An Inconvinient Hour is a monthly reading series in Rogers Park. The next event, taking place on November 14th, will feature DePaul professor Kathleen Rooney and DePaul MA alum Dylan Weir reading their work, as well as poet Carrie Oliva Adams. The reading will take place at Monarch Community Cafe on Saturday, November 14th at 6 PM.
Next Wednesday, Chicago Poet Laureate Maya Del Valle will be reading from and discussing her poetry collection, A South Side Girl’s Guide to Love and Sex with DePaul MFA alum Meghan Malachi. The reading will take place in McGowan South, room 104 at 6 PM.
Kendall Polidori, a DePaul alum and the former editor of this very blog, has recently had a piece published in Chicago based arts and culture magazine, Newcity. The feature covers the Holye Brothers, a honky tonk band formed in 2002, and their residency at the Empty Bottle. Read the full story here.
Dylan Weir, an MA Alum of DePaul, will read from his first book, Public House, on October 21st at 6:30 PM in ALH Room 314. Weir is a poet, whose work has appeared in Best New Poets, Narrative, and New England Review. According to Trio House Press, “Public House maps the delirious landscapes of addiction. In poem after poem, Dylan Weir chronicles the mix of memory and mythology concocted between last call and first light. Between oblivion and sobriety. Between the pull of the bottle and the harder seductions of hope.”
Tomorrow, MFA student Esther Choy will be featured as one of 35 guest authors at the Chicago Public Library Foundations Award Dinner. Choy is the author of two books: Let the Story Do the Work: The Art of Storytelling for Business Success, and Winning Without Persuasion: A New Framework for Leading with Curiosity and Story Discovery. Congradulations Esther!
Anna Sortino, 2019 graduate of DePaul’s MAWP program and a lifelong Cubs fan, threw out the first pitch at a Cubs game this week. Her novels center on disabled characters living their lives and falling in love and have earned national recognition. Sortino’s books have won an ALA Schneider Family Book Award Honor, the Yellowhammer Young Adult Book Award, and the Garden State Teen Book Award, and have earned starred reviews from the likes of Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and many others. Released last may, Sortino’s latest book titled Stops Along the Way, is described by… Read Article →
Alumni Timothy J. Hillegonds will visit DePaul on Wednesday, April 29 at 6 p.m. in ALH 103 to discuss his new book, And You Will Call It Fate. See below for more information:
Becky Wills, a 2016 graduate of the English Department, is celebrating the release of her new book Stun: A Novel in Pieces via Tortoise Books at Uncommon Ground on Wednesday, April 1 at 6 p.m. Wills received a BA from DePaul University, an MFA from The New School, and a PhD from University of Surrey, where she teaches creative writing.
Last month, ahead of the Blue Demon Challenge, alumna Anna Sortino (MAWP ’19) visited DePaul for a Q&A with graduates in the MFA and MAWP program. The visit was recorded for the Blue Demon Challenge, where Anna discussed her time at DePaul, what led her to writing in the YA genre, any advice she has for current students in the program, and so much more. Check out the full video below, and if you missed the interview we did with Anna last month as part of her visit, you can read it here.
After Anna Sortino graduated from DePaul’s MAWP program in 2019, she applied for a publishing mentorship program called Pitch Wars (which is now defunct) and was picked by renowned YA author Aiden Thomas. At the time, the program was encouraging authors to write stories inspired by their own lives and identities, which ultimately pushed Sortino to write stories centered with disabled characters living their lives and falling in love. She has published two YA books—Give Me A Sign (2023 via Penguin Random House) and On The Bright Side (2024 via Penguin Random House)—with another set… Read Article →
Libby Kalmbach Clark, an alumna of the MAWP program at DePaul University, published her essay Borders as Fiction in Witness, a magazine of the Black Mountain Institute. Libby is a nonfiction writer and a legal representative at the National Immigrant Justice Center. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Ascent, and the Prairie Schooner blog. She lives and works in Chicago. For more information, visit her website here.
Join Rebecca Johns-Trissler’s Novels II class on Thursday, January 15th at 6 p.m. in room 301 ALH for an author visit by Anna Sortino (MAWP ’19). Anna is the author of three YA novels published by Penguin Teen: Give Me a Sign (2023), On the Bright Side (2024), and Stops Along the Way (forthcoming in May 2026), which have been honored by starred reviews from such places as Kirkus and Publishers Weekly and “Best Book of the Year” from more places. She is also working on an adult title next. Please note that this event… Read Article →