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Chicago Poetry Scene Top 135
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the chicago poetry calendar since 1999
| The Grand Prize for the CAPP / CRAM Contest now stands at $120. Remember, the prize money goes up with every entry into the contest. There is only about a month left to enter. Check out PoetryAward.org for details.
WHAT'S HOT AND WHAT'S NOT
*Ongoing until April 1, poems for Poetry Cram Volume 13 will be selected from the Contemporary American Poetry Prize entries, click here for details.
*Every Monday, 10 PM, Weeds, 1555 N. Dayton, presents Chicago's 2nd longest running poetry open mic hosted by Gregorio Gomez, sign up 9:30, adults only.
*Every Tuesday, 8:30 PM, POW-WOW LGBT open mic at The Jeffery Pub, 7041 S Jeffery Blvd, $5
*Every Wednesday, 10 PM, Heartland Care, 7000 North Glenwood Ave, presents one of Chicago's hippest poetry open mics, In One Ear, with features, $3, sign up 9:30.
*Every Sunday, 7 PM, Chicago's longest running poetry open mic, The Uptown Poetry Slam at Green Mill, 4802 North Broadway St, with features, $6.
Ongoing: Every Saturday starting Jan 7, 12 noon till 2 pm: Check the Method: A Saturday Writing Workshop Series, led by Roger Bonair-Agard and Kevin Coval, is a rigorous, comprehensive workshop series focusing on honing your craft and voice in creative writing genres. It is a FREE and rare writing mentorship program offered to Chicago area teens (preferably for committed 9th-12th graders), held at Young Chicago Author's, 1180 N Milwaukee Ave, 2nd floor. Please contact booking@youngchicagoauthors.org
Fri, Feb 3, 7:30 PM, The usual suspects at W4TB try to bring back the energy of the old DvA days with one of that series' traditional events featuring Larry Janowski, Tony Trigilio, Chris Green, and Jan Bottiglieri
*Sat, Feb 4, 7 PM, Becky Lehmann and Catherine Theis at Myopic Books, 1564 North Milwaukee Ave
*Sat, Feb 4, 7:30 PM, Anobium Books will be hosting a release party at Deagan Music, 1770 W Berteau, to celebrate the Anobium: Volume 2, a new collection of literary and artistic esotera. Chicago-area writers Annah Browning, Benjamin Goluboff, Jacob Singer, Joe Meno and others will be reading at the event, followed by a performance from dirty-blues-style garage-rockers, The Canoes. This is a BYOB, 21+ event with a suggested $5 donation at the door.
*Sun, Feb 5, 7 PM, Uncommon Ground, 3800 N Clark, music and poetry by Abigail Vic, Jamila Woods, and Laura Yes Yes
*Sat, Feb 11, 10 AM to 1 PM, Haiku Society of America members will meet to share and critique participants’ poems, at Winnetka Public Library, 768 Oak St., Winnetka. Free and open to the public, pre-registration is required. HSA’s Midwest Region holds five meetings a year in the north suburbs that include speakers, readings, retreats, and festivals. Its website is www.hsa-haiku.org. To pre-register for the February meeting, contact Charlotte Digregorio, Midwest Regional Coordinator, 847-881-2664.
*Sat, Feb 11, 7 PM, Quimby’s Bookstore, 1854 W. North Ave, Vittorio Carli will read poems from A Passion For Apathy (published by Press of the Third Mind) with Vince Bruckert, Dave Gecic, Lynn Fitzgerald, Bradley Lastname, and other special guests
*Sat, Feb 11, 7 PM, Myopic Books, 1564 N. Milwaukee Ave, 2nd Fl, features Barry Schwabsky
*Mon, Feb 13, 10 PM, Weeds, 1555 N. Dayton, the annual Erotica Exotica Poetica open mic hosted by Gregorio Gomez, free, adults only
*Thur, Feb 16, 7:30 PM, Catherine Theis and Jessica Savitz are featured readers at Women & Children Bookstore, 5233 N. Clark St
*Sat, Feb 18, 8 PM, 3rd Saturday Coffeehouse, Unity Temple in Oak Park, 875 Lake Street in Downtown Oak Park, presents and open mic for poets, musicians, and storytellers, with special guest Carlos Cumpian, $3-$5 donation.
*Wed, Feb 29, 7:30 PM, Poetry Reading by the AWP Women's Caucus at Women & Children Bookstore, 5233 N. Clark St, featuring Kathryn Kysar, Patricia Smith, Martha Collins, Cynthia Hogue, Lois Roma-Deeley, and Keli Stewart
*Wed, Feb 29, 7 PM, Murphy's Bleachers, 3655 N. Sheffield, Monster Mags of the Midwest: Reading II. Witness Mary Biddinger, Brock Clarke, Matthew Gavin Frank, Keith Lee Morris, Michael Robins, and Laura Van den Berg read across the street from the historic bleachers of Wrigley Field! The Cincinnati Review, Mid-American Review, and Ninth Letter invite everyone to this free event on the eve of AWP 2012.
*Wed, Feb 29, 8 PM, The Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave, is the place to be for the AWP 2012 Chicago Kick-Off Party featuring music and readings by Jesus Angel Garcia, Lindsay Hunter, Cris Mazza, Rebecca Roberts, Amber Sparks, Ben Tanzer and many others. It's free if you email rsvp@emptybottle.com with "AWP Party" in subject line & full name of one attendee in body per email.
*Wed, Feb 29, 5:30 to 10:30 PM. Festival of Language, Rock Bottom Brewery, One West Grand Ave, featuring Janeé J Baugher, Jane L Carman, Marilyn J. Carr, Pankaj Challa, Ryan Clark, Ewa Chrusciel, Jordan Cox, Ricardo Cortez Cruz, Cortez Cruz, Michelle Cusack, Debra Di Blasi, Kate Dusenbury, Amy Eggert, Dina Elenbogen, Andy Farnsworth, Kass Fleisher, Jeff Grieneisen, Gabriel Gudding, Steve Halle, David Hamilton, Elizabeth Hatmaker, Quintus Havis, Deborah Henry, Tom C Hunley, Jamison Christopher Lee, Janice Lee, Dan Libman, Alan Lin, Anna March, Cris Mazza, Michael Mejia, R.B. Moreno, Evan Nave, Daniel Nester, Kirk Nesset, Lance Olsen, Lasantha Rodrigo, Davis Schneiderman, Anna Joy Springer, David Stevenson, Steve Tomasula, Meg Tuite, Yuriy Tarnawsky, Holms Troelstrup, Robert Vaughn, Erika Wurth, Bill Yarrow, and Kirstin Hotelling Zona.
*Thur, March 1, 7 PM, poetry returns to Jak's Tap,
901 W. Jackson, with The Guild Complex's presentation of Michael Warr, Luis Rodriguez and Patricia Smith, $5
*Thur, March 1, today is the deadline to enter the Rambunctious Review poetry, fiction, photography and graphic arts contests with the theme of Evolution. Fees: $5 per story, $3 per poem or subscribe for 3 annual issues ($15) and pay no fee. Prizes: publication plus $100, $75, and $50 awards. Contact us: Rambunctious Review, 1221 W. Pratt Blvd, Chicago, IL 60626 or click here for more info.
*Fri, March 2, 7 PM, Tonight is a night of lit parties to kick off the AWP conference. Zenith Beast presents Reading Between the Lines: An AWP Offsite Event featuring a bunch of poets including Fred Arroyo, Sarah Carson, Larry O. Dean, Ben Tanzer, Snezana Zabic, and many, many other poets, at The Horseshoe, 4115 N. Lincoln Ave.
*Fri, March 2, 7 PM, The Beautiful Words AWP Event will take place at The Beauty Bar, 1444 W. Chicago Ave, and it also will feature a slew of poets, including Kim Addonizio, Vanessa Veselka, Stacy Bierlein, Tod Goldberg, Shannon Cason and many more, sponsored by ten great lit orgs including The Nervous Breakdown, Bookslut, Curbside Splendor, and Sunday Salon Chicago.
*Fri, March 2, 8 PM, and the night of lit parties continues at Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln Ave, with a party benefiting Young Chicago Authors, featuring Tim Kinsella, Dorothea Lasky, Mary Miller and more with hosts Zach Dodson and Lindsay Hunter and sponsored by School of the Art Institute of Chicago Writing Program, featherproof, Wave Books and a bunch of other great orgs
*Fri, March 2, 8 PM, Literary Death Match Chicago, Ep. 7 at AWP, Buddy Guy's Legends, 700 S. Wabash Ave. $10 at the door.
*Sat, March 3, 8 PM, Join Sy Safransky, founder and editor of The Sun magazine, along with contributors Poe Ballantine, Krista Bremer, and Cheryl Strayed for a free reading at The Heartland Café. In print for nearly 40 years, The Sun is independent and free of advertising. Writing from The Sun has won the Pushcart Prize, been featured on National Public Radio, and appeared in Best American Essays and Best American Short Stories. Please visit SunMagazine.org for details.
*Sat, March 3, 7 PM, Myopic Books, 1564 N. Milwaukee Ave, 2nd Fl, features LaTasha Nevada Diggs
*Sat, April 21, 7 PM, Myopic Books, 1564 N. Milwaukee Ave, 2nd Fl, features Mark Goldstein & Camille Martin
*Thur, April 26 thru Sun, April 29: The National Association for Poetry Therapy's 2012 Conference: "Writing the Winds of Change" at the Cenacle Conference and Retreat Center in Chicago. Click Here to learn all about it. HAKI MADHUBUTI, Poet, Educator, Publisher & CEO of Third World Press will be the featured Keynote Poet at the Annual conference of The National Association for Poetry Therapy, April 27, 2012 at 11:30a.m, held at The Cenacle Conference & Retreat Center, 513 W. Fullerton Parkway, Chicago, IL. He will read from selected works and speak of his life as an activist and educator. Register for the day and help us welcome our distinguished guest or attend the entire conference to develop networking with other poets and writers in the Chicagoland area. Help us kick off our conference with an opening event of AvantRetro, comprised of Chicago-based musicians and performance poetry duo, Charlie Rossiter and Al DeGenova, on April 26 at 8:00p.m. and stay for the innovative workshops, lectures, networking, music and dance held throughout the weekend of April 26-29. Go to www.poetrytherapy.org for more information on workshops, registration and events. For further information, contact Rob Merritt at robmerritt202@gmail.com
*Sat, April 28, ChicagoPoetry.com celebrates its 13th year with the release of Cram Volume 13 at the Poetry Fest at Harold Washington Library, click here to submit.
*Sat, April 28, Haikufest at Skokie Public Library, 5215 Oakton St., Skokie.
*Coming in 2012: City of the Big Shoulders: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry (University of Iowa Press)
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It's A Drag: Lee Groban, author of longest poem, 3/20/1947 - 12/9/2011
Posted by : cj on Sunday, December 11, 2011 - 11:52 AM
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693 Reads
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 Chicago Poetry is saddened to have to report that poet Lee Groban, 64, died at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, December 9. Mr. Groban was very ill for the last two months struggling with congestive heart failure and emphysema and recently had a pacemaker installed surgically. On Thursday his kidneys began to fail. He was with friends when his heart stopped; he died quickly without suffering.
Lee held a Bachelors Degree in Russian Language Studies and a Masters Degree in Library Sciences, and much of Lee's work is inspired by his avid interest in ancient ancestries and the cultures which surrounded them. Lee has been an integral part of the Chicago art community for more than three decades. If you have attended art events and street festivals in Chicago, you have seen Lee Groban, who also appeared for ChicagoPoetry.com sponsored events on several occasions (click here to listen to one of his performances). But, of course, Lee Groban is best known for The Cure for Insomnia, a 4,080-page poem that was turned into the 1987 film of the same title that was officially declared the world's longest movie by the Guinness Book of World Records. Running three days and fifteen hours in length, the film consists of Lee reading his poem spliced with occasional clips from heavy metal and pornographic videos. It was first played in its entirety at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, from January 31 to February 3, 1987, in one continuous showing. In addition to his writing career, Lee Groban was also an accomplished visual artist and had been a featured artist in Pulp Magazine, the Chicago Reader, the Globe, and New City.
There will be a Celebration of Lee Groban's Life and Work on Sunday, December 18, 2011 from 1 to 4 at the Packer Schopf Gallery, 942 W. Lake St., Chicago, IL 60607. Friends and family are encouraged to bring their stories about Lee, as well as artistic, written or musical tributes, and to dress in Lee’s style if you wish. If you would like to make a presentation during the event, please email dickolson@comcast.net and cc dgo@esoplaw.com to allocate time. Lee's family asks that donations go to the endowment fund of the Circle Pines Center, 8650 Mullen Road, in Delton, Michigan, 49046.
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The Contemporary American Poetry Prize
Posted by : cj on Sunday, October 30, 2011 - 03:50 PM
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1606 Reads
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Poems for Poetry Cram Volume 13, a chapbook to be released free to the public at the Chicago Public Library Poetry Fest on Saturday, April 28, 2012, will be selected from the entries into the Contemporary American Poetry Prize contest. That's right, all entries into the CAPP Contest will receive free entry for consideration into the Poetry Cram Volume 13 Chicago Poetry Contest.
The Grand Prize for the CAPP Award now stands at $120. Remember, the prize money goes UP with every submission into the contest. There is only about a month left to enter. How high will the prize go?
Welcome to the inaugural round of the Contemporary American Poetry Prize sponsored by ChicagoPoetry.com. The CAPP Award offers substantial cash prizes for the best contemporary poetry of any style and is open to all poets living in the United States.
THREE BIG CASH PRIZES
The Contemporary American Poetry Prize Contest offers a Grand Prize, a Silver Prize and a Bronze Prize, as well as three Honorable Mentions.
THE POETRY PRIZE THAT GROWS WITH EVERY ENTRY
The CAPP Contest offers a Grand Prize in the form of a cash award of 40% of all entry fee donations collected during the submission period*. There is no ceiling to the CAPP Grand Prize. The more poets who enter the CAPP Contest, the higher the Grand Prize grows.
The Silver Prize winner will receive 10% of all entry donations.
The Bronze Prize winner will receive 5% of all entry donations.
(Example of prize amounts: if at the end of the contest all entry donations add up to $2000, then the Grand Prize will be $800, the Silver Prize will be $200, and the Bronze Prize will be $100. In order to keep the prize amount transparent, a complete list of participating authors and poems submitted will be made available at the end of the contest.)
There will also be Three Honorable Mentions.
All winners, honorable mentions as well as a number of runners-up, will be published in Poetry Cram Volume 13, to be given away FREE at the Chicago Public Library Poetry Fest at Harold Washington Library in Chicago on Saturday, April 28, 2012. Winning poems and honorable mentions will also be permanently published at PoetryAward.org and at ChicagoPoetry.com for thousands of people to read.
HERE ARE THE SIMPLE RULES
--All poems entered into the Contemporary American Poetry Prize Contest must be the original work of the author submitting them. Copyright reverts back to the author after publication.
--Poems should be primarily in the English language. Beyond that, all style, form and subject matter will be accepted.
--Both short and long poems will be accepted but poems should not exceed 150 lines.
--Previously published poems and simultaneous submissions are acceptable. Once your poems are submitted, however, they cannot be withdrawn from the contest, so it is up to you to inform other publications or contests that may be concerned about simultaneous submissions or republishing.
--You may submit up to three poems into the inaugural 2012 CAPP Contest. Entry donation for your first poem is $15. Entry donation for your second poem is $10 ($25 total for two poems). Entry donation for your third poem is $5 ($30 total for three poems).
--*Submission period is November 1, 2011 through March 1, 2012.
--Winners will be announced on or before April 1, 2012.
JUDGE AND SPONSOR
 Judge. The final decision regarding the Three Winners and Three Honorable Mentions will be determined by this year's judge, Charlie Rossiter.
Charlie Rossiter, host of the audio website PoetryPoetry.com, is an NEA Fellowship recipient and three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. He is the author of four books of poetry and numerous chapbooks, including The Night We Danced With the Raelettes and All Over America: Road Poems (FootHills Publications, 2009), which is based on 60,000+ miles or road trip experiences throughout U.S. and Canada. He is also the co-author of the book Back Beat, of which Lawrence Ferlinghetti said: "Back Beat beats everything for being beater than the Beats." Rossiter's poetry has also been featured on National Public Radio, the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey as well as at the Chicago Blues Festival. He is the book review editor for the Journal of Poetry Therapy and he has led poetry workshops all over the country. PoetryAward.org is proud to have Mr. Rossiter serve as the judge for the inaugural Contemporary American Poetry Prize.
Sponsor. PoetryAward.org and the Contemporary American Poetry Prize is sponsored by CJ Laity, twelve year veteran publisher of ChicagoPoetry.com, curator of the Poetry Cram Magazine contest and twenty year host of poetry events and festivals for such distinguished venues as the Chicago Public Library, the Poetry Foundation's Printers Ball and the Chicago Tribune Printers Row Book Fair.
ENTERING THE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POETRY PRIZE
Step 1. Make the appropriate entry donation through PayPal.
You may enter up to three poems into the CAPP Contest.
The CAPP Contest accepts submissions electronically. To enter the CAPP Contest, use one of the links below to make the proper entry donation through PayPal. If you do not have a PayPal account, you can still use PayPal to make your donation with a debit card, credit card or personal check. Entry donations will be processed by ChicagoPoetry.com, on behalf of its subsidiary PoetryAward.org. Please make your donation now . . .
CLICK HERE if you are submitting one poem into the CAPP Contest.
CLICK HERE if you are submitting two poems into the CAPP Contest.
CLICK HERE if you are submitting three poems into the CAPP Contest.
Step 2. Submit your poetry by email.
Create a text document (.doc, .wps, .rtf) and place your poem(s) in it. Do not put your name or contact information on the page(s) with your poem(s). Instead, include a short cover letter with your name, your address, your email address, your phone number (optional), and the title(s) of your submitted poem(s). You may include a short personal biography that may be used when the winners are announced, but your name and biography will not be forwarded to the judge. This is a process called blind judging and guarantees that all submissions will be treated equally.
After making the proper entry donation, email your submission to Publisher@ChicagoPoetry.com with a single attachment that includes both your poetry entries and your cover letter.
That's it. It's as easy as that.
Deadline is March 1, 2012. Winners will be announced on or before April 1, 2012. Current Grand Prize amount will be posted and updated as submissions are received.
May the best poetry win!
CJ Laity
CAPP Contest Sponsor
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Was It Performance Art? Or Disturbing The Peace?
Posted by : cj on Thursday, September 29, 2011 - 02:45 PM
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1241 Reads
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 On Tuesday, September 27, during a question and answer session following a reading by Chilean poet Raúl Zurita sponsored by the Poetry Foundation at their multi-million dollar River North home, a small group of poets called the Croaton Poetic Cell went into the poetry library and dropped two banners. One of the banners read “What Would Have Happened if Emily Dickinson Had Been Prescribed Prozac?” (referring to the money the Foundation inherited from the Lilly Corporation), and the other banner said “VIVA CADA” (referring to the Chilean Colectivo de Acción de Arte of which Zurita was a founder and leader during the 70s). Click Here for video.
The Poetry Foundation security (which some witnesses describe as wearing CIA outfits), promptly ripped the banners down. The poetry activists then entered the reading room and passed out leaflets explaining that their banners were an attempt to honor "Raúl Zurita and the heroic spirit of CADA". The leaflets protested the arrest of activist Stephanie Dunn, who was charged with "disturbing the peace" for what the Croaton describes as a peaceful protest action during the "Collections and Cocktails" library opening at the Foundation a few weeks before. "To our knowledge, this is the first time that a supposed institution of poetics has pressed charges against a poet for what is essentially a poetic act," the fliers said. The flier continued: "To us, it makes perfect sense that an institution funded by a 100 million dollar grant from Lilly Pharmaceuticals, manufacturers of Prozac, would find any behavior beyond polite docility objectionable enough to call the cops." The leaflet then demanded "the Poetry Foundation spend the remainder of its drug money on the creation of two new poetry centers in existent disused buildings: one on the south side and another on the west side, whose mission it would be to support poetry in impoverished communities by any means necessary." If this demand is not met, the leaflet threatened: "These disruptions will continue . . ." The Poetry Foundation secret service men "chased and cornered" the poets in an attempt to physically apprehend them to be arrested for "trespassing" by police who were on their way, but the poets managed to "make a break for it". Click Here for video.
 Poet and former State of Illinois Teacher of the Year, Kent Johnson wrote on the site montevidayo.com: " . . . this multi-million dollar Poetry institution called the cops on the activists for doing nothing but hanging some banners and peacefully passing out the statement [about] the astonishing, outrageous issue . . . that a young poet and performance artist from Chicago, Stephanie Dunn, who carried out a guerilla-poet’s-theater type act . . . is now apparently subject to charges pressed by the Poetry Foundation." Johnson went on to call the Poetry Foundation a "Happy Big-Tent House" that calls "the cops on brash young poets who step beyond the bounds of High Society protocol . . ." "What does it say when this institution attempts to suppress such radical (and in the history of poetry, venerably practiced) spirit by calling on the POLICE to arrest poets and have charges brought against them . . . the Poetry Foundation has put the Po back into Poetry . . ." Johnson continued, "I suspect there will be more actions coming . . ."
However, a well known Irish singing poet who was at the event and witnessed her get arrested claims Dunn was "not arrested for an essentially poetic act but because she was drunk and started provoking the guards by taking off her clothes." Other witnesses reportedly describe her action as disrobing and groping "an unwilling person in a public space." So far my invitation to the Croaton to describe Dunn's actions and explain what they have to do with poetry have not been accepted. Instead, I've been told that I "can read a detailed description of the events leading up to her arrest in the forthcoming issue of Sous Les Pa" (whatever that is).
--CJ Laity
This is a breaking story and is being updated as more information comes to the surface. Check back for updates.
UPDATE 10/03/11: Rebecca Roberts writes at montevidayo.com: "I was at the event where Stephanie Dunn was arrested, and this is what I saw: After the readings were finished, she and another person were partially undressed and making sexual gestures. This went on for a few minutes, then the security guards asked them both to leave. As they were being escorted out the door, I saw Stephanie swing at the security guards. My understanding is that this violent gesture prompted the call to police."
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Man Charged In Frieda Stein Fenster Murder
Posted by : cj on Tuesday, February 08, 2011 - 07:26 PM
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718 Reads
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 Back in December of 1983, during my first year as a Writing Major at Columbia College, I was taking a journalism class and I had to write a human interest story. I chose a 77 year old woman named Frieda Stein Fenster as my subject, because she owned a used bookstore and magic shop that I liked to hang out in a few blocks from the Wabash campus. I talked with Frieda extensively, recording our conversations on cassette tape in order to write my article. During the winter break, only days after I turned my assignment in, I was back with my family in Aurora, IL, and I was watching television and there was the story of Frieda's murder. By the time I returned to school, Frieda's six story brick building and everything inside it was already torn down, hauled away and turned into a parking lot. That was my first experience of the often cold nature of big city life. I was so affected by it, that I even sponsored a poetry contest called the Frieda Stein Fenster Memorial Award from 2003 through 2007.
Today, February 8, 2011, 27 years later, a man who is already serving a life sentence for sexual assault has been charged with Frieda's murder after DNA linked him to the crime. I don't want to taint this wonderful woman's memory with the grisly details of this poor woman's rape and murder or repeat the ugly comments the alleged perpetrated made when charged with the crime. Instead, let me tell you a little bit about Frieda Stein Fenster.
When I met Frieda, she was looking forward to the 100th anniversary of Stein's Books, established by her father Max Stein, who was brought to Chicago from Germany when he was ten years old. Max's father opened a cigar and magazine shop, which Max eventually took over and turned into a publishing house and paperback outlet that published 50 titles--including the infamous "Abe Lincoln Jokes"-- through the 20s and 30s as well as collectible postcards. The bookstore was first at 521 S. State but moved across the street to 526 S. State in 1954. The new building was previously occupied by a magician named Howard Thurston and Max bought the rights to Thurston's magic books and turned part of his bookstore into a novelty shop. Frieda lived in downtown Chicago all of her life, where she roller skated and sold Mexican jumping beans in the window of her father's bookstore. She went to high school in Hyde Park, and attended the University of Chicago as well as Northwestern. Frieda had a chance to work on a dictionary at Northwestern but passed it up to take over her family's business so that her parents could travel. These are some of the things that Frieda told me during our conversations 27 years ago.
--CJ Laity
More from Tribune ** More from CBS.
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Point Nemo by CJ Laity Now Available
Posted by : cj on Sunday, January 30, 2011 - 10:29 AM
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4458 Reads
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What people are saying about Point Nemo.
Read the review by simonovitch.
I REALLY ENJOYED POINT NEMO. I love all the dry humor--plentiful throughout. For instance, a line involving wild roses and children throwing stones made me laugh out loud. The novel is very dream-like and cool and CJ Laity sets himself up with a difficult task-- a story within a story within a story but he handles it all so well and with such clarity there is never any confusion.
--Sue Cargill, Chicago
Point Nemo launches CJ Laity into the company of futuristic writers like HG Wells, Jules Verne, Aldous Huxley and Ernest Callenbach; he also channels Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels in his exploration of a rogue island nation. Laity poetically provides readers with a procession of characters and events at once Utopian and dystopian, all prophetically written as parallel narrative to today's tumultuous headlines.
--Carlos Cumpián, author of Armadillo Charm (Tia Chucha Press)
CJ Laity has created a work of speculative fiction that is entertaining, engaging and a perceptive piece of social commentary with a twist of an ending I guarantee you will never guess.
--Charlie Rossiter, co-author of Back Beat
'Point Nemo' by CJ Laity is a sharp and funny satire of the insanity that passes for contemporary American political and media sensibility in all of its collapsing imperial goodness.
--Larry Winfield, author of Banjo Strings
Thoroughly enjoyed Point Nemo, especially the end!!
--Julia Hattory, Houston, Texas
Point Nemo delivers an early twenty-first century dystopian novel, and an apt allegory for our times, with a twist. The artfulness of the narrator-protagonist ensures a cracking pace to the story . . .
--Tara Keogh, Chicago
 Joseph Engel is convicted of treason and strapped to a gurney in the Terre Haute federal death chamber. When the warden asks him if he has any last words, Joe begins talking non-stop, telling the strange tale of how he ended up there, challenging the warden to quote him a law that puts a time limit on a prisoner's final statement. What happens when a populated island called the Sovereign Nation of Aurora is discovered at Point Nemo, the point in the ocean farthest away from any land? What happens when the king of the island, a dreadlocked man named Harmon, hacks into the entire American communications infrastructure with a video stream offering a trade proposal? What happens when an America controlled by an insane government plots to invade the island and turn it into a military base? What happens when a senator's cook named Joe unwittingly finds himself the American Ambassador to the island? Joe is going to tell you what happens, as he stalls his execution as long as possible. Can Joe talk his way out of the death chamber?
Order Point Nemo: $12 even PayPay ** $12 +ship CreateSpace ** 12 +ship Amazon
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ACM's Chicago Issue Is Finally Here!
Posted by : cj on Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - 06:17 PM
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2073 Reads
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Another Chicago Magazine #50 v.1
The Chicago Issue
Left Field Press
Reviewed by CJ Laity
 I first heard the call for submissions for ACM’s Chicago Issue over a year ago. It promised to deliver a “playful jab” at Granta, a journal that was first published in 1889 at Cambridge and that was reinvented in 1979 as a magazine of new writing. Months before the ACM open call, Granta had come out with its own “Chicago issue” that was released locally with a lot of hoopla, hoopla that was quickly drowned out by critics who complained of its “lack of Chicago writers.” Throughout 2010, ACM 50 became less of a playful jab and more of a labor of love for Editor-In-Chief Jacob Knabb and for the other ACM staff, as they set out to create something that showcased the local lit scene as it really exists, not as some publication located in London imagined it exists, so I think it is rather fitting that I picked up my copy of ACM at the recent Indie Lit Road Show, which was sort of a mini-bookfair held at Green Lantern Gallery, where several reps from our lit scene showcased their publications as a blizzard raged outdoors.
Note: Click Here to read the full review.
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Gertrude Rubin, Beloved Poet, 1921 - 2010
Posted by : cj on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 - 07:59 AM
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1131 Reads
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 Beloved Chicago poet, writer, civil rights activist and author of The Passover Poems, Gertrude Rubin passed away on Saturday, July 24, 2010, at the age of 89. Rubin was one of the first contributors to ChicagoPoetry.com, submitting eleven poems for publication in the year 2000 that are archived here. Rubin was a member of the Poets Club of Chicago and the Poets and Patrons group. Gert was also the aunt of David Rubin, original founder and host of the Cafe Aloha poetry series.
Funeral Services will be held on Wednesday, July 28, at 2 PM, at The Piser Chapel, 9200 N. Skokie Blvd. (at Church St.) in Skokie (847-679-4740) and at Interment Memorial Park Cemetery, Skokie. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions made to Beth Emet Synagogue, 1224 W. Dempster St., Evanston, IL 60202 would be appreciated.
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Thanks For The Support
Please support my independent publishing by adding a link to me on your website. I am not funded by any corporation, foundation, government agency or university, and that is why I have the power to tell it like it really is. My poetry news and gossip are updated every day, so bookmark me and check back often. You can always contact me at Publisher@
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