Please Read! A call for help from the Chicago literary community. (updated)

UPDATE: C.T. Ballentine has been located and is relatively well and safe. His friends thank you for all your help and support.


To Whom It May Concern:

We are asking people all over Chicago to help find a missing friend.

You may know C.T. Ballentine, a very talented artist who lives in the McKinley Park neighborhood of Chicago. He has been missing since Friday, and all of his friends are worried about him.

He's been going through some difficult times, and has recently shaved his head. As you can read in the attached flyer, he is a writer, sound engineer, performer and active member of the Chicago's young artist community.

We would appreciate it if you could read this, and help us put it into as many hands as possible.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call Eric Graf. His number is at the top of the flyer.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Sincerely,

Friends of C.T. Ballentine


PLEASE READ THIS AND KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR C.T. BALLENTINE OF CHICAGO. HE IS MISSING, AND WE ARE WORRIED ABOUT HIM.

He was last seeing wearing dark cut off pants over sweatpants and a jean jacket. He has recently shaved his head.

There is a Missing Persons Report with the Chicago Police. If you have any information on his location please call 9-1-1 immediately. You can ask for confidentiality, if you want.

PLEASE SPREAD THIS MAILING FAR AND WIDE.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS CALL ERIC GRAF AT 773-934-6519



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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:

Casey Bye!

Aaron Plasek!

Kate Duva!

Richard Thomas!

This bitch!

Ben Tanzer!

Elizabeth Wylder!

After an intermission, there was the Dollar Store Reunion Tour!:

Caroline Picard!

Mary Hamilton! (Recently nominated by Smokelong Quarterly for Dzanc's Best of the Web, 2010!)

Zach Dodson!

Jac Jemc (blinded by her own brilliance)!

Aaron Burch! (For some reason there was no picture taken of Snack Pack. Instead, enjoy this video.)

Blake Butler!

Amelia Gray (fucking slayed)!

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!

Holy frijoles you guys...

This month's Quickies! may kick your ass! Our October show will be our second FUNdraiser! We have twelve amazing readers traveling from four states to join us for this show. Yow!

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
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.

CAROLINE PICARD

In addition to working as a visual artist, Caroline Picard is the Founding Director of The Green Lantern Gallery & Press, and a Co-Editor for the literary podcast The Parlor (www.theparlorreads.com). Her writing has been published in a handful of publications including the Phildelphia Independant, NewCity, Lumpen, MAKE Magazine, the Chicago Art Journal Review and Proximity Magazine. Twice a year she meets with a performance group and records improvised music under the collective alias Thee Iran Contras. For more information please visit www.thegreenlantern.org

AARON PLASEK

Aaron Plasek lives in Denver, Colorado, and is patiently waiting for the courage to write the book he does not know how to write. His poems can be found in Diagram, Alice Blue, Juked, and elsewhere. He has an MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and intermittently makes a living teaching literature and composition, most recently at Colorado State University and most most recently to the mockingbird that lives in his backyard.

AMELIA GRAY

Is the author of AM/PM, published by Featherproof Books. Her bookMuseum of the Weird is coming out in October 2010 through FC2.

CASEY BYE

Casey Bye is an MFA candidate in the Fiction Program at Columbia College Chicago. He currently writes for the A&E section of Milwaukee’s Shepherd Express and was previously a staff writer for Milwaukee’s Undercurrents. He is an editor and cofounder of the online literary journal, Knee-Jerk (kneejerkmag.com). He would like to own a dog someday so that his bio could read "He writes and lives with his dog in Chicago" because that'd be a cool bio, right?

ZACH DODSON

Zach Dodson once drank half a bottle of codeine cough syrup and recorded a song called Crazy Bat on his computer.

RICHARD THOMAS

Richard was the winner of the ChiZine Publications 2009 “Enter the World of Filaria” contest. His short story “Maker of Flight” was chosen by Filaria author Brent Hayward and Bram Stoker Award-Winning editor Brett Alexander Savory. Some of his publishing credits include Cemetery Dance (Shivers VI anthology, late 2009), 3:AM Magazine, Word Riot, Dogmatika, Gold Dust, Vain and Opium. He is currently pursuing a MFA at Murray State University in their low-residency program. He is also shopping his neo-noir thriller, Transubstantiate. Richard is a member of the Horror Writer’s Association.

AARON BURCH

edits hobart
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

BLAKE BUTLER

Blake Butler is fucking stupid.

So bring your party asses, friends! And some dollar dollar bills, ya'll! We love you and we can't wait to see each and every one of you!

Tuesday, October 13th

7:30 p.m.

Inntertown Pub

1935 W. Thomas, Chicago

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:

Zach Dodson! Subscribe to Triple Quick!

Jacob Knabb, in character!

Andrew Farkas!

Lindsay!

Jessa Marsh!

Mary!

Robbie Q. Telfer!

Patrick freakin' Somerville! (Look how the fever dream in his eyes has practically turned him into a zombie!)

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!)!

TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT

JACOB S KNABB

Jacob' S. Knabb'’s double-life as Fiction editor of Another Chicago Magazine and lecturer of composition at UIC has led him to cast his demons into a herd of swine he saw by a ravine. He is still waiting to hear them hit bottom.

ANDREW FARKAS

Andrew Farkas' Self-Titled Debut won the 2008 Subito Press Book Competition, and was published in December of 2008. His works have recently appeared in or will appear in The Cincinnati Review, Copper Nickel, Squid Quarterly, Spring Gun, Opium, and Sidebrow. When he's not writing, he's a runner for a letters racket on the Near West Side.

JESSA MARSH

Jessa Marsh hails from Michigan, but ran away to the big city of Chicago in 2007. She is a student at Columbia College in Chicago where she studies fiction. Her writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Word Riot, decomP, Monkeybicycle, Storyglossia, Knee-Jerk, and Pank. She has read at the Sunday Night Sex Show. She is the web editor of Monkeybicycle.



ROBBIE Q. TELFER

Robbie Q. Telfer is a touring performance poet, having been a featured performer/reader in hundreds of venues across North America and Germany - most recently with the spoken word experience The Junkyard Ghost Revival. Previous work appears in the American Book Review, Octopus Magazine, cream city review and decomP magazinE, as well as several spoken word anthologies and DVDs. He was an individual finalist at the National Poetry Slam in 2007 and he co-wrote the video game Ninjatown DS. He lives in Chicago where he curates the Encyclopedia Show and is the Director of Performing Arts for Young Chicago Authors, a not-for-profit that gives creative writing opportunities and mentorship to Chicago teens. His first published collection of poetry, Spiking the Sucker Punch, will be released in the Fall from Write Bloody.



PATRICK SOMERVILLE

Patrick Somerville grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and later earned his MFA from Cornell University. He has taught creative writing and English at Cornell, Northwestern University, Auburn State Correctional Facility, and The Graham School in Chicago. His first book of stories, Trouble, was published in September of 2006 (Vintage) and named 2006's Best Book by a Chicago Author by Time Out Chicago, and his first novel, The Cradle, was published by Little, Brown in March of 2009. His writing has appeared in One Story, Epoch, GQ, Esquire, and Best American Nonrequired Reading. Patrick was recently selected as the winner of the 2009 21st Century Award, given annually by the Chicago Public Library.



QUICKIES!
Tuesday, September 8
7:30 pm
The Innertown Pub
1935 W Thomas


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can you handle it?!

featuring:

Jessa Marsh
Andrew Farkas
Robbie Q Telfer
Jacob Knabb
and Patrick Somerville



QUICKIES!
Tuesday, September 8
7:30 pm
The Innertown Pub
1935 W Thomas



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TOBYFEST and Contest Winners Night: A Success!

It was a grand August Quickies!, what with our dear mascot being recognized and all the previously-unknown-to-us contest winners kicking ass and bringing in new audience members. Two of our winners don't even live in Chicago, or even in the same time zone, but were able to make the trip to read!

First, our amazing contest winners (plus Mary):

Erica Walker Adams read one-armed! 

Mary Hamilton read an amazing story written the same day! (Her shit's blowin up right now. Get familiar here, here, and here!)

Tad Adcox blew the room to shreds (he even sang!)!

Greg Gerke, you had us at "ma lady"!

Sasha Graybosch showed 'em how to wear cute sandals AND read a great story!

Megan Milks slayed!

After our contest winners, we brought out Toby Bengelsdorf, Quickies! mascot, Fiction at Work editor-in-chief, and author of An Implausibility of Gnus (out now on Another New Calligraphy! $8! So affordable!):

We love him so. 

Thanks to all the contest winners - you were beyond and we are so thrilled to have you as part of the Quickies! family! And thanks to Toby for being a great mascot and not minding when we embarrass him (cough at every single reading cough).

See you in September!

"Lindsay Hunter" is actually spelled K-n-i-g-h-t--R-i-d-e-r

MONDAY NIGHT

Check out our own lovely hostess with the mostess, Lindsay Hunter as she reads as part of the You, Me, Them, Everybody Reading at the Hungry Brain

August 17th

Readings from:
Aaron Cynic
Lindsay Hunter
Andrew Mall
Scott Smith

Hosted by Brandon Wetherbee

Hungry Brain
2319 W Belmont, Chicago, IL
Doors at 8pm, 21+, no cover

zow!

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Hey girl, I like the way you dance

QUICKIES! IS BACK!


We're back with a BANG!

This month, QUICKIES! is having a double-celebration!

First, we're celebrating the release of our mascot, Toby Bengelsdorf's book, "An Implausibility of Gnus"

and

We're so so so happy to present our CONTEST WINNERS, this month's show will feature the top five stories from our very first QUICKIES! Contest!



ERICA WALKER ADAMS

Erica Adams lives in Chicago. You can read her blog at http://ericawadams.blogspot.com/



JAMES ADCOX

James Tadd Adcox is the Editor-in-Chief of Artifice Magazine (www.artificemag.com). He has work published or forthcoming in Quick Fiction, Makeout Creek, Barrelhouse, and the Literary Journal, among other places. He lives in Chicago.

GREG GERKE

Greg Gerke lives in Buffalo. His work has or will appear in Gargoyle, Rosebud, Fourteen Hills, Night Train, Flash Forward Press 2009 Anthology and others. There’s Something Wrong With Sven, a book of short fiction has been published by Blaze Vox Books. His website is www.greggerke.com

SASHA GRAYBOSCH

Sasha Graybosch is a writer in New York City. Her fiction has appeared in elimae and Dogzplot and she contributes to the online magazine The Rumpus. She is a writing consultant at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and works for the indie press Akashic Books. She blogs at http://sashagraywart.blogspot.com/



MEGAN MILKS

Megan Milks is a Ph.D. candidate in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois. Her work is anthologized in Thirty Under Thirty; Wreckage of Reason: An Anthology of Contemporary Xxperimental Prose by Women Writers; and Fist of the Spider Woman: Tales of Fear and Queer Desire. She won the 2008 Goodnow Award in Prose and was a finalist in DIAGRAM's inaugural $5 Innovative Fiction Contest. Her work can be found in DIAGRAM, Mad Hatters Review, Pocket Myths, and The Wild. She co-edits Mildred Pierce Magazine.
(http://mildredpierce.wordpress.com)



Hooray for Toby!

Hooray for the contest winners!

Hooray Hooray!



QUICKIES!
Tuesday, August 11
7:30pm
The Innertown Pub
Chicago

Video famous

Check it out!

Lindsay and Mary were interviewed by the lovely Amy Guth for Chicago SubText!

Watch Mary do her best Urkel impression while Lindsay tosses her hair like she's in a Pantene commercial. We know how to bring it.

Lindsay Hunter & Mary Hamilton at Printers' Ball from Amy Guth on Vimeo.

While you're there, watch the other videos!


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