Christopher Krazmus August Featured Reader

What can you expect from the feature presentation if you c’mon down to the THC Reading Series at 7PM on Saturday, August 26th? Well, we can’t tell ya, but it’s gonna be great. Really great.

Christopher Krazmus is releasing three new editions from his coffee table short story-picture book series, which include several new photography collections.

You can reckon you’ll hear parts of some stories and themes like these. Science fiction? You bet. Mystery and romance. Check. Comedy? If embarrassing stories about personal failures can be funny. If doing something half-assed is worth it, then you can say everything best comes from inspiration. That’s what these coffee table short story picture-books mean to be. That’s sexy and spiritual.

As always, there is no cover and parking is free. Tamale Hut Cafe — Supporting the Arts.

Joanne Zienty, June’s Featured Reader

 

W

Join us Saturday, June 24th at 7:00 pm as we welcome Joanne Zienty,  our featured Reader for the month of June.

Joanne was born and raised on Chicago’s South Side. She spent a lot of time wandering the aisles of her local branch of the Chicago Public Library. Besides wandering, she also did a lot of reading. But when she couldn’t find the stories she wanted to read, she started writing her own.

In 2014, Joanne won the very first Soon to Be Famous Illinois Author contest, sponsored by the Illinois Library Association and the RAILS Library System for her novel, The Things We Save. She was a finalist for the 2016 BookLife Prize in Fiction sponsored by Publishers’ Weekly and in 2017 was named an “Emerging Voice” in fiction by the College of DuPage. She is currently working on her second novel.

As always, there is no cover charge. THC — supporting the arts!

 

 

Julia Schopick, May Featured Reader

Tamale Hut Cafe welcomes Julia Schopick as Featured Reader for the month of May. Join us at 7:00 on Saturday the 20th to hear Julia talk about and read from her Amazon best-selling book, HONEST MEDICINE: Effective, Time -Tested, Inexpensive Treatments for Life-Threatening Diseases.

 HONEST MEDICINE grew from her experience advocating for and taking care of her husband Tim Fisher, who was a brain tumor patient for 15 years. He survived so long—12 years beyond his doctors’ predictions—in large part, because of the treatments Julia found for him.

Julia is a public relations consultant and author. Creator of the award-winning blog, HonestMedicine.com, her writings on health and medical topics have been featured in the American Medical News (AMA), Alternative & Complementary Therapies, British Medical Journal and the Chicago Sun Times. Her mission is to inform people about little-known but promising treatments, and to empower them in making health care choices.

April 22, 2017

Join us on April 22nd at 7:00 pm as we host an all Open Mic evening. Poetry. Prose. Book excerpts. Fiction. Non-fiction. We love it all. As always, there is free parking, no cover, and a lot of great people to meet.

Tamale Hut — Supporting the arts.

Alexei Collier, March Featured Reader

Our March event will take place on Saturday the 25th at 7:00 pm. Join us to hear fabulous tales from our featured reader, Alexei Collier.

Alexei grew up in sunny Southern California in a house his family moved into on his very first Halloween. Many years later, powerful forces flung him deep into the heart of the Midwest, where he now lives across the street from Chicago with his wife and their cat. He has a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Beloit College, and his short fiction has been published by Cicada, Ideomancer, and StarShipSofa’s Tales to Terrify, and is upcoming in a new anthology from Sanguine Press.

Following Alexei, there will be an Open Mic. As always, admission is free. THC: Supporting the Arts.

 

 

Brendan Detzner is February Featured Reader

THC Reading Series is pleased to announce that Brendan Detzner will be our featured reader for February. Join us at 7:00 on Saturday the 25th for tamales, tinga, and twisted tales.

Brendan Detzner lives, works, and writes in Chicago. His work has appeared in Chizine, Pseudopod, Edge of Propinquity, Ruthless Peoples, Untied Shoelaces of the Mind, and the Book of Dead Things and Exigencies anthologies, as well as elsewhere. His latest novel “The Hidden Lands”, part two of the “Orphan Fleet” series, is available on Amazon. Brendan has also been featured at the Twilight Tales and Reading Under The Influence reading series in Chicago and runs his own reading series Bad Grammar Theater (http://www.badgrammartheater.com). You can keep track of what he’s up to at http://www.brendandetzner.com

THC Reading Series Celebrating 10 Years!

THC Reading Series is celebrating our 10th Anniversary! Join us on Saturday, January 14th at 7pm. Our featured reader will be our founder, Jenny Seay.

Jenny is a native Chicagoan whose love for words and stories took root before she could fully speak or write them. She spent her childhood immersing herself in the pages of her favorite fictional worlds, until she realized she had a knack for creating alternate realities of her own.

Eventually she earned two Creative Writing degrees from Columbia College Chicago, which wasn’t the most practical life path, but it allowed her to gain a few publishing and editing credits, and learn enough about event planning to launch Tamale Hut Cafe Presents as a monthly reading series. Her most recent piece can be found in “Working Stiff: The Anthology of Professional Wrestling Literature and Art,” available online through Gimmick Press.

And she has spent the last year-and-a-half getting to know the Bay Area, where she fundraisers for UC Berkeley and chips away at her first novel in between hiking excursions.

THC Short Story Contest

We are pleased to announce the five stories that will compete for the 2016 Tamale Hut Cafe Presents Short Story Contest:

A. “Penne Alla Vodka” — Thomas Boyle

B. “Sacred Chords” — Alexi Collier

C. “Discernment Part One” — Brendan Detzner

D. “Chanteuse” — Christine Fugate

E.  “Grandma” — Kirsten Srinivasan

These stories will be read and prizes will be awarded at the next THC Reading Series Saturday November 19, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.

Prize Breakdown

1st-  $500

2nd- $300

3rd-  $200

Two (2) Honorable Mentions- $25 each

 

Following the awards, our mic opens up to any and all who want to share.

Reading Series featuring THC Writer’s Group

This month, the Tamale Hut Reading Series will be featuring our very own Tamale Hut Writer’s Group! Members will be sharing their take on one topic: “The News and Its Impact.” Join us on Saturday, October 22nd. The event starts at 7:00 pm with an Open Mic to follow.

Matt Bieniek, Featured Reader

The next THC Reading Series night will feature Matthew Bieniek, and the August 27th event will be the release party for his latest novel, The Sleep Detectives Go to Washington.  It’s the story of a man who can see past events in his dreams as if he was there, and what happens to him after the U.S. government finds out he has this ability.  The first book in this series, The Sleep Detectives, was serialized at the Tamale Hut between 2011 and 2013.

Matt wrote his first novel in 2010.  He’s been a regular open mic reader at the THC since 2011, and has been the coordinator of the Tamale Hut Cafe Writers Group since 2012.  He describes his stories as character-driven mystery and suspense.  He lives in Brookfield with his artist wife, Stephanie, and you can find out more about him (and sign up for his mailing list) at www.storiesbymatt.net.

The Reading Series will begin at 7:00 pm with Matt, followed by an Open Mic. As always, there is no cover. BYOB. THC — Supporting the arts!