Columbia College’s 14th annual literary festival, this year themed “Genre Bending: The Faces of Fiction,” presents readings and discussions featuring fiction writers and Columbia faculty, students, and alumni. Events run Sunday, March 14, through Friday, March 19, and all are free. Unless otherwise noted, the ones listed here take place at the Harold Washington Library Center, auditorium, 400 S. State. For more info call 312-369-7611 or see colum.edu/storyweek.
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This year’s headliner is the astoundingly prolific Joyce Carol Oates, who’s published more than 100 books, including novels, short-story collections, plays, essays, criticism, and young-adult and children’s fiction. Oates signs her latest story collection, Dear Husband, and participates in a Q and A hosted by lit scholar Gavin Cologne-Brookes, author of Dark Eyes on America: The Novels of Joyce Carol Oates (Mon 3/15, 2:30 PM). Later Oates chats with book critic and congenial and informed interviewer Donna Seaman (Mon 3/15, 6 PM).
The always popular Literary Rock & Roll event, themed “Rock the Genre,” features readings by Campbell, Hemon, and Sakey and a performance by Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theater (Thu 3/18, 6 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, all-ages). And the Trib‘s Rick Kogan hosts Story Week’s closing event, Story Showcase, with readings by Columbia alumni Michael A. Black (Hostile Takeovers), Sean Chercover (Trigger City), Stephanie Kuehnert (Ballads of Suburbia), and Earl Sewell (Have Mercy), grad student Marc Paoletti (Scorch), and former faculty member Phyllis Eisenstein. —Jerome Ludwig
“New Faces of Fiction” Undergrad reading/open mike. Tue 3/16, 11 AM
