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glencoeanchor.com Life & Arts
the glencoe anchor | March 22, 2018 | 27
Author Stuart Dybek
brings Chicago to Glencoe
Nathan Worcester
Freelance Reporter
“ABSOLUTELY
—Kenn Wells, former lead dancer of the English National Ballet
IN THE WORLD.”
Chicago author Stuart
Dybek enthralled the
crowd March 13 during
his reading at the Glencoe
Public Library.
Dybek, who is the
Distinguished Writer in
Residence at Northwestern
University, began by
reading his poem “Bath”
and his short story “Pet
Milk.” Dybek then fielded
questions and comments
from the audience. The
author was visiting the library
for a special event.
After explaining that
his undergraduate students
were sometimes
disheartened when he
edited their work, Dybek
said he softened the blow
by showing them the draft
of a story he had submitted
to The New Yorker.
Legendary editor Roger
Angell sent back a heavily
marked-up version
with an acceptance note
indicating that it “needs a
few moments work.”
One audience member
remarked that many of
Dybek’s fictional stories
felt autobiographical.
Dybek pointed out the
line separating nonfiction
from fiction was often
blurry for writers.
“Many of my friends —
and certainly me — we’re
kind of fast and loose
with what’s fiction and
what isn’t,” Dybek said.
Dybek also praised
Chicago’s self-conscious
development of a local
literary canon throughout
the past few decades.
“Chicago is a city
unique in the relationship
it has with its writers,”
Author Stuart Dybek signs copies of his books March
13 at an event where he spoke to attendees of the
Glencoe Public Library. Courtesy of Glencoe Public
Library
Dybek said. “The way
England has got Keats,
Shelley and Byron, Chicago’s
got Algren, Bellow
and Gwendolyn Brooks.”
“In high schools and
even junior highs now,
there are these courses in
Chicago literature, and
the teachers are spectacular,”
Dybek added. “When
I grew up in Pilsen, I
never got to the stack of
books that would’ve told
me anything about where
I was living. It never occurred
to me for a moment
where I was living
had this enormous history.
And I was living up
to my neck in the richness
of what passes for history
in the Midwest, given that
we’re a young country.”
Another audience
member asked Dybek if
he had seen a shift in the
way Chicago writers handle
crime, corruption and
similar topics throughout
the past 40 years.
Please see Author, 28
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