25 Writers to Watch REVEAL 25 is the Guild's 25th anniversary party, an opportunity to celebrate 25 years of mission-driven accomplishments in Chicago's vast literary community. It is a jubilant celebration of the past, and also a chance to look ahead to the future. Past and present directors, including founding director Michael Warr, will be announcing...
Our monthly bilingual reading series is curated in May by Febronio Zatarain and features Emmanuel Ayala and Miguel Marzana. About the Artists "I write because it is a privilege I have earned. Ever since I was 12 years old I read poetry and loved it. One day I embraced the pen and spilled ink on...
For the second year, the Guild Literary Complex’s will present its signature event, Brooksday 2014—a marathon reading that celebrates the life and work of renowned Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks. Taking place at the Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Fest on Saturday, June 7—Brooks’ birthday—from 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. at the Guild’s tent (located on the corner...
The Guild will be presenting hour-long readings by seven prominent Chicago literary organizations throughout the day at Printers Row Lit Festival. You can find our tent at the corner of Dearborn and Polk Streets. Schedule 10 a.m. Chicago Latino Writers Initiative: Ericka McCarthy Sanchez, Adriana Galvan, Awilda Rodriguez, Diana Pando, Jen Vera, Veronica Vidal, Jazmin Corona, Stephanie Diaz Reppen The Chicago Latino Writers...
Black Vernacular: a comedic literary look at a language that's all American Join the Guild Literary Complex and the University of Chicago's Arts Incubator as Randall Horton, Adam Moshe Levin, and Toni Asante Lightfoot perform and read work demonstrating the sticky wicket of Black Vernacular. Short video performances by Holly Bass and others will be included. About the...
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 selected to be presented on July 23, where each author will read their poem to an audience who will then vote on the winner of...
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 information on programming and events for the fall 2014!
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 always does), we will be hosting a birthday and book launch on Saturday, September 13, 2014 at the University of Chicago's Reva and...
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 in exile and advocating for freedom of speech. Our six attendees are blogging on their experiences at GuildDispatches.tumblr.com. About the Attendees: Adam Gottlieb is a...
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, "Across generations, Latino writers and their constellation of experiences and creative identities have found a home in Chicago. For many, home is a constant migration...
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 conjunction with the University of Illinois–Chicago's Kriti Festival—a celebration of South Asian and Asian Diaspora Arts and Literature in Chicago—we present Rachel DeWoskin, Mary Anne...
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. Want is at the core of what we do and say. It drives us or it stuns us. The stories this night will be about...
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 Literary Complex supports divergent and emerging literary voices with our Annual Prose Awards. Every fall we recognize outstanding short fiction and non-fiction from across the...
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 by the Guild's Director, John Rich. This special program also marks the celebration of two 25-year anniversaries, both for the Guild Literary Complex and the...
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, libation, and the best company in Chicago: YOU. Also, a very special guest will be joining us: Marcel Proust. Best known for his recollections of...
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 their say; it has been named “Latino/a literature”. What happens, though, when some of the loudest voices inhabiting that space reproduce the very conditions they...
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 stories too!2015 guest curators reveal their plans and past readers share a poem (or short story) during this annual party celebrating poetry and fiction in...
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 escaping their nightmares. Luis Tubens and young poets from Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School will lead us in an exploration of the urban realities...
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 Charles May, Coya Paz, Roger Reeves, and Kathleen Rooney. The theme is an open field for the imagination, but expect to hear stories about adventure,...
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 time since their return, the authors will give a special reading of creative work inspired by the trip and lead a community dialogue on free...
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 to their mothers. From a mother’s reminder to always use condoms to her struggle to raise her family on her own to the demoralizing beauty...
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," Rey Andújar and Megan Stielstra, along with special guests Andrew Huff and Samantha Irby. And to make the program more body related, we have partnered...
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 a reader. Saint Teresa mainly wrote prose and her most popular poems are those that reflect her mysticism. In this special event, Instituto Cervantes, contratiempo,...
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 Sivan, and Angela Narciso Torres. “The Alphabet of Distant Harbours'” will bring together writers who explore the suppression as well as expression of identity in...
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 dynamic and powerful and surprising poets and performers. "For these two artists, no distinction can be made between their poetics and their performativity. They write...