Fall Events

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September 22-28:  Banned Books Week

Some thoughts from the store owner, Beverly Dvorkin

Every year since 1982, the American Library Association has sponsored banned books week (http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/banned).   It is meant to highlight the challenges that still exist to one of our most basic and cherished rights as American citizens – to read the material of our choosing.

We as Americans often take our rights as citizens for granted.  But we cannot afford complacency.   Every day, there is someone who thinks they have the right to choose for an entire community what they are allowed to read, watch, listen to, or look at.  No one should make that choice for another citizen. 

Since 1998, after-words bookstore has participated in Banned Books Week.  Every year, for the entire month of September, we highlight books that have been challenged and/or banned around the country, and around the world.  It is by far our most popular annual display, both in terms of sales and in terms of the discussions it prompts.

This year, we are offering an in-store special.  If you spend $30 and that purchase includes a book from our Banned Books display, you will get a FREE “Stand Up For Your Right to Read” t-shirt. (While supplies last.)

Happy Banned Books Week, everybody.  Celebrate the first amendment. And your freedom to read.

 

October 8, 2019: National Book Award finalists will be announced.

On March 16, 1950, publishers, editors, writers, and critics gathered at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in

New York City to celebrate the first annual National Book Awards. The American Book Publishers Council, the Book Manufacturers’ Institute, and the American Booksellers Association jointly sponsored the Awards, bringing together the American literary community for the first time to honor the year’s best fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. As the Boston Herald reported the following day, “literary history was indeed in the making.”

Today, the National Book Foundation actively pursues a national vision, with educational and public programming across the county, and the National Book Awards as its core. In 2017, the New York Times counted the National Book Awards, together with the Man Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature, as “the world’s most prestigious literary prizes.”

For the complete longlist visit: https://www.nationalbook.org/national-book-awards/

October 13^th from 3-5pm

We will hear from local poets, all members of Poets and Patrons, the Illinois State Poetry society or both.

Poets & Patrons evolved from earlier attempts to create a meeting ground for poets and poet enthusiasts in the Chicago area.  Established in 1954, it was set up as a non-profit outreach group for poets who wished to receive professional criticism through four workshops each year. In 1956, Poets & Patrons created a Chicagoland Poetry Contest, open to all in the area.

More recently, Poets and Patrons has expanded its outreach to offer free writing workshops at area museums (Write! Chicago), participation in the Printers Row Lit Fest, and open readings for its members. Visit their website at www.poetsandpatrons.net for further information.

The Illinois State Poetry Society (ISPS) was chartered in 1991.  The society was formed “To encourage the crafting and enjoyment of poetry in the state of Illinois.”  Equally important is the goal to offer opportunities for improving and sharing the crafting of poetry.

ISPS members meet all over Illinois to gather and critique poetry.   From its 12 charter members, ISPS has grown to more than 130 members. 

The society sponsors workshops on poetry writing for all ages.  There are also opportunities for featured readings by members throughout the year.  Monthly gatherings at a coffee house are one such example. Themed poetry displays at participating public libraries also showcase members’ work.

ISPS sponsors a poetry contest every year. Information is available on their website, www.illinoispoets.org. The society also participates in the Manningham contest for students, with a follow-up awards gathering for winners and mention of their poems on the ISPS website.

November 5^, 2019

Andrea Beaty - who brought us Rosie Revere, Engineer and Ada Twist, Scientist – has a new book.

Meet Sofia Valdez, Future Prez! Pre-order your copy by October 15^th and get 20% off!

Every morning, Abuelo walks Sofia to school . . . until one day, when Abuelo hurts his ankle at a local landfill and he can no longer do so. Sofia misses her Abuelo and wonders what she can do about the dangerous Mount Trashmore. Then she gets an idea—the town can turn the slimy mess into a park! She brainstorms and plans and finally works up the courage to go to City Hall—only to be told by a clerk that she can’t build a park because she’s just a kid! Sofia is down but not out, and she sets out to prove what one kid can do.

Gui Minhai T-Shirt

Since December of 2016, we have been selling t-shirts demanding the release of bookseller and publisher Gui Minhai from Chinese custody.

Gui Minhai, owner of Causeway Bay Bookstore, was arrested in Thailand in the fall of 2015. The Chinese government has been holding him ever since.  He is a Swedish national of Chinese descent.  He had been publishing and selling books in Hong Kong that ridiculed some of China’s Communist Party leaders.  The books were published in Mandarin and/or Cantonese. 

The arrest was part of a larger Chinese campaign in Hong Kong.  Around the same time, China began to suppress dissent – a campaign that continues to this day and has been (in part) the reason for the large scale protests we see in the news on a seemingly daily basis.

Beginning in 2016, the American Booksellers Association sponsored a t-shirt campaign to raise awareness and money among the American public.  They have completed their involvement, and donated a large check to the release effort in a ceremony held last year. 

Our customers have been so supportive, and truly embraced this concept.  So we have decided to continue to aid in this fight on our own.  We have re-ordered the t-shirts, and will now be selling them for $10 each.  We have donated funds to his daughter Angela’s effort to free him, and will do so each time we re-order the t-shirts.

The freedom to read is always under threat around the world, and we appreciate our customers participating so actively in this struggle

For more information on Gui Minhai, you can visit the Guardian Newspaper’s website and follow their continuing coverage.  Or if you would like to donate directly to his daughter’s efforts to get him released, please visit https://freeguiminhai.org.