Past Events
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
TUE., SEP 12: Jonathan Eig on his new book King: A Life
- “The definitive biography of King…. Eig’s book is worthy of its subject.” — New York Times
- “The most compelling account of King’s life in a generation.” — Washington Post
- “Eig has created 2023’s most vital tome.” — Philadelphia Inquirer
WHEN: Tuesday, September 12, 2023; 6-7:15 p.m.
WHERE: Harold Washington Public Library, 400 S. State St, Chicago IL 60605
COST: Free, open to the public, no need to register
ABOUT THE BOOK: King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of Martin Luther King Jr.—and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, Eig presents an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled man who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself.
In this landmark biography, Eig gives us an MLK for our times: a deep thinker, a brilliant strategist, and a committed radical who led one of history’s greatest movements—and whose demands for racial and economic justice remain as urgent today as they were in his lifetime.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jonathan Eig is a former writer for the Wall Street Journal. He’s the New York Times bestselling author of Ali: A Life; Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig; and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season. Ken Burns calls Eig “a master storyteller.”
This program is part of the Chicago Public Library’s “Voices for Justice” Speaker Series, which highlights issues of social justice.
“Winesburg, Illinois – Short Story Collections About Small Towns”
WHAT: Three authors discuss their short story collections about small towns in Northern Illinois — both real and imaginary — and the importance of a sense of place.
WHO: Janice Deal, author of “Strange Attractors: The Ephrem Stories,” Christina Marrocco, author of “Addio, Love Monster,” and Ryan Elliott Smith, author of “Fly Over This: Stories from the New Midwest.” Moderator: Newcity critic and SMA board member Mary Wisniewski
WHEN: Tuesday, October 17. 6-7 p.m. for cocktails, 7-8 p.m. for program.
WHERE: Cliff Dwellers’ Club, 200 S. Michigan Ave., 22nd Floor Penthouse.
COST: Free and open to all. $5 suggested donation. Books for sale, provided by Madison Street Books.
Printers Row Lit Fest, Sept. 9-10
Members of the Society of Midland Authors will be signing and selling their books Saturday, Sept. 9, and Sunday, Sept. 10, at our tent at the Printers Row Lit Fest — the largest free outdoor literary event in the Midwest. The festival takes place along Dearborn Street between Ida B. Wells Drive and Polk Street in Chicago’s Printers Row neighborhood. For more details, see printersrowlitfest.org.
Members can reserve and pay for booth space for Printers Row here.
We will post a detailed schedule of author appearances as we get closer to the event.
TUE., APR 11: Panel on Children’s Literature with Keir Graff at The Cliff Dwellers
Join us for our April panel on children’s literature!
Four award-winning authors discuss children’s literature, new books, and writing for young readers—from picture books to middle-grade to young adult.
WHAT: What’s new in children’s literature
WHO: Zetta Elliott, James Klise, Natasha Tarpley, and Keir Graff
WHEN: Tuesday, April 11, 2023; cocktails 6-7 p.m. and program 7-8 p.m.
WHERE: The Cliff Dwellers, 200 S Michigan Ave., 22nd floor penthouse
COST: Free & open to all; $5 donation suggested
Bookish Chicago will be on-site selling books. Authors are available to sign.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Zetta Elliott is a Black feminist poet, playwright, and author of forty books for young readers, including the award-winning picture books Bird and A Place Inside of Me and the bestselling middle-grade fantasy series Dragons in a Bag. Her essays have appeared in Blavity, The Huffington Post, and Publishers Weekly. Her own imprint, Rosetta Press, generates culturally relevant stories that center youth who have been marginalized, misrepresented, and/or rendered invisible in traditional children’s literature. She lives in Chicago. www.zettaelliott.com
James Klise’s new YA novel, I’ll Take Everything You Have (Algonquin), is a queer coming-of-age crime story set in 1934 Chicago. In a starred review, Kirkus promises “passionate, cinematic scenes” and “a thrillingly queer adventure.” Publishers Weekly calls the book “an arresting narrative… and a mesmerizing snapshot of 1930s Chicago.” James’s previous novels for teens include the Edgar Award-winning The Art of Secrets and the ALA Stonewall Honor-winning Love Drugged. He lives with his husband in Chicago, where for the past two decades, he has overseen a very busy high school library. jamesklise.com.
As an acclaimed and bestselling children’s book author, who has been writing for over 20 years, Natasha Tarpley is the author of the classic picture book, I Love My Hair!, an ode to Black childhood and natural beauty, as well as Keyana Loves Her Family, which is book one of a new picture book series featuring Keyana McGee, a little girl with BIG ideas. Other titles include the award-winning picture book, The Me I Choose To Be; the social justice-themed middle grade mystery, The Harlem Charade; and a forthcoming supernatural middle-grade series, Finders & Seekers. Natasha is also the writer and co-creator of the award-winning children’s narrative podcast, Opal Watson: Private Eye (Pinna.fm), and is currently developing new children’s podcast and television projects with major media outlets. natashatarpleywrites.com
IN CONVERSATION WITH KEIR GRAFF: Keir is the author of funny and fantastical middle-grade adventure novels including The Tiny Mansion, The Phantom Tower (a Chicago Tribune Best Children’s Book), The Matchstick Castle (an official Illinois Reads selection), and the forthcoming Minerva Keen’s Detective Club with James Patterson. He also writes books for grown-ups—some of them under fake names! A longtime resident of Chicago, he lives near the shore of Lake Michigan with his wife Marya, sons Felix and Cosmo, and cats Toothless and Totoro. keirgraff.com
TUE., MAR 14: Distilled in Chicago with David Witter at The Cliff Dwellers
Join us for March’s’s Society of Midland Authors event at The Cliff Dwellers.
David Witter explores how liquor has influenced nearly two centuries of Chicago’s existence.
WHAT: Distilled in Chicago: A History
WHO: David Witter in conversation with Gerry Plecki
WHEN: Tuesday, March 14, 2023; cocktails 6-7 p.m., and program 7-8 p.m.
WHERE: The Cliff Dwellers, 200 S Michigan Ave., 22nd floor penthouse
COST: Free & open to all; $5 donation suggested
ABOUT THE BOOK: From the mash in pioneer stills to the Malört in a hipster’s shot glass, David Witter explores how liquor has influenced nearly two centuries of Chicago’s existence. Follow the trickle of alcohol through Chicago’s history, starting with the town’s first three permanent businesses: The Wolf, Green Tree, and Eagle Exchange Taverns. Stir together stories from the Peoria Whiskey Trust and the Temperance Movement. The cocktails that lubricated the Levee District may have set up Chicago’s first gangsters, but Prohibition-era bootleggers would change the city’s identity forever. Post-Prohibition alcohol helped to create vast fortunes for Chicago based families and corporations, and the new Millennium saw KOVAL usher in a new era small and craft distilleries throughout Chicagoland. Sample a spirited history of the Windy City.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Witter is a Chicago-based author who has written four books on Chicago history: Oldest Chicago I, Oldest Chicago II, Chicago Magic: A History of Stagecraft and Spectacle, and his latest, Distilled Chicago: A History (The History Press, 2022). His writing on Chicago has appeared in many publications, including New City, the Chicago Reader, and the Washington Post.
IN CONVERSATION WITH GERRY PLECKI: Gerry Plecki currently serves as SMA president. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1979 and was awarded an NEH Post-Doctoral Fellowship at New York University. He has written 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 on October 17, 2020.
More information at MidlandAuthors.org
SAT, APR 22: Enjoy a night of “Tea & Cookies & Murder” at Volumes
Enjoy a night of “Tea & Cookies & Murder” at Volumes
Join fellow book lovers in welcoming world-renowned mystery writer Ann Cleeves to the U.S.!
WHAT: A night of Tea and Cookies and Murder
WHO: Mystery writer Ann Cleeves with Lori Rader-Day and Sara Paretsky
WHEN: Saturday, April 22, 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Volumes Bookcafe; 1373 N Milwaukee Ave; Chicago, IL 60622
COST: Free; books available for purchase
Tickets are FREE, and books will be available on-site at the time of the event. If there is a specific Cleeves, Rader-Day, or Paretsky book you’d like to reserve, you can do so by ordering on the Volumes website.
ANN CLEEVES is the multi-million-copy bestselling author behind three hit television series—Shetland, starring Douglas Henshall; Vera, starring Academy Award Nominee Brenda Blethyn; and The Long Call, starring Ben Aldridge—all of which are watched and loved in the United States. All three are available on BritBox. The first Shetland novel, Raven Black, won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger for best crime novel, and Ann was awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger in 2017. She was awarded the OBE in 2022 for services to reading and libraries. Ann lives in the United Kingdom.
LORI RADER-DAY is the Edgar® Award-nominated and Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark award-winning author of Death at Greenway, The Lucky One, Under a Dark Sky, The Day I Died, Little Pretty Things, and The Black Hour. She lives in Chicago, where she is co-chair of the mystery readers’ festival Midwest Mystery Conference (fka Murder and Mayhem in Chicago) and served as 2019-2020 national president of Sisters in Crime. She teaches creative writing for Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies.
TUE., FEB 14: Valentine’s Day Author Event with Chicago Novelist Joseph G. Peterson
Join us for February’s Society of Midland Authors event featuring books + wine.
Come out and mark the Valentine’s Day holiday with Chicago author Joseph G. Peterson and his latest novel, Memorandum from the Iowa Cloud Appreciation Society, an exploration of love. Enjoy a glass of wine + a reading + booksigning.
WHAT: SMA ventures into Lincoln Square, to one of the best neighborhood bookstores in the city
WHERE: Book Cellar, 4736 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago
WHEN: Tuesday, February 14, 2023, 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m.
ABOUT THE BOOK: When his girlfriend, Rosemary, asks about his life, Jim Moore, a successful salesman whose territory covers the entire continental United States and parts of Canada, doesn’t think there is anything to say and so he tells her “nothing happened,” or maybe he doesn’t know how to put it all into words or maybe he doesn’t want to.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph G. Peterson is the author of several books of fiction and poetry, including most recently, The Rumphulus and Ninety-Nine Bottles. He grew up in Wheeling, Illinois, and received his B.A. from the University of Chicago. He works at The University of Chicago Press and is a longtime resident of Hyde Park.
IN CONVERSATION WITH: Carol Saller. Carol is a contributing editor to The Chicago Manual of Style and, before her retirement, a longtime colleague of Joseph G Peterson at the University of Chicago Press. The New York Times called her book The Subversive Copy Editor “the book Oprah would write if her vocation were saving writers from embarrassment.” Saller’s young-adult novel Eddie’s War was named a Best Book of the Year at Kirkus Reviews, a Horn Book Recommended Verse Narrative, and a Chicago Public Library Best Fiction for Teens. Carol currently writes the “Writer, Editor, Helper” newsletter for aspiring writers and self-publishers. Visit Carol at subversivecopyeditor.com/blog.
COST: Free and open to the public. Books available for purchase and signing after the event.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit MidlandAuthors.org or BookCellarinc.com.
TUE., JAN 10: Join us for our Mystery Panel event with authors Tracy Clark, Michelle Cox, Mia Manansala, and Lori Rader-Day
WHAT: Midland Authors invites you to join us for our January Mystery Panel event! Kick off the new year with four exciting & award-winning authors: Tracy Clark, Michelle Cox, Mia Manansala, and Lori Rader-Day
WHEN: 6-7 p.m. Tuesday, January 10, 2023
WHERE: Harold Washington Library’s Pritzker Auditorium, 400 S State St, Chicago, IL 60605
COST: Free and open to the public
Join us after for book signing! Learn more at MidlandAuthors.org
Our four authors are award winners and best sellers:
Tracy Clark, a native Chicagoan, is the author of the Cass Raines Chicago Mystery series, featuring ex-cop turned PI Cassandra Raines. A multi-nominated Anthony, Lefty, Edgar, Macavity, and Shamus Award finalist, Tracy is also the 2020 and 2022 winner of the G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award and the 2022 Sara Paretsky Award, which honors crime writers from the Midwest. Tracy was also nominated for the 2022 Edgar for Best Short Story for “Lucky Thirteen,” which was included in the crime fiction anthology Midnight Hour. She is a proud member of Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and serves on the boards of Bouchercon National and the Midwest Mystery Conference. HIDE, her new, police procedural, featuring Det. Harriet Foster of the Chicago Police Department, released in January 2023. The second entry in that series, FALL, releases in 2024. Visit her online at TracyClarkBooks.com.
Michelle Cox is the author of the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series as well as “Novel Notes of Local Lore,” a weekly blog dedicated to Chicago’s forgotten residents. Her books have won over 60 international awards and have been praised by Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Foreword, Elle, Redbook, Brit&Co., POPSUGAR, Buzzfeed, and many others. Unbeknownst to most, Michelle hoards board games she doesn’t have time to play and is, not surprisingly, addicted to period dramas and big band music. Also marmalade. She lives in Chicago with her husband, three children, and one naughty Goldendoodle and is hard at work on her latest novel. Visit her at www.miapmanansala.com.
Mia P. Manansala (she/her) is a writer and certified book coach from Chicago who loves books, baking, and bad-ass women. She is the author of the multi-award-winning Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series, and uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture. Find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: @MPMtheWriter, or check out her website at www.miapmanansala.com.
Lori Rader-Day is the Edgar Award-nominated and Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark award-winning author of Death at Greenway, The Lucky One, Under a Dark Sky, and others. She lives in Chicago, where she co-chairs the Midwest Mystery Conference and teaches creative writing at Northwestern University. Visit her at www.LoriRaderDay.com.
Questions? Visit MidlandAuthors.org
or contact Claire Hartfield:
[email protected]
TUE., NOV 15: In this virtual program, Deborah Cohen (Last Call at the Hotel Imperial) and Kim Todd (Sensational) talk about their books exploring legendary reporters of World War II & the Gilded Age. In conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Mary Schmich.
What: In this virtual program, Deborah Cohen (Last Call at the Hotel Imperial) and Kim Todd (Sensational) talk about their books exploring legendary reporters of World War II & the Gilded Age. In conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Mary Schmich.
When: 7-8 p.m., Tuesday November 15
Where: Online via Zoom. Here’s the meeting link.
Free and Open to the Public. Use code SMA15 for 15% off at BookishChicago.com/adult/midland-authors
Deborah Cohen‘s Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War (Random House 2022) is an account of a close-knit band of famous American reporters who took on dictators and rewrote the rules of modern journalism. She is the Richard W. Leopold Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at Northwestern. deborahcohen.com
Kim Todd‘s Sensational, the Hidden History of America’s “Girl Stunt Reporters” (Harper 2021) was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award, Richard Frisbee Adult Nonfiction Award, and the American Journalism Historians Association Book of the Year Award. She is on the creative writing MFA faculty at University of Minnesota, where she teaches literary nonfiction. kimtodd.net
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Mary Schmich was a longtime columnist for the Chicago Tribune, as well as author of the comic strip Brenda Starr, Reporter for nearly 30 years.
Questions? Visit MidlandAuthors.org
or contact Claire Hartfield:
[email protected]