Since 1985, the Printers Row neighborhood in Chicago hosts a literary festival each June. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the area became the Midwest hub of the printing industry with historically significant buildings designed by legendary architects. Today, it continues to be a draw for fans of Chicago architecture and literature alike.
Due to the pandemic the 35th anniversary of this festival, like so much of life, was canceled in 2020. Crawling out of the Covid-19 apocalypse we weren’t sure what form it might take this year. Fortunately, the decision was made to move the event to September 2021. To gain a better idea of the scope here is a sizzle reel from 2019:
The Bizarro Writers Association was thrilled to once again participate. Six small presses were represented, including Death’s Head Press, Eraserhead Press, Madness Heart Press, Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, Rooster Republic Press, and Weirdpunk Books. The table is staffed with volunteer authors and enablers from across America. Constance Ann Fitzgerald, Danger Slater, John Bruni, Laura Lee Bahr, Michael Allen Rose (organizer of this chaos), and Sauda Namir spent two days stationed at the intersection of Polk and Dearborn spreading the good word of the weird.
The autumn gave us great weather and substantial crowds hungry for books. If you’re one of the amazing patrons we served, thank you for supporting small press publishing and we truly hope you enjoy your reads. The Near South Planning Board appears to be reviewing stakeholder’s reports, which may or may not move it back to June in subsequent years. Stay tuned for those announcements, and join us in Chicago for Printers Row Lit Fest 2022!
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