I’m a lifelong Northeasterner (born upstate, raised in Jersey, based in Brooklyn), but I feel a strong tie to Chicago’s literary scene: most of the readings I’ve done have been with writers hailing from said city, and both featherproof and THE2NDHAND are based and/or rooted there.
With that in mind, these two pieces on the state of literary Chicago, and independent publishing in general, come as pretty much essential reading. (Via Jonathan Messinger.)