fiction Archives - Chicago Reader

Electro beats, fiction, and more

by Micco Caporale and Salem Collo-Julin August 15, 2022August 16, 2022

Tuesdays are a good day (and night) to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, as there are extended hours for both the museum and the store (10 AM-9 PM) and museum admission is free on Tuesdays to–just about everyone! Illinois residents enjoy free entry on Tuesdays, and there are several categories of people that […]

Book Review

The extraordinary tragedy of daily life

by Dmitry Samarov August 8, 2022August 8, 2022

Wolfgang Amadeus Aleksandr “Aleks” Fa has a lot of baggage. The protagonist of Joe Meno’s new novel Book of Extraordinary Tragedies has that name, after all—which also serves as a clue about what burdens the young man. Born into a perfectionist but impoverished Bosnian/Croat/Polish family in Evergreen Park on the border with Chicago’s south side, […]

detail of an upside down parrot's head and neck

Book Review

Mount Chicago tries hard, but fails

by Dmitry Samarov July 26, 2022July 27, 2022

A novelist, writing professor, and covert comedian named Solomon Gladman wakes up one morning in Chicago, sometime in 2022. He and his French-born wife, Daphne Bourbon (would she be named Siobhan Single-Malt were she Scots-Irish?), plan to meet Gladman’s parents and sisters downtown for brunch. But Gladman begs off because of a hemorrhoid flare-up and […]

the front cover of the book "True Biz" by Sara Novic. the words True Biz are on the top of the cover in multicolored bright letters and a drawing of a hand signing is layered on top (in similar colors)

Arts & Culture

True biz? There’s a lot to learn in Sara Nović’s new book.

by Taryn Allen May 16, 2022May 16, 2022

“Eyeth—get it? In the Deaf storytelling tradition, utopia is called Eyeth because it’s a society that centers the eye, not the ear, like here on Earth.” That’s the opener to “Ear vs. Eye: Deaf Mythology,” one of the many brief lessons sprinkled between the chapters of Sara Nović’s realistic fiction novel True Biz, released March […]

Arts & Culture

A mystery on the home front

by Elisa Shoenberger November 30, 2021November 30, 2021

How do we contribute to making history every day? When we learn history, there’s often a huge emphasis on the leaders who make things happen, whether they are presidents, businessmen, or heads of social and political movements. But what about the people who make these movements happen: the ones who campaign for the presidents or […]

the cover of "The Apology," a novel by Christian TeBordo, photo of female statue figure that is sitting on a stump (French artist Claude-Marie Ferrier's "A Bather")

Arts & Culture

Why does he keep apologizing?

by Dmitry Samarov September 30, 2021September 30, 2021

Is satire allowed anymore? We’re living through a period which largely demands literality from art. We want to know where the author stands. Unambiguously, with no shade or contradiction. Satire, on the other hand, lives in the gray and attempts to get at larger truths. Christian TeBordo’s new novel is set unreservedly outside the bipolarity […]

Arts & Culture

In this house, we live online

by Dmitry Samarov June 15, 2021August 18, 2021

Mount Prospect’s Mallory Smart, who publishes the online journal Maudlin House, has a new book coming out from Trident Press this year.

Arts & Culture

Tell us a (really really really short) story

by Reader staff November 9, 2018August 18, 2021

The Reader’s final issue of the year will be devoted to flash fiction. Submissions are due November 16 at midnight CST to flashfiction@chicagoreader.com. Limit one entry per writer. Please note that we will not read entries longer than 500 words.