CQR at The Book Stall

The Chicago Quarterly Review celebrated its 30th anniversary and other recent issues as well as the release of founder S. Afzal Haider’s new  collection The Dying Sun and Other Stories at The Book Stall on September 29.

from left: Gary Houston, Faisal Mohyuddin, Eleanor Spiess-Ferris, Signe Ratcliff, S. Afzal Haider, Dipika Mukherjee, Chuck Kramer

The CQR 30th Anniversary Reading and Celebration

The CQR celebrated 30 years in print on September 5, 2024 at City Lit Theatre in Chicago.

Back row, left to right: Miles Harvey, LeVan D. Hawkins, Suzanne Scanlon, Mary Wisniewski, Gary Houston, Richard Huffman, Charles Kenney, John Blades

Front row, left to right: Signe Ratcliff, Aarti Monteiro, Olga Domchenko, Elizabeth McKenzie, S. Afzal Haider, Jeff Wolf, Ben Bird, Chuck Kramer

 

Announcing the release of CQR #40, the Thirtieth Anniversary Issue!

Featuring work by:
Lis Bensley * L. Annette Binder * Ben Bird * John Blades * John Brantingham * Jessica Breheny * Christopher Buckley * Emily Coletta * Alicia DeRollo * Olga Domchenko * celeste doaks * Christina Drill * Patricia Engel * Peter Ferry * Karen Orendurff Fort * Kathleen Founds * Karen Joy Fowler * Syed Afzal Haider * Miles Harvey * LeVan D. Hawkins * Charles Holdefer * Gary Houston * Richard Huffman * Dr. Charles Johnson * Charles Kenney * Chuck Kramer * David Ladwig * Richard M. Lange * Joy Lanzendorfer * Dorianne Laux * Jey Ley * Lou Mathews * Elizabeth McKenzie * Kat Meads * Dan Millar * Joseph Millar * Maya Miller * Faisal Mohyuddin * Aarti Monteiro * Tommy Moore * Pablo Neruda * Lisa Allen Ortiz * Claire Oshetsky * Roy Parvin * Delia Pitts * Vikram Ramakrishnan * Signe Ratcliff * Suzanne Scanlon * Moazzam Sheikh * Paul Skenazy * Eleanor Spiess-Ferris * Sarah Anne Stinnett * Wally Swist * Greg Tebbano * Priscilla Turner * Matthew Wimberley * Mary Wisniewski * Jeffrey Wolf * Cooper Young * Gary Young * Jake Young * James K. Zimmerman

CQR Pushcart Prize winners 2024!

We’re thrilled to announce that TWO great pieces from our pages are featured in the 2024 Pushcart Prize Anthology! “Dreamers Awaken” by Scott Spencer, and “Butterfly” by Peter Kessler. And “Harbinger” by Charlie Watts has received Special Mention. Congratulations to all!

 

Announcing the release of CQR #39!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With cover art by Liz Radford and featuring work by: Dawn Abeita * Bipin Aurora * Scott Brennan * Sinclair Cabocel * Don Clermont * Lisa Compo * Johnny Cordova * Alida Dean * Kenneth Gangemi * Lee Matthew Goldberg * Eleanor Goodman * Ryan Kristopher Jory * Mickie Kennedy * Davíd Lavie * Terri Lewis * Oksana Maksymchuk * Juan Martinez * Michael Mattes * Dipika Mukherjee * James Stuart Nolte * Matt Poindexter * Jessica Bell Rizzolo * David Ryan * Kim Samek * Kirstin Scott * Sarah Seybold * Murzban F. Shroff * Nicole Simonsen * Christine Sneed * Jake Spears * Marcus Spiegel * Glenn Taylor * Raymond Thompson Jr. * Lauren K. Watel * Ian Randall Wilson * Tanya Žilinskas

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CQR recognized in Best American Essays & Best American Short Stories!

We’re thrilled to report on the recognition our contributors have received this year. Included in The Best American Essays 2023, guest edited by Vivian Gornick, are Scott Spencer’s “Dreamers Awaken” and Sam Meekings’ “A Fist of Muscle,” both published in the CQR in 2022. BAE’s Notable Essays of 2023 also honors Chuck Kramer’s “Crossing the Divide” and Ken Malatesta’s “Puzzling Toward Oblivion” from last year’s CQR.
Best American Short Stories 2023 has recognized Chris Arp’s “The Holes in Our Souls” and Susan Shepherd’s “Snakes” as Distinguished Stories of the year, both published in the CQR in 2022.

Announcing the release of CQR #38!

Featuring work by: Melissa Andrés * Justin Aoba * Harold Bordwell * Anna Braverman * Finn Briscoe * Paola Bruni * Marisa Campbell * Xochiquetzal Candelaria * Maria Castell-Greene * Morris Collins * George Cotkin * Kwame Dawes * Shawna Ervin * Paul Farwell * Gustavo Pérez Firmat * Rebecca Fox * Sekyo Nam Haines * Morgan Hamill * Miles Harvey * Dennis Hauck * Cho Ji Hoon * Gloria L. Huang * Jesse Lee Kercheval * Luke Johnson * David Philip Mullins * Sarah Nance * Natalia Nebel * David Nikityn * Lauren Page * Hearne Pardee * Roy Parvin * Michael Pearce * Jessica Powell * E.I. Pruitt * John Robinson * Ed Ruzicka * Daniel Saalfeld * Neal Snidow * David Susman * Nathan Winer * Reggie Scott Young * Annie Zhu

 

Cover art: “Waterville” by Hearne Pardee

 

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Announcing the release of CQR #37!

Featuring work by: Greg Ames * rose auslander * Drew Calvert * Harrison Copp * Mark Crimmins * Dante Di Stefano * Michael Downs * Patrick Dundon * Josh Emmons * Philip Eskenazi * Kirk Glaser * Justin Groppuso-Cook * Colton Huelle * Richard Huffman * Richard Jacobs * Stephen Earley Jordan II * Markus Kirschner * Amy Marques * Jessie Ren Marshall * Paddy McCabe * Eireene Nealand * Pablo Neruda * Kristy Nielsen * Jack Norman * Darren Oberto * Marcus Ong Kah Ho * Andrew Porter * Melissa Pritchard * Orel Protopopescu * Jessica Nirvana Ram * Tim Raymond * William V. Roebuck * Malcolm Rothman * Varun U. Shetty * Paul Skenazy * Wally Swist * Ernie Wang * Thomas Wawzenek * Maud Welch

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CQR contributors recognized in Best American Short Stories & Best American Essays!

Congratulations to our contributors who’ve been recognized this year in Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays!

Cliff Thompson, whose essay “Ming Yang Fu, Or Seeking Words at Age Thirteen” from CQR #33 has been named a Notable Essay of the year by Best American Essays 2022!

Jerald Walker, whose essay “An American Right” from CQR #33 has been named a Notable Essay of the year by Best American Essays 2022!

Rachel Eliza Griffith, whose story “Miracle River” appeared in CQR #33 and has been selected as a Distinguished Story of the year in Best American Short Stories 2022!

A.D. Nauman, whose story “The Cat” from CQR #34 has been named a Distinguished Story of the year in Best American Short Stories 2022!

Announcing the release of CQR #36!

Featuring work by: Chris Arp * Jennifer Bannan * Keri Bentz * Barbara Blades * Alan Bodnar * Jessica Breheny * Ricardo Cazares * Jinwoo Chong * Stephen Cramer * Jose Hernandez Diaz * Kerry James Evans * Shannon Fandler * Mohan Fitzgerald * Stephen Gibson * Henrietta Goodman * Benjamin S. Grossberg * Joe Imwalle * Juan Ramón Jiménez * Elizabeth Kadetsky * Scott Karambis * Peter Kessler * Chuck Kramer * Dorianne Laux * Brian Ma * Ken Malatesta * Michael Milburn * Julie Murphy * Devin Thomas O’Shea * Zack Rogow * aureleo sans * Lisa Sardinas * Devin Schiff * David Sheskin * Scott Spencer * Wally Swist * Sara Truuvert * Gemini Wahhaj * Charlie Watts * Ian Randall Wilson * Laura Budofsky Wisniewski

Cover image: “Puzzle” by Barbara Blades

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Announcing the release of CQR #35!

Featuring work by: Prad Aphachan * Ann Voorhees Baker * A. J. Bermudez * Anthony Berris * Sheldon Costa * William C. Crawford * Alicia DeRollo * Terri Drake * Mark Duncan * Banzelman Guret * Barbara Haas * Charlie Hahn * Stephanie Hayes * Gary Houston * Ulrica Hume * Amy Kiger-Williams * Federico Garcia Lorca * Michelle Massie * Michael Mattes * George McDermott * Sam Meekings * Jane Morton * Dipika Mukherjee * Jan Nakao * Yoram Naslavsky * E. Nolan * Jack Norman * Ann Pedone * Matt Polzin * John Robinson * William Roebuck * Malcolm Rothman * Andrew Schofield * Susan Shepherd * D. James Smith * Wally Swist * Kristine Thatcher * Michael Trocchia * Francis Walsh * Whitney Watson

Cover: “Labyrinth” by Jan Nakao

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The Poets of CQR #34!

Fabulous gathering hosted by CQR poetry editor Jake Young–with C. Dylan Bassett, John Blair, Laurel Blossom, Erika Brumett, Kwame Dawes, Stephen Gibson, Lowell Jaeger, Dorianne Laux, John Sibley Williams, and Pui Ying Wong.