Past Events

The Society of Midland Authors presents a Panel Discussion:
Memoir and Narrative Storytelling During COVID
featuring Michele Weldon, Gerry Plecki, and Rebecca Johns Trissler
Tuesday, March 3, 2026, 6 p.m.
at Sulzer Regional Library, 4455 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago
Free and open to all.

Michele Weldon is an assistant professor emerita at her alma mater, the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, where she taught for 18 years. The author of seven award-winning books, including most recently The Time We Have: Essays on Pandemic Living (2024), she has been a senior leader with The OpEd Project since 2011, a global initiative to increase the diversity of voice in public discourse. Weldon began her editorial career as managing editor at North Shore magazine. She then worked as a market editor for ADWEEK magazine and later Fairchild Publications. She was a columnist and feature writer for the Dallas Times Herald and has been a regular contributor to newspapers, websites, magazines and radio such as CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Time, NBC, MSNBC, Huffington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago magazine, Chicago Parent, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Writer’s Digest, West Suburban Living, and hundreds more, including academic publications such as Harvard’s Nieman Narrative Digest. She has given more than 200 keynotes on issues related to gender, popular culture and media.

Gerry Plecki recently completed his fourth term as SMA’s president, and as current a member of the SMA Board of Directors, this will be the fifth year he has coordinated SMA’s annual Book Awards Competition. Gerry received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1979 and was awarded an NEH postdoctoral fellowship at New York University. He then worked as an associate professor at Clemson University, where he taught English and cinema studies. Later, he taught graduate research methodology at the United States Sports Academy in Daphne, Alabama. He has written many articles on music and film criticism. His previous books were Robert Altman, which was an authoritative analysis of the director’s films, and Singing in the Rain: The Definitive Story of Woodstock at Fifty, which was published in July 2019. His latest book, Test Positive: Surviving COVID-19 in the Reign of Trump, was published in 2020.

Rebecca Johns Trissler is the editor of Virus City: Chicago 2020-2021 and the author of two novels (Icebergs, a PEN/Hemingway Finalist, and The Countess). Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Ploughshares, StoryQuarterly, the Mississippi Review, the Harvard Review, Printer’s Row Journal, the Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle, Ladies’ Home Journal, Bride’s, Parents, Parenting, Self, Health, and Seventeen, among others. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Missouri School of Journalism, she is an associate professor of creative writing and associate dean in the College of Liberal and Social Sciences at DePaul University.

The Midland Authors presents a “How-To” Panel Discussion:
After the First Book Contract
featuring Ruth Spiro, Greg Borzo, Sharon Woodhouse, and Walter Podrazik
Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 7 p.m.
Virtual session. Zoom link: https://uic.zoom.us/j/82586263133?pwd=3ufMrLJdY8Byp8my6PpDOCbt0e627D.1
Free and open to all.

Congratulations: You signed your book contract. Now what? Participating in the publishing process? Marketing? Branding for more books? These pros offer suggestions to help you build a winning book writing career.

Ruth Spiro has authored more than 30 children’s books, with over one million copies sold worldwide. Her bestselling Baby Loves Science board books are groundbreaking, introducing big ideas to the littlest listeners. She frequently speaks at schools and conferences, previously appearing in Spotlight Chicago, Windy City Live, LA Times Festival of Books, World Science Festival, and more.

Greg Borzo is an award-winning journalist who has worked as a business editor, science writer, and news officer. He is now working on his ninth book, Uncovering the South Loop. Earlier books include Lost Restaurants of Chicago, Where to Bike Chicago, The Chicago “L,” and Chicago’s Fabulous Fountains. He conducts tours and presentations about—what else?—Chicago!

Sharon Woodhouse owns Conspire Creative, a book business agency offering coaching and consulting for authors and indie publishers. Former founder of award-winning Lake Claremont Press, she specializes in helping authors build holistic, income-generating businesses through strategic partnerships, creative marketing, and entrepreneurial thinking. She writes about author business development and publishing on Substack and in her book, The Profitable Author.

Walter Podrazik, moderator, is an educator, consultant, and curator at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. He is also co-author with Harry Castleman of eight books on popular culture including Watching TV American Television Season by Season, now in its fourth edition.

Midland Authors presents

Christopher Clott discussing his intriguing new book, Unearthing Highway 41: An American Journey.

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, 6-7 p.m., at the Harold Washington Library’s Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, 400 S. State St., Chicago. Free, open to the public. No need to register.

Come along for a virtual ride through eight states, from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to the southern tip of Florida. Visit huge cities and quiet hamlets; museums and roadside attractions; monuments and exciting new sites along America’s most important, historical and colorful North-South highway.

Christopher Clott is a former professor of international business and maritime logistics with a keen interest in how people live and work. After a long career in business and academia, this is his first book. When he is not on the road in search of fascinating places to see, he lives with his wife in Western Springs, Illinois.

The Midland Authors presents

Two Legendary Landmarks: The Fine Arts Building and Marina City
Keir Graff, author of Chicago’s Fine Arts Building: Music, Magic, and Murder
Steven Dahlman, author of Marina City: The Definitive History of a Chicago Landmark

Tuesday, November 4, 2025, 7 p.m.
Fine Arts Building, The Little Studio on the 7th Floor,
410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago
Doors open at 6 p.m., with snacks and soft drinks.
Free and open to all.

Keir Graff, author of Chicago’s Fine Arts Building: Music, Magic, and Murder, and Steven Dahlman, author of Marina City: The Definitive History of a Chicago Landmark, will discuss these new books.

This is the first nonfiction book by Graff, who has written thrillers, mysteries, and contemporary fiction for adults, and adventure novels for younger readers. The former executive editor of Booklist, he lives in Chicago, where he is the cofounder of the much-loved literary gathering Publishing Cocktails. With Michael Moreci, he cohosts The Filmographers Podcast. He is also a tenant of the Fine Arts Building. In his book, published by Trope Publishing, he explores the building’s history, its revitalization, and its cultural place in the city of Chicago. To learn more, visit keirgraff.com.

Dahlman is a Chicago journalist and photographer who specializes in architecture. He has co-created three books about the city with author Neal Samors, including 2025’s Chicago River Waterway System: Its Dynamic Future, providing most of the modern-day images. From 2005 to 2015, he lived in Marina City, the subject of his latest book, published by Trope. Adored, then neglected, then brought back to life, Marina City is an official Chicago landmark, a Chicago icon, and recognized worldwide. To learn more, visit stevendahlman.com.

Books will be available for purchase at the event.

You’re invited:
The Midland Authors presents

Clout City
Dominic A. Pacyga discusses his new book,
in conversation with Dick Simpson.

Tuesday, October 14, 2025, 7 p.m.
UIC Richard J. Daley Library,
Room I-470, 801 S. Morgan St., Chicago
Doors open at 6 p.m., with snacks and soft drinks.
Free and open to all.

Dominic A. Pacyga and Dick Simpson will discuss Pacyga’s new book, Clout City: The Rise and Fall of the Chicago Political Machine. Pacyga is widely recognized as a leading scholar of Chicago’s political history. Copies of his book will be available for purchase and signing after the presentation.

Pacyga is professor emeritus of history in the Department of Humanities, History, and Social Sciences at Columbia College Chicago. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, American Warsaw: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Polish Chicago, also from the University of Chicago Press.

In politics, clout is essential. Too often, it determines whether insider access is granted or denied, favors are given or withheld, and payoffs are made or received. But Chicago clout, as we know it today, is even more potent than that—it’s the absolute currency of asocial, cultural, and political order that is self-reinforcing and self-dealing. Or, at least, it was. In Clout City, Pacyga reveals how cultural, ethnic, and religious forces created this distinctive system—and ultimately led to its collapse. Pacyga’s tour of the city’s multilayered past is an indispensable guide to its present and future.

Simpson, a professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is a former Chicago alderman and a former president of Midland Authors. He is also author or coauthor of more than 20 books on political action, ethics, and politics.

On the same day as our discussion about Pacyga’s Clout City, the UIC Library is hosting a special event from 3 to 5 p.m.: CITY2000 25th Anniversary Celebration. In 2000, Gary Comer, founder o fLand’s End, funded a landmark project to photograph and document the city of Chicago. The program will feature a panel discussion on the significance of this project. Photographs from the collection will be available for use the books Midland Authors members write. For more information about the CITY 2000 collection, please visit: https://scalar-prod.lib.uic.edu/city2000/introduction?path=index. While the event is free you need to register at this link: https://web.cvent.com/event/e9852832-44f2-4d3b-a209-751ef84419a6/summary?environment=P2

The Midland Authors presents

Chicago Poetry

Chicago poets Marc Kelly Smith and Kevin Coval will talk about poetry and the use of Chicago dialect and idiom.

Tuesday, April 8, 2025, 7 p.m. Central (doors open 6:30 p.m.)
Volumes Bookcafe, 1373 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago
Free and open to all.

Marc Kelly Smith is a Chicago icon who started the poetry slam, and with it a new brand of poetry. Smith performs with the Last Word Quintet and hosts a monthly show at the Green Mill jazz lounge. His books include Ground Zero and The Spoken Word Revolution.

Kevin Coval is an Emmy-nominated, award-winning writer, filmmaker and author of more than a dozen collections and anthologies, including The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop and A People’s History of Chicago. His full-length feature film, Madina in the Summertime, is due out in this fall. Coval will read some new poetry at Tuesday’s event.

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.

 

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.