April 21, 2016
Ben Nadler believes that “a writer owes a reader a good story,” and with his excellent new novel The Sea Beach Line, that’s exactly what the Brooklyn-based author delivers. A hypnotic hybrid of literary crime fiction and Jewish folklore, The Sea Beach Line tells the gripping coming-of-age story of Izzy Edel, a young man adrift […]
April 19, 2016
Laurence Gonzales’s impressive list of literary achievements just got even longer. Already the winner of two prestigious National Magazine Awards and the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, the bestselling Evanston author recently had the honor of seeing his acclaimed book Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival adapted for the […]
April 12, 2016
Our National Poetry Month celebration has been raging for nearly two weeks, and it is now time to welcome some very special guests to our poetry party. You see, Evanston is home to some amazingly talented poets, and throughout the rest of April, it is our pleasure to highlight their work right here on Off […]
April 9, 2016
“This living hand, now warm and capable” by John Keats This living hand, now warm and capable Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold And in the icy silence of the tomb, So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights That thou would wish thine own heart dry of blood So in my […]
April 8, 2016
My Father’s Love Letters by Yusef Komunyakaa On Fridays he’d open a can of Jax, Close his eyes, & ask me to write The same letter to my mother Who sent postcards of desert flowers Taller than a man. He’d beg her Return & promised to never Beat her again. I was almost happy She […]
April 7, 2016
Negative by Kevin Young Wake to find everything black what was white, all the vice versa–white maids on TV, black sitcoms that star white dwarfs cute as pearl buttons. Black Presidents, Black Houses. White horse candidates. All bleach burns clothes black. Drive roads white as you are, white songs
April 6, 2016
Le Jardin Des Tuileries by Oscar Wilde This winter air is keen and cold, And keen and cold this winter sun, But round my chair the children run Like little things of dancing gold. Sometimes about the painted kiosk The mimic soldiers strut and stride, Sometimes the blue-eyed brigands hide In the bleak tangles of […]
April 5, 2016
We last talked with author Christine Sneed back in early 2011 shortly after she published her first short story collection Portraits of A Few of the People I’ve Made Cry. Already the winner of the Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction, her stunning debut became a magnet for literary awards and was eventually named a finalist […]
April 5, 2016
The Haunted Palace by Edgar Allan Poe In the greenest of our valleys By good angels tenanted, Once a fair and stately palace– Radiant palace–reared its head. In the monarch Thought’s dominion, It stood there! Never seraph spread a pinion Over fabric half so fair! Banners yellow, glorious, golden, On its roof did float and […]
April 4, 2016
We are thrilled to welcome local painter and poet Marta Mazur as the next featured artist in our ongoing exhibition series Local Art @ EPL. Her exhibit – titled Life in the Rush – is currently on display on the 2nd floor of EPL’s Main Library where you can catch it through April 30th. Featuring […]
