Jac Jemc
Zach Dodson
Steve Tartaglione
Kyle Beachy
Anthony Luebbert
Aaron Burch
Adam Novy
Amy Butcher
Jill Summers
and Roxane Gay
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Quickies Gets Corn-y!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
AND THE READERS GOT SWAGGER
The May Quickies! was a hell of a show, Dad. Hell of a show!





All the readers had the place giggling and sometimes guffawing. Thanks to these great writers for participating!
See you July 13!!
Monday, May 10, 2010
TEASER: SAM PINK
sam pink lives in chicago. he wrote "i am going to clone myself then kill the clone and eat it" (paperhero press 09), "frowns need friends too" (afterbirth books 2010) and "the self esteem holocaust comes home" (six gallery press 2010). visit him at impersonalelectroniccommunicat
Sunday, May 9, 2010
TEASER: JONATHAN MESSINGER
Jonathan Messinger is the books editor for Time Out Chicago, and co-founder of Featherproof Books. He's also the author of Hiding Out, and is at work on Hiding Out 2: Hiding In and Hiding Out 3: Don't Stop Hiding.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
TEASER: SARA LEVINE
Sara Levine's always short writing has appeared in Nerve, The Iowa Review, Conjunctions, Fairy Tale Review, and many other magazines. She won a 2008 Bridport Prize for Fiction, and her essays have been anthologized in Best of Fence and The Touchstone Anthology of Creative Nonfiction: 1970 to the Present. She is Chair of the Writing Program at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Friday, May 7, 2010
TEASER: AMANDA MARBAIS
Amanda Marbais' fiction has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Monkeybicycle, Hobart web, Fiction at Work, Kill Author, The2ndHand and Staccato. She is the Managing Editor for Requited Journal. She lives in Chicago.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
TEASER: NATALIE EDWARDS
Natalie once worked at an Australian-themed indoor theme park called CoolWalla Carnival, but now writes plays and short stories and some art reviews. In December, one of her short stories was in the Chicago Reader's fiction issue. She was named one of the funniest women of mcsweeney's by The Rumpus, and she has a food blog. The last recipe she featured was a recipe for gator tail that she learned from some guy on the side of the road.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
TEASER: MATT TRUPIA
Matt Trupia lives in Chicago and is a member of The Backrow sketch comedy group. He writes for the sporadic website Spider and Bird. (We like this one a lot.)
Friday, March 5, 2010
OH HELL yes.
Justyn Harkin lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter. His work has appeared in Word Riot, Thieves Jargon, and The Angler. He also has a cat, Frida, with a nervous condition that makes her lick all her fur off her belly. It’s the weirdest thing.
P. Genesius Durica has had work appear or is forthcoming in ACM, the Seattle Review, Indiana Review, Tin House, and Mid-American Review among other places. He is the fiction editor of Chicago Review and the founder of Pocket Guide to Hell tours.
Some people say Melanie Datz is really mean, other people say she's kinda awesome. She's published stories in Night Train, Red Clay Review, Knee-Jerk and other places. She pays rent by writing those annoying Facebook ads that encourage you to get your degree online.
James Tadd Adcox
James Tadd Adcox is the Editor in Chief of Artifice Magazine (www.artificemag.com). He has work published or forthcoming in The Literary Review, Barrelhouse, Another Chicago Magazine, and n+1, among other places. He lives in Chicago.
Elizabeth Wylder took the scenic route to Chicago, stopping along the way to peddle foam rocks at Epcot, teach a college course on Clint Eastwood movies, and deliver milkshakes. Currently, she teaches at the City Colleges of Chicago and is the editor of PureFrancis.org. Her poetry collection, Antarctica is for Sleepers, is out this month from Another New Calligraphy.
Brian Costello is the author of "The Enchanters vs. Sprawlburg Springs," is a frequent contributor to the Chicago Reader, plays guitar and sings in Johnny and the Limelites, and plays drums in Other Minds.
Billy Lombardo was born and raised in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood. He is the author of The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories, a Chicago Tribune Best Fiction of 2005 selection, How to Hold a Woman, (OV Books 2009), a book of poetry/prose, Meanwhile, Roxy Mourns (EM Press 2009) and The Man with Two Arms, (Overlook Press 2010). Billy has just completed a Young Adult novella titled, The Day of the Palindrome. Billy is the co-founder and artistic director of Polyphony H.S., a student-run national literary magazine for high school writers and editors (www.polyphonyhs.com).He has had fiction, essays, and nonfiction published or anthologized in StoryQuarterly, Cicada, TriQuarterly, Bryant Literary Review, Other Voices, The Spoken Word Redux, Elysian Fields Quarterly, River Oak Review, The Forest Park Post, Chicago Sun-Times, Knee-Jerk!, and other publications. Billy holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College, and BA from Loyola University. He teaches English literature and creative writing at Latin School of Chicago and teaches fiction for UCLA's Extension program. Billy lives in Forest Park, Illinois, thirteen miles from 35th and Shields, where the White Sox play ball. You can contact him at polyphonyhs@gmail.com.
AND. This month we are being sponsored by Old Style, Chicago's favorite beer! If you like drink specials and fun, this is the event for you. And bring your dollar bills, because we'll be raffling off all kinds of goodies to benefit Doctors Without Borders!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Tuesday! New Year, New Time Limit! Quickies! is your Best Friend Forevs!!
QUICKIES!
7:30 PM
BYRON FLITSCH
Byron Flitsch is a freelance writer, performer, and future travel show host living in Chicago. Transplanted from a small town in Wisconsin, Flitsch attended Columbia College. He's been published in The Advocate, Newcity Magazine, and is a relationship columnist for Windy City Times. You can stalk him properly at his website: www.byronflitsch.com
BRANDON WILL
Brandon Will is not very quick at most things. Actually he's somewhat slow, in ways both bad (flighty) and good (methodical). A former puppeteer (at a Detroit store-front theater) and moviemaker (of a ridiculously ambitious feature, Dadbot: The Movie), he currently works at a wonderful little indie bookstore and pursues a split-major in fiction writing and screenwriting at Columbia College Chicago. In the future he hopes to be a better man. His work was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He sometimes takes a very long time to brush his teeth and put his shoes on.
ELIZABETH ELLEN
Elizabeth Ellen is the author of Before You She Was a Pit Bull (Future Tense), Sixteen Miles Outside of Phoenix (Rose Metal Press) and Mouthfeel (Paper Hero Press, 2010). She is editor of Hobart's Short Flight/Long Drive books and lives in Ann Arbor.
GOLDIE GOLDBLOOM
Goldie Goldbloom's fiction has been published or is forthcoming in StoryQuarterly, Narrative Magazine, Prairie Schooner, and a story collection by emerging Australian writers. She won the Jerusalem Post's International Fiction Prize. Her non-fiction is forthcoming in "Keep Your Wives Away From Them: An Anthology of Writing by Orthodykes". Her novel, "Toads' Museum of Freaks and Wonders", forthcoming February 1st, won the AWP Novel Award and has been published in Australia.She is an MFA student at Warren Wilson. She likes to walk barefoot in mud.
ROBYN PENNACCHIA
Robyn was raised in the Swiss Alps by her gruff but kindly hermit grandfather, until she was adopted by a rich English family where she spent much of her time tap dancing with the household staff and teaching Elizabeth Taylor to walk again. Also, she co-hosts TheSunday Night Sex Show reading at the Burlington, and has been published in the feminist magazines Bitch and Bust... as well a local magazine about socialite weddings.
TIM JONES-YELVINGTON
Tim Jones-Yelvington lives and writes in Chicago. His work has appeared in Sleepingfish, Annalemma, Pank, Keyhole, Monkeybicycle and others. He contributes to the group blog "Big Other" and maintains his personal blog "Ejaculations of a Perverse Adult."
JESSI LEE GAYLORD
Jessi Lee Gaylord lives and writes in Chicago. Her work has appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, Spoon River Poetry Review, and After Hours. She is currently an MFA student, and hard at work on her first novel.
BARRY GRAHAM
Barry Graham teaches writing at Rutgers University and he wrote The National Virginity Pledge. Look for him online at
www.dogzplot.com. |
See you there!!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Kiss my ass. Kiss his ass. Kiss your ass. Happy Hanukkah.
Welp, December's Quickies! went off with nary a hitch in sight! An audience accrued despite assholish weather! Our readers killed! No one cried! See for yourselves:
'Twas a goodun. Thanks once again to our loyal audience and Innertown Pub! Stay tuned, ch-ch-ch-changes on the horizon! Happy holidays and we'll see you January 12.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
I WANT YOUR ROMANCE AND I WANT YOUR READING.
Sarah Grainer is a writer and emoticon designer currently squatting in Tinley Park.
Geoff Hyatt's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Temenos, Necrotic Tissue, ThugLit, The Harrow, and elsewhere. His first novel will be published by Leucrota Press in October 2010. A former staff writer for a children's entertainment company, bookseller, activist, and factory worker, he now writes and teaches in Chicago.
Lex Sonne is from central Kentucky. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Eleven Eleven, New Madrid, and Night Train. He is also the co-editor of the literary magazine Somnambulist Quarterly.
Jesse Jordan is best known as the inventor of such recreational activities as Jukebox Challenge, Flaming Kickball and Oaktree. He's huge in Europe.
Jill's audio fiction has been featured internationally by Chicago Public Radio, the Third Coast International Audio Festival, and New Adventures in Sound Art. Her work has appeared in Stop Smiling Magazine, Ninth Letter, Annalemma, The 2nd Hand, and MAKE magazine, among other places. She has three collections of audio shorts, Cohabitation, Les Petites Tristes, and In The Realm of Normal Sized Things.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
QUICKIES! OF THE WEIRD.
November's Quickies! was one of the weirdest ever and I don't think we'll ever be the same. If you didn't make it to witness the show for yourself, we feel sort of sorry for you.
Thanks, readers! You messed with our heads and it was delightful.
And thanks, audience! We love you. At the end of the night, after lots of weirdness and too many dumb foot-in-mouth things said by Lindsay, you were the wind beneath our wings.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
TELL ME WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE IF WE GO BACK TO NORMAL AGAIN...
You've heard of SuperSizin'. You know how it can clog your arteries and cottage-cheese up your thighs. But you're also familiar with how delicious something meaty and salty and bigger than normal feels sliding down your throat (that's for you, pervy blog skimmers!). Well, that's kind of how the Quickies! FUNdraiser was, and thankfully we had an audience full of deep throats (I'm sorry. I really am.).
Anyway. There were a lot of readers and a lot of amazing:
After an intermission, there was the Dollar Store Reunion Tour!:
Aaron Burch! (For some reason there was no picture taken of Snack Pack. Instead, enjoy this video.)
Shew. It was a long'un. But we made more money than at last year's fundraiser, and for that we thank our dear, dear audience! We love you!
See you November 10!
Friday, October 9, 2009
Holy frijoles you guys...
For only the second time ever, we are asking for handouts. In return, we will give our audience the best reading they have ever seen ever and if they're lucky, a few audience members will win prizes.
Featuring:
Jac Jemc has a novel coming out in three years from Dzanc. In the meantime, she's blogging her rejections at jacjemc.wordpress.com.
ELIZABETH WYLDER
Elizabeth Wylder's poetry, fiction, and audio have appeared in various literary journals including 2River View, The Legendary, and Natural Bridge. She is the editor of Pure Francis (www.purefrancis.org) and an instructor at Triton and Malcolm X Colleges. When she grows up, she wants to play in the NBA.
BEN TANZER
Ben Tanzer writes. He also blogs at This Blog Will Change Your Life (bentanzer.blogspot.com/). And watches way too much Sports Center. Still upon on his deathbed, he will receive total consciousness. So he’s got that going for him. Which is nice.
KATE DUVA
Kate Duva grew up in Chicago in a bar. Her work can be found in Fugue, Opium, and The Duva Diaries, a self-made publication. She has performed at the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mics awards, the Uptown Poetry Slam, and on Vocalo radio. Find her online at www.kateduva.blogspot.com.
spent his summer drunk and in a van on the dollar store tour
has a chapbook of short shorts coming out by the end of the year
is currently a student down there at university of illinois, champaign-urbana
will be reading in chicago again on thursday (10/15) for another chicago magazine's new issue release party
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Lindsay sucks but our September readers sure didn't!
Well. Many apologies for the lateness of this post. September was one of the best Quickies! ever; so good, in fact, that Lindsay has been in a fever dream ever since.
Speaking of fever dreams, the following pictures were taken on a not very good camera, and they look like people look in your fever dreams, so let's all pretend like the September Quickies! was so good that a fever dream overtook all of Innertown. Witness:
Many thanks to our fantastic readers - you were all amazingly awesome! And thanks to our audience that night, we hope you've escaped your fever dreams and will come to the next Quickies! on October 13 (stay tuned for details - holy shit you don't want to miss it!)!