Gretchen Kalwinski

magic dust
Writer Gretchen Kalwinski's portfolio and blog
May 5, 2011

Our Faces on Rob Elder’s book “It Was Over When”

Chicago journalist Rob Elder wrote a book on breakups and since my husband Rob Funderburk and I knew the designer, we got to be “models” for the funny, irreverent, photo-booth book cover. Check out the third photo down and you’ll see my face got the “slash” treatment, but Rob-sans-eyeglasses can be pretty well made out. The book is getting swell coverage so far: check ABC Chicago, The Star, or check it out on Amazon. I have to say, though I had nothing to do with the book content, my 18-year old self would have been extremely impressed to be involved in a project praised by Kevin Smith. Ha!

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April 9, 2011

Reader at WBEZ Event: “Don’t Call Me Joe”

I’ll be reading tonight with several other writers at the largest traditional coffee “cupping” event to happen in Chicago (conducted by Intelligentsia). Don’t know what cupping is? Neither did I, so I pasted some info from the WBEZ site below, or you can click here for more info. The piece I’ll be reading–and am still working on, oops–is an essay of my 20-year old coffee addiction, begun inelegantly with Mountain Dew, continuing with a brief, ugly Mini-Thin period in college, and now centered around my much more moderate, one-Americano-before-noon stasis.

CHICAGO (March 15, 2011) –Chicago Public Media (WBEZ 91.5 FM) continues its live event series, the Off-Air Series, with an exclusive chance to participate in a new culinary conversation and learn just how little is actually known about tasting and brewing coffee. Designed to be the largest ‘traditional coffee cupping’ (aka tasting) ever held in Chicago, Don’t Call Me Joe, in collaboration with Chicago’s own Intelligentsia Coffee, will be held at Catalyst Ranch, 656 W. Randolph Street, on Saturday, April 9 at 7:00pm. The event has limited seating and is almost sold-out, but there will be a wait list at the door.

Cupping is the industry standardized way of critically evaluating coffee; it is how Intelligentsia selects green coffee and is an integral part of their Direct Trade buying model. The standard procedure involves deeply sniffing the coffee, then loudly slurping so it spreads to the back of the tongue. The taster attempts to measure all aspects of the coffee’s taste including body, sweetness, acidity, flavor, and aftertaste. The amazing team of buyers, tasters and trainers from Intelligentsia Coffee, will educate about tasting terminology, coffee processing, and history, while cupping with some of Chicago’s most experienced staff: Baristas, Roasters, Green Coffee Buyers, and members of the Intelligentsia Quality Control team.

In order to ensure full immersion in this culinary realm, the Chicago-based publisher Stop Smiling Books has arranged ‘Readings on Coffee’ for the listening pleasure. Participating authors include: Kyle Beachy, Paul Durica, Fred Sasaki, Gretchen Kalwinski, Mairead Case, and Sam Weller. “The Off-Air Series is designed to extend the WBEZ listening experience out into the community and allow people to come see what they’ve been hearing, or in this case taste,” said Event Producer Breeze Richardson. “Learning a little more about coffee – where it comes from and why it tastes the way it does – helps you appreciate it more. Just like a wine tasting, Don’t Call Me Joe is an opportunity to skillfully taste coffee with the experts. And the chance to create Chicago’s largest cupping ever makes this event even better!”

Tickets to the event are nearly sold out, but there will be a waiting list at the door for those interested. More information is available at www.wbez.org/events.

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March 5, 2011

Flinchy t-shirt showcasing

In a case of terrible timing, I was asked to wear a t-shirt this winter (5 days after the cookie-bloated Christmas holidays), for Flinchy, a t-shirt company founded by pals–the founders are Jay Ryan, Tom Stack, and Diana Sudyka. Essentially, Flinchy is a group effort to make cool t-shirt designs by local artists and designers. Here’s my shot of the gorgeous Raven Heart t-shirt, designed by Diana Sudyka, and here is Flinchy’s main site.

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December 7, 2010

“See Me Improving” at Stop Smiling

Colleague Travis Nichols has written a book of poetry titled “See Me Improving” and to celebrate its launch, some of us will be performing previously untold “talents and amateur attempts” at his book release party at Stop Smiling, tomorrow, Wednesday December 8, starting at 6:30 p.m. (1317 N. Milwaukee Ave). I’m told that among the amateur skills being celebrated are: mixology, headstands, and for my part, I’ll be demonstrating my newfound adeptness at applying “smoky eye” makeup. See above for the dramatic difference that it can make. For more info, go to Travis’ blog, See Me Improving.

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August 4, 2009

Interview with Amy Guth of ChicagoNow

During last week’s Printers Ball, I spoke on camera with Amy Guth of ChicagoNow’s Chicago Subtext about the Ball, Chicago publishing and books, and Literago.
Gretchen Kalwinski at Printers’ Ball from Amy Guth on Vimeo.

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July 30, 2009

Printer’s Row, audio

At last month’s Printer’s Row Book Fair, I was invited by the Poetry Foundation to read a poem from the Poetry Tour at the Printers Row Book Fair. Audio from the event is archived here.




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WLUW interview

This week, I spent a fun 10 minutes talking to Mike Stephen with WLUW’s Outside the Loop radio show for their literary-themed edition (to correspond with the Printers Ball). Some info is here, and the direct link to the streaming audio is here.





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June 10, 2009

Moi, in Chicago Tribune (o so briefly)

Last weekend, I read with a group of authors–authors way, way more illustrious than I; Bill Savage, Stuart Dybek, Marion Coleman, Marc Smith, Ellen Wadey, Peter O’Leary–at a Printers Row Lit Fest event presented by the Poetry Foundation. The Trib listed it here, along with my bio.

The Chicago Poetry Foundation presents the Chicago Poetry Tour Premier. Saturday 5 p.m. Arts & Poetry Stage.
Gretchen Kalwinski: The co-founder and managing editor of the literary Web site Literago.org. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Stop Smiling, The Chicago Reader, Chicago Magazine and Punk Planet.




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December 15, 2007

Bad at Sports Interviews Literago!

BadatSports sat down and interviewed Genie Williamson and I about why we started Literago.org and what we hope to accomplish. Such great fun talking to these ladies!

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January 29, 1996

Press; Chicago Sun Times; Dollar Store Reading

Chicago Lit: Out of dollar-store gimcracks, a rousing literary experience

Chicago Sun Times; January 29, 2006
By: Tom McNamee

You figure the joint might be half empty. Who goes to a bar to hear people read literature? You walk into a crowd. The back room at the Hideout, at 1354 W. Wabansia, is standing room only, full of mostly thoughtful, bookish, beer-sipping twentysomethings, all striped sweaters, knit caps and undecided facial hair.
You figure the sound system must stink and, because you’re not twentysomething and blew out your ears at too many rock concerts, you’d better get up close. The sound system is excellent, designed for the bands that will take the stage later.
Jonathan Messinger, who runs the Web site THISisGRAND, is your host. He explains the concept. This is the Dollar Store, he says. What he does, he says, is go to a real dollar store and buy “the most evocative crap” he can and gives this crap to various writers around town, people he really respects, and they go away for a few weeks and “make something wonderful out of it.” And then, he explains, they show up here — at the Dollar Store at the Hideout on the first Friday of the month — and read aloud what they’ve written.
You figure this can’t be good. Who writes well for free? Actually, just about everybody at first. James Joyce, right? He must have scribbled like mad growing up in suburban Dublin. And Hemingway in Oak Park. Bet they had to call him twice to come down to dinner.
Messinger reads a story first. His dollar store gift to himself was a tiny plastic woodpecker that pecks its way down a foot-long pole. He stands it on the table, lets the woodpecker slide down, pushes it back to the top and begins reading a short story titled “Winged Attack.”
“The American-born kung fu master does not have his father’s respect,” he reads. “The son is brawnier, tattooed up his arms and on his legs and handsome in a way that makes his female students dislike him.”
You can’t follow the story completely, which is no knock at all. A short story, even a fine one, can be tough to track when being read aloud. You know that from listening to actors read stories on WBEZ. But it’s got a nice pace, and it’s visual — the grandmaster goes for the throat — and it’s satisfyingly dark — the grandmaster knees some hapless kid. And the theme matters to you, about the shifts in power and respect between fathers and sons. And there’s that woodpecker, which Messinger, just for laughs, moves up and down the pole to punctuate turning points.
Everybody cheers when Messinger finishes, and you think the Dollar Store is some kind of bargain. You’re having a great time and all it cost was a $1 cover — a dollar.
Gretchen Kalwinski is up next. Her dollar crap from Messinger is a tiny ceramic knicknack of two cats, one cat holding up its left paw, the other its right. She explains that she did a little research online and learned they are called “Lucky Cats.” One cat attracts wealth and other protects wealth.
She reads a story titled “Spooky Action” about the evolving relationship between two teenage girls, not unlike two Lucky Cats, and once again you can’t seem to follow completely, but who cares. Kalwinski has a lovely way with imagery and carries you along. She reads aloud: “That same night, Amy could have sworn that they were inhabiting bodies other than their own, bodies from Mexico or Russia that were drifting through the night air, needing to take form. An out of body thing was happening as the bed shook and the windows wailed and the neighborhood kids whooped and hollered in the old factory next door, clattering garbage tops and whistling bottle rockets.”
You figure one or two of tonight’s five stories might be OK and the rest will be stinkers. But as reader follows reader, every story shapes up as at least half decent, and a couple are much better than that. But of course: This was a juried show, invitation only. These are writers Messinger admires. In the 15 months the Dollar Store has been around, he’s featured many an unknown writer but also some definite knowns, including Elizabeth Crane, Joe Meno and Lisa Buscani, who is executive director of the Poetry Center of Chicago.
You wonder on this night if Messinger might be saving the best for last, and that’s just what happens. Jeremy Sosenko, who is also Messinger’s new co-host, climbs up on stage with a magazine in his hand and explains that he didn’t write an original story because he recently read that Pat Morita, the actor who played Mr. Miyagi in the movie “The Karate Kid,” has died. So, in honor of Morita, Sosenko says, he thought he might read aloud from an Esquire interview with the man who wrote and directed “The Karate Kid,” John Avildsen. The movie was based on Avildsen’s experience growing up in California, and there really was a Mr. Miyagi.
You think this is weird. In the Esquire interview, which Sosenko begins to read, Avildsen cautions that he had to change a few things about the real Mr. Miyagi for the sake of narrative in the movie. For example, there’s “a thread about Miyagi’s love for bonsai trees,” when in real life Mr. Miyagi had no interest in bonsai or gardening.
But as Sosenko continues to read, the Esquire interview turns surreal — and tears-in-your-eyes hilarious — as the real Mr. Miyagi is unintentionally revealed as a sadistic and racist monster. He in no way (he loved to inflict pain), shape (he weighed over 450 pounds) or form (he wasn’t even Asian) resembled the lovable Mr. Miyagi of the movie.
“He had a great sense of humor,” Avildsen says of Miyagi in the interview. “He loved practical jokes, especially ones involving food. You know that novelty candy, you eat it and your mouth turns a certain color? He got such a kick out of those. He would offer me a piece of candy, next thing you know my mouth would turn blue or start burning with unimaginable pain.”
You remember then: Sosenko’s dollar store crap from Messinger, which he mentioned when he took the stage, was a sucker that turns your mouth blue.
Later that night, while driving home, you wonder why you found it so hard to believe that Sosenko — and not some highly paid Esquire humorist — wrote this perfectly tuned parody.
Maybe because it was so good, and you didn’t expect so much from the Dollar Store.
And now you know better.
The next Dollar Store is at 7 p.m. Friday at The Hideout. Featured writers will be Jimmy Vickery, Latoya Wolf and John Beer. For more information, go to Dollarstoreshow.com.
tmcnamee@suntimes.com
Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

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January 1, 1990

Literary Involvement / Vitae

Select Published Works

Fiction

The 2nd Hand Literary Broadsheet:

Literary Readings:

  • June 2009: Featured reader at Poetry Foundation event promoting the Chicago Poetry Tour at the Printers Row Lit Fest.
  • September 2007: Featured reader at local author Joe Meno’s book release party at Quimby’s Bookstore.
  • January 2006: Featured reader for Dollar Store Reading Series, Hideout Chicago.
  • February 2005: Selected reader for Guild Complex Literary Arts Organization curated reading series, judged by Stuart Dybek.
  • March 2004: Featured reader for 2nd Hand Literary Broadsheet literary reading.

Poetry

  • “Masochism” — Paterson Literary Review
  • “Bruised” — Skylark Magazine
  • Poetic text provided for short film titled, “Smelling the Alley, Tasting the Grapes.” May 2002.

Tutelage

Fiction:

  • Ellen Placey-Wadey, Guild Complex, (Chicago, IL, 2005). Advanced short story writing course.
  • Stuart Dybek, University of Chicago Graham School of General Studies, (Chicago, IL, 2004). One-day Masters class.
  • Greg Howard, University of Chicago Graham School of General Studies, (Chicago, IL, 2003). Short-short form.
  • Patricia Graham-Skoul, Indiana University, (Bloomington, IN, 1996). Concentration on story of Troy.

Poetry:

  • Adam Cornford, New College of California (San Francisco, CA, 2001). Audited modernist poetry course.
  • Diane Di Prima, (San Francisco, CA, 2001 – 2002). Private study with concentration on poetic craft.
  • Mark Musa, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN, 1997). Concentration on Dante.
  • Lee Sterrenburg, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN, 1996). Concentration on poetic craft.

Volunteer Work

  • Mentor, Gallery 37, award-winning Chicago youth job training program in the arts (summer 2002).
  • Board Member, Women Writers Series Committee, conference programming committee for annual Women Writers Conference in Chicago (1999).
  • Volunteer, Guild Complex, cross cultural and cross-generational literary arts organization (1999 – 2005).

Education

BA in English and Speech Communication, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (1998).




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