Friday, April 25, 2025: Poetry Readings with Rachel Jamison Webster & Virginia Bell
7:00 - 9:00 pm
Join us in for an evening of poetry and cocktails in celebration of National Poetry Month. Our featured poets will be Rachel Jamison Webster and Virginia Bell. There will be time for a Q&A with the audience, and books will be available for sale and signing by the authors.
7:00 -9:00 PM
Join us in for an evening of poetry and cocktails in celebration of National Poetry Month. Our featured poets will be Rachel Jamison Webster and Virginia Bell. There will be time for a Q&A with the audience, and books will be available for sale and signing by the authors.
This is a free event, but we ask you to RSVP as space is limited
Rachel Jamison Webster
Rachel Jamison Webster is a professor of creative writing at Northwestern University and the author of four books of poetry in addition to the nonfiction book, Benjamin Banneker and Us, which was chosen as a Best Book of 2023 by The New Yorker and picked as a Notable Book by The New York Times, Booklist and other outlets. Rachel’s essays, poems, and stories have been published in outlets including Poetry, The Paris Review, and The Yale Review. She lives in Evanston with her husband, the poet John McCarthy, and their daughter Adele.
Virginia Bell
Author of the poetry collection Lifting Child from the Ground, Turning Around (Glass Lyre Press 2025) and From the Belly (Sibling Rivalry Press 2012), Virginia Bell won NELLE Magazine’s Nonfiction Prize in 2020 for the personal essay, “Chicken,” and her poetry won Honorable Mention in the 2019 riverSedge Poetry Prize, judged by José Antonio Rodríguez. Her work has appeared in New City Magazine, Five Points, Denver Quarterly, SWWIM, EAP: The Magazine, Hypertext, The Night Heron Barks, Kettle Blue Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Rogue Agent, Gargoyle, Cider Press Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Poet Lore, The Nervous Breakdown, The Keats Letters Project, Blue Fifth Review, Voltage Poetry, and other journals and anthologies. Bell is Co-Editor of RHINO Poetry and teaches at Loyola University Chicago and DePaul University.
Friday, June 20, 2025: Ernest Hemingway Teaches Us About Who We Are
6:30 - 8:00 pm
Join us for our Discussion and Friday@Hemingway series with Dr. Aaron Lawler. Using books by Illinois authors, Dr. Lawler explores philosophical questions about self and purpose, helping audiences reflect on their personal stories. We learn through story, from history and art to science and economics. This workshop delves into the hero archetype, Hemingway’s hero, and pursuing your better self. Participants will explore ideas from Joseph Campbell, Maureen Murdock, Goethe, Ernest Hemingway, David Brooks, and Carol Dweck.
6:30 -8:30 PM
Dr. Aaron Lawler uses books by popular Illinois authors to explore common philosophical questions about self and purpose and help audiences reflect on their own personal stories. We are natural-born learners, and we learn through story. Everything, from history and art to science and economics, is framed in story. This presentation/workshop delves into the hero archetype, Hemingway’s hero, and chasing your better self. Participants will explore work and ideas from Joseph Campbell, Maureen Murdock, Goethe, Ernest Hemingway, David Brooks, Carol Dweck.
*This is an Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau event. Illinois Humanities is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy Demands Wisdom and the Illinois General Assembly [through the Illinois Arts Council Agency], as well as by contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations.
Friday, October 17, 2025: Haunted Hemingway, Ghost Stories
7:00 -9:00 pm
Haunted Hemingway, Ghost Stories
F@H's features the Hemingway Birthplace as a backdrop for an evening of literary ghost stories read by Chicago area writers. Featured authors will be announced later.
Haunted Hemingway, Ghost Stories
7:00 - 9:00 PM
F@H's features the Hemingway Birthplace as a backdrop for an evening of literary ghost stories read by Chicago area writers. Featured authors will be announced at a later date.
