Trauma and American Fascism
September 11th 6:30 pm
Join us for a discussion on September 11 between two devoted practitioners in their respective fields about our collective trauma.
This is a FREE event.
Zak Mucha, LCSW, is a psychoanalyst and president of the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. He spentseven years working as the supervisor of an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program, providing 24/7 services to persons suffering
from severe psychosis, substance abuse issues, and homelessness. Mucha has worked as a counselor and consultant for U.S. combat veterans undergoing training for
digital forensic investigations in child pornography and is a board member of the Legislative Drafting Institute for Child Protection. He currently also provides
consultation to various mental health agencies in Chicago.
Before going into the clinical field, Mucha has worked as a freelance journalist,
truck driver, furniture mover, construction worker, union organizer, staff member at a juvenile DCFS locked unit, and taught briefly at a women’s prison.
He is the author of Emotional Abuse: A Manual for Self-Defense and Swimming to the Horizon: Crack, Psychosis, and Street-Corner Social Work as well as two collections of poetry.
Michael Zapata is a founding editor of MAKE Literary Magazine and the author of the novel The Lost Book of Adana Moreau, winner of the 2020 Chicago Review of Books Award for Fiction, finalist for the 2020 Heartland Booksellers Award in Fiction, and a Best Book of the Year for NPR, the A.V. Club, Los Angeles Public Library, and BookPage, among others. He is a recipient of a Meier Foundation Artist Achievement Award, an Illinois Arts Council Award for Fiction and two City of Chicago DCASE Individual Artist Program Awards. He is on the faculty of StoryStudio Chicago and the MFA faculty of Northwestern University. As a public-school educator, he taught literature and writing in high schools servicing drop out students. He currently lives in Chicago with his family.
September 14th 1pm Book Signing
Book Launch September 25th 5:30 pm
Dead in the Quarter
The Jonathan Brooks Series, Book 5A night of celebration on New Orleans’ riverfront ends in tragedy when Tod Rochon, newly promoted partner at Brooks, Peyroux & Morel, is struck by a speeding car on Burgundy Street, the impact sending the vehicle crashing into flames. Rushed to the E.R., Tod is pronounced dead within the hour. At the funeral, a shadowy figure presses a folded note into Jonathan’s hand before vanishing from the cemetery. The note reads: Don’t trust the forensics. Finding this strange, Brooks begins to investigate. But as he delves deeper, subtle inconsistencies in the accident report come to light, turning his unease into growing suspicion. His colleague’s death soon pulls Brooks into the heart of New Orleans’ criminal underworld. The deeper he digs, the more he unravels a conspiracy tied to a buried secret from the Iraq occupation years earlier—a secret powerful enough to sway the city’s upcoming mayoral race. Entangled in a deadly web of hidden alliances and buried sins, Brooks realizes the stakes are greater than he imagined—threatening not just his life and his firm, but the very future of New Orleans.
Published by Down & Out Books in collaboration with Avendia Publishing.
A.C. Frieden is a globe-trotting thriller author, private pilot, scuba instructor, former marksman, and former molecular biologist—along with being one of the country’s leading technology lawyers. His diverse expertise fuels the authenticity of his high-stakes, politically charged novels.
October 1st Book Launch
Clout City by Dominic Pacyga
Join us at 
Marz Brewery in Bridgeport for the launch of Clout City: The Rise and Fall of the Chicago Political Machine.
Award winning historian Dominic A. Pacyga will be at the brewery on October 1st at 7pm.
In Clout City, award-winning historian Dominic A. Pacyga reveals how cultural, ethnic, and religious forces created this
distinctive system—and ultimately led to its collapse. Tracing clout’s origins in the Irish Catholic–dominated
working-class neighborhood of Bridgeport, shaped by De La Salle Institute and home to the legendary Daley family,
Pacyga shows how communal ties can be a force for good and also the deepest wellspring of corruption.
We'll see you there!
Banned Books Club October 7th 6:30 pm
From the original, uncensored journals of Anaïs Nin, Henry and June spans a single year in Nin's life when she discovers
love and torment in one insatiable couple. From later 1931 to the end of 1932, Nin falls in love with Henry Miller's writing and his wife June's striking beauty. When June leaves Paris for New York, Henry and Anaïs begin a fiery affair that liberates her sexually and morally, but also undermines her marriage and eventually leads to her psychoanalysis. As she grapples with her own conscience, a single question dominates her thoughts: What will happen when June returns to Paris? An intimate story of one woman's sexual awakening, Henry and June exposes the pain and pleasure of a single person trapped between two loves.
While not a widespread ban, the book did face challenges from some who considered it obscene or indecent.
These challenges sometimes involved legal battles and questions about its distribution and sale.
Deep Dish Reading October 23rd 6 pm
Deep Dish is a speculative fiction reading series showcasing work from Chicagoland writers working in science fiction, fantasy and horror. Each event features 1-2 featured readers plus 6-8 “rapid fire” readers, who each perform 2-3 minute selections.
October 24th 5 pm Chicago Poetry Fest
Presented by the Poetry Global Network. Join us for our 4th annual international poetry event.
There will be 7 poets reading live from Chicago and 7 streaming from India,
the Philippines, the UK, Singapore, Malaysia, as well as across the USA.