The Writer’s Handful with Terry H. Watkins

Mondays + Writers = Finally something to look forward to! Today we hear from Terry H. Watkins, whose brand new and affecting novel, Darling Girl, will celebrate its book birthday this week. Kirkus Reviews had lots of good things to say about this coming of age story, including this: “a powerful drama that impressively manages to both […]

The Writer’s Handful with Megan Alice

Mondays + Writers = Finally something to look forward to! Okay, so when I was seventeen I wrote poems (didn’t we all?) and hid them away in notebooks and folded sheets of paper stuffed under my socks in my dresser. Today, in the Writer’s Handful, I want to introduce to you the seventeen-year-old poet Megan […]

The Writer’s Handful With Justin O’Brien

Mondays + Writers = Finally something to look forward to Fifty years ago this summer, the Democratic National Convention came to Chicago. I was just a little girl in 1968, but I remember watching this on our black and white television: the boisterous goings-on inside the convention center, and the scary, dangerous goings-on outside in […]

The Writer’s Handful with Giano Cromley

Mondays + Writers = Finally something to look forward to. A couple of months ago, I met Giano Cromley at Hyde Park’s famous Jimmy’s Woodlawn Tap. He was there for a reading, a double book launch party for him (What We Build Upon the Ruins) and Joseph G. Peterson (Gunmetal Blue.) I didn’t know him […]

The Writer’s Handful with Joseph G. Peterson

Mondays + Writers = Finally something to look forward to. I first stumbled upon Joseph G. Peterson’s work with the publication of his novel, Wanted: Elevator Man. Joseph’s line-up of books (a half-dozen so far) is diverse (including a novel in verse!) and impressive. His most recent book, just released by the very fine Tortoise […]

The Writer’s Handful with James Tadd Adcox

Mondays + Writers = Finally something to look forward to. Curbside Splendor is at it again–publishing cutting edge work by butt-kicking emerging writers. Does Not Love is the debut novel of JAMES TADD ADCOX, and folks are paying attention to it. Roxanne Gay says “…Adcox is a writer who knows how to make the reader believe the […]

The Writer’s Handful with Carrie Etter

Mondays + Writers = Finally something to look forward to. After a bit of hiatus, I am so very pleased to bring you The Writer’s Handful again. And I am even more pleased to have CARRIE ETTER, a remarkable poet and sudden prose writer, join us today. You must find Carrie’s work and read it immediately. […]

The Writer’s Handful with Patricia Skalka

Mondays + Writers = Finally something to look forward to. Putting together your summer reading list? Looking for a smart, tough mystery to add to it? Check out the fist in the Dave Cubiak Mystery Series, DEATH STALKS DOOR COUNTY, the debut novel by Chicago author PATRICIA SKALKA. Publishers Weekly calls this book “A tight, lyrical […]

The Writer’s Handful with Dan Burns

Mondays + Writers = Finally something to look forward to. Chicago author DAN BURNS came at this writing thing by a different path than most, arriving at it after years of corporate work. But taking the long way around hasn’t kept Dan from getting where he wants to be. He’s just released his second book, a […]