Opening Night Party at Matilda's In Lakeview and Tonight's Events

Pics are rolling in from last night's Opening Night cocktailing at Matilda's in Lakeview. Remember, the Pilcrow Lit Fest flickr pool is open to anyone, we just ask that one of your photo tags is Pilcrow09. Easy enough.

Tonight's Pilcrow line-up offers three events from which to pick:

{7-10p}
Reading Under The Influence
Sheffield's
3258 N. Sheffield Ave. (map)
RUI is a reading series based in Chicago developed by a group of Chicago writers who happen to like drinking. Featuring reading by Joe Meno, John Berger and RUI co-hosts. Jointly-hosted by Julia Borcherts, Robert Duffer, Jessee Jordan, Gabriel Levinson and Pilcrow founder/director, Amy Guth. $3 cover, open to the public, 21+.

{7p}
Boring Nude Girl In The Boring Devil's Boring Territory
w/ Gina Frangello
The Book Cellar
4736-38 N. Lincoln Ave. (map)
The final stop of the 25-city Live Nude Girl in the Devil's Territory Tour, Zach Dodson will read from his novel Boring, Boring, Boring, Boring Boring, Kyle Minor will read from his story collection In the Devil's Territory, Kathleen Rooney will read from her memoir Live Nude Girl and featured guest Gina Frangello will read something awesome. No cover, all ages are welcome.

{7:30p}
Waiting 4 the Bus
w/ featured guests Larry O. Dean and Charlie Newman
Jak's Tap
901 W. Jackson Blvd. (map)
Waiting 4 the Bus is an open mic on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month, a poetry collective, and a workshop of writers talking with writers about writing, held in the backroom of Jak's Tap. Hosted by Buddha 309. No cover, open to the public, 21+.

WBBM 780

Nice shout-out on Chicago's WBBM 780's website today, as well as snippets on the air.

Shout Out from HuffPo and Dropping Bombs

In a post about the state of publishing and literature in Chicago, Pilcrow Lit Fest got a nice shout out from Gina Frangello in the Huffington Post.

"for many years Chicago's book publishing community was almost nonexistent, but now new independent book presses like Featherproof Books and So New are popping up like wildfire to fill the gap left by New York; now Chicago is host to almost back-to-back AWP Conferences and Pilcrow Literary Festival is helping to also organize writers independent of the academy."

Thursday night at the Chicago Nerd Social Club, I was chatting with Terry from Third Coast Comics. He's speaking on the panel about graphic novels and described Pilcrow at "Literary NATO: We'll be dropping literary facts on people like bombs."

Amy and I promised to steal that from him and share it with you all. So get out to Pilcrow from May 17 to the 23rd and we'll be dropping literary facts like bombs.

Shout-Out from Outsider Writers

Pilcrow got some love from Outsider Writers Collective's Tim Hall this morning:

The 2nd annual Pilcrow Lit Fest will be held the week of May 17-23 in Chicago, culminating with a full day of panels on the 23rd and a fantastic “rebuilt books” auction to cap off the event. Those of us who were there for the inaugural event last year can attest to how amazing it was, and what a brilliant job organizer Amy Guth did putting together events and panels that were really informative and interesting.

Merci!

Photos and Video and Podcasts, Oh My!

Last year we opened the doors to photographers, videographers and podcasters to help document Pilcrow Lit Fest. The result was hundreds of photos, great videos and excellent roundtables.

This year we are inviting you back and we have something special in store for the podcasters and video folks. We're going to have a space set up in Baby Atlas for you to record on May 23rd. That way you can sneak away to a quiet spot, get your interview done and then quickly rejoin the festival upstairs.

Want to be a part of the team to document this year's Pilcrow Lit Fest? Leave a comment or contact me. I'll even make you a special badge.

Rebuilt Books

Rebuilt Books is on again this year, and in a big way.

Rebuilt Books is, as many of you remember, a fundraiser which asks writers to disassemble their own books (or partner with an artist and have him/her do it) then rebuild the book into a piece of art.

This year, Pilcrow Lit Fest/Chicago will be raising money for Young Chicago Authors, a wonderful organization for the young and inspired, and we encourage all writers to participate, whether they plan to attend Pilcrow Lit Fest or not. All we ask if that you email us so we can anticipate the arrival of your artwork, either when you ship it or deliver it. Easy enough.

See inspiration of last year's Rebuilt Books here with Timothy Schaffert's doll parts book, Laurel Snyder's switchplates, Laura Van Prooyen's word-lanterns, and one I still hear mentioned now and again, the Hitler turtle by Peter Davis.

Oh, and the auction isn't just an auction this year. Nay, this year, the auction is all week, in various venues, starting with the kickoff cocktail reception at Matilda's in Lakeview, and finishing in one wild event we're throwing alongside Opium's Literary Death Match here in town.

Oh yes, that Literary Death Match.