Friday 4/10 – Thursday 4/16
the musical plays tonight at 7:30 at the Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 W. Belmont, and runs through May 17. Tickets are $18. Call 773-883-1090 for reservations.
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11 SATURDAY Published writers are often more than willing to endure those wide-eyed, “What kind of chair do you sit on when you’re working?”-type queries if it’ll unload a few more units at the local Bookopolis. And many enterprising types have tapped the huge market of aspiring scribblers eager to pay for workshops and retreats hosted by name-brand authors in the hope that success is contagious. Still, there actually is a right way to submit that blood-, sweat-, and tear-stained manuscript to a literary journal, and Joseph Parisi knows what it is. The editor of the 85-year-old magazine Poetry sees tens of thousands of submissions every year and has plenty of helpful tips for would-be belletrists, like (1) don’t lie in your cover letter and (2) watch out for scam poetry contests. He’ll share some more this morning in a talk called “An Editor’s View of Publishing Poetry and Getting Published” at 10 in the School of the Art Institute ballroom, 112 S. Michigan. It’s 35 bucks. Call 312-899-1229.
14 TUESDAY Dorothy Allison’s 1992 novel Bastard Out of Carolina is one of those books that scares the bejesus out of some people to the point that they try to ban it, thus ensuring its longevity: high school students in several states will smuggle dog-eared copies of the brilliant white-trash family saga of childhood sexual abuse into the lunchroom for years to come. Allison’s new novel, Cavedweller, visits similar territory, as its heroine, a recovering alcoholic and ex-rocker, returns to her backwater Georgia hometown to reclaim the daughters she abandoned. Allison reads from Cavedweller tonight at 7 in the Harold Washington Library Center auditorium, 400 S. State (use the Plymouth Court entrance). It’s free. Call 312-747-4050.
