A Special Literary Engagement

Please Join Literary Writers Network for a Special Literary Engagement, featuring critically acclaimed Chicago Author Stephanie Kuehnert, on Thursday, September 17, 2009, at 7 p.m. at the Book Cellar, 4736-38 North Lincoln, Chicago.

Stephanie will read from her newly released novel, Ballads of Suburbia, and a brief Q&A with the author will follow. She will also sign copies of her book, which will be available for purchase. To learn more about Stephanie, visit her website at www.stephaniekuehnert.com.

Praise for Ballads of Suburbia…

"....an intensely real and painfully honest novel of high-school anxiety." and "....Kuehnert nails the raw vulnerability of teendom and delivers a hard-hitting and mesmerizing read." - Booklist

"Like an American Beauty for the teen set." - NewCity

"With her first two novels, Kuehnert has created vivid pictures of teenage lives that lie in that borderland that abuts adulthood. It is a fertile, confusing and intense place, and Kuehnert never holds back. But like a good ballad, she keeps the stories taut and precise, with a touch of heart thrown in for good measure." - Chicago Sun-Times

The evening will include brief readings by the following LWN members prior to our featured author:

Stephen Markley, whose first book, Publish This Book, will be released by Sourcebooks in March 2010. Currently he writes for the Tribune Company’s RedEye and the ChicagoNow blog “Off the Markley,” at www.chicagonow.com/blogs/off-the-markley.

April Galarza, a Columbia College Chicago graduate of fiction writing and an associate editor for the literary publication 10,000 Tons of Black Ink.

Nancy Werking Poling, author of Out Of The Pumpkin Shell, released earlier this year. To learn more about Nancy and her book, visit her website at www.nancypoling.com.

The reading is free.

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone Release Party

We at LWN are happy to report the release of Stephanie Kuehnert’s debut novel, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone. Stephanie’s novel, described as a raw, edgy, emotional novel about growing up punk and living to tell about it, will be released through MTV books.

As a friend to LWN, Stephanie has read at multiple Prose Shows, and a chapter of her upcoming novel Ballads of Suburbia is featured in issue one of 10K TOBI.

Help Stephanie celebrate her novel’s debut at the book’s release party.

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone Release Party
Beacon Pub
101 Circle Ave, Forest Park, IL 60130
Thursday, July 10
Party starts at 7 p.m.
Reading and signing at 8 p.m.

Here’s a summary to entice:
The Clash. Social Distortion. Dead Kennedys. Patti Smith. The Ramones.

Punk rock is in Emily Black's blood. Her mother, Louisa, hit the road to follow the incendiary music scene when Emily was four months old and never came back.

Now Emily's all grown up with a punk band of her own, determined to find the tune that will bring her mother home. Because if Louisa really is following the music, shouldn't it lead her right back to Emily?

About Stephanie:

STEPHANIE KUEHNERT got her start writing bad poetry about unrequited love and razor blades in eighth grade. In high school, she discovered punk rock and produced several D.I.Y. feminist 'zines. Stephanie received her MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago. She currently resides in Forest Park, IL. Visit her website at www.stephaniekuehnert.com.