Saturday 6/7: The 30th annual Printers Row Literary Festival kicks off in the South Loop with readings, workshops, and a massive book fair. Highlights include: Alexai Galaviz-Budziszewski and Bill Hillman in conversation with Billy Lombardo at 10:30 a.m.; a panel on short fiction with Kodi Sheer, Donald Lystra, and Andy Mozina at 11:45 a.m.; and Cristina Henriquez and Luanne Rice in conversation with Luis Alberto Urrea at 12:30 p.m. Festival events are free, but most require a ticket. 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Sunday 6/8: Printers Row Lit Fest continues (10 a.m.– 5 p.m.), featuring Janet Burroway and Rosellen Brown at 10:30 a.m.; John Warner, Editor-at-Large of McSweeney’s, at 11 a.m.; The History of Poetry Slam reading with Patricia Smith and Cin Salach at 11 a.m.; Colson Whitehead at 11:30 a.m.; and Bret Anthony Johnston at 2:15 p.m.
The University of Chicago Press Phoenix Poetry Series stops at Seminary Co-op Bookstore to feature poetry from Benjamin Landry and Peter Campion. 3 p.m.
Maya Lang visits City Lit Books to talk about her novel The Sixteenth of June with Rebecca Makkai. 5 p.m.
The best used bookstore in Chicago is Myopic Books in Wicker Park, and Ruben Quesada stops by to read his work for their Poetry Series. 7 p.m.
Monday 6/9: Laura Krughoff discusses her first novel, My Brother’s Name, at the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium of the Harold Washington Library. 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday 6/10: Audrey Petty is the editor of High Rise Stories, which features several first-person accounts of life in the public housing projects of Chicago. Petty will discuss the book and will be joined by some of the people who shared their stories in the book. Seminary Co-op, 6 p.m.
Wednesday 6/11: Mexican-American novelist, poet, and playwright Ana Castillo comes to Andersonville to read from and discuss her new novel Give It To Me. Castillo is a force. Catch her while she’s in town. Women and Children First Books, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday 6/12: Box Brown will be at Challengers Comics + Conversation to promote his graphic biography Andre the Giant: Life and Legend. After party to follow. 7 p.m.
Meags Fitzgerald launches Photobooth: a Biography, a graphic rendering of the history of photobooths. Fitzgerald traveled the word researching what may be the definitive text on the subject. Quimby’s, 7 p.m.