February Events at

Women & Children First

Friday, February 10th - Granta Magazine Reading & Conversation

Featuring Chinelo Okparanta and Nami Mun

 7:30pm

 Granta Magazine Reading & Conversation

Granta, the British publication with the impeccable literary pedigree and the envelope-pushing sensibility, celebrates its winter 2012 issue, "Exit Strategies," with a reading and conversation between writers Chinelo Okparanta and Nami Mun. Granta New Voice Chinelo Okparanta is an alumna of the renowned Iowa Writers' Workshop. Pushcart and Whiting Award-winner Nami Mun is author of the acclaimed novel Miles from Nowhere and faculty in the Fiction Writing Department of Columbia College Chicago.

7:30pm 

Poetry Reading

Catherine Theis

The Fraud of Good Sleep

Jessica Savitz

Hunting is Painting

Join us tonight for a reading by two Chicago-area authors who are also Iowa Writers' Workshop alums. Catherine Theis's poems have appeared in Fence, Gulf Coast, LIT, Volt, and many other journals. Her first published collection, The Fraud of Good Sleep (Salt Modern Poets), was winner of the 2011 Cranshaw Prize. Jessica Savitz was the inaugural winner of the Madeleine P. Plonsker Emerging Writer's Residency Prize. As part of that award, her first book of poetry, Hunting is Painting, was published by Lake Forest College Press's imprint&NOW Books. 

7:30pm

The Flight of Gemma Hardy  (Harper)     

In her new novel, acclaimed writer Margot Livesey reimagines the story of Jane Eyre. Set in remote Scotland in the mid-twentieth century, The Flight of Gemma Hardy 
traces the misfortunes and misadventures of a strong-willed orphan girl who finally comes into her own. Livesey, author of six previous novels, including 2009 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award-winning The House on Fortune Street, is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. 

7:30 p.m.

Poetry Reading by the AWP Women's Caucus

Featuring: Kathryn Kysar, Patricia Smith, Martha Collins, Cynthia Hogue, Lois Roma-Deeley, and Keli Stewart           

At tonight's event, poets from the AWP Women's Caucus will read from their work. Kathryn Kysar is the author of two books of poetry, Dark Lake and Pretend the World, and editor of Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers. Patricia Smith is author of six poetry volumes, including Blood Dazzler, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, and Teahouse of the Almighty, a National Poetry Series selection. Her latest book, Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, debuts at AWP. Also author of six volumes of poetry, most recently, White Papers, and a book-length poem, Blue Font, Martha Collins has also co-published two collections of co-translated Vietnamese poetry. Cynthia Hogue has published seven volumes of poetry, most recently The Incongnito Body (2006) and Or Consequence and When the Water Came: Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina (co-authored with photographer Rebecca Ross), both published in 2010. Lois Roma-Deeley's most recent book of poetry is High Notes, which was a finalist for the 2011 Paterson Poetry Prize. Keli Stewart's stories, plays, and poems have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous literary journals. In 2010, she received the first place Gwendolyn Brooks poetry award, chosen by the Illinois poet laureate. She has recently completed her debut poetry collection. 

The Rules of Inheritance: A Memoir  (Hudson Street Press)        

As a 14-year-old only child, Claire Bidwell Smith was hurtled toward loss when both of her parents were diagnosed with cancer within months of each other. Defying a conventional framework, The Rules of Inheritance 

 is told in a non-linear fashion, using the five stages of grief as a window into Claire's experience. The result is a powerful, honest, and completely engaging journey, combining the eloquence of The Long Goodbye with the raw power of Girl, Interrupted. 

7:30 p.m.

Engine Book Authors

Patricia Henley

Other Heartbreaks: Stories

Myfawny Collins

Echolocations: A Novel           

Patricia Henley's first novel, Hummingbird House, was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1999, and her subsequent novel, In the River Sweet, was a BookSense pick and named one of the best books of 2002 by the Chicago Tribune. In her new collection of elegant, moving stories, Henley explores the many bonds and betrayals among women: mothers, daughters, lovers, and friends. Myfawny Collins was born in Montreal but currently calls Boston home. Her work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, AGNI, Cream City Review, and others. Her debut novel, Echolocations, will debut at AWP. A collection of short stories, I am Holding Your Hand, is forthcoming from PANK Little Books. 

4:30 p.m.

Eleanor Henderson

Ten Thousand Saints  (Ecco Press)

Shannon Cain

The Necessity of Certain Behaviors  (University of Pittsburgh Press)

 Eleanor Henderson's Ten Thousand Saints garnered tremendous praise in hardcover - it was named a Top 10 Book of 2011 by the New York Review of Books, a notable book of 2011 by the New York Times, and a top 5 in fiction by O Magazine. A remarkably accomplished novel that infiltrates underground culture in the late 1980s, it is also a rich cross-generational story that probes the gnarled interrelationships between a collection of rudderless teenagers and their equally adrift parents. Shannon Cain is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and O. Henry Award and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Of her new story collection, The Necessity of Certain Behaviors

Publishers Weekly said, "Cain's debut collection of nine short stories adroitly navigates the tenuous waters of human relationships. Her quietly august characters struggle to come to terms with the unpredictable nuances of tradition, sexuality, and happiness." 

7:30 p.m.

Jeanette Winterson

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Chicago launch

Grove Press

Swedish American Museum Center

5211 N. Clark

Jeanette's book releases on March 6 but can be ordered in advance ($25.00). As this is Winterson's only Chicago appearance, we recommend getting your tickets early. Tickets are free with the purchase of her new memoir. 

Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 2 pm - Family of Women Book Group - Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 7:15 pm - Classic's Book Group - Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 

Sunday, February 18th at 6:00 p.m. - Feminist Book Group - Selection Meeting!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 7:30 pm - Women's Book Group - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Do you love your local public libraries? Tell Rahm Emmanuel!            

We are encouraging our customers to tell Mayor Rahm Emmanuel why it's important to keep libraries open more days each week and more hours per day. Here are some reasons we love our Chicago Public Libraries:

-Libraries provide fundamental resources for pre-school readiness and reading readiness is essential for success in school.

- Libraries provide essential safe and productive after-school environments for kids of all ages. - Libraries provide resources and programs for continuing education for adult learners.

- Libraries provide communities with a safe, non-denominational place to meet about issues that are important.

- A well-educated and well-read citizenry is vital to democracy

.- Readers are leaders!

If you agree, send your positive message to:

Mayor Rahm Emmanuel

City Hall

121 N. LaSalle St.

Chicago, IL 60602

Be sure to tell him which Chicago library branches are your favorites!