Past Events
Jane Addams for All Ages, UIC Library, March 11, 2025
Jane Addams speaks to visitors at Hull House, 1935. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jane_addams._Movimiento_Settlement.jpg
Midland Authors Women’s History Month Program
Jane Addams for All Ages
- WHEN: Tuesday, March 11, 2025, 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. (Doors open at 6:30pm, program begins at 7pm.)
- WHERE: University of Illinois Library, 801 S. Morgan
- COST: Free and open to all.
Our panel will discuss how Jane Addams, Hull House cofounder, served so many with her grit and bravery, and why authors of children’s and adult books are drawn to her story.
Carron Little, moderator. Carron Little is the Executive Director of the Chicago Women’s History Center and works with the International Feminist Art Collective outofsite_chi, dedicated to public performance art practices. She is the convener of Chicago Women’s History Conference, working in partnership with Black Metropolis Research Consortium, Evanston History Center, and the Women & Leadership Archives at Loyola University Chicago.The March conference theme is Past & Present Strategies to Advance the Rights of Women. Peace and justice is at the heart of Carron’s research and writing as a feminist artist organizer.
Louise W. Knight, an Evanstonian, is a biographer and historian. The first of her two biographies of Jane Addams is Citizen: Jane Addams and the struggle for Democracy (U of C Press), which covers in-depth her first ten years at Hull House. The second biography, Jane Addams: Spirit in Action (W.W.Norton), is the first full-life biography of Addams in forty years. See www.louisewknight.com.
Marlene Targ Brill, SMA board member, is an award-winning author of more than seventy books for readers of all ages. She’s been a huge fan of Jane Addams since childhood and when she started writing. Her recently published book, for middle graders and up, is Jane Addams: The Most Dangerous Woman in America. See marlenetargbrill.com.
To learn more, contact Marlene Targ Brill: [email protected].
Choosing and Negotiating with Publishers, Virtual Panel, February 11, 2025
Next up in our Demystifying Publishing Series, the Society of Midland Authors Presents…
Choosing and Negotiating with Publishers: Insights on Finding the Right Publisher and Getting a Fair Deal
- WHEN: Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 7 p.m. – 8 p.m.
- ZOOM LINK: https://uic.zoom.us/j/83294837491?pwd=oRpwosj6tEyZT0aZ1dSR17AOrYjPTz.1https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89302354226?pwd=DkET7ZzB9d8o57SuQ4rD6UWej74um2.1
- COST: Free and open to all.
- RECORDING OF EVENT: Check back for link after the event.
Join us for a free, enlightening virtual panel on finding and choosing the right publisher for your work and negotiating a fair deal.
To learn more, contact moderators Marlene Targ Brill: [email protected] or Walter Podrazik: [email protected].
Gregory Royal Pratt and His New Book on Lori Lightfoot, January 16
Political Reporter Gregory Royal Pratt Discusses His New Book: The City Is Up For Grabs: How Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Led and Lost a City in Crisis
- WHEN: Thursday, January 16, 2025, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
- SCHEDULE: Doors open at 6:30 p.m., talk begins at 7:00 p.m., books for sale and signing at 8:00 p.m.
- WHERE: UIC Daley Library, 801 S. Morgan, ground floor
- COST: Free and open to all,
Join the Society of Midland Authors for our next author-book event at the UIC Daley Library on January 16, 2025. Author and political reporter Gregory Royal Pratt will discuss his new book, The City Is Up For Grabs: How Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoor Led and Lost a City in Crisis, with interlocuter journalist, author, and SMA board member Mary Wisniewski.
A Chicago native, Gregory Royal Pratt covered every day of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s term and was deeply sourced in City Hall, as well as in the other offices of local, state, and national politics that shaped the mayor’s administration. Pratt has won several national awards for his political and investigative reporting. He is a regular commentator about the city on local and national media, including appearances on CNN and NPR.
Crafting Your Nonfiction Book Proposal, Virtual Panel, November 12
Next up in our Demystifying Publishing Series, the Society of Midland Authors Presents…
Basics, Considerations, and Strategies for Crafting Your Nonfiction Book Proposal, a Virtual Panel Discussion
- WHEN: Tuesday, November 12, 2024, 7 p.m. – 8 p.m.
- ZOOM LINK: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89302354226?pwd=DkET7ZzB9d8o57SuQ4rD6UWej74um2.1
- COST: Free and open to all.
- RECORDING OF EVENT: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/iMRuryLH6ckI9pXB6fxcaoqJcd_p6dNlbqho1luhj0ZB-esxBK5cus_S-I2IU2Za.ps6Kznje2F3rYyCW [Pass code: Fg.1^sW+]
Join us for an enlightening virtual panel on the basics, considerations, and strategies of crafting winning nonfiction book proposals from the perspectives of an agent, two acquisitions editors, a publisher, and two non-fiction authors. SMA board member and former publisher Sharon Woodhouse leads the discussion with panelists University of Chicago Executive Editor Timothy Mennel, University of Wisconsin Press Editor in Chief Dan Crissman, agent Tina P. Schwartz of The Purcell Agency and authors Arnie Bernstein and Dominic Pacyga. All attendees will receive a free PDF of the book, Pitch What’s True: A Publisher’s Tools for Navigating Your Best Path to a Published Nonfiction Book by Sharon Woodhouse.
Timothy Mennel is the Executive Editor of University of Chicago Press. He joined the Press in 2013, having worked at Random House Adult Trade, Artforum/ Bookforum, Princeton University Press, and the American Planning Association. He has consulted at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and elsewhere. He has a special interest in ambitious histories.
Dan Crissman is Editor in Chief at the University of Wisconsin Press. He previously served on the editorial staff at Indiana University Press, W.W. Norton, Belt Publishing, and Farrar, Straus & Giroux. He has written two books, Cleveland in 50 Maps and Brewing Everything.
Tina Purcell Schwartz founded The Purcell Agency in July 2012 after she spent twelve years writing and marketing her work, along with helping several others get published. After a career in advertising, radio sales, and marketing, she turned to her true passion, selling manuscripts. She sold her first book contract in 2004 and has sold ten nonfiction titles in the teen and youth markets to traditional publishers.
Arnie Bernstein specializes in narrative nonfiction. His books include Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing (University of Michigan Press) and Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and The Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund (St. Martin’s Press and Picador). He is a popular media guest and talking head for television, podcasts, and other media including MSNBC, C-SPAN Book TV, The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, the BBC, Australian Public Radio, The Times of Israel, as well as media outlets in Ireland, Germany, Spain, Poland, and Russia. This past year he appeared on the acclaimed PBS series “American Experience” in their documentary “Nazi Town, USA.” Arnie is a member of The Society of Midland Authors (where he both served a term on the board and as a judge for the annual awards), The Author’s Guild, PEN America, and The International Federation of Journalists. Awards include a grant from the Puffin Foundation, earning a slot in the prestigious Warner Brothers Comedy Writing Workshop, and named to The New City Chicago annual “Lit 50.” Arnie received honors from both the Illinois State Library and the State Library of Michigan. He hopes to someday receive similar recognition from the State Library of Hawaii. Check out his website at www.arniebernstein.com.
Dominic A. Pacyga is professor emeritus of history in the Department of Humanities, History, and Social Sciences at Columbia College Chicago and serves on the board of the Society of Midland AUthors. His books include Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago: Workers on the South Side, 1880–1922; Chicago: A Biography; and Slaughterhouse: Chicago’s Union Stock Yard and the World It Made, all from the University of Chicago Press. Pacyga is the 2014 Mieczyslaw Haiman Award winner for exceptional and sustained contribution to the study of Polish Americans.
Sharon Woodhouse was an indie publisher for over 25 years (Lake Claremont Press, Everything Goes Media). She currently owns Conspire Creative, a book business agency that provides coaching, consulting, project management, and marketing support services for authors and publishers, with a specialty in entrepreneurship and publishing options. Her next book, The Profitable Author: 1,001 Ways to Build a Business You Love Around Your Books, will be released in January 2025.
Chuck Billington discusses “The 1963 Chicago Bears” on Oct. 8
The Midland Authors presents
Chuck Billington talking about his book The 1963 Chicago Bears
WHEN: Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: The Billy Goat Tavern “party room,” 430 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago.
COST: Free and open to all; $5 donation suggested.
Books will be available for purchase and signing.
Sports historian Chuck Billington examines the 1963 NFL Championship chronicles the trials and triumphs of Chicago’s historically most neglected team. The Bears and their legendary owner/coach George Halas adjusted to the increased revenue of the television era and the behind-the-scenes drama of a gambling scandal, while developing into one of the greatest teams of the pre-Super Bowl era.
We’ll be in the party room.
Cheryl L. Reed discusses “Map of My Escape” on Sept. 10
Midland Authors presents:
An Evening with Author and Journalist Cheryl L. Reed
Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, 6:30–8 p.m.
Volumes Bookcafe, 1373 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago
Cheryl L. Reed has shadowed dark and mysterious characters from cops to murder suspects, cloistered nuns to girls doing drugs. Her new novel, Map of My Escape, is a thriller about an anti-gun activist who accidentally shoots a Chicago cop and flees to an island in northern Michigan.
Reed’s debut novel, Poison Girls, won the Chicago Writers’ Association Book of the Year Award. Her book of nonfiction, Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Nuns, chronicles her bizarre journey of living with religious women in convents off and on for four years. Her website is cherylreed.com.
A former editor and reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times and other publications, Reed was a US Fulbright Scholar for the State Department in Ukraine and in Central Asia. She splits her time between Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Mary Wisniewski, Newcity critic and SMA board member, will interview Reed.
TUES, MAR 12, 2024: From Peoria to Shanghai: Literary Salon Host Bernardine Szold Fritz
Susan Blumberg-Kason is the author of Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China and Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair with China Gone Wrong. She is also the co-editor of Hong Kong Noir. Susan is a regular contributor to the Asian Review of Books and World Literature Today. Born, raised, and now based in the Chicago suburbs, Susan has a forthcoming book out this September, When Friends Come From Afar: The Remarkable Story of Bernie Wong and Chicago’s Chinese American Service League.
TUES, APR 9, 2024: Booking Baseball: Writing About the National Pastime
Collectively, SMA members, Thom Henninger, Judith Hiltner, Stuart Shea, and Jim Walker have written seven books and countless articles on baseball. The Society of Midland Authors and the Chicago chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) invite you to learn how they approach writing about the national pastime.
Topics include:
- Why so many baseball books are written and who publishes them
- Working with teams and conducting interviews
- Using research facilities
- Managing your writing project
- Memorable experiences
TUES, FEB 13, 2024: Demystifying Publishing: How to Get Published and How to Keep Publishing
Demystifying Publishing: How to Get Published and How to Keep Publishing
(Hints and insights: What to do once the writing is finished)
A virtual panel discussion
Demystifying Publishing (recording of event on YouTube)
Tuesday, February 13, 2024, 7pm – 8pm CST
To join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83839767320?pwd=a2R0OU5hYmQ2a0h5Y2pZUjlYZkRaUT09
Panelists
Donna Beasley is a children’s book author, former digital travel magazine owner, writing coach, and president/publisher of KaZoom Kids Books, a multicultural children’s publishing company, focusing on Black and Latino characters, and stories for children ages 3 to 8.
Sylvia Frank Rodrigue acquires history and criminology books for SIU Press. Through her business, Sylverlining, she copyedits nonfiction and fiction manuscripts. She was editor-in-chief at LSU Press and associate editor at Stackpole Books. Rodrigue is the co-author of Images of America: Baton Rouge and Historic Baton Rouge.
Sharon Woodhouse was an indie publisher for over 25 years (Lake Claremont Press, Everything Goes Media). She currently owns Conspire Creative, which provides coaching, consulting, and project management services for authors and publishers, with a specialty in entrepreneurship and publishing options.
To learn more, contact moderators Marlene Targ Brill: [email protected] or Walter Podrazik: [email protected].
Jan 9, 2024: Chicago’s Modern Mayors: From Harold Washington to Lori Lightfoot
The Midland Authors presents a panel discussion on
Chicago’s Modern Mayors: Harold Washington to Lori Lightfoot
Midland Authors presents Chicago’s Modern Mayors – YouTube
Voices For Justice: Jonathan Eig: King: A Life – YouTube
Tuesday, January 9, 2024, 6 p.m.
Harold Washington Library Center
400 S. State St., Chicago
Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Free and open at all. Suggested donation $5.
Books will be available for purchase.
The Midland Authors presents a panel discussion based on the new book Chicago’s Modern Mayors, edited by former Midland Authors President Dick Simpson and Betty O’Shaughnessy, covering mayors Harold Washington, Eugene Sawyer, Richard M. Daley, Rahm Emanuel, and Lori Lightfoot.
The discussion will feature:
Betty O’Shaughnessy, former adjunct professor of political science at the University of Illinois Chicago and Oakton Community College
Dick Simpson, former Chicago alderman, professor emeritus and former head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois Chicago
Kari Lydersen, journalist and assistant professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University
Monroe Anderson, political writer and former press secretary to Eugene Sawyer
Daniel Bliss, assistant professor of political science at the Illinois Institute of Technology
Dennis Judd, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Chicago
