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Columbia College’s 15th Anniversary Story Week

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Columbia College has been celebrating 15 years of its annual Story Week!

After I graduated from the School of the Art Institute with my MFA in Writing in 1998, I taught a few classes at Columbia College and remember the roots of this festival of writers. It has grown into a remarkable event, and this year I’m honored to be a part of it.

Story Week 2011 closes with the Chicago Classics, hosted by the Chicago Tribune’s Rick Kogan (whom you may recall was the emcee for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony last year).

As a representative for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, I will be among 20 guests from Chicago’s literary community who will read from stories and poems by our favorite Chicago authors.

Readers include:
Danielle Chapman, Director of Publishing Industry Programs for Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs
Don De Grazia, author, professor at Columbia College Chicago
Brian Hieggelke, Editor, Newcity
Rick Kogan, Senior Editor, Chicago Tribune and Host of WGN’s Sunday Papers with Rick Kogan
Alex Kotlowitz, author, journalist
Jonathan Messinger, author, Books Editor, TimeOut Chicago
Audrey Niffenegger, author-professor-visual artist
Bayo Ojikutu, author, professor at DePaul University
Donna Seaman, Booklist Associate Editor, Chicago Public Radio Book Critic
Sam Weller, author, professor at Columbia College Chicago
and others.

The first fifty guests through the door will be entered in a raffle to win prizes and gift packs from these friends of Story Week: Akashic Books, featherproof Books, Goodman Theatre, Hair Trigger, Lincoln Hall, MAKE Magazine, Myopic Books, POETRY, Quimby’s Bookstore, and Time Out Chicago.

The event takes place Friday, March 18, 2011, at Lincoln Hall (2424 N. Lincoln Ave.), from 6-8pm. I hope to see some of you there!

Here’s a video with highlights from past Story Weeks:

The birth of a story

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In October 1996, I was in the inaugural class of the MFA in Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I had been working on an essay about my Ukrainian roots with Carol Becker, but I was blocked. I asked for some advice from a personal statement writer who does fantastic work,  he told me to listen to guest lecturer Stuart Dybek talk about his writing . He discussed his stories as being grounded in Chicago, in the neighborhoods he grew up in, when suddenly all the pieces clicked in my head and a new story began to explore.

I hadn’t planned on writing long fiction. My intention was to write essays and poetry, as well as the occasional short story, but the ideas that were coming had a much greater breadth than any of those forms could contain. This was a novel. I jotted down some notes and rushed home to write. I wrote through the night and into the morning. The Silence of Trees grew from there.