Nelson Algren

Stop dissing the humanities

2013-04-19 00:00:00

If any line item in the state or federal budgets cries out for more resources, or even just a little more respect, it's the arts and humanities. Never mind that many writers, artists and scholars have the fresh ideas that our times so desperately need....

Paperback Writers: Sunlight and shadow in 'Los Angeles in the 1930s'

2011-04-30 00:00:00

Created by FDR in 1935, in the depths of the Great Depression, the Federal Writers' Project (a small part of the wider Works Progress Administration) was a make-work agency that gave jobs to about 6,500 writers, editors and researchers before closing shop...

The Tallest Man on Earth picks five of his favorite songs, plays First Fridays

2010-05-07 16:35:00

Nelson Algren's legacy ebbs

2009-04-26 00:00:00

The Steppenwolf Theatre feels like a womb. It's warm, dark, soporific, full of voices barely loud enough to be distinguished, a setting beyond time. Outside, the streets of Old Town are laced with spring afternoon snowflakes; on the South Side, at U.S....

Counting down to Lit Fest

2013-05-09 14:18:00

(This selection is edited for clarity and length.) Tom Acitelli What do you think of when you think of Chicago? Oddly enough, the 1860 Republican convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln. Who is an author you'd like to meet, dead or alive?...

Five books by Chicago authors appearing at Lit Fest

2013-05-10 09:54:00

In Thomas Dyja's cultural history of Chicago, "The Third Coast," he writes that in Nelson Algren's day, "being Chicago's Famous Writer was like winning the heavyweight title — there was only one at a time, and you kept the belt for as long as you...

The Biblioracle: Going against Google Glass

2013-05-10 09:53:00

Raise your hand if you've ever tried reading a book while walking down the street. Mine would be up except that I need fingers to type. Many times, especially back during my commuting to the Loop days, I'd have my nose in a book through the entirety...

Authors M-Q

2013-04-22 12:55:00

div.article div.byline p.date {display:none;} Anthony Madrid Anthony Madrid lives in Chicago. His poems have appeared in Boston Review, Gulf Coast, The Iowa Review, Poetry and Web Conjunctions. His first book is “I Am Your Slave Now Do What I...

Authors H-L

2013-04-22 12:53:00

div.article div.byline p.date {display:none;} Susan Hahn Susan Hahn was editor of TriQuarterly for 14 years. She is author of a recent novel, “The Six Granddaughters of Cecil Slaughter”; nine books of poetry, including “Self/Pity&...

Let's review: Rachel Shteir and poor Chicago

2013-04-26 09:13:00

And they said the gentle art of literary criticism was dead, confined to irrelevance. Not this week, gentle reader. Not in Chicago. Not in the heat of L'affaire de Shteir. What book review in the history of Chicago literature — heck, what recent...

Review: 'The Third Coast' by Thomas Dyja

2013-04-21 00:00:00

The title of the first chapter of Thomas Dyja's "The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream," evokes a smile: "The Brick Is Another Teacher." Dyja's book is roughly brick-size and brick-heft, and I wondered what it might have to teach. •...

Culture clash: New history of Chicago taps into our malaise

2013-04-12 10:22:00

Thomas Dyja looked at me with abject horror, then humor, then, as his face crumbled in defeat, resignation. A face that said, "See? This is why I wrote a 412-page cultural history of Chicago at midcentury that — as much as it pulls together...

In his second novel, "End Zone," Don DeLillo, above, focuses his literary attentions on football.

2013-02-01 16:39:33

A portrait of Nelson Algren by his artist friend Stephen Deutch.

2013-01-21 08:50:00

Joe Meno, second from left, listens as fellow author David Michael Kaplan, speaks during the Printers Row Short Story Night Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 at Tribune Tower in Chicago. Kaplan and Meno, along with fellow authors Billy Lombardo, Baird Harper and Jeremy T.

2013-01-21 00:00:00