October 2022
"People hate romance because it's coded as femme or queer. So, the next time you hear someone criticize the craft of romance, ask them 'Are you a misogynist?' " - Leah Johnson
Thank you to everyone who joined us at Koval Tasting Room last night for our sold-out event celebrating DRUNK ON LOVE by Jasmine Guillory! Jasmine was in conversation with YA romance author Leah Johnson. It was a glorious evening!

In case you missed it, you can still BUY A SIGNED COPY. And sign up for our next romance event with Meryl Wilsner on October 17.

Photo credit: Kathleen Hinkel
October 2022 Events
A couple of our events are virtual, and but the majority are now in-person.
Masks and proof of vaccination required for in-person event.
Monday, October 3 at 3 p.m. CT
Virtual Conversation: Hayley Campbell & Riva Lehrer


Join us for a virtual conversation celebrating the release of All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life's Work by Hayley Campbell. For this event, Campbell will be in conversation with Riva Lehrer.

A deeply compelling exploration of the death industry and the people—morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners—who work in it and what led them there.

Tue, Oct 11, 2022 7:00 PM CST
In-person Event: THE ANCHORED WORLD by Jasmine Sawers
Women & Children First, Chicago
Join us to celebrate The Anchored World by Jasmine Sawers. For this event, Sawers will be in conversation with Timothy Moore.

A goat begins to grow inside a human heart. The rightful king is born a hard, smooth seashell. Supernovas burst across skin like ink in water. Heartbreak transforms maidens into witches, girls into goblins, mothers into monsters. Hunger drives lovers and daughters, soldiers and ghosts, to unhinge their jaws and swallow the world. Drawing inspiration from a mixed heritage and from history—from the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen to the ancient legends of Thailand, from the suburbs of Buffalo, New York, to the endless horizon of the American Midwest—Jasmine Sawers invents a hybrid folklore for liminal characters who live between the lines and within the creases of race and language, culture and gender, sexuality and ability.

Wed, Oct 12, 2022 7:00 PM CST
Virtual Event: THE FUTURE IS DISABLED by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Join Women & Children First and Access Living for a virtual event celebrating The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. For this event, Leah will be joined by Moya Bailey & Akemi Nishida.

In The Future Is Disabled, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha asks some provocative questions: What if, in the near future, the majority of people will be disabled―and what if that's not a bad thing? And what if disability justice and disabled wisdom are crucial to creating a future in which it's possible to survive fascism, climate change, and pandemics and to bring about liberation? Building on the work of her game changing book Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Piepzna-Samarasinha writes about disability justice at the end of the world, documenting the many ways disabled people kept and are keeping one another―and the rest of the world―alive.

Mon, Oct 17, 2022 7:00 PM CST
In-Person Event: MISTAKES WERE MADE by Meryl Wilsner
Women & Children First, Chicago
Join us for an in-person event celebrating Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner. For this event, Meryl Wilsner will be in conversation with Jennifer Prokop

From the critically acclaimed author of Something to Talk About comes Meryl Wilsner's Mistakes Were Made, a sharp and sexy rom-com about a college senior who accidentally hooks up with her best friend's mom.

When Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar to escape her school's Family Weekend, she isn't looking for a hookup--it just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mom--the hot, older woman Cassie slept with.

Wed, Oct 19, 2022 7:00 PM CST
In-Person Event: PLEASE BE ADVISED by Christine Sneed
Women & Children First, Chicago
Join us for an in-person book launch in celebration of Please Be Advised: A Novel by Christine Sneed. Sneed will be in conversation with Rachel Swearingen.

Please Be Advised is award-winning author Christine Sneed's bright, irreverent send-up of corporate America in the 21st century. Mixing cultural critique and formal inventiveness with wicked laughs and the sort of surrealistic mysteries only a novel about the corporate world could give us, Please Be Advised tracks the decline, fall, and possible resurrection of Quest Industries, one of the world's foremost purveyors of collapsible, portable, and (occasionally) dangerous office machines.

Thu, Oct 20, 2022 7:00 PM CST
Joint In-Person Book Launch: Richard T. Rodriguez & Francesca Royster
Women & Children First, Chicago
Join us for an in-person joint book launch celebration in honor of A Kiss Across the Ocean: Transatlantic Intimacies of British Post-Punk and US Latinidad by Richard T. Rodriguez and Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions by Francesca T. Royster!

In A Kiss Across the Ocean, Richard T. Rodriguez examines the relationship between British post-punk musicians and their Latinx audiences in the United States since the 1980s. Melding memoir with cultural criticism, Rodriguez spotlights a host of influential bands and performers, including Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam Ant, Bauhaus, Soft Cell, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Pet Shop Boys. He recounts these bands' importance for him and other Latinx kids and discusses their frequent identification with these bands' glamorous performance of difference.

After a century of racist whitewashing, country music is finally reckoning with its relationship to Black people. In this timely work—the first book on Black country music by a Black writer—Francesca Royster uncovers the Black performers and fans, including herself, who are exploring the pleasures and possibilities of the genre.

Fri, Oct 21, 2022 7:00 PM CST
Poetry Reading: Luther Hughes with CM Burroughs & I.S. Jones
Women & Children First, Chicago
Please join us for an in-person event celebrating the release of A Shiver in the Leaves by Luther Hughes. For this event, Hughes will be in conversation with CM Burroughs and I. S. Jones.

Nestled against the backdrop of Seattle's flora, fauna, and cityscape, Luther Hughes' debut poetry collection wrestles with the interior and exterior symbiosis of a gay Black man finding refuge from the threat of depression and death through love and desire.

Tuesday, October 25 at 6:00 PM CT
Off-site Reading & Book-signing: WHEN WE WERE SISTERS
by Fatimah Asghar
This event will also feature readings by
Jamila Woods, Hanif Abdurraqib, Kaveh Akbar, Danez Smith
& Krista Franklin
Harold Washington Library
Cindy Pritzker Auditorium
400 S. State St.

Join us at the Harold Washington Library for a free, public event celebrating When We Were Sisters: A Novel by Fatimah Asghar! Please note, there is no registration link for this event, so arrive early to get a seat. Masks and full vaccination are strongly encouraged but not required at the library.

“A stunning accomplishment in form, storytelling, and heart.”—Safia Elhillo, author of Home Is Not a Country and Girls That Never Die

In this heartrending, lyrical debut work of fiction, Fatimah Asghar traces the intense bond of three orphaned siblings who, after their parents die, are left to raise one another. The youngest, Kausar, grapples with the incomprehensible loss of their parents as she also charts out her own understanding of gender; Aisha, the middle sister, spars with her “crybaby” younger sibling as she desperately tries to hold on to her sense of family in an impossible situation; and Noreen, the eldest, does her best in the role of sister-mother while also trying to create a life for herself, on her own terms.

Wed, Oct 26, 2022 7:00 PM CST
In-Person Event: Ling Ma & Nick Drnaso
Women & Children First, Chicago
Join us for an in-person joint book launch celebrating the new releases from Ling Ma (Bliss Montage) & Nick Drnaso (Acting Class)! 

In Bliss Montage, Ling Ma brings us eight wildly different tales of people making their way through the madness and reality of our collective delusions: love and loneliness, connection and possession, friendship, motherhood, the idea of home. A woman lives in a house with all her ex-boyfriends. A toxic friendship grows up around a drug that makes you invisible. An ancient ritual might heal you of anything—if you bury yourself alive.

From the acclaimed author of Sabrina, Nick Drnaso’s Acting Class creates a tapestry of disconnect, distrust, and manipulation. Ten strangers are brought together under the tutelage of John Smith, a mysterious and morally questionable leader. The group of social misfits and restless searchers have one thing in common: they are out of step with their surroundings and desperate for change.

Thu, Nov 3, 2022 7:00 PM CST
Off-site Book Launch: WHEN FRANNY STANDS UP by Eden Robins
Early to Bed, Chicago
Join us for an in-person celebration of When Franny Stands Up: A Novel by Eden Robins. For this event, Robins will be in conversation Britt Julious. This event will be hosted at Chicago's feminist sex shop, Early to Bed (5138 N. Clark St.). We'll also be welcoming comedian and writer Lucia Whalen for an opening act! 

This event is for ages 18+. Masks required for all attendees for the duration of the event.
Women & Children First will be on-site selling books during the event. Eden will sign books after the program.

Franny Steinberg knows there's powerful magic in laughter. She's witnessed it. With the men of Chicago off fighting WWII on distant shores, Franny has watched the women of the city taking charge of the war effort. But amidst the war bond sales and factory shifts, something surprising has emerged, something Franny could never have expected--a new marvel that has women flocking to comedy clubs across the nation: the Showstopper.

Save the Date!
Saturday, November 5 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Chicago Waldorf School
5200 N. Ashland Ave

Monday, November 7 at 7 p.m. CT
Women in Publishing Virtual Panel

Thursday, November 10 at 7 p.m. CT
Lynn Melnick
In-person Book Launch

Friday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m. CT
Off-site, in-person event at the Copernicus Center
5216 W. Lawrence

Sunday, November 13 at 7 p.m. CT
Helen Shiller
In-person Book Launch

November 24 & 25
CLOSED

Saturday, November 26
Small Business Saturday
Women & Children First Book Groups
Desperate Characters
by Paula Fox
Monday, October 17
at 7 p.m.
Hybrid: in-person and Zoom
The Witch Boy 
by Molly Knox Ostertag 
Thursday, October 27
at 4:30 p.m.
via Zoom
Your House Will Pay 
by Steph Cha
Tuesday, October 18
at 7:30 p.m.
Hybrid: in-person and Zoom
The Border Crossed Us
by Justin Akers Chacon
Monday, October 10
at 7 p.m.
via Zoom
We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride & Jo Piazza Sunday, October 2
at 2 p.m.
via Zoom
The Low Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado Sunday, October 16
3 p.m.
via Zoom
Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel Sunday, October 23 at 10 a.m.
Hybrid: in-person and Zoom
Communion: The Female Search for Love by bell hooks
Wednesday, October 26 at 6:30 p.m.
via Zoom
STORE HOURS

11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tuesday through Sunday

We are closed on Mondays. 

Contactless pickup: 
11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
seven days a week
behind the bookstore

5233 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60640
773-769-9299