On Monday, November 9, the Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs (DCA) will unveil two new web resources designed to promote Chicago’s flourishing publishing and literary communities: ChicagoPublishes.com and CAR-Literary.com.
ChicagoPublishes will spotlight Chicagoland book and magazine publishers by providing regular news updates on them, as well as a comprehensive literary events calendar. ChicagoPublishes will also feature news about and a searchable database of more than 2,300 books and periodicals published by 100 Chicagoland book publishers and 175 magazine publishers. The work of Chicago’s most prominent contemporary authors published by houses elsewhere–such as Scott Turow, Audrey Niffenegger, and Sara Paretsky--will also be included. These books are already on permanent display at the Chicago Publishers Gallery, housed in the Chicago Cultural Center on the corner of S. Michigan Ave. and Washington St. in the Loop.
CAR-Literary, part of ChicagoArtistsResource.org, intended more for writers, will serve as an electronic bulletin board for job postings and calls for submissions. It also will provide links to both local and national resources. CAR-Literary will be interactive, with forums and a section called Artist Stories, where contributors may share their expertise and experiences about writing and publishing.
Dominique Raccah, publisher of Sourcebooks, headquartered in nearby Naperville, said, “I love that the city is showcasing publishing, and connecting and building the literary community in a way that’s never been done before. Publishing is in transformation; connecting writers and publishers is vital to the industry. It’s also vital to the culture of this city.”
