Fiction Writing

Life is better with friends and photos! So grab your favorite people and join us to create your own "love story" scrapbooks that celebrate friendship, community, and personal memories. Where: Little Italy Branch Library When: February 13th, 2-4 pm We will provide essential scrapbooking materials, including paper, scissors, a variety of adhesives, markers, and decorative supplies. You are encouraged to bring any personal photos or mementos you wish to include in your project. Sign up mandatory -https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSemKtm2eIXwDIpRvQS8n2r4X9PiAeKQ9sYW8ccC4Ui39Mb-tA/viewform

Looking for a spot to run your D&D campaign? We have a great table ready to host! We are keeping the time open for you to choose what works for you and your players. Reach out with any questions or suggestions! Zemi Coffee offers a wide range of drink options from coffee, to tea, to hot chocolate. Along with Puerto Rican empanadas and pastries to fuel your players! Email [email protected] with any questions!

Come join other parents after drop off at The People's Cafe! Talk school shop on all the happenings, events and current events. Parents go through very similar experiences and it's great to connect to your school community. Mondays and Fridays after drop off!

Join us in Millennium Park for a **FREE** workout at The Bean. We are an inclusive workout group with chapters throughout the world. Whether you are a multi-marathon runner or a mom just getting back into the swing of things, and everything in between, we only ask of everyone to **#JustShowUp!**

A wood-fired, social sauna seating 16 people, along the lake and inside Chicago's parks, with an Aufguss session to cap off every sauna day. What to bring: \- Water\, preferably with electrolytes/lemon to replenish\. \- Swimsuit/athletic clothes\. \- Towel\(s\) for sitting inside the sauna and for drying off\. There is a changing tent and a shower for rinsing off available. Looking forward to welcoming you! \- Maria Tkacz\, Founder of Harbor & Hoyage @harborandvoyage More info & booking at harborandyoyage.com

If you're in the neighborhood, come and say hello! Let's hang out and feel the vibe. You could become a part of something big! No Structure. Just DIY and see where it goes.

Welcome to West Loop Writers! Sunday morning, we will meet up and write from 9-10:30 a.m. at Sawada coffee shop. (Sawada is the slightly hidden coffee shop that connects with Green Street Meats). Bring your laptop, or even better a pen and an old fashioned notebook, and write with us. At 10:30 we will break from writing, introduce ourselves and what we're working on if the spirit moves us. We have people working on all types of writing, from nonfiction to kids' books and novels. From there it’s up to you to embrace the serendipity of finding fellow writers to network with! For now I will answer questions about self publishing individually but we aren’t doing any speakers or anything (yet).

*Before and After, an instant drama* **Fridays/Saturdays, 7:30 PM, January 30-February 21** Life is defined in moments. *Before and After* explores the story leading to a life-changing event and the impact of that instant on all that is to follow. Are we truly changed by the big moments in our lives, or are we only revealed? No two performances are ever the same, but every show is an instant drama created before your eyes. Theatre Momentum is the **only** theatre in Chicago dedicated to dramatic improvisation. Join us for a night of grounded instant theatre. Fridays/Saturdays, 7:30 PM (doors open at 7 PM) January 30-February 21 All tickets $5! Studio Momentum, 1541 W Belmont Ave ### **Get your tickets!** **[https://www.theatremomentum.com/shows](https://www.theatremomentum.com/shows)**

**🎟️ 🎶Theater Week Stop 3: $30 tix-Trial in the Delta: Murder of Emmett Till🎭** *Chicago Theater Week 2026 Play #3 - $30 Tix-* *Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till @Kimball Arts Center* **Chicago Theater Week Play #3** 🎶 *Trial in the Delta: the Murder of Emmett Till* 📅 **Saturday Feb 14, 2025** ⏰ **7:30 PM** 📍 **The Kimball Arts Center \|** 1757 N. Kimball Ave, Chicago, **🎟️ General Admission Seating** Our **3rd & final stop** for Chicago Theater Week is **Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till**, a powerful, award-winning live docu-drama presented by **Collaboraction** in their brand-new **House of Belonging** in Humboldt Park. This immersive production brings the **1955 murder trial of Emmett Till** to life using the **recently unearthed trial transcript**, placing audiences inside the courtroom for a **deeply human, radically honest** examination of a case that changed America forever. Actors sit among the audience, taking the stand as witnesses for both the defense and prosecution — including **Mamie Till-Bradley** — creating a stunning, immediate, and unforgettable experience. New this year! Tickets are available on Hottix, no special codes needed! 🎟 **Theater Week Deal via Hot Tix** • **$30 tickets + fees (normally $55.00)** — no special code • **Limited quantity — WILL sell out** 👉 Buy here: https://hottix.org/shows/collaboraction-in-the-kimball-arts-center/trial-in-the-delta-the-murder-of-emmett-till/ ✔️ Select **2/14/25 General Admission – 7:30 PM** \| **The Kimball Arts Center** **-reg price $55.00 for $30! so $25.00 savings!** Any issues calls Hot tix helpdesk at Phone: **(312) 977-9483 or** Email: **[[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])** ⚠️ **Important Ticket Rules** · You must buy your own ticket · **DO NOT RSVP YES until ticket is purchased** · GA seating — we’ll meet in the bar & sit together · High probability of value-priced tickets selling out!! - buy asap! I’ll arrive around **7:00 PM to grab seats as general admission.** *I may grab a meal nearby earlier & I will post a comment of where I will go for those who wish to meet & grab a bite. Check back for updates* 🍷 **Food & Drinks** • No food served and no outside food allowed • Full bar available (wine, spirits, non-alcoholic drinks allowed in theaters) • If you want to eat, plan to do so before the show — many nearby options • Some of us may grab a bite. I’ll post updates closer to the date **Trial in the Delta: the Murder of Emmett Till** 🎶 About the Production On September 20, 1955, testimony began in the murder trial of two members of Emmett Till’s lynch mob. What happened during that trial — and in the weeks and months surrounding it — would help ignite the Civil Rights Movement. Written by Willie Round & G. Riley Mills, directed by Anthony Moseley & Dana Anderson, this production is drawn directly from The State of Mississippi vs. Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam trial transcript. It plays as a live courtroom reenactment, featuring top Chicago actors seated among the audience. Join us as we witness this vital story — and stay to discuss its impact and legacy. **🏛️ About Collaboraction & the Kimball Arts Center** Collaboraction celebrates **30 years** of innovative, socially conscious theater and opens its new **House of Belonging** in Humboldt Park. The space includes: • 🎭 99-seat flexible studio theater • 🍷 50-seat cabaret with café/bar • 🏙️ Located next to the **606 Trail**, where Logan Square meets Humboldt Park Collaboraction’s work is grounded in **KEDA** — *Knowledge, Empathy, Dialogue, and Action* — theater for social change. **Kimball Arts Center** Kimball Arts Center is a hub of Chicago creativity located next to the 606 Trail, where Logan Square meets Humboldt Park. Home to a collection of independent businesses for over 15 years. Always inclusive. Always open-minded. 🚗 Parking: Metered street parking nearby; SpotHero/ParkWhiz recommended 🚇 CTA accessible https://www.transitchicago.com/planatrip/ ❗ **No-Show Policy** 3 no-shows without RSVP updates = 3-month event freeze. 🎭✨ **This is a true Theater Week steal — grab your ticket before it’s gone!**

We will meet to discuss “the Passenger” by Cormac McCarthy. As a misunderstood loner, I am drawn to McCarthy with a seemingly magnetic pull. I want to give a description that defies non attendance, but I feel like the less we know before we start reading the better. We will discuss the first two chapters.

**[American Prophets Workshop: Writing Religion with Andrew Krivák](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/american-prophets-workshop-writing-religion-with-andrew-krivak-tickets-1979771504865?aff=oddtdtcreator)** A generative, first-person writing workshop about religion, spirituality, and faith with ational Book Award finalist **Andrew Krivák** (*The Sojourn*, *The Bear*). Co-presented by **[StoryStudio Chicago](https://www.storystudiochicago.org/)**. This program is presented in conjunction with the AWM’s special exhibit ***[American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture](https://awmamericanprophets.org/)***, a powerful new exhibit that takes you on the ultimate exploration through spirituality and storytelling. *American Prophets* is supported by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. **More about the workshop from Andrew Krivák:** This workshop is intended for students who are interested in writing longer form narratives from the first-person point of view. The “I” at the center of any writing poses a perspective that is all at once imaginatively powerful and narratively problematic, uniquely insightful and necessarily unreliable. What I hope to suggest in the two hours we’ll be together is that writing in the first-person point of view is primarily—and most interestingly—a means toward salvation, which is to say, a kind of healing (from the Greek *sozo*). Thus, we’ll consider the question of not simply why do writers write in the first-person but why do *you* want to write in the first-person? Students ought to be working on, or have in mind, a piece of writing they want to tell in the first-person. The workshop aspect of the two hours will consist of drafting and honing first paragraphs. I would also like to ask students to have read, or be familiar with, one of four novels: *A River Runs Through It*, by Norman Maclean; *Austerlitz*, by W.G. Sebald; *Gilead*, by Marilynne Robinson; and *Lost Children Archive*, by Valeria Luiselli. Of course, any favorite novel in the first-person brought up in the discussion will be welcome. **ANDREW KRIVÁK** is the author of five novels, two chapbooks of poetry, and two works of nonfiction. His 2011 debut novel, *The Sojourn*, was a National Book Award finalist and winner of both the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for fiction and the inaugural Chautauqua Prize. He followed *The Sojourn* with *The Signal Flame*, set in fictional Dardan, Pennsylvania. His third novel, *The Bear*, received the Banff Mountain Book Prize for fiction, the Massachusetts Book Award, and was a four-year National Endowment for the Arts Big Read title. *Like the Appearance of Horses*, released in 2023, returned to the characters and landscape of Dardan, Pennsylvania and was a *Library Journal* selection for “Best Literary Fiction of 2023.” His fifth novel, *Mule Boy*, will be released February 24, 2026. As a poet, Andrew has published the short collections *Islands*, and *Ghosts of the Monadnock Wolves*, and in 2025 received the Moth Poetry Prize. He is also author of the memoir *A Long Retreat: In Search of a Religious Life*, and editor of *The Letters of William Carlos Williams to Edgar Irving Williams, 1902-1912*, which won the Louis Martz Prize for scholarly research on William Carlos Williams. He holds a BA from St. John’s College, Annapolis; an MFA in poetry from Columbia University; an MA in philosophy from Fordham; and a PhD in literary modernism from Rutgers. Currently, Andrew is a discussion facilitator with the New Hampshire Department of Corrections *Family Connections* *Center*, and a Visiting Lecturer on English at Harvard. He lives with his wife and three children in Somerville, Massachusetts, and Jaffrey, New Hampshire. **StoryStudio Chicago** is a nonprofit literary arts organization focused on building a writing community. They offer more than 200 online and in-person creative writing classes and events each year, which include everything from single-session classes focused on one aspect of craft to multi-session weekly classes to full year-long programs. They nurture writers of all ages and all skill levels, and their programming covers all genres, from short stories and novels, to creative nonfiction like memoirs and essays to poetry, screenwriting, satire, and just about anything you can imagine.

This workshop is inspired by a fast-paced exercise used in professional writers’ rooms. You’ll be given a premise, constraint, or specific expectation for a joke — and then you’ll have a limited amount of time to write **20 jokes**. The rules might be structural (“write in a tricolon”), practical (“it must last 23 seconds”), content-based (“include ‘Tide’ in a positive light”), character-driven (“don’t reveal she’s getting fired”), or completely absurd (“give me the worst knock-knock joke imaginable”). The constraints change. The pressure stays. The goal is volume, flexibility, and surprise. Once time is up, everyone pitches their jokes to the room. We’ll offer encouraging, constructive feedback focused on sharpening instincts and helping you discover your individual writing process under pressure. If time allows, we may also take premises from participants and collectively punch up one of your jokes as a group. This is a high-rep, low-ego environment designed to strengthen joke mechanics, adaptability, and speed — while still making room for your voice.

All genre of writers are welcome. We begin each meeting with a quick writing activity followed by two critique sessions. We use Google Drive to share. Newbies can click on this link to gain access to the Edgy Writers Folders. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12dEDjcWEoJp0LC250heyUM0VfVl-t_Nk?usp=drive_link

We have a new home! We will be meeting at the Art Maker's Outpost 609 South Blvd, Evanston, IL 60202. It is one block west and one block north of the South Blvd L station. Welcome to the Evanston Writers Workshop Critique Group. One of two foundational programs of EWW, the Critique Group is a group of professional and aspiring writers who help each other polish their writing. Through workshop-style critique, writers have the opportunity to receive direct feedback from attentive readers who understand the craft of writing. For more information, weekly submission links, as well as submission guidelines and requirements, please visit [https://evanstonwritersworkshop.org/submissionguidlines](https://evanstonwritersworkshop.org/submissionguidlines) or our website at [www.evannstonwritersworkshop.org](www.evannstonwritersworkshop.org) . Friendly reminder: please have your submissions uploaded by the Friday (midnight) before the meeting.