Chicago readers join forces with Aug Stone to read new lit that amplifies the weird things they sometimes overlook in life to an EXTREME level. They're observational, musical, and absurd.
Featured readers:
Emily Caper: Emily Caper is a Midwestern mixed girl, who writes to begin conversations around identity by experimenting with form and genre. In Between My Bodies (Long Day Press) is her first chapbook. She currently lives in Chicago with her beautiful partner and dog, Millie.
Dmitry Samarov: Dmitry Samarov paints and writes in Chicago. He is the author and illustrator of six books. He sends out a newsletter every Monday. An absurd amount of his work is collected at his website, which is seventeen years old now.
Mallory Smart: Mallory Smart is a Chicago-based writer and Editor-in-Chief of Maudlin House. Some people even call her The Only Living Girl In Chicago. Mallory is also the host of Textual Healing and cohost of That Horrorcast. Her latest book, I Keep My Visions To Myself, is out now from With an X Books.
Kyle François: Kyle François is a writer, musician, and educator in Chicago. He was raised in rural Iowa. He plays in the band Gold Dust and wrote the foreword to the 2024 edition of Arno E. Schmidt's The Accomplished Muskrat Trapper.
Joshua Bohnsack: Joshua Bohnsack's work has appeared in AGNI, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and others. He is the publisher of Long Day Press. He grew up on a farm and moved to Chicago.
Aug Stone: Aug Stone is a writer, musician, & comedian. His 2023 novel, The Ballad Of Buttery Cake Ass, was one of Vulture’s Best Comedy Books Of The Year. Aug is also author of the memoir Nick Cave’s Bar and the comedy novel Off-License To Kill, and his journalism has appeared in The Quietus, The Comics Journal, Under The Radar, and many more sites and magazines. Aug was a founding member of H Bird and The Soft Close-Ups, and has played in countless other bands. He performs comedy as absurdist stream-of-consciousness raconteur, Young Southpaw.
6pm doors / 6:30 readings / 9pm jazz / no cover