BOOKS & AUTHORS | Cultures and characters

The UIS ECCE Speaker Series continues on Friday, March 6, at 7 p.m., with a presentation and readings by fiction writer and poet Stuart Dybek. Dybek will read from his new collection of short stories about love, Paper Lantern, and from two previous collections, I Sailed with Magellan and The Coast of Chicago. The readings and presentation will explore themes such as the impact of WWII, Korea and the Vietnam wars on American veterans, how gender and class affects the lives of residents of the Little Village Neighborhood in Chicago and the experiences of Polish and Mexican immigrants in Chicago. Dybek uses strong characters and vivid, sometimes “grotesque,” imagery to illustrate and encourage individuals to emphasize with characters and cultures that may be far removed from their own. Dybek is currently the distinguished artist in residence at Northwestern University in Chicago. For more information visit http://uis.edu/speakerseries.