Kevin Nance

‘The Merger’: Columbia College combines creative writing programs

May 9, 2019 at 10:49 p.m.

Columbia College has always loomed large on the Chicago literary scene, primarily through its annual Story Week festival, which brought blue-chip authors to town for readings and seminars. Now —...

Patrick Kennedy argues for better mental health care in his new book, "A Common Struggle."

Patrick Kennedy on ‘A Common Struggle,’ mental illness

May 9, 2019 at 10:48 p.m.

America's most famous political family, the Kennedys, shares at least one aspect with virtually every other family: a history of mental illness and addiction. Rosemary Kennedy — the sister of...

Author Salman Rushdie speaks after accepting the Chicago Tribune Literary Prize at the UIC Forum on Nov. 7, 2015, in Chicago.

Salman Rushdie rails against censorship in accepting award

May 9, 2019 at 10:48 p.m.

Saturday was a day for laurels — handing them out and even resting on them, if only for a moment. The Tribune's annual awards for literature — presented at three...

Rick Moody discusses ‘Hotels of North America’

May 9, 2019 at 10:47 p.m.

It's hard to find a more polarizing literary writer in America than Rick Moody. Best known for his second novel, "The Ice Storm" (1994) — which was made into a...

Acclaimed author John Irving talks about his latest novel, ‘Avenue of Mysteries’

May 9, 2019 at 10:47 p.m.

John Irving is one of those authors who seems to have been around forever. Although set in specific periods and places, his novels — of which the best known are...

Author Stacy Schiff discusses Salem witch trials

May 9, 2019 at 10:46 p.m.

As darkness falls a few days from now, the children of America will take to the streets, dressed as all manner of ghosts, ghouls and goblins. Some, mostly girls, will...

David Mitchell offers his version of a ghost story in ‘Slade House’

May 9, 2019 at 10:46 p.m.

David Mitchell, the British international literary superstar, has trained his readers to expect vastness, multiple storylines and layer after layer of complication. Mitchell's ongoing project of at least nominally linked...

Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of "Between the World and Me," speaks at a church in Baltimore in July. Coates is scheduled to appear at the Chicago Humanities Festival on Oct. 24.

Ta-Nehisi Coates brings body of work to Chicago Humanities Festival

May 9, 2019 at 10:45 p.m.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is having, as they say, a moment. Within the past month, Coates, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, won a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant", was announced as author...

In "Golden Age," generations of Langdons have fanned out from the family farm as Jane Smiley wraps up her "Last Hundred Years" trilogy.

Jane Smiley concludes her ‘Last Hundred Years’ trilogy with ‘Golden Age’

May 9, 2019 at 10:44 p.m.

To most novelists, the prospect of writing a trilogy that spans an entire century, year by year, might have seemed outrageously ambitious, if not downright foolhardy. But Jane Smiley is...

Garth Risk Hallberg discusses his highly anticipated ‘City on Fire’

May 9, 2019 at 10:43 p.m.

It isn't often, in these days of relative austerity in the publishing industry, that a first novel sells for $1 million or more. It's also rare for a very long...

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