Mary Margaret Sloan has risen to the defense of the Windy City.

 

Hi, Ron. I can't remember if Larry and I had moved to Chicago the last time I saw you. We've been here nearly four years now and though both of us were immediately interested in the city, we grow to like it more and more as time goes by. We're both enjoying our jobs. Larry's doing health policy research at the University of Chicago and I'm teaching both at the U of C and in the graduate writing program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. And there is much more going on literarily than I had expected.

 

I'd like to give you a sense of what's been going on here. Though there is a large academic institutional presence in Chicago (of which more later), the city also has a growing number of publications and events outside the academy walls.

 

Last year Kerri Sonnenberg started the Discrete Series (readings) with Jesse Seldes. They've recently had Lisa Jarnot, Steve Benson, Brian Henry, Stephen Ratcliffe, as well as, from the Midwest, Mark Nowak (Minneapolis), Drew Kunz, Lisa Samuels, Stacy Szymaszek and Bob Harrison (Milwaukee), Graham Foust (Iowa), as well as locals Daniel Borzutzky, Greg Purcell, Bill Fuller, and temporary locals, Dawn Michelle Baude and Arielle Greenberg. Future readers are Lewis Warsh, Jen Hofer, Bill Fuller, Chris Stroffolino, myself and others. Kerri also edits Conundrum Magazine and Jesse edits Antennae, both looking very good in their first few issues.

 

There is also The Danny's Tavern Reading Series started by Greg Purcell and now run by Joel Craig and John Beer. Past readers have included Peter Gizzi, Tom Raworth, Trevor Joyce, Michael Heller, Forrest Gander, Laura Mullen, Basil King, Karen Volkman, Martin Riker, Joyelle McSweeney, Ray Bianchi, Andrew Zawacki, Chuck Stevelton, Paul Hoover, and a LVNG Magazine reading including Peter O'Leary, Jeremy Biles, Nathalie Stephens, Michael O'Leary and John Tipton. Coming soon, relatively new locals Dan Beachy-Quick and David Trinidad.

 

Another excellent ongoing magazine is the one mentioned above, LVNG (10 issues), edited by the O'Leary brothers (Peter and Michael) and Joel Felix. LVNG is associated with Flood Editions (eds. Devin Johnston and Michael O'Leary) which has recently published books by, among others, Lisa Jarnot, Graham Foust, William Fuller, Robert Duncan, Fanny Howe, and Pam Rehm; forthcoming in January: John Tipton. Loosely associated, also, is the Chicago Poetry Project, a reading series run by John Tipton at the downtown Harold Washington Library. Recent readers include Fanny Howe, Joseph Donahue, Christine Hume, Pam Rehm, Phil Jencks, Elizabeth Willis, John Taggart, Tyrone Williams, Hoa Nguyen, as well as locals Peter O'Leary, Karen Volkman, Maggie Frozena, Matthias Regan, Eric Elshtain, and Joel Felix. Upcoming: Stacy Szymaszek and Tsering Wangmo Dhompa.

 

Other venues and organizations include The Bridge (events and publications); occasional or regular readings at 57th Street Books in Hyde Park, Women and Children First, Myopic Books, Barbara's Books and Powell's Books; as well as the older, established institutions such as the Guild Complex, The Poetry Center, The Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature, and, of course, Poetry Magazine. I'm sure I'm leaving out others.

 

You're right that the University of Chicago has a large presence. The Poem Present reading series, begun by Danielle Allen and now run by Bradin Cormack, both younger U of C professors, has hosted, over the past couple of years, among others, Alice Notley, Michael Palmer, Thom Gunn, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Nathaniel Mackey, Fanny Howe, and will soon have Lisa Jarnot and Robert Creeley. As you know, the Chicago Review, edited by Eirik Steinhoff, poetry editor Eric Elshtain, has for a number of years now been well worth reading. The U of C's Renaissance Society (in spite of the name, its focus is on contemporary art) last year sponsored a reading by Lyn Hejinian in conjunction with an installation by local conceptual artist and writer Helen Mirra. And a new creative writing program is just getting off the ground.

 

The Columbia College creative writing program, for many years under the direction of Paul Hoover, produces the Columbia College Poetry Review and also has a very long-standing reading series which has featured dozens of poets including Nathaniel Mackey, Cole Swensen, Elizabeth Robinson, Tom Raworth, Ann Lauterbach, Laura Mullen, Li-Young Lee, and David Trinidad.

 

There's also the MFA in Writing Program at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This is an unusual program: students are not required to declare a genre and the program specifically facilitates multimedia work: writing students can take classes in any other department they choose. It's only six years old, but already a lot of exciting work is starting to pour out of it. One group of graduating students, deciding not to move to either coast but to stay and make a base for themselves here in Chicago, created a project called Telophase which focuses on text-plus work and produces about six events per year, each including an installation, performance and magazine. Other post-SAIC groups are currently forming.

 

It's a lot! I'm amazed at how often I have to choose between events. If you haven't seen it, you might be interested in taking a look at LVNG 8, The Great Lakes Issue, which provides a look at some of what's being done between here and Buffalo, a surprising view from a different angle. If you can, do come see for yourself.

 

All best to you and to Krishna,

 

Mary Margaret (Margy) Sloan