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, […]
Tag: Joe Meno
Posted inArts & Culture
25 local books to stock your shelves
Add these new reads by and about Chicagoans to your list.
Posted inArts & Culture
Live lit is what Chicago is all about
The best reading events of 2019 have been going strong for years.
Posted inArts & Culture
What to check out at Printers Row 2017
Everything that’s free at the annual fest (except Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Al Franken)
Posted inMusic
Huge heart, 8 Inch Betsy: Remembering Meghan Galbraith
Ten months after her death, the community she left behind honors her positivity by welcoming her queercore band’s final album into the world.
Posted inBlogs
15 Chicago-set stories explore the darker side of humanity in Chicago Noir
Local author Joe Meno’s Chicago Noir: The Classics compiles stories from the likes of Stuart Dybek, Patricia Highsmith, and Nelson Algren—some more hard boiled than others.
Posted inBlogs
Joe Meno finds Marvel and a Wonder in an old-school midwestern white man
It’s also the first novel about the crisis of American masculinity that this reviewer has actually enjoyed.
Posted inArts & Culture
Joe Meno’s new novel is a Marvel and a Wonder
Chicago novelist and playwright Joe Meno has published his most ambitious work to date. The Nelson Algren Literary Award and Pushcart Prize winner and author of books such as Hairstyles of the Damned and Office Girl now offers up Marvel and a Wonder, which he describes as “a contemporary epic set in the midwest.” The […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Lit and rock merge at Curbside Splendor’s Words + Music
Indie imprint Curbside Splendor releases its first cassingle during Words + Music, October 16 at the Empty Bottle.
Posted inBlogs
Reader’s Agenda Thu 3/27: The Jesus Lizard Book, Earth and Mark McGuire, and whisk(e)y
What’s on the Reader‘s Agenda for Thursday, March 27
Posted inBlogs
Poseidon is alive and destroying water parks in Wisconsin
Anders Nilsen’s new book brings Greek gods and Bible stories into the modern world.
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best Book for the Disillusioned Artist in All of Us
The story revolves around two purposeless artists hell-bent on fumbling into some kind of purpose.
Posted inArts & Culture
Writers bring “Vision and Voice” to the 17th annual Story Week
“Vision and Voice” is the theme of the 17th annual Story Week Festival of Writers.