Publishing Chat: Four Authors Talk Traditional & Self Publishing

In the process of writing a book, or thinking about writing a book? Ever wanted to have your work published but been mystified by the process? Join us on Thursday, April 3 at 7 p.m. for an introductory panel discussion about getting published! We’ll be joined by four local authors who have published works across genres and age groups, and who have been both traditionally and independently published, to provide a broad overview of the publishing process and insight into the diversity of ways that one can get their work into the hands of readers!

Please bring all your questions! Our panelists are here to help demystify the process and will be sharing stories of how they signed with their agents and published their first books. This will be an organic chat meant to evolve with the flow of conversation.

The authors' books will be available for purchase and signing at the close of the event.

Panelists:

Cynthia A. Rodriguez is a Chicago-based romance author who loves writing hard-won happily ever afters. Her works include Another Sky, The Sound of Serendipity, Love Sick, and When We Crash.

Jami Nakamura Lin is the author of the speculative memoir The Night Parade (illustrated by her sister Cori Nakamura Lin), published by Mariner Books/HarperCollins (and Scribe UK). The Night Parade won the 2024 Chicago Review of Books Award in Nonfiction and was named a Best Book of 2023 by the Boston Globe and Vulture/New York Magazine. Jami’s work interrogates mythology, monstrosity, madness, and motherhood, and is influenced by Japanese, Taiwanese, and Okinawa folklore. She is a former Catapult essay columnist, and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Sewanee Review, Good Housekeeping, Passages North, and other publications.

Samira Ahmed is the bestselling author of Love, Hate & Other Filters, Internment, Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know, Hollow Fires, and the Amira & Hamza middle grade duopoly, as well as a Ms. Marvel comic book miniseries. Her poetry, essays, and short stories have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies including the New York Times, Take the Mic, Color Outside the Lines, Vampires Never Get Old, and A Universe of Wishes.

Tamara Jerée is a fan of women with sharp teeth. Their stories have appeared in the Shirley Jackson Award-winning anthologies Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness and Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology. The Fall That Saved Us is their debut novel and a winner of the 2023 Indie Ink Award. They are one of two booksellers at Call & Response Books.

Please bring a mask! :)

Host or Publisher Call & Response Books