| Current Guild Event |
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Roberto Harrison
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - 7:30pm Time: Reading begins at 7:30PM. A short Open Mic will begin the evening. |
| News & Views |
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Alternative Lit 50 List -- 2009 Well, it’s time for me to get back on my soapbox. And, at least this year I can look like I’m biting the hand that’s trying to give me a pat on the back versus chewing sour grapes (which could have been the complaint lodged at me last year.) Newcity released its Lit 50 list or “Who really books in Chicago” this week. I’m back on the list, and possibly at the highest rank I’ve ever received, but I have to say that it feels like I’ve just been nominated to my junior high’s badminton hall of fame. For a paper whose tag line is “Street Smart Chicago,” the list reads a lot more like a who’s who of big box stores and historical movers-and-shakers whose current status is “transitional” than any episode of Literature: Life on the Streets/Chicago. If I thought this was the real state of literature in Chicago, I’d be very nervous. Hell, I’d be sad. But I know better. Most of the people who have been in the trenches for years – through every kind of economy – the same people who the big box stores and library branches call when they want some “local flavor” – they never make the list. But I know how hard these literary warriors work for meager compensation, if any, all for the love of literature. To not give them their due is Crime and Punishment-able (sorry for the pun, I couldn’t help it.) |