In 2012, Sarah Ruhl was a distinguished author and playwright, twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Max Ritvo was an exuberant, opinionated, and highly gifted poet in remission from pediatric cancer. Studded with poems and songs, their correspondence is a deeply moving portrait of a friendship, and a shimmering exploration of love, art, mortality, and joy.
What borders are really about, and what we do with them. The fullness of what it is to be Mexican (and American). A preview of Luis Alberto Urrea’s contribution to the forthcoming anthology Hearth: A Global Conversation on Community, Identity, and Place.
In partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Chicago Public Library is pleased to welcome author Elizabeth Rush for a conversation about her new book Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore. The conversation will be moderated by NRDC Senior Policy Analyst Rob Moore, whose work focuses on water-related impacts of our rapidly warming climate, including the rising risks of flooding and the effects of sea-level rise.
Poet Caitlin Bailey, winner of the 2017 Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry, joins us in the bookstore to read from her debut poetry collection, Solve for Desire. As the Millions says of Bailey's work, “Her words rest in that curious space between abstraction and touch, so this is a book to place upon one’s soul.”
We are feeling the Halloween spirit here at Milkweed Books (have you seen our Trick or Treat display?), so to celebrate, here is a 💥 bonus round 💥 of book recommendations featuring the dark and scary stuff we think you might like to read this month. Whether you’re feeling like historical Midwestern gothic, a wacky German war satire, or haunting Urdu short stories, we have something for you to try. If you prefer to read something...
North American Stadiums by Grady Chambers is the inaugural winner of the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, and will be published in June 2018. “This book is in many ways a love letter: to the landscapes of the Midwest and Central New York that I have spent so much time in, to the histories of those places, to the people that I have moved through those places with. . .” —Grady Chambers
I saw the opiate epidemic start to swallow up my home. It worked quickly and indiscriminately. Each trip back was met with news of a different friend using, or in rehab, or dealing, or in jail, or worse. But it was only after a very specific moment that I became committed to writing this book, a moment of initial frustration within myself.
When Milkweed Editions invited my thoughts on cover design for Virgin, I sent them a Pinterest page with visual influences: Victorian pharmaceutical advertisements, turn of the century women’s magazine covers, art nouveau color palettes, autochromes, and vintage illustrations of flora and fauna (mostly cacti)—all motifs of highly polarized femininity that I was trying to capture and reconsider.
Poet Parneshia Jones (Vessel) will appear alongside acclaimed author and activist Alice Walker (The Color Purple). This conversation will explore the transformative effect of Walker’s life and body of work and honor the profound effect both Walker and her work have had on foregrounding black female experiences, relationships, and narratives.
Author of the National Poetry Series winning work feeld, Jos Charles will present on the work of the 14th c. poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Using House of Fame as a crux, the talk will address Middle English poetics, uses of the "I," and the poem-as-vision.
In 2012, Sarah Ruhl was a distinguished author and playwright, twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Max Ritvo was an exuberant, opinionated, and highly gifted poet in remission from pediatric cancer. Studded with poems and songs, their...
Vulnerable, tender, acute, these are serious poems, brave poems, exploring with honesty the ambiguous moment between the rapture of youth and the grace of acceptance. This collection shows us the persistence of hunger, love, and joy, the dizzying...
Alone in the world and placed in a horrific boarding school, Saul Indian Horse is surrounded by violence and cruelty. At the urging of a priest, he finds a tentative salvation in hockey. Yet as Saul’s victories mount, so do the racism and the...
