An inspiring, life-affirming column from @heidikstevens.bsky.social to start the New Year, reminding us to find the joy wherever we can & take care of one another ✨️ #NewYear2026 #newyear

Outside the Chicago Humanities event with @margaretatwood.bsky.social, women in Handmaid-style red robes were handing out anti-fascist pamphlets to attendees. "Some people object to having you say out loud the thing that they have said themselves they want to do," Atwood said of her iconic book. 1/

The Chicago Tribune’s 10 best books of 2025: a bit of horror, a little graphic biography, a resonant history lesson (@risenc.bsky.social) and a touch of Chicago true crime www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/03/t...

“Have Yourself A Merriam Little Christmas” Merriam, a career-oriented lexicographer from the city, returns to her small town for the holidays and meets Webster, a ruggedly handsome librarian, who shows her the true DEFINITION of Christmas.

Great reading list here, in which I recommend my favorite book of the year, Xenobe Purvis' fabulous debut The Hounding 🐕✨️ (@henryholtbooks.bsky.social)

Heartfelt congrats to the winners of this year's Chicago Review of Books Awards! 📚👏🏻 @samiraahmed.bsky.social @eveewing.bsky.social @adrianacardmag.bsky.social @tvayyyy.bsky.social

Stunned and honored to have received the 10th Annual Chicago Review of Books Award for Fiction. The CHIRBys are a special event, a truly Chicago moment.Thank you @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social and all the readers, writers, judges, supporters, and members of this extraordinary community.

My first book pubs today, and among other things it is a love letter to Chicago — the city and the communities that have been a tenth muse for me. Margaret C. Anderson's story is also, I hope, a reminder that good art requires taking big risks. www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Dang...

Thanks to Rick Kogan at @chicagotribune.com for this wonderful piece about the American Writers Museum’s new exhibit! American Prophets: Writers, Religion & Culture is an expansive, fascinating initiative and it was a pleasure to work on this. Highly recommend stopping by if you're in Chicago!

I cannot overstate what an inspiring, brilliant & empowering teacher-essayist @meganstielstra.bsky.social is. So if you have stories inside you that you are terrified of writing and/or feel like they are clawing their way out of you, you should probably join me in January. LET'S GO 🖊🔥

Proud to work with this incredible literary nonprofit & serve on its board. Congratulations to the whole staff for this deserved recognition of your work! 👏🏻

In my first article for Newcity magazine, I spoke with @finejuli.bsky.social (writing as Margaux Eliot) about Honeymoon Stage, her "MTV reality show book" 🎬🌴💄 More on this witty & humorous romp through early aughts pop culture in the story linked below!

Thank you @elizabethniarchosneukirch.com !!!

As someone who survived a major medical trauma, I really cannot recommend Small Rain enough. This book is a philosophical, nuanced, beautifully lyrical meditation on illness and survival and hope for what comes after. Heartfelt congrats @garthgreenwell.bsky.social on this deserved award!

Thanks to Colvin House for hosting and the Book Cellar for selling books (and providing the book cover cake)! And thanks to everybody who came to @bethrooney.bsky.social's and my launch party for LEAF TOWN FOREVER from @uminnpress.bsky.social!

This Novel in a Year program not only helped me finish my first book, it led me to a supportive community of writers I've been workshopping with since 2020. (With thanks to author-instructor Abby Geni for encouraging my ambitious project even when it felt impossible.)

Had a blast at ABC7 Chicago today for an interview about ancient Greek poet Homer’s Odyssey and the National Hellenic Museum's two-day Homerathon this week! Segment linked below 🔱⛵️🧜‍♀️🏺

Reading Rainbow… is back! 🥹 This LeVar Burton/Reading Rainbow raised human is feeling all of the library joy. We hope your kids believe they belong in books, just like you ✨ Take a look, it’s in a book 📚🌈🦋🌌 youtu.be/gHAIjSkmnYI?...

Wait for it... 🔥

We are so thrilled to announce the shortlist for 2025 CHIRBys!!! Congratulations to all of our finalists 🥳🥳🥳

"We are at risk of losing one of our most precious freedoms: the freedom to write." In a new op-ed in The Los Angeles Times, PEN America's Summer Lopez warns the assault on free speech in the United States has "entered an alarming new phase." Read more: www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

New book loading... 📖✨️ Beyond excited to be awarded a residency fellowship from @the-vcca.bsky.social to work on my second novel! I'm incredibly grateful for this opportunity and support--especially given the deeply personal origin of my new project. #VCCAFellows #writinglife #artistresidency

Join the thronging (or so @storystudiochicago.bsky.social tells me) throngs who are thronging to sign up for this super-duper, IISSM, four-part copyediting celebration!

The 2025 volume of CLOCKHOUSE, a national literary journal, has just been published, & I'm honored it includes my short story "Otto and Edith." So grateful to the entire CLOCKHOUSE team! For more info and to order visit clockhouse.net. #writingcommunity #fightfascism #defenddemocracy

Fun morning with WGN TV talking about Chicago's Taste of Greektown festival and the National Hellenic Museum 🇬🇷✨️ Proud to rep this neighborhood and my Greek American heritage. More in my interview linked below!

We will be publishing cultural criticism every day at The Rumpus. We hope to fill some of this egregious void being created by the mainstream media. Relaunch is in October but we are also publishing between now and then.

Congrats to friend @kp-writer.bsky.social on her debut novel! 🔥👟 #BellaBooks #romance

Great interview on @wdcb909.bsky.social "The Arts Section" today with @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social about StoryBoard Festival Aug. 16-17, presented by @storystudiochicago.bsky.social #writingcommunity 🖊✨️📚 Listen here: theartssection.org/episodes/202...

Our Authors in Conversation event is coming up soon -- August 13! This free event at Sulzer Library features our five StoryBoard Conference & Festival instructors and our Artistic Director Rebecca Makkai. RSVP for your spot now: buff.ly/FwVOOEt #chicago

New book loading... 📖✨️ Beyond excited to be awarded a residency fellowship from @the-vcca.bsky.social to work on my second novel! I'm incredibly grateful for this opportunity and support--especially given the deeply personal origin of my new project. #VCCAFellows #writinglife #artistresidency

Absolutely stunned & over the moon to win the inaugural DAG Prize in Literature, an award to a writer "whose work expands the possibilities of American art." With my entire corazón, thank you to @dagfoundation.bsky.social, Andrew Altschul, & @vauhinivara.bsky.social. lithub.com/michael-zapa...

Thank you @art.newcity.com.web.brid.gy for the lovely review of American Mythology! lit.newcity.com/2025/07/21/f... #Bigfoot #bookreview @doubledaybooks.bsky.social

For anyone who loves myths or American tall tales, check out @giano.bsky.social fantastical, heartfelt debut novel AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY! A great read. More in my first review for Newcity magazine, linked below. #NewBooks #booksky #BookReview #BookRecommendation

Our free Write Out at Begyle Brewing happens next Monday, July 21. Join us for a drink and a few hours of writing. RSVP now: buff.ly/UoEptrX #chicagowriters

✨Cover reveal!✨ Super excited to share the creepy cover of my dreams for my debut novel, HEMLOCK, coming 1/20/26 from @littlebrown.bsky.social & now available for preorder! You can find it at all major retailers and, better yet, your local indie bookstore or @bookshop.org. See you in the woods! 🦌🌲👻

1. Visit @bookshop.org and select the local independent bookstore you wish to support ❤️ 2. Buy more books than you will ever have time to read 📚📚📚 3. Feel happy knowing you have helped authors and bookstores instead of billionaires 🙌🏻

SUNDAY SALON CHICAGO is pleased to announce its next in-person reading event @roscoebooks.bsky.social on July 27 at 7 pm CT, featuring Rita Woods, Cynthia Pelayo, @meganstielstra.bsky.social, Westley Heine, & @wesblake.bsky.social 🔥❤️👏 Bios are up at www.sundaysalon-chicago.com. Mark your calendars!

So excited to have an essay in ON AN INLAND SEA: WRITING THE GREAT LAKES, edited by @mbwwelch.bsky.social, coming out in March of 2026 from @beltmagazine.bsky.social. Preorders are now live. Add to cart! beltpublishing.com/products/on-...

Jess Walter's SO FAR GONE is one of the most fun reading experiences I've had in a while. If you're a fan of his, you'll love this book -- it feels like a greatest hits album of his career. My review for @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social: chireviewofbooks.com/2025/06/16/f... #books #booksky

There is truly nothing better than a summer festival in Chicago -- especially a writer's festival! Join us at the Newberry Library August 16-17 for our StoryBoard Festival -- a weekend of craft and publishing classes, panels, and social events. Tickets on sale now: buff.ly/wVY8fg8 #chicago

So stoked to be teaching Novel in a Year again. If you're looking for a formative, dedicated year to start or finish that novel, come write with me! :)

Congrats to all the Chicago literary VIPs featured in this year's Newcity Lit 50, including friends @jesskeller42.bsky.social & @anandalima.bsky.social @storystudiochicago.bsky.social, Bette Cerf Hill, @mbwwelch.bsky.social, and @awmuseum.bsky.social Carey Cranston & Allison Sansone! #ChicagoIsLit 📚

Thrilled to featured on the Hear Us Roar podcast to talk about my debut novel, Coming Clean. Thank you, Women's Fiction Writers Association and Maggie Smith, for the great discussion. Listen here: maggiesmithwriter.com/podcast/ @regalhouse.bsky.social

We're excited to bring you another installment of our American Prophets programming series. On June 23, join us for Faith is Funny at the Studebaker Theater! Featuring @neginfarsad.bsky.social, @harikondabolu.bsky.social, ‪@petersagal.bsky.social, and Kate Sidley Get tickets at bit.ly/4kXvUu7

Who’s up for a body-horror love story? If you act fast, you can read it before my husband does. Many thanks to @aaronburch.bsky.social & @havehashad.com for giving this cringey cnf a good home.

Leaf Town Forever--the picture book in haiku that I co-wrote w/Beth Rooney & that is illustrated by Betsy Bowen--has a gorgeous cover & is available for pre-order at @uminnpress.bsky.social Add to cart now to receive it when it's out on October 14th, 2025! www.upress.umn.edu/978151791737...

Oh hey, @tmcallister.bsky.social's IT ALL FELT IMPOSSIBLE is on the @washingtonpost.com's list of 15 new paperbacks to read this month! www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

I made you a REAL summer reading list of fifteen REAL books by REAL authors— books that might not be on your radar. Some old, some newer. Here it is. rebeccamakkai.substack.com/p/fifteen-re...

Great event coming up in Chicago with award-winning journalists & authors @natalieymoore.bsky.social and @lizflock.bsky.social on Tues, May 27. Free registration, details below!

Fun previewing the massive Vivid Creatures sculptures at The MortonArboretum this past week with @nbcchicago.com & @wgntv.com 🌈🐌🌳 A beautiful and whimsical exhibition!