Thursday, September 03, 2009

Granta visits Chicago



British literary journal, Granta, has a new issue coming out this month devoted to Chicago. I used to subscribe when I was younger because I really liked the documentary style photography that they featured in some of their issues. It was the type of photography that didn't get published very often at the time. This is only the 2nd time they've devoted an issue to a single city. The first one centered on London ten years ago.

For this issue, they're publishing new work from people like Sandra Cisneros (The House on Mango Street), Stuart Dybek (The Coast of Chicago), and Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here). There's a photo essay by Chilean photographer Camilo José Vergara, documenting the end of an era, the dismantling of one of the largest housing projects in Chicago. He's returned again and again to communities like the Bronx and Chicago's West Side to document the physical changes made by man and nature over the years.

And to top it all off there's the great cover artwork by Chris Ware.

Here's a video by Grant's acting editor, John Freeman, introducing the issue....

Introducing "Chicago" from Granta magazine on Vimeo.



There's also a series of events scheduled in a couple of weeks involving writers featured in the issue.

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