Class Description
Read outstanding fiction and poetry with Chicago settings, published in the last ten years by writers who live and work among us or who have deep ties to our city. Through discussion, close reading, reflective writing, and other activities, this class will investigate how the astonishing technology of imaginative literature works in relation to our shared reality. We’ll cover a diverse range of perspectives, writing styles, and contemporary issues—AI, education, housing, identity, loneliness, segregation, violence, the complex legacies of history—through the lens of the hyperlocal and on the scale of human drama and voice, image, and word. Transform your view of your times and your own backyard with the kind of news you can only get through literature.
Dylan Zavagno is an award-winning humanities educator at the Deerfield Public Library and host of the Deerfield Public Library Podcast, where he interviews authors of all genres from Chicagoland and around the world (including several of the authors in this class!).
Come see a preview of this class at our Open House on May 17!
What to Expect
Format: In Person
Class Capacity: 24
Class Style: Mostly discussion; participation-based
Materials List
Required
- Sandra Cisneros, Martita, I Remember You/Martita, te recuerdo. Vintage Contemporaries, 2021. ISBN: 978-0-593-31366-4
- Jasmon Drain, Stateway’s Garden. Random House Paperback, 2021. ISBN: 9781984818188
- Richard Powers, Playground. W.W. Norton & Company, 2024. ISBN: 978-1324086031
- Digital Course Packet
First Reading
- For our first session, read the stories "PET Milk" and "The Start of Something" by Stuart Dybek (in course packet) and the novella Martita, I Remember You/Martita, te recuerdo by Sandra Cisneros, Vintage Contemporaries, 2021 (ISBN: 978-0-593-31366-4)
A Brief Syllabus
- Chicago Identity & the (Chicago) Canon
- Love Your Neighbor
- The Fire of History
- Intimate Encounters
- Chicago’s Future, or Transcendence
Cost and Registration
5 Sessions, $200 ($180 for Newberry members, seniors, and students). Learn about becoming a member.
We offer our classes at three different price options: Regular ($200), Community Supported ($185), and Sponsor ($215). Following the models of other institutions, we want to ensure that our classes are accessible to a wider audience while continuing to support our instructors. You may choose the price that best fits your situation when registering through Learning Stream.
To register multiple people for this class, please go through the course calendar in Learning Stream, our registration platform. When you select the course and register, you’ll be prompted to add another registrant.
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