Discover two emerging Chicago poets whose palabras unearth a rich excavation of their Mexican roots. Pulling from these raices they explore gender, geography, and guns that eventually collide onto the page to create border-crossing poetry that migrates between Chicago and Guanajuato, Mexico. About the Artists Jennifer Patiño was born on the Southwest Side of Chicago...
The Guild Literary Complex is joining dozens of other presenters for the Tenth Annual Printers Ball, taking place on June 28. This year, the Guild will be presenting a flashmob-style Palabra Pura, featuring Cyn Vargas Eduardo Arocho Mike "Open Mike" Puican These poets will read around 5:30 p.m., but we encourage you to come early...
Presented by Victory Gardens Moderated by John Rich, Executive Director of the Guild Literary Complex Being forced to leave one’s homeland can leave one with a sense of loss, trauma, and confusion. But for many writers, exile and political writing can also be a source of creativity and a way to reconnect with a life...
Lost & Found: Letters, Poems, and Marginalia of Cross Cultural Experience This evening, Palabra Pura will travel to Mexico City, Korea, and Haiti via our writers to explore the Cross Cultural Experiences of a Dancer, an Educator, and a Poet. Curated by Maribel Mares. About the Artists Darren Angle is a poet living in Chicago....
Writers across Illinois submitted their poems to the Guild for the 21st Annual Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award between June 7 and June 30, 2014. 20 of those poems were...
We'll be taking some time away to regroup through the month of August after a fruitful spring and summer. Keep an eye out for our Fall Preview, which will contain...
Happy birthday, Quraysh! And, happy book release to Quraysh Ali Lansana and Christopher Stewart, whose newest book, The Walmart Republic, will be launched this fall. To celebrate in style (as...
The Guild is sending six Chicago writers to the Kapittel International Festival of Literature and Freedom of Speech in Stavenger, Norway as a part of our ongoing work with writers living...
Our monthly bilingual reading series in September features Ana Castillo and Paul Martinez Pompa and is curated by Cristina Correa. The event is hosted and co-presented by the Poetry Foundation. States Correa,...
The Guild and the Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago will present three Asian authors on Wednesday, September 24. In...
Curated by Cyn Vargas, the theme of this month's Palabra Pura is Want. Cyn writes, "Want. It could be a person, thing, words we long to hear, a new place....
UPDATED: ANNOUNCING THE 2014 PROSE AWARD WINNERS! Kate Duva, winner of the 2014 Prose Award in Fiction Elora de Grey, winner of the 2014 Prose Award in Non-Fiction The Guild...
The Guild Literary Complex is proud and excited to partner with the 2014 Chicago Humanities Festival to present Colm Tóibín's Transatlantic Literary Worlds, a live interview with the award-winning author conducted...
The Guild’s “good for you” year-end party has returned! This year, after much celebration of our 25th anniversary, we look forward to the future. We plan to celebrate with music,...
In response to the hangover from colonialism still lingering in the United States, a new literary space has been carved out where historically marginalized bodies, narratives and histories finally have...
The Guild will be dark for the month of December. We'll be announcing 2015 programming soon...See you next year!
The Guild Literary Complex is pleased to kick off the 10th season of PALABRA PURA with “One Poet / One Poem”. Don't let the name fool you—there will be fiction...
Chicago is a complicated place, a city where senseless acts of violence and random acts of kindness happen every day, where some can dare to dream and others dream of...
As part of the Guild's 25th anniversary last year, we highlighted 25 Chicago area Writers to Watch. This year, we program all of them—starting now! "Uncharted" features readings by Eric...
In September 2014, the Guild Literary Complex sent five Chicago writers to the 2014 Kapittel International Festival of Literature and Freedom of Speech in Stavanger, Norway. NOW, for the first...
Sharing California roots, a love of poetry, and a feminist devotion to their mothers, Tijuana native Brian Martin and L.A. native Arturo “Tootie” Alvarez blend English and Spanish to pay homage...
For this Applied Words event, we ask our featured artists to give us a dose of health-connected stories of the body and/or mind. Tonight's line-up includes two "Writers to Watch,"...
Saint Teresa of Jesús held a special, privileged place for books during her life. Not only did she consider books important for her work as a writer, but also as...
The Guild Complex continues a new reading platform to foreground Asian / American authors and themes. Curated by Dipika Mukherjee, this spring's program—The Alphabet of Distant Harbours—features Toni Nealie, Zhou...
This month's Palabra Pura is curated by Daniel Borzutzky, who believes that this month's performers, Duriel E. Harris and Rodrigo Toscano, are two of our present moment's most innovative, most...
The Guild Literary Complex joins the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and other partners in a symposium launch event tonight to honor and discuss the legacy of the...
In a city—let alone a world—of vast geographies, identities, experience and more, how do we understand our place? Using personal stories, our guest authors will navigate the territory of belonging...
Click here to buy tickets! The Guild Complex is re-imagining the 1920s through music, song, comedy, and dance in our sixth annual benefit, Wink & Whisper: A 1920s LGBT Cabaret....
Please note this month's Palabra Pura is taking place at a special location: the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center (4048 W Armitage Ave). Three fearless and unique feminine voices with...
Tickets available at door (advance sales have ended). Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir is a radical performance community based in New York City, and they are coming...