Writing shouldn’t be all that hard: we do it all the time, for all sorts of reasons, and yet when we sit down and try to write our novel—or even a short story or anything at all remotely creative—we freeze up. We realize we don’t have time. We do, of course. Even if we have jobs and families and obligations, we can make time for our creative work, and we don’t have to stress about it too much. In this session, we’ll go over seven practical steps to animate, sustain, and deepen our creative practice, all of which have been derived from years of experience in writing and publishing and mentoring.

How do others manage a regular writing practice while balancing full-time work, raising children, and other obligations? Hear from Paula Carter, Albert DeGenova, Kristine Hansen, Juan Martinez, and Dana Maya on how they balance their lives and their writing.

More information here.

Two minutes, starting now!

What happens when you take 20 handpicked creatives and luminaries, give them each two minutes before a live audience and the same (fuzzy) question to unravel? That's the premise behind 20x2 Chicago. The results can be as varied as the emotions and reactions they evoke. This edition's question is "Can You Explain?" You'll laugh, you may cry, and it wouldn't surprise us if you came away inspired. More info here.

Stuck in the middle of your story? This panel features several of our favorite Chicago authors to offer guidance on how to navigate the tricky middle of any writing project. Moderated by Michael Welch. Panelists include: Juan Martinez, Faisal Mohyuddin, JP Solheim, and Christie Tate.

To celebrate Spooky Season, we're thrilled to have celebrated horror writers Juan Martinez and Richard Thomas join forces to read from their work and discuss writing horror. More info here.

oin us at 18th Street Casa de Cultura for a keynote address from critically-acclaimed author Alejandra Oliva on this year’s festival theme, Saturation/ Saturación. Oliva will read from her recent memoir, Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith and Migration (Astra House, 2023) and join author and Lit & Luz alum Juan Martinez in conversation.

Meet the author after the event for a book signing and a complimentary cafecito reception courtesy of Dark Matter Coffee and Bittersweet Pilsen to celebrate the beginning of the festival week.

Alejandra Oliva is an essayist, embroiderer and translator. She is a recipient of the 2022 Creative Nonfiction Whiting Grant. Her writing has been included in Best American Travel Writing 2020, nominated for a Pushcart prize, and was honored with an Aspen Summer Words Emerging Writers Fellowship. 

F@H's features the Hemingway Birthplace as a backdrop for an evening of literary ghost stories read by Chicago area writers. Featured authors will be Juan Martinez, Cynthia Pelayo, Puloma Ghosh, and JP Solheim.

On Sunday, September 29th at 2 PM, The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) partners with The Chicago Quarterly Review to host a reading featuring recent contributors to the magazine, including Syed Haider, Juan Martinez, Dipika Mukherjee, Faisal Mohyuddin, and Signe Ratcliff. Our emcee for the day will be writer Chuck Kramer. The Chicago Quarterly Review, a nonprofit, independent literary journal, has published short stories, poems, translations and essays by both emerging and established writers since 1994. Work from its pages has been chosen for Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, the O. Henry Prize Stories and the Pushcart Prize. This program is free, but registration is required.

More information here.

I’m so delighted to moderate this talk!

A diverse panel of authors with ties to Chicago and the Midwest discuss writing fiction about characters who are pulled between sometimes vastly different places--on the map, between generations, and between supernatural forces. The conversation will cover what goes into writing characters of depth in contemporary fiction, including research, drawing from personal experience, and what the "expatriate" experience means in the present day.

The authors' latest books include the critically acclaimed A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens by Raul Palma, the prize-winning The Best That You Can Do by Amina Gautier, and a USA Today bestseller, The War Begins in Paris by Theodore Wheeler.

Writing Latino History

Featured writer: Marie Arana; Moderator: Juan Martinez

The Literary Director of the Library of Congress, Marie Arana, discusses the importance of preserving and uplifting Latino history and her new book LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority.

Location: History & Bio Stage - South Hall, Harold Washington Library Center

StoryStudio Presents: PROMPTAPALOOZA

Our friends at StoryStudio Chicago are offering 30-minute writing workshops designed to help get your stories on the page! Join instructors Juan Martinez (12:30 pm; Extended Stay) C. Russell Price (2:00 pm; Oh, You Thought this was a Date?!), and Dipika Mukherjee (3:30 pm; Writer’s Postcards). Take your writing to the next level!

Location: Harold Washington Library, Winter Garden (9th Floor)

Two minutes, starting now!

What happens when you take 20 handpicked creatives and luminaries, give them each two minutes before a live audience and the same (fuzzy) question to unravel? That's the premise behind 20x2 Chicago. The results can be as varied as the emotions and reactions they evoke. This edition's question is "How does it feel?" You'll laugh, you may cry, and it wouldn't surprise us if you came away inspired.

Location

• GMan Tavern

• 3740 N. Clark St., Chicago IL 60657

• $20 online or at the door — 21+

• 20x2chicago@gmail.com

• Doors at 6:30pm, show at 7pm

So excited to be part of the Exhibit B reading series! Here’s what they have to say: “CHICAGO! We're back home from AWP and once again bringing the show to our favorite bookstore in the city, Pilsen Community Books! On Thursday, Feb. 29th join us as we bring together another incredible lineup featuring Charif Shanahan, Helene Achanzar, S. Yarberry and Juan Martinez!”

I’ve long admired the work of Tobias Carroll—-he’s both a terrific critic and a wonderful novelist—-and his new novel, In the Sight, might be my favorite thing he’s done: deeply weird and Lynchian but grounded in highways and a certain kind of wintry pharmacological vibe. I’m super excited to get to be in conversation when he’s here in Chicago. It’ll happen at Pilsen Community Books on Monday, February 12, from 7pm-8:00pm. JOIN US!

With Julie Iromuanya, Jimin Han, and Ted Wheeler! We want to believe that writing is cumulative—that we benefit from habit and repetition—and it’s true, the more we write, the more we know about writing. But what works on one project might not translate to the next. Much of the work we need to do is unlearning, a willingness to go back to not knowing, so we can explore the possibilities of not being fully sure of ourselves. In this panel, four novelists discuss their unlearning and what they left behind as they embarkedon new projects.

Room 2502A, Kansas City Convention Center, Level 2
Saturday, February 10, 2024
10:35 am to 11:50 am

I’m reading with alumni and faculty from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University. Super excited! I’ll be at the Strange Days Brewing Co. on Friday, Feb 9th, from 5-6:30pm, alongside Mary Biddinger, Simone Muench, Jackie K. White, Christine Sneed, Beth McDermott, Jeremy T. Wilson, Faisal Mohyuddin, and Rebecca Morgan Frank.

I’ll be signing books over at the University of Arizona Press booth! If you show up on Thursday February 8 from 10am-11am I swear I’ll draw you something awesome on your book and I’ll do a post-it doodle for you, if you want one.

Oh, the Horror! The Book Stall joins fellow lovers of all things that go bump in the night as we partner with the Arlington Heights Memorial Library to welcome four local authors of the macabre on Friday the 13th! Horror lover, organizer and teacher Nora Flanagan will lead a panel conversation which plumbs the depths of the strange and terrifying.

Bring your questions for this incredible panel: 

Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award winning and International Latino Book Award winning author and poet. Pelayo writes fairy tales that blend genre and explore concepts of grief, mourning, and violence. She is the author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, Poems of My Night, Into the Forest and All the Way Through, Children of Chicago, Crime Scene, and The Shoemaker’s Magician

Gus Moreno, fiction writer and the author of This Thing Between Us. His stories have appeared in Southwest Review, Aurealis, Pseudopod, and the Burnt Tongues anthology. He lives in the suburbs with his wife and two dogs, but never think that he's not from Chicago.

Juan M. Martinez, author of Extended Stay and the story collection, Best Worst American. He lives near Chicago and is an associate professor at Northwestern University. His work has appeared in McSweeney's, NIGHTMARE, NPR's Selected Shorts, and elsewhere.
 
Maryse Meijer is the author of the story collections Heartbreaker, which was one of Electric Literature's 25 Best Short Story Collections of 2016, and Rag, which was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Pick and a finalist for the Chicago Review of Books Award for Fiction, as well as the novella Northwood. She lives in Chicago.

Event date: 

Friday, October 13, 2023 - 7:00pm to 8:30pm

Event address: 

Arlington Heights Memorial Library

500 N. Dunton Avenue

Arlington Heights, IL 60004

Please join us for an amazing evening of storytelling, poetry, and refreshments! This event showcases FOUR members of our creative writing program, each reading from their most recent book or collection.

Rachel Jamison Webster is the author of Benjamin Banneker and Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family (Henry Holt, 2023). She has also published four books of poetry—Mary is a River, which was a finalist for the 2014 National Poetry Series; September; The Endless Unbegun; and The Sea Came Up & Drowned, which includes erasure poetry and Rachel’s visual art. Rachel’s poems and essays often appear in anthologies and journals, including Poetry, Tin House, and The Yale Review. She is a professor in the Northwestern Creative Writing Program.

Juan Martinez is the author of Extended Stay (U of Arizona Press, 2022) and Best Worst American, a story collection published by Small Beer Press and the winner of the Neukom Institute Award for Debut Speculative Fiction. His work has appeared in many literary journals and anthologies, including McSweeney’s, Huizache, Ecotone, Glimmer Train, Shenandoah, NPR’s Selected Shorts, Mississippi Review, NIGHTMARE, and elsewhere. He is the Director of the Undergraduate Creative Writing Program at Northwestern.

Colin Pope is the author of Prayer Book for the New Heretic (NYQ Books, 2023), a finalist for the Louise Bogan Award, and Why I Didn't Go to Your Funeral (Tolsun Books, 2019). His work has appeared in a number of journals, including Slate, The Gettysburg Review, The Kenyon Review, Pleiades, Third Coast, The Los Angeles Review, and Best New Poets, among others. He is the Assistant Director of Creative Writing at Northwestern.

Brian Bouldrey is the author of Good in Bed: A Life in Queer Sex, Politics, and Religion (ReQueered Tales, 2023), as well as Inspired Journeys: Travel Writers in Search of the Muse (University of Wisconsin Press, 2016). He has written three nonfiction books; Honorable Bandit: A Walk Across Corsica (University of Wisconsin Press, September 2007), Monster: Adventures in American Machismo (Council Oak Books), and The Autobiography Box (Chronicle Books); three novels, The Genius of Desire (Ballantine), Love, the Magician (Harrington Park), and The Boom Economy (University of Wisconsin Press), and he is the editor of several anthologies. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Northwestern.

Where: Northwestern University, University Hall, Hagstrum Rm, UH201

1897 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208

A horror and thriller writing panel with Daniel Kraus and Cynthia Pelayo, in conversation with Jeremy T. Wilson.

We’re using 25 minutes of this class to draft a whole story through a series of lighting-quick prompts. I can’t promise the story will be good, but I can definitely promise that it will be a full draft, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, and that you’ll walk out surprised by what you can conjure up. The goal is to (1) have fun, (2) write a whole story as fast as you’ve ever done, (3) uncover generative strategies that work best for what you want to create.

Free! But RSVP required. Additional information here.

Juan Martinez will read from Extended Stay and other work at the José Saramago Foundation in Lisbon on July 6. He will read with José Luís Peixoto.

A reading at Metropolis Cafe with Lisa Fishman and Sara Levine.

Saturday, April 15, 2023, 5:00 pm, Metropolis Cafe, 1039 W Granville

20×2 Chicago is a show in which 20 creative people from all different walks of life — writers, web geeks, artists, musicians and other bon vivants — get two minutes each to answer the question of the day in whatever way they like. The results can be as varied as the emotions and reactions they evoke. This edition’s question is “What did you see?” Find out what they came up with at this fast-paced show!

with Brandy Agerbeck * Lily Be * Cate Brecht * Ada Cheng * Aaron Cynic * Norm Doucet * Elizabeth Gomez * Nestor Gomez * Josh Hehner * Jill Hopkins * Jitesh Jaggi * Felix Jung * Robert Loerzel * Juan Martinez * Dawn Xiana Moon * Evan F. Moore * Eden Robins * Lucianne Walkowicz * Don Washington * Erin Watson
$20 / 21 & over / Doors: 6:30pm / Show: 7pm
Sponsored by Field Notes

With Stephanie Feldman, Erika T. Wurth, and Addie Tsai.

The novel has thrived as a vehicle for scary stories since the time of Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley, and after three centuries, horror is returning to the mainstream. What elements of the genre have persisted, and how has horror evolved? How are contemporary writers reimagining horror? What essential work do horror tropes perform in this particular historical moment? Four novelists discuss the aesthetics and politics of fear.

Rooms 328-329, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center, Level 3
Friday, March 10, 2023
1:45 pm to 3:00 pm

Please join us for a special Faculty and Alumni Reading in Seattle, WA as part of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference. Readers will include writing faculty Gina Frangello, Rebecca Makkai, Juan Martinez, and Faisal Mohyuddin – along with recent graduates of the MFA program Joshua Bohnsack and Jameka Williams. The reading will be emceed by faculty director of our creative writing programs Christine Sneed.

Thursday, March 9
at Locust Cider (500 Terry Avenue) - Wheelchair Accessible
4:30pm Doors, Light Snacks, Cash Bar, Mingling
5pm Reading

More info at https://www.facebook.com/events/709200240609522/

Que Susto: What a Fright!

These authors take you on a roller-coaster ride of terror, horror, and fright. Hold on to your seats! With Ramona Emerson, Juan Martinez, Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Moderator: Megan Hellwig

Nuestras Raíces Stage
Sun, Mar 5, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Nuestras Raices
Signing area: Pima County Public Library/Nuestras Raíces/Craft Tent & Signing Area (following presentation)  

That Got Weird

In this session, Juan Martinez and Ander Monson will chat about finding and deploying horror and science fiction tropes in unexpected places. Moderator Matt Bell is pretty good at that himself!

Student Union Kachina (Seats 100)  
Sun, Mar 5, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Workshop: Infusing Humor, Horror, Joy

We neglect the importance of affect when working on our drafts. We build characters, we engage imagery and plot and language, but we forget to exploit the comic or horrific possibilities in what we're building. In this session, we'll explore how to tune a piece so that it's funnier, scarier, or sadder.

UA Main Library 254/Main Floor (Seats 50, Wheelchair accessible)  
Sat, Mar 4, 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm