Women & Children First

This group reads mostly recent and emerging fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and poetry written by women (with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure!). Meets the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Linda Bubon (wcflinda@aol.com) for more information.

Lavishly illustrated with almost 400 historical photos and drawing from a wide range of scholarly, historical, and journalistic input, Out and Proud in Chicago is an outstanding document of Chicago’s GLBT historical and political cultures, spanning from early prairie settlement to the present, from ... (more)the Jazz Age through our community’s coalescence into a dynamic political force, shedding light on many unsung movers and shakers through many eras. Join us for a lively discussion with editor Baim and many of the book’s contributors about our shared histories, and the endeavor to chronicle them.

In her collection Dilation and Curettage, Michigan-based poet April Dawn Gosling explores the three months around the death of her mother and the loss of her first born child. Evanston poet Susan Hahn will be reading from her eighth poetry collection. In a rave review in Booklist of The Note She Left, ... (more)Donna Seaman wrote, “Hahn’s imagination is exalted, her language bewitching, her humor sly, her protests stinging. These are remarkably mysterious, audacious, and rueful poems about womanhood, holiness, brutality, and healing.”

In the latest installment of our new salon series for lesbians and their friends, we welcome the musical group Congress of Starlings, featuring duo Aerin Tedesco and Andrea Bunch. Known primarily for gorgeous vocal harmonies and stellar songwriting, Congress of Starlings does not settle for the standard ... (more)folk stasis of song and voice, Instead, they employ a wide palette of sounds and instruments from tenor guitar to computer-generated tones. Joining A Congess of Starlings will be the Gwen Mitchell Experiment, featuring the weird, beautiful, haunting, and melodic sounds that Mitchell characterizes as “eclectic consciousness music.” By day, Nikki Rinkus is a mild-mannered Real Estate Lady. By night, her bad-girl alter ego DJ SpinNikki kicks out an eclectic array of dance, pop, world music and indie rock. ($7 to $10 sliding entrance fee includes refreshments.)

In his memoir, Pomfret, a devoted Catholic lay minister, offers an uproarious insider’s view of the gay Catholic experience. Along the way, you’ll meet his boyfriend’s protestant grandmother, for whom Catholicism is a worse sin than sodomy; Father McSlutty, a promiscuous gay priest; Jezebel, his ... (more)uber-Catholic sister-in-law; Father Bear-Daddy, a hirsute holy terror; the Three Hale Marys, his fellow lay ministers; and Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s Harry Potter-hating chief exorcist.

A contemporary companion to City Kids, City Teachers, this new collection has been compiled by four of the country’s most prominent urban educators. Young people and practicing teachers, poets and scholars, social critics and journalists offer unique takes on topics ranging from culturally relevant ... (more)teaching and scripted curricula to the criminalization of youth, gentrification, and the inequities of school funding. Co-editor Mitchie, and contributors Monique Redeaux, Katie Hogan, Lisa Espinosa, Janice Hurtig and Pauline Lipman will participate in this reading and discussion.

Estrojam and the Decibelle Music and Cultural Festival present a reading and Q&A with Michelle Tea and Cristy Road. (The Decibelle Music and Culture Festival is a community-based event featuring internationally acclaimed and emerging female musicians, artists, educators, activists and community leaders ... (more)in dozens of events at Chicago’s best venues.) This year, the festival presents its first literary event, featuring a headlining reading by queer writer Michelle Tea, beloved author of the books Rose of No Man’s Land, Valencia, Rent Girl, and many more, and co-founder of the Sister Spit Rambling Road Show. Artist and writer Cristy Road will be joining Tea as she reads from her own new book Bad Habits. Cristy Road recently drew Women & Children First a new design to use on our t-shirts and website. Check out that woman with bright pink hair on the banner of our website! That's the work of Cristy Road.

Contact the store for more information about ticket sales at 773-769-9299. For a complete schedule of Decibelle events go to http://decibelle.org. Ticketed event. The $7-$10 sliding-fee donation for this event supports Estrojam and the artists.

Please note change of date: This event will be on Friday, not Thursday.

Reading by Sin Anthology contributors Julia Borcherts, Sharon Doering, Alverne Ball, Darwyn Jones, and Patricia Rosemoor. Prizes, food and wine!

Molly McNett reads from her new book, One Dog Happy, winner of this year's John Simmons award for fiction from the University of Iowa. These stories, many with young female protagonists, are set in and around Chicago.

Every week between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Americans produce an additional 2 billion pounds of garbage. It doesn’t have to be that way! Come learn low-cost, low-impact alternatives to mass-market waste and consumption from Anne Bayse, coauthor of Green Christmas and author of the previous titles ... (more)Sustaining Simplicity and Kids in the Loop: Chicago Adventures for Kids and their Grownups. A long-time practitioner of simple living, Bayse will share big-picture perspectives and hands-on wisdom for savoring the holidays without increasing your carbon footprint.

Make/Shift magazine premiered in the Fall of 2006, and has received a lot of attention since then. Focusing on queer, anti-racist, feminist, and transgender issues, Make/Shift is just what our diverse community needs right now. Meet the editors and local writers of the hottest new feminist magazine at ... (more)this fabulous release party. Plus, check out the article about Women & Children First in the current issue!

AWAY by Amy Bloom. This group reads fiction and non-fiction exploring the complex relationships of women’s familial relationships. Meets the first Sunday of every month at 2:30 PM. Contact facilitators Mary Kay Devine (marykaydevine@sbcglobal.net) or Katie Forristall (klforristall@gmail.com) for more ... (more)information.

THE LAST SEPTEMBER by Elizabeth Bowen. This group reads classic literature by women from a wide range of time periods and cultural backgrounds. Meets the second Wednesday of each month at 7:15 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Lynn Mooney (lynnmooney@comcast.net) for more information.

THE GATHERING by Anne Enright. The book group that began it all! Focusing on a broad cross-section of writing, this group reads mostly recent and emerging fiction, non-fiction, memoirs and poetry written by women (with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure!). Meets the third Tuesday of every ... (more)month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Linda Bubon (wcflinda@aol.com) for more information.

THE COMPLETE PERSEPOLIS by Marjane Satrapi. The group focuses on various social issues facing feminists today: sexism, racism, militarism, and transgender and queer politics. Open to feminist women and men. Meets the third Monday of each month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator ... (more)Angelique Grandone (wcfangelique@aol.com) for more information.

December 22: The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.

SIN IN THE SECOND CITY by Karen Abbott. This group reads fiction and non-fiction exploring the complex relationships of women’s familial relationships. Meets the first Sunday of each month at 2:30. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitators Mary Kay Devine (marykaydevine@sbcglobal.net) or Katie ... (more)Forristall (klforristall@gmail.com) for more information.

Evanston author Joan Corwin will be reading from her story, “Safe Shall Be My Going,” which appears as the novella winner in Press 53’s first annual Open Awards Anthology. With the help of an unusual charm, a platoon of British soldiers beats the odds to escape death in the trenches of World War ... (more)I in a tale Rosellen Brown calls, “delightful and surprising.” Corwin’s fiction has appeared in StoryQuarterly, The Roanoke Review, and more. Her story “Hindsight” was a Chicago Public Radio Stories on Stage competition winner.

During the recent Chicago sit-in by workers at Republic Windows and Doors, wage theft in America grabbed national headlines, but it is far from being a new phenomenon. Every year, billions of dollars’ worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers, a grand theft that exceeds every other larceny ... (more)category on record annually, and in today’s economy this crime affects more Americans than ever before. In her new book, author and community organizer Kim Bobo (Organizing for Social Change) offers an incisive handbook for activists, workers, and concerned citizens on how to prevent flagrant exploitation of America’s working people, including a sweeping analysis of the crisis, hard-hitting statistics, and heart-breaking first-person accounts.

SO LONG A LETTER by Mariama Ba. This group reads classic literature by women from a wide range of time periods and cultural backgrounds. Meets the second Wednesday of each month at 7:15 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Lynn Mooney (lynnmooney@comcast.net) for more information.

In honor of Martin Luther King’s birthday, all of our children’s books will be on sale at 20% off. This is a great opportunity for teachers to stock up for Black and Women’s History Months

PERFECT GIRLS, STARVING DAUGHTERS by Courtney E. Martin. The group focuses on various social issues facing feminists today: sexism, racism, militarism, and transgender and queer politics. Open to feminist women and men. Meets the third Monday of each month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact ... (more)facilitator Angelique Grandone (wcfangelique@aol.com) for more information.

SNOWFLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN by Lisa See. The book group that began it all! Focusing on a broad cross-section of writing, this group reads mostly recent and emerging fiction, non-fiction, memoirs and poetry written by women (with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure!). Meets the third ... (more)Tuesday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Linda Bubon (wcflinda@aol.com) for more information.

Every year millions of women are sold into sexual slavery with billions of dollars changing hands. Sex slaves form the backbone of one of the world’s most profitable illicit enterprises. In this first-of-its-kind journey spanning four continents, Siddarth Kara investigates the mechanics of the global ... (more)sex trafficking industry and takes stock of its devastating human toll. Kara serves on the board of directors of Free the Slaves, an organization dedicated to abolishing slavery worldwide.

Tonight we celebrate the release of new works by two acclaimed Chicago poets. Alice George is a widely published poet, whose new collection, This Must Be the Place, explores materials spanning folklore, fairytales, politics and science, inviting readers into an imaginative world of unusual range and ... (more)intimacy. Of Brandi Homan’s new volume, poet Joan Larkin raved, “I love Brandi Homan’s poems in Hard Reds. They ride language like a daredevil, talking tough while they strip down to their unabashedly hungry heart.”

LIVE NUDE GIRL is a lively meditation on the profession of nude modeling as practiced in history and today. Rooney draws on her own experiences as an artist’s model and on the stories of famous, notorious, and mysterious artists and models through the ages. Combining personal perspective, historical ... (more)anecdote, and witty prose, Rooney reveals that both the appeal of posing nude for artists and that of drawing the naked figure lie in our deeply human responses to body, sex, love, and death. Joining her will be Chicago writer Lindsay Hunter, published in McSweeney’s, and the co-founder and co-host of the Quickies! Reading Series.

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This group reads fiction and non-fiction exploring the complex relationships of women’s familial relationships. Meets the first Sunday of each month at 2:30. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitators Mary Kay Devine (marykaydevine@sbcglobal.net) ... (more)or Katie Forristall (klforristall@gmail.com) for more information.

We are thrilled to host Jayne Anne Phillips (Motherkind, Shelter) for the release of her brilliant new novel. Set in the 1950s in West Virginia and Korea and based, in part, on actual events, Lark and Termite tells of the power of love and loss, the echoing ramifications of war, the slow revelation of ... (more)family secrets, and the unseen, almost magical bonds that unite and sustain us. Junot Diaz raves, “Lark and Termite is extraordinary and it is luminous . . . . It is an astounding feat of the imagination.” Tim O’Brien hails it, “By far the best new novel I’ve read in the last five years or so.” And Alice Munro says, “This novel is cut like a diamond, with such sharp authenticity and bursts of light.” Don’t miss this opportunity to meet the author of the book fiction lovers will be talking about for years to come.

Featuring Anne-Marie Cusac, Jeffrey Ethan Lee, Patrick Lawler, and Maureen Alsop. Many Mountains Moving is a literary press and journal whose mission is to present diverse voices in contemporary literature. Tonight’s reading features Many Mountains Moving Press poets, both local and national, reading ... (more)from their latest works.

Featuring Caroline Grant, Amy Hudock, Susan Ito, Rebecca Kaminsky, Kristina Riggle, Shari MacDonald Strong, and Shannon LC Cate. Join editors and contributors from Literary Mama, an online literary journal for mothers whose diverse editors work from four countries and reach more than 40,000 readers monthly, ... (more)offering a model for building vibrant grassroots literary communities. Contributors will read from recent work, followed by Q&A.

Featuring A. E. Stallings, Nomi Stone, Christina Pugh, and Judith Hall Tonight’s reading features an impressive cast of female poets all published by Northwestern University Press. With several books, publications, and prestigious poetry awards among them, and receiving raves from the likes of Alicia ... (more)Ostricker and W. S. Merwin, this is an event that poetry lovers will not want to miss.

Featuring A. E. Stallings, Nomi Stone, Christina Pugh, and Judith Hall Tonight’s reading features an impressive cast of female poets all published by Northwestern University Press. With several books, publications, and prestigious poetry awards among them, and receiving raves from the likes of Alicia ... (more)Ostricker and W. S. Merwin, this is an event that poetry lovers will not want to miss.

Featuring Achy Obejas, Ching-In Chen, Nickole Brown, and Tamiko Beyer. Emerging and established lesbian poets come together for tonight’s event, celebrating the present and future of the lesbian poetic tradition. Chicagoan Obejas (Ruins, Days of Awe) will read from her recent poetry release, This is ... (more)What Happened in Our Other Life; Chen is celebrating the release of her novel-in-poems, The Heart’s Traffic. Nickole Brown, an NEA fellow, will read from her collection, Sister, and Tamiko Beyer’s work has been featured in many journals, including The Crab Orchard Review and the Gay and Lesbian Review. Refreshments will be served.

OPENING UP by Tristan Taormino. The group focuses on various social issues facing feminists today: sexism, racism, militarism, and transgender and queer politics. Open to feminist women and men. Meets the third Monday of each month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Angelique Grandone ... (more)(wcfangelique@aol.com) for more information.

ALICE. This group reads mostly recent and emerging fiction, non-fiction, memoirs and poetry written by women (with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure!). Meets the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Linda Bubon (wcflinda@aol.com) for more ... (more)information.

PAVILION OF WOMEN by Pearl Buck. This group reads classic literature by women from a wide range of time periods and cultural backgrounds. Usually meets the second Wednesday of each month at 7:15 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Lynn Mooney (lynnmooney@comcast.net) for more information.

These controversial and compelling essays examine rape culture through the lenses of class, race, gender and sexuality. Yes Means Yes dissects how a “no means no” model of discourse puts the responsibility of rape on women, while exploring the theory that promoting female sexual pleasure can help ... (more)stop rape. Join coeditor (with Jessica Valenti) Jaclyn Friedman, and local contributors Lee Jacob Riggs and Hazel/Cedar Troost for a passionate conversation about fighting sexual assault while celebrating women’s sexual agency.

Novelist Burroway (The Buzzards, Raw Silk) is also author of Writing Fiction, the most widely used creative writing textbook in the United States. Set in Pennsylvania and the Gulf Coast amid the blur and chaos of 9/11, Bridge of Sand, Burroway’s seventh novel, tells the story of Dana, a woman on a ... (more)quest to find herself after the death of her husband. Booklist raves that Burroway “[r]evels in the beauty and danger of hurricane country, where racial, class, and sexual conflicts surge and boil.”

Featuring Michelle Renae, Jenn P., and special guest host Kat Fitzgerald. Tonight’s installment of our monthly Salon for lesbians and their friends features performance poet Michelle Renae, whose work delves into a complexity of feminist issues through the exploration of her own life and sexuality. ... (more)Joining Michelle Renae on the bill, poet Jenn P. creates work that comes from her experiences as a “slightly androgynous / art school drop out / thrift-store shopping / 20-something / laundry-washing / lesbian.” Special guest host Kat Fitzgerald, Windy City Times photographer, organizer and host of 4 Women Only and Uncommon Ground on Clark Open Mic, and spiritual mother of Labrys Chicago (www.labryschicago.com) may just be the hardest-working lesbian in Chicago. She’ll regale tonight’s audience with live music between poetry sets. $7–$10 sliding fee includes food and wine. Event cosponsored by Early to Bed (www.early2bed.com).

Do radical politics inform how you kink? Has kink taught you ways to be a better activist or political thinker? Editor Simon Strikeback and contributors to the ‘zine Bound to Struggle, will be on hand to discuss the latest issue of the ‘zine and the intersections between radical sexuality and radical ... (more)politics. Cosponsored by Early to Bed (www.early2bed.com).

When her mother gets sick, 15-year-old Ruby Jacinski has no choice but to help support her family, but not many options exist for a Polish teenager in 1940s Chicago. Through an acquaintance, Jacinski is soon swept into the world of “taxi dancing,” quickly mastering the art of getting her clients ... (more)to provide her with life’s necessities and luxuries in this vividly imagined novel about the struggles and triumphs of a determined young woman during World War II.

Ruins is set in Havana during the tumultuous summer of 1994, when the government allows Cubans to leave the country on anything that floats and more than 100,000 Cubans flee. At the story’s center is Usnavy, a true believer of the Cuban revolution, who must choose between his family and the dream he ... (more)has staked his life on, while the city, and his ideals, crumble around him. “Daring, tough, and deeply compassionate, Achy Obejas’s Ruins is a breathtaker.” –Junot Diaz

Representing six geographical regions and twenty-three countries, this important collection of young people’s narratives addresses a wide range of global health issues. From chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, and epilepsy; to infectious diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and typhoid, ... (more)as well as mental and behavioral issues and the political and environmental condition that contribute to all of the above, these stories are sure to spark debate and stimulate discussion worldwide. Public health specialist Mendenhall will be joined by local contributors Ryan Brown, Elizabeth Jacobs, Hannah Adams, and Nicole Warren.

Join Jumpstart Americorps in celebrating the birthday of Dr. Seuss. From 10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m., Jumpstart Americorps will present songs and stories for pre-schoolers (ages 2 to 5). From 11:00 to 12:00, we'll have crafts for children ages 5 to 8. All are encouraged to participate in a book drive to provide ... (more)books for at-risk children in preschools and local homeless shelters. (Bring a book from home to donate, or buy one at the store.)

Just released in paperback! For a group of friends, the past decade has been defined by marriage and motherhood, but it wasn’t always that way. Growing up, Amy, Jill, Roberta, and Karen were told that their generation of women would be different, and for a while this was true; they went to good colleges ... (more)and started careers. But marriage and motherhood interrupted their course as all four women, for varied reasons, decide to stay at home and parent fulltime. Ten years later, at age forty, with no professions by which to define themselves, the four friends wonder how they got where they are, and why they’ve stayed as long as they have.

AFTER LEAVING MR. MACKENZIE by Jean Rhys. This group reads classic literature by women from a wide range of time periods and cultural backgrounds. Meets the second Wednesday of each month at 7:15 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Lynn Mooney (lynnmooney@comcast.net) for more information.

In the spellbinding tradition of Colleen McCullough and Maeve Binchy comes a poignant historical family saga set against the backdrop of the Great Irish Starvation and the first mass Irish immigration to the United States. Following the Kelly family from a potato farm in Ireland to Chicago, Illinois, ... (more)as the city is transformed from a frontier town to the “City of the Century,” this breathtaking story of that epic journey reflects the experiences and ancestry of millions of Irish-Americans. Mary Gordon says, “…Galway Bay combines two traditional Irish gifts—the gift of hypnotic storytelling, and the gift of poetic language. It enables us the see the Irish, and Irish-American experience, in a way we would never have imagined.”

In her unprecedented literary landmark, Princeton Professor Emeritus Elaine Showalter offers the first comprehensive history of American women writers from 1650 to 2000. In a narrative of immense scope and fascination, we are introduced to more than 250 writers. These include not only famous and expected ... (more)names (Willa Cather, Flannery O’Conner, and Toni Morrison among them), but also many who were once successful yet now are little known. Showalter shows how these writers, both those who have endured and those left behind by the canon, are connected to one another and to their times. Joyce Carol Oates says, “A Jury of Her Peers is a work of astonishing vision, breadth, intelligence, and audacity. Elaine Showalter, long recognized as our preeminent feminist scholar-critic, whose prose shimmers with wickedly funny asides, has produced the most ambitious and brilliantly executed book of her career.”

WHIPPING GIRL by Julia Serano. The group focuses on various social issues facing feminists today: sexism, racism, militarism, and transgender and queer politics. Open to feminist women and men. Meets the third Monday of each month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Chelsey (wcfchelsey@gmail.com) ... (more)for more information.

IDA: A SWORD AMONG LIONS by Paula Giddings. This group reads mostly recent and emerging fiction, non-fiction, memoirs and poetry written by women (with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure!). Meets the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator ... (more)Linda Bubon (wcflinda@aol.com) for more information.

Samantha Friedman seems to have it all: a successful husband, a nice home, and three healthy children. Yet beneath the surface lies a darker reality—her marriage is on the rocks, she often resents her role as a stay-at-home mom, and she feels stuck. As she struggles to improve her marriage and find ... (more)meaning in her life, she creates a ripple effect in her family—affecting her teenage daughter, Cammy, the most. Flock adroitly enters the psyche of mother and daughter, both stuck at a crossroads and trying to cope with life’s disappointments in a novel that will challenge readers to contemplate their own choices.

Cancer is Chicago writer S. L. Wisenberg’s muse, and Cancer Bitch (www.cancerbitch@blogspot.com) is her blog. Drawing on a wealth of personal literary and historical sources—from Jewish liturgy to the first crude mastectomies, from Anne Frank to Emma Goldman—The Adventures of Cancer Bitch creates ... (more)an indelible image of a politically engaged, self-aware (sometimes neurotic) woman facing a daunting disease with equal measures of humor, well-founded fear, and keen intelligence. Audrey Niffenegger says, “The Adventures of Cancer Bitch is witty and relentless. Wisenberg has walked through the valley of cancer and she is willing to tell all; this is a cornucopia of breast cancer information as well as a very smart, funny read from an excellent writer.”

THE NIAGARA RIVER by Kay Ryan. This group reads mostly recent and emerging fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and poetry written by women (with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure!). Meets the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Linda Bubon ... (more)(wcflinda@aol.com) for more information.

THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK by Doris Lessing. This group reads classic literature by women from a wide range of time periods and cultural backgrounds. Usually meets the second Wednesday of each month at 7:15 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Lynn Mooney (lynnmooney@comcast.net) for more information.

Featuring editor David Peak and contributors Kathie Bergquist, Christina Correa, Jesse Morrison, Maggie Ritchie, and Jessica Young. Ghost Factory is a Chicago Literary ‘zine dedicated to themes of cultural identity in the United States, including issues of ancestry, countries of origin, sexuality, ... (more)social awareness, and engaged participation in life on this planet. Join us for a rousing reading and fundraiser celebrating Ghost Factory’s highly anticipated third issue. While supplies last, free copies of issue #2 will be offered with the purchase of #3. Refreshments will be served.

Rape Victim Advocates will present "When a Friend Discloses." This workshop will present information on sexual assault and its effects, rape trauma syndrome, and what we can do as a community to help end rape. We will focus on identifying and avoiding victim-blaming responses as well as supporting the ... (more)survivor, helping her/him to reclaim power and recognize options. The workshop will close with a panel discussion lead by professionals and volunteers who have worked directly with survivors. Please contact Carrie at prevention@rapevictimadvocates.org or call (312)443-9603 for details.

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS by Khaled Hosseini. This group reads fiction and non-fiction exploring the complex relationships of women’s familial relationships. Meets the first Sunday of every month at 3:00 PM. Contact facilitators Mary Kay Devine (marykaydevine@sbcglobal.net) and Katie Forristall (klforristall@gmail.com) ... (more)for more information.

Dorothy Allison and Thomas Glave. Are we ever excited about this literary double header featuring two award-winning GLBTQ authors! Author of the acclaimed story collection Whose Song? and the Lammie-Award winning book of essays Words to Our Now, Glave is known for his stylistic brio and courageous explorations ... (more)of race and sexuality. Glave will be reading from his new collection of stories, The Torturer’s Wife, which expands and deepens his lyrical experimentation in stories that focus on the horrors of dictatorships, anti-gay violence, erotic longing, and the weight of traumatized memory. Dorothy Allison is the author of the phenomenal novels Bastard Out of Carolina and Cavedweller, the short story collection Trash, the essay collection Two or Three Things I Know For Sure. She has been the recipient of many awards, including a Ferro-Grumley Award and two ALA awards. Dorothy Allison’s appearance is co-sponsored by the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media of Columbia College Chicago.

BURGER'S DAUGHTER by Nadine Gordimer. This group reads classic literature by women from a wide range of time periods and cultural backgrounds. Meets the second Wednesday of each month at 7:15 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Lynn Mooney (lynnmooney@comcast.net) for more information.

YES MEANS YES by Jaclyn Friedman. This group focuses on social issues facing feminists today, including sexism, racism, militarism, and transgender and queer politics. Open to feminist women and men. Meets the third Monday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Facilitator: Chelsey Clammer ... (more)(wcfchelsey@aol.com)

IDA: A SWORD AMONG LIONS by Paula Giddings. This group reads mostly recent and emerging fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and poetry written by women (with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure!). Meets the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator ... (more)Linda Bubon (wcflinda@aol.com) for more information.

MISSING MOM by Joyce Carol Oates. This group reads fiction and non-fiction exploring the complex relationships of women’s familial relationships. Meets the first Sunday of every month at 3:00 PM. Contact facilitators Mary Kay Devine (marykaydevine@sbcglobal.net) and Katie Forristall (klforristall@gmail.com) ... (more)for more information.

Discussion of THE RED QUEEN by Margaret Drabble, plus book selection meeting. This group reads classic literature by women from different cultural backgrounds. Meets the second Wednesday of every month at 7:15 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Lynn Mooney (lynnmooney@comcast.net) for more ... (more)information.

Join us for a poetry reading by two local favorites. Maureen Flannery’s most recent collection, DESTINY WHISPERS TO THE BELOVED, is her second to feature explorations of life, myth, and culture south of the border. Donna Pucciani will be reading from her two recent books, CHASING THE SAINTS and JUMPING ... (more)OFF THE TRAIN.

Blogger Kate Harding and her partner Marianne Kirby have lost count of how many diets they’ve been on. Between them, they’ve lost enough weight to make a whole other person. But like almost all dieters, they always gained it back. So, they finally decided to activate Plan B. In LESSONS FROM THE FAT-O-SPHERE, ... (more)they share why they quit starving themselves and began to like their fat bodies the way they are. Join us for a spirited discussion about fat, dieting, and body image.

FUCKING DAPHNE by Daphne Gottlieb. This group focuses on social issues facing feminists today, including sexism, racism, militarism, and transgender and queer politics. Open to feminist women and men. Meets the third Monday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Facilitator: Chelsey Clammer ... (more)(wcfchelsey@aol.com)

COURAGE FOR THE EARTH: WRITERS, SCIENTISTS, AND ACTIVISTS CELEBRATE THE LIFE AND WRITING OF RACHEL CARSON by Peter Matthiessen. This group reads mostly recent and emerging fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and poetry written by women (with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure!). Meets the third ... (more)Tuesday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Linda Bubon (wcflinda@aol.com) for more information.

In SHE'S OUT THERE, editors Amy Sewell and Heather L. Ogilvie feature the essays of 35 girls and women ages 5 to 35, from 20 states and diverse races and socioeconomic backgrounds, who all want to be president of the United States. These essays reveal what drives the political ambitions of a younger ... (more)generation of American women and their vision for our country. Joining us this evening will be Chicago essayist Corina Ulmer, who will be eligible to run for president in 2020. Girls, women, and their friends and fans are invited to attend this inspirational program celebrating the future of women in the American political process.

In SHE'S OUT THERE, editors Amy Sewell and Heather L. Ogilvie feature the essays of 35 girls and women ages 5 to 35, from 20 states and diverse races and socioeconomic backgrounds, who all want to be president of the United States. These essays reveal what drives the political ambitions of a younger ... (more)generation of American women and their vision for our country. Joining us this evening will be Chicago essayist Corina Ulmer, who will be eligible to run for president in 2020. Girls, women, and their friends and fans are invited to attend this inspirational program celebrating the future of women in the American political process.

Join queer feminist poet and Chicago native Rachel M. Simon (THEORY OF ORANGE), to celebrate the publication of her second book, MARGINAL ROAD, a collection that moves from the real to the surreal and back. Simon teaches Gender Studies and writing at SUNY Purchase College and at a maximum security prison ... (more)for women in New York.

Larry La Fountain-Stokes was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is a writer, scholar, playwright, and performer. The 14 stories in UNAS PINTADAS DE AZUL / BLUE FINGERNAILS represent a Latino-American poetic journey, a sensory pilgrimage through the pains and pleasures of diasporic, cosmopolitan ... (more)gay and lesbian Puerto Rican identities in a post-modern, ever-shifting world. Award-winning writer and performer E. Patrick Johnson (Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity) is Professor, Chair and Director of Graduate Studies in the Dept. of Performance Studies and Professor in the Dept. of African American Studies at Northwestern University. A scholar/artist, Johnson has performed nationally and internationally, and has published widely in the area of race, gender, sexuality, and performance. Copies of SWEET TEA will be available at a special price tonight only.

TINDERBOX LAWN, the new prose poetry collection by novelist, memoirist, and poet Carol Guess (Seeing Dell, Femme’s Dictionary) is set on Seattle’s margins: beneath bridges, on water banks, in strip clubs and flooded farmland, illuminating the intersection of domesticity and bohemia, orthodoxy and ... (more)passion. A native New Yorker, poet Hanna Andrews (A / LONG / DIVISION) received an MFA from Columbia College Chicago, where she teaches poetry and writing. In 2008 she was a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship finalist.

AHAB'S WIFE by Sena Jeter Naslund. This group reads classic literature by women from different cultural backgrounds. Meets the second Wednesday of every month at 7:15 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Lynn Mooney (lynnmooney@comcast.net) for more information.

ESCAPE by Carolyn Jessop. This group reads fiction and non-fiction exploring the complex relationships of women’s familial relationships. Meets the first Sunday of every month at 3:00 PM. Contact facilitators Mary Kay Devine (marykaydevine@sbcglobal.net) and Katie Forristall (klforristall@gmail.com) ... (more)for more information.

RED LEATHER DIARY by Lily Koppel. This group focuses on social issues facing feminists today, including sexism, racism, militarism, and transgender and queer politics. Open to feminist women and men. Meets the third Monday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Facilitator: Chelsey Clammer ... (more)(wcfchelsey@aol.com)

GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Shaffer. This group reads mostly recent and emerging fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and poetry written by women (with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure!). Meets the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! ... (more)Contact facilitator Linda Bubon (wcflinda@aol.com) for more information.

PRISONER'S WIFE by Ada Bendele. This group reads fiction and non-fiction exploring the complex relationships of women’s familial relationships. Meets the first Sunday of every month at 3:00 PM. Contact facilitators Mary Kay Devine (marykaydevine@sbcglobal.net) and Katie Forristall (klforristall@gmail.com) ... (more)for more information.

INTERSEX (FOR LACK OF A BETTER WORD) by Thea Hillman. This group focuses on social issues facing feminists today, including sexism, racism, militarism, and transgender and queer politics. Open to feminist women and men. Meets the third Monday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Facilitator: ... (more)Chelsey Clammer (wcfchelsey@aol.com)

2009 Pulitzer Prize-winner OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout. This group reads mostly recent and emerging fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and poetry written by women (with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure!). Meets the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! ... (more)Contact facilitator Linda Bubon (wcflinda@aol.com) for more information.

SHOCK DOCTRINE by Naomi Klein. This group reads mostly recent and emerging fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and poetry written by women (with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure!). Meets the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Linda Bubon ... (more)(wcflinda@aol.com) for more information.

This group focuses on social issues facing feminists today, including sexism, racism, militarism, and transgender and queer politics. Open to feminist women and men. Meets the third Monday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Facilitator: Chelsey Clammer (wcfchelsey@aol.com)

This group focuses on social issues facing feminists today, including sexism, racism, militarism, and transgender and queer politics. Open to feminist women and men. Meets the third Monday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Facilitator: Chelsey Clammer (wcfchelsey@aol.com)

This group reads mostly recent and emerging fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and poetry written by women (with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure!). Meets the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Linda Bubon (wcflinda@aol.com) for more information.

This group reads mostly recent and emerging fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and poetry written by women (with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure!). Meets the third Tuesday of every month at 7:30 PM. Drop-ins always welcome! Contact facilitator Linda Bubon (wcflinda@aol.com) for more information.