Tamale Hut Cafe Writers Group Meeting, Saturday, April 20

Attention, writers! The next THC Writers Group Meeting is Saturday, April 20, at 2PM at the Tamale Hut Cafe. We are a group of local writers who meet monthly in an open forum to discuss all aspects of writing, and to provide a little constructive criticism of each other’s work. Everyone is invited, whether you work in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, scriptwriting, songwriting, or comics.

If you would like to join us, please e-mail thcwritersgroup@gmail.com for more information or to get on the distribution list. Or you can just drop by the Tamale Hut Cafe, at 8300 W. Cermak in North Riverside, on the 20th at 2PM. Hope to see you there!

Spring Break! Wooo!

Party! Party! Party!

I know what I risk by posting this today, but no fooling: Tamale Hut Cafe Presents is on spring break this month. We won’t be holding a reading during the month of April, but rest assured that we have a fantastic group of featured readers to bring you in the months afterward, including Robert Rodi on May 25 and Michael Penkas on June 29. Keep an eye on this space for more information as each reading approaches!

In the meantime, a few of our regulars are likely to be attending C2E2 during the weekend of April 26-28, and at least two of our group plan on hitting the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention during weekend of April 12-14. And if you need to take care of a hankering to hear some fine authors read, Chicago has no shortage of such events; Gumbo Fiction Salon and Brendan Detzner’s fine Bad Grammar Reading Series are two that a number of us have enjoyed. Going to any of these events? Want to share in our geeky excitement? Let us know in the comments below!

Photos from the March 23 Reading with Sara Ross Witt

Who doesn’t love photos?

THC Reading Series Presents Sara Ross Witt, Saturday, March 23 @ 7 pm

Ah, when reading series collide. This month, the Tamale Hut Cafe Reading Series is thrilled to present as its featured reader Sara Ross Witt. Witt, longtime co-host of Chicago’s Tuesday Funk reading series, is a blogger, technical writer, author of short stories, and generally talented individual who will be sharing a variety of work with our audience. The fun starts at 7 pm on March 23 at 8300 W. Cermak Road in North Riverside. As always, an open mic will follow the featured reader’s presentation, and all are welcome to participate. And of course, THC’s fine tamales and other menu items will be available for purchase. There will be food! There will be drink! There will even more drink if you bring your own–reading nights are BYOB! Come join us!

Author’s bio:

Sara Ross Witt is the former co-producer and co-host of Tuesday Funk reading series (tuesdayfunk.org) and a graduate of The New School MFA in Creative Writing program. She was raised in Ohio as a psychic by her biological mother, a detail she writes about in some of her short stories. Since leaving Ohio, she has lived in New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis and has pursued a very non-psychic career as a technical writer for the United States Government, which included writing for the Office of the President.

During her pregnancy, she authored Pregphobic and Pregnant (http://pregphobicandpregnant.blogspot.com/), a blog mostly about pregnancy and the occasional reference to the movie Alien. A post from her blog will soon be published in Parent to Parent Newsletter.

Sara lives with her husband, their 16-month old son, and two cats in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.

THC Writers Group Meeting, Saturday, March 9!

Attention, writers! The next THC Writers Group Meeting is Saturday, March 9, at 2PM at the Tamale Hut Cafe. We are a group of local writers who meet monthly in an open forum to discuss all aspects of writing, and to provide a little constructive criticism of each other’s work. Everyone is invited, whether you work in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, scriptwriting, songwriting, or comics.

If you would like to join us, please e-mail thcreadingseries@yahoo.com for more information or to get on the distribution list. Or you can just drop by on the 9th at 2PM. Hope to see you there!

Photos from the Reading Series!

In case you were wondering what it’s like at the THC Reading Series, we have photos from our two most recent events to share!

First up, a batch of pictures from our January reading with Christoph Simon, courtesy of regular contributor Christopher Krazmus:

Author Christoph Simon reads

Christoph and Chris Krazmus, translating each other’s work between German and English

A few of the evening’s readers together, including series coordinator Jenny Seay (second from left) and Writers Group coordinator Matt Bieniek (third from left)

And then we have a batch from this past Saturday’s reading with Chris DeGuire:

Author Chris DeGuire reads

Jenny reads for the audience

Chris presents his work during the open mic

Author Mike Penkas performs during the open mic

Hope you can join us for some of this fun at our next reading in March. Details to come in the following weeks!

THC Reading Series Presents Chris DeGuire, Saturday, February 23 @ 7 pm

Author Chris DeGuire. Photo credit: Susan Lanier.

And now, for Valentine’s Day, some news we hope you’ll really love! (Hey, if you can’t be cheesy today of all days…) This month’s THC Reading Series event will take place on Saturday, February 23, with Chris DeGuire as our featured reader. Chris will be entertaining us with tales of a life lived with Star Wars and other selections from his body of work. As always, the reading starts at 7 p.m. at 8300 W. Cermak in North Riverside, with food and drink available for purchase and an open mic to follow the featured reader’s presentation. See you there!

Author’s bio: Chris DeGuire has a BA, MFA, and MA in Creative Writing and the Teaching of Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago, where he’s been a student, tutor, and teacher since 1993. He’s been published in Hair Trigger and F-Magazine, and his book, I Have a Bad Feeling About This, a memoir, will (hopefully) be out in the Spring of 2013. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Kenosha Writers Guild in Kenosha, Wisconsin and he hosts a monthly radio, “Speaking of Our Words” on 91.1 FM HD 3.Since 2010 he has served as Faculty Assistant Artistic Director for Story Week Festival of Writers. His hobbies include Star Wars and Iron Maiden. He splits his time between Kenosha, Wisconsin and Forest Park, Illinois.

THC Writers Group Meeting, Saturday, February 9! Come join us!

Attention, all writers!

Do you get motivation and encouragement for your writing from participating in the monthly Reading Events at the Tamale Hut Cafe? Do you feel you could benefit from a little more constructive commentary on your work, especially from other writers? Would you like to spend a little time in the company of fellow writers, discussing each other’s experiences, inspirations, successes, or rejections? If so, we have some news for you.

We’re thrilled to tell you about the Tamale Hut Cafe Writers Group. We meet once a month at the THC, on a Saturday afternoon usually a week or two before that month’s Reading Series event.

We typically start out with a short discussion, trading writing tips and ideas between group members, and then get into the critiques. We distribute stories via a central e-mailer a week or so before the meeting to allow everyone a chance to read the pieces ahead of time.

The next meeting will be on Saturday, February 9, at 2PM at the Tamale Hut Cafe. If you would like to join us, please e-mail mbieniek (at) sbcglobal (dot) net for more information and to get on the distribution list.

THC Reading Series Presents Christoph Simon, Saturday, January 26 @ 7 PM

Author Christoph Simon

Happy New Year! On Saturday, January 26, The Tamale Hut Cafe Reading Series returns from its holiday hiatus with a second visit from a recent guest. Swiss author Christoph Simon, who delighted Tamale Hut patrons with an impromptu fiction and poetry reading at the end of November, will be joining us as our featured reader. The reading begins at 7 pm, as always, and an open mic will follow Simon’s presentation. Food and drink will be available for purchase. All are welcome to attend and participate, so if you missed Simon’s first reading or have been thinking about getting out to the THC Reading Series, why not head over to 8300 W. Cermak in North Riverside on the 26th and join us?

From the author’s website: Christoph Simon was born in 1972 in Emmental, Switzerland. After travelling in the Middle East, Poland, South America, London and New York, he settled in Berne. His first novel, Franz, or Why Antelopes Run in Herds (2001) has sold over 10,000 copies, while Planet Obrist (2005) was nominated for the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize. Zbinden’s Progress is his fourth and already highly acclaimed book.

Happy Holidays from the THC Reading Series Crew!

Holiday greetings to all! The Tamale Hut Cafe Reading Series is on break for the month of December, allowing contributors and audience members time to enjoy the season (or, in the case of series coordinator Jenny Seay, time to flee zombies). We send our best wishes to all of you in Tamale Hut Land and hope that 2013 starts off wonderfully.

For us, 2013 also means more readings, so please save the dates and join us for our next events. On Saturday, January 26, Christoph Simon will be our featured reader; on Saturday, February 23, we’ll be joined by Chris Deguire. More details for each reading will be posted in the new year. Until then, enjoy the rest of 2012!