion.
Megan Bayles is a freelance editor and a doctoral candidate at the
University of California, Davis. Achy Obejas is the author of Ruins, Days of Awe, and other novels. Her Spanish translation of Junot DÃaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was a finalist for Spain's Esther BenÃtez Translation Prize from the National Translator Association. Refreshments will be served. A Read Local event.
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Thursday, March 20th - Paulette Livers
7:30 pm
Cementville: A Novel
In late spring of 1969, Cementville,
a picturesque southern town, is turned inside out by the deaths of
seven young National Guardsmen fighting in Vietnam. The return of the
bodies triggers a mounting unease and violence within the town. With the
Civil Rights Act only a few years old, a restless citizenry divided
over the war, and the Women's Movement beginning to challenge
traditional ideas about family life, Cementville
provides
a microcosm of a society shedding the old order, echoing issues still
being confronted today. Paulette Livers is a Chicago transplant, who was
born and raised in Kentucky. She received the 2012 David Nathan
Meyerson Prize for Fiction and has completed residencies and fellowships
with the Center for the American West, Ox-Bow, and others. A Read Local event.
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Friday, March 21st - Elizabeth Earley
7:30 pm
Launch Party
When
Anne's teenage sister sustains a traumatic brain injury after a car
accident, the whole family is thrown into a decades-long struggle for
belonging, deliverance, and redemption--with surprising results. A Map of Everything
intimately explores the fragility of family dynamics, revealing what is
lost and gained after a tragedy. Elizabeth Earley's stories and essays
have appeared in numerous publications, including the Chicago Reader, Geek, Outside, the Windy City Times, and Ms. Fit Magazine.
Elizabeth has twice been a finalist for the AWP New Journals Award and
once for the Bakeless Literary Prize for Fiction. She has received two
Pushcart nominations and serves as editor and curator of Bleed,
a literary blog from Jaded Ibis Press. This event will also feature
musicians Liz Chidester and Dalice Malice, spoken word artist Dasha
Kelly, and graphic artist Christa Donner, who created original art for
the color edition of A Map of Everything.
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Sunday, March 23rd - Alex Garel-Frantzen
2:00 pm
Location: Emanuel Congregation, 5959 N. Sheridan Road
Beyond
the usual suspects like Al Capone, organized crime in 1920s Chicago
also included various little-known Jewish gangsters born from the gritty
Maxwell Street ghetto. Their illegal activity sparked rifts between
Reform and Orthodox Jews and ignited tensions between city officials and
Jewish leaders. This historical account is the result of tireless
research from newspaper articles and editorials in the Chicago Tribune
and the Yiddish language press, as well as studies by historians,
sociologists, and reformers. Garel-Frantzen is a student at the
University of Illinois College of Law, where he is a Juris Doctor
candidate. A Read Local event.
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Tuesday, March 25th - Facilitated Discussion of The Good Girls Revolt by Lynn Povich
7:00 p.m.
Discussion facilitators: Abigail Sylvester and Linnea Sandström Lange of Women Employed's Advocacy Council
We can't stop talking about The Good Girls Revolt!
If you've read this eye-opening account of the first female class
action lawsuit and/or attended Lynn Povich's recent appearance in
Chicago, come join us for a discussion hosted by Abigail Sylvester and
Linnea Sandström Lange of Women Employed's Advocacy Council. Povich's account of the 1970's lawsuit is framed by the account of three young women writers for Newsweek who, forty years later, are still struggling against a sexist culture.
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Thursday, March 27th - Book Signing with President Jimmy Carter
6pm
At the Swedish American Museum, 5211 N. Clark Street
In President Jimmy Carter's travels around the world, he has noted many abuses against women and girls. In A Call to Action,
his latest book, he defends the rights of women around the world and in
particular challenges the use of religion to deny them equality.
Tickets are required. A purchase of A Call to Action
from Women & Children First comes with a free ticket to the book
signing. The book publishes on March 25th; the price (including tax) is
$30.60. Each adult in the signing line must purchase a book. However,
one child between the ages of 6 and 18 may accompany an adult
ticketholder. (An infant in arms is also welcome.) Call 773-769-9299 or
go to www.womenandchildrenfirst.com for more information or to pre-order
a book and secure your ticket.
Please note that this is a book signing only; you can greet President Carter, but he will not be giving a talk.
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Sunday March 30th - Peggy Shinner
4:30 pm
In You Feel So Mortal,
a collection of twelve provocative essays, Peggy Shinner examines her
own body, those of her parents, and the collective body, with all its
historical, social, and political implications. In trying to discern
what this whole mess of bones, muscles, and organs means, Shinner
ponders body image, gender, ethnic history, and familial legacy. A
lifelong Chicagoan, Peggy Shinner teaches in the MFA creative writing
program at Northwestern University and has been awarded two Illinois
Arts Council Fellowships. Her work has been published in Fourth Genre, the Gettysburg Review, and the Southern Review, as well as other journals and anthologies. A Read Local event.
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Book Groups
- Sunday, March 2 at 2:00 p.m. - Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
- Tuesday, March 4 at 7:15 p.m. - Waiting for God by Simone Weil
(for 8-to-12-year-olds) - Sunday, March 9 at 5:00 p.m. - Remarkable by Elizabeth Foley
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Sunday, March 9 at 6:30 p.m. - Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman
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Tuesday, March 18 at 7:30 p.m. - Breathless: An American Girl in Paris by Nancy K. Miller
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Save the Dates!
Thursday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Anne Balay
Wednesday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Kari Lydersen
Mayor 1%
Thursday, April 17, 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Party for World Book Night Book Givers
Join us for pizza and
refreshments as we celebrate the commitment and hard work of our
volunteer "Book Givers" who will be giving away books on World Book
Night, April 23. Joining the party will be local authors reading
passages from their favorite books. Tonight is an opportunity for
pre-registered "Book Givers" to pick up their books and meet other
Givers. Joining us will be local authors, including Jac Jemc (My Only Wife), Claire Zulkey (An Off Year), S. L. Wisenberg (The Adventures of Cancer Bitch, Holocaust Girls), Megan Stielstra (whose essay, "Channel B," appears in Best American Essays 2013), and Sarah Terez Rosenblum (Herself When She's Missing).
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