Letter from the Chair

Welcome to Story Week 2009! Our thirteenth year features another exceptional lineup of authors, editors, publishers, performers, and other literary movers and shakers. We hope you enjoy yourselves and thank you for joining us.

This year's Story Week theme is "Writing on the Edge," which might well characterize every year of the festival.  In our quest to break boundaries, we have always been about exposing audience participants to the full range of voices, not simply privileging the narrow range that the self-appointed arbiters of taste and marketing departments of media conglomerates would have us hear. The need to hear voices and stories from the edge, where so often the most interesting and provocative ideas emerge, has never been greater. With the market for printed books under siege, with newspaper book review sections being closed down or drastically curtailed, and with publishers less willing or able to take a chance on new or non-mainstream authors, we must all join in the fight for inclusiveness, extending the democracy of imagination represented by voices from all backgrounds. That fight is every bit as important as that found in the recent election since, without the arts, our society is depleted and our ability to solve the critical issues polarizing and diminishing our world is blunted. Writers help us see something of our world in a new way.  They are, above all, problem solvers. As their imaginations engage our own, we are lifted from the mundane and gain some further measure of clarity, understanding, meaning, even inspiration. They, like our president, carry the audacity of hope and are agents of change. 

One of our evenings this year is dedicated to Studs Terkel, who visited Story Week three years ago and whose great voice helped release the voices of so many others who might not have otherwise been heard. Very near the end of his extraordinary life, he told Alex Kotlowitz, "Hope dies last-'La esperanza muere ultima.'  Without hope, you can't make it. And so long as we have that hope, we'll be okay. Once you become active helping others, you feel alive. You don't feel, 'It's my fault.' You become a different person. And others are changed, too." This year's Story Week writers-over fifty strong, from Chicago, from across the country, from other countries, from high stations and low-themselves represent the rich variety of voices, backgrounds, and approaches to story that was at the heart of Studs's life and work.  We welcome them; and we welcome your own voices coming into dialogue with theirs and with your fellow audience members. May your own hope and willingness to work for change in this society remain strong. And may you, like Studs and so many of our writers this year, be unafraid of writing, thinking, speaking, and living on the edge.

Particular thanks go to the two lead figures of the festival. Artistic Director Sheryl Johnston has for many years been the driving force behind Story Week's planning, logistics, and ever-expanding reach. It is no exaggeration to say that Story Week would not be one of the highlights on the Chicago literary calendar without her extraordinary wisdom and diligence.  Faculty Artistic Director Sam Weller has brought his own amazing talents to bear upon this festival, and all of us can be grateful for his creativity and selfless attention to doing what is necessary to make the festival better.  

Special thanks also go to Story Week Assistant Artistic Directors Dan Prazer and Amanda Snyder, whose work on every phase of planning and execution has been crucial to bringing us all together for this week's amazing events. Max Glaessner, assisting Sheryl in many different roles, brought the same imagination and humor to these tasks that he exhibits in his writing; Katie Corboy's organization of the "Story Week Goes to AWP: Literary Rock and Roll" show was instrumental in making that kick-off event one of the best in Associated Writers and Writing Programs' history; and Geoff Hyatt's work on the Web site was persistent and much appreciated.  The unsung work of the Fiction Writing Department Student Board, under the leadership of Nicolette Kittinger, will be evident at every event this year and expresses the extraordinary sense of community among the writers in the department. The Fiction Writing Department full-time staff-Assistant to the Chair Deborah Roberts, Secretary Nicole Chakalis, and especially Administrative Assistant and eagle-eye editor Linda Naslund-led the Story Week support efforts with characteristic professionalism, industry, and wit; and all of us owe them a huge debt of gratitude. Thanks to Robyn Eastman for her own professionalism in organizing and undertaking the videotaping of Story Week, and to Photo major-gone-to-fiction writer Elise Tanner for photographing so many events this week. And I would be remiss if I did not thank the supportive, hard-working, and incredibly talented faculty of the Fiction Writing Department, especially Associate Chair Gary Johnson, who are so committed to realizing the full potential of the unique Columbia College mission and of the writing programs that John Schultz originated when he brought the innovative Story Workshop(r) approach to a struggling college without writing programs over forty years ago. And thanks to Betty Shiflett, who helped develop the approach and who began the visiting writers program upon which Story Week was first constructed. 

Over the years, Story Week has benefited from a great deal of collective wisdom, and this year's program is no different. Above all, Booklist Associate Editor Donna Seaman deserves thanks for her friendship, intelligence, and ongoing thoughtful contributions to so many facets of the festival.  Bill Young of Midwest Media has offered excellent advice and counsel; and Joe Shanahan has brought the creative thinking and entrepreneurial spirit that has made Metro the center for music in the city for twenty-five years to Story Week.  Thanks also go to Marcia Lazar, inspirational leader of the President's Club and MFA in Creative Writing-Fiction alum; to Literacy Chicago head and valued advisor Barry Benson; to Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey, the indefatigable Leah Vaselopulos, and Annie Tully at the Harold Washington Library for yet another wonderful Story Week collaboration; to all of the folks at Martyrs'; to Betsy Gomberg and Sheila Cronin at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies; to Rebecca Gordon from the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest for help in securing Mr. Keret; to Associated Writing Programs Executive Director David Fenza and his right-hand man Matt Burriesci; and to all of the participants in this year's festival.

Great thanks go to the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, for their grant, which helps make Story Week possible and which came in a year of budget belt-tightening. (Advocate for arts funding, folks!) And, of course, thanks to our corporate and other sponsors: American Airlines, Coca-Cola, the Follett Higher Education Group, the Chicago Public Library, the Hilton Chicago, Metro, Martyrs' Restaurant and Pub, Sheffield's Beer Garden, Sugarplum Catering, Dance Center Chicago, and TimeOut Chicago Magazine. Their generous support of this festival expresses their commitment to the literary arts and is essential to its health and programming.

At Columbia College Chicago, thanks go to Vice President Eric Winston of the Office of Institutional Advancement and staff members Chandra Dennis, Ray Kovachs, and Diana Cazares; Marketing & Communications mavens Micki Leventhal and Brenda Berman; Creative and Printing Services Assistant Vice President Mary Forde and designer Robert Gauldin; Interim Director of Web Services Brian Zera; and National Director of Alumni Relations Josh Culley-Foster and associates Michelle Passarelli and Cynthia Vargas. Thanks to Center for Teaching Excellence Director Lott Hill and the Critical Encounters Human/Nature program for co-sponsoring two Story Week events. Finally, we offer sincere appreciation to President Warrick L. Carter, Provost/Senior Vice President Steve Kapelke, Vice President for Academic Affairs Louise Love, and Dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts Eliza Nichols for their leadership, commitment to the Columbia College Chicago mission, and ongoing encouragement and support of Story Week and Fiction Writing Department programs. 

Most of all, thanks to all of you for attending and participating in this year's Story Week Festival of Writers.  Enjoy yourselves, and please come again!

- Randall Albers, Fiction Writing Department Chair
                          Founding Producer, Story Week Festival of Writers