Chicago Publishers Gallery honors city's storied literary legacy

The City of Chicago is finally honoring our city's literary legacy with a new permanent gallery opening this weekend at the Chicago Cultural Center(77 E. Randolph Street). Stealing a page from the increasingly important Printers' Ball, which just finished its fourth annual celebration of the printed word featuring free issues of more than one hundred Chicago-area publications, the city has gathered over 1,500 books and countless magazines, newspapers, journals, zines, and comics to "showcase Chicago’s thriving publishing industry." 

According to Joyce Rowe tonight's industry-only preview is an auspicious start to the vitality of the gallery.  "The response from the publishing industry has been very strong. We have a full house for the panel." Newspaperman and Chicago literary legend Rick Kogan will be moderating a panel of Haki Madhubuti, poet and publisher of Third World Press; Jonathan Messinger, publisher of featherproof books, novelist, and Time Out Chicago Books Editor; Audrey Niffeneg(yes, I know, --egger, but this publishing tool has prohibited that word and her website link, which is her name.com), book artist and best-selling author; and Dominique Raccah, publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks, Inc. That is an excellent crosssection of industry professionals and should be a representation of what bibliophiles can expect at the gallery.

Unlike every other kind of art gallery, the Chicago Publishers Gallery will let attendees pore over its materials in a "comfrotable setting". "Book-inspired art, limited editions, and other book-related exhibitions will be featured in display cases. A computer will provide access to the city’s book blogs, publishers’ websites, and online magazines," Rowe said. The Cultural Center's bookstore will stock titles of the writers featured in the Gallery.

Pete Anderson, who has literary pretendings, off-the-cuff insights and the occassional rant at petelit.com, answered this week's trivia correctly regarding the Gallery opening. Well done, Pete, and nice site.