Cooler by the Lake

StoryStudio's online magazine

Family Stories: Writing the Sights and Sounds of Our Pasts

By Colton Gigot • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Maybe you’ve got a brother who quit his day job as a science teacher, moved to the sticks, and became a full-time wild boar hunter. Or he’s a field guide by day, mad scientist by night. Or maybe you don’t want to borrow your brother’s life story—you just need a few

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4 Comedy Writing Tips (Not Rules) From Kelsie Huff

By workstudy • In UncategorizedNo Comments

by Colton Gigot

“Humor is universal, it’s how humans survive the planet Earth.” –Kelsie Huff» Read More

I would have introduced this post with a gut-busting pun or knock-knock joke if I’d been able to think one up. That’s the problem with humor writing.

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Stories Matter

By workstudy • In UncategorizedNo Comments

by Colton Gigot

Stories matter.» Read More

That’s the point Jill wanted to drive home when she approached me recently about editing Cooler by the Lake. Stories are the building blocks underlying the human condition and have shaped volumes of human communication, both past and present.

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Celebrating Children’s Book Week 2013

By workstudy • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Children’s Book Week was first celebrated in 1919.  This week we celebrate it for the ninety-fourth time!  What happens during Children’s Book Week you ask?  Well: Official events like author talks, celebrity visits, dinners with writers, and all-star story hours are hosted in fifty cities across America A Children’s Choice Book Awards Gala is held to celebrate children’s

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I got up on Saturday morning with nothin’ but trash on my mind.

By Jill • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Chicago River Day 2013 dawned a bit chilly but seemed to be a good day to join thousands of people around the city who convened on the river banks to pick up garbage, pull out invasive plants, and generally take care of our one our most precious–and abused– resources.» Read More

April is in Like a Lemon, Out Like a Lamp

By workstudy • In UncategorizedNo Comments

By Colton Gigot For our April “Gives Back” effort, we’re partnering with Edgewater’s Community Glue Workshop, an organization that specializes in repairing and rehabilitating items that might otherwise end up in the landfill. On April 21st, StoryStudio Chicago will host a Community Glue repair clinic right here in our Chicago studio!» Read More

Tales from Behind the Desk: Shara’s Story

By workstudy • In UncategorizedNo Comments

by Shara Zaval I felt a bit like a know-it-all on my first day of Creative Writing I at StoryStudio. During our ten minute break, a student gripped the bathroom key, attached to a spatula with a paperclip, and read the sign taped nearby with a look of horror: Women’s: Across

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Friendship, Freelancing, and Non-Fiction: A Conversation with Rachel Bertsche

By Molly • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Today we chat with Rachel Bertsche, author of MWF SEEKING BFF, who returns to StoryStudio on Tuesday, March 12, to reprise the popular class Perfect Pitch: How to Sell a Non-Fiction Book.  Tell us a about your book! What made you decide to start a project memoir?» Read More

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Get Close Up with Author Christopher Castellani

By Molly • In UncategorizedNo Comments

by Lara Levitan We’re excited to welcome award-winning novelist Christopher Castellani on March 26 to teach Ready for Your Close-Up: Manipulating Narrative Distance. Castellani is the author of three novels, including All This Talk of Love (2013), The Saint of Lost Things (2005) and A Kiss from Maddalena (2003).» Read More

Meet Colton!

By Molly • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Meet our new intern! Colton is a graduate student in DePaul’s MA Writing and Publishing program.  Between working on the website, drafting blog posts for Cooler By The Lake, and otherwise answering to our beck and call, Colton agreed to sit down and answer a few questions.» Read

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StoryStudio Gives Back: February’s in the (Grocery) Bag!

By Molly • In The Writing LifeNo Comments

by Colton Gigot 2013 marks StoryStudio’s tenth anniversary, and to celebrate, we’ve decided to give back. Each month, we’ll donate our time, skills, energy, and community spirit to a different local organization or charity. This month we will team up with our neighbors at Ravenswood Community Services, the organization behind our local

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Deborah Siegel Will Rejuvenate Your Writing Life (With Chocolate)

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Deborah Siegel’s class on Saturday, January 26, Rejuvenate Your Writing Life! A Mini Retreat For Writing Mamas, was so successful that StoryStudio has already decided to offer this day long therapeutic experience again in the spring. And to spread the word, Deborah took the time to answer our questions about her class and about

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Want More Time to Write? Stop Multitasking!

By Claire • In The Writing Life, UncategorizedNo Comments

by Rosanne Bane If you think doing two or three things at once will save you time, think again. Oh sure, your cerebellum can keep you walking, talking and chewing gum at the same time, but only because you have practiced these physical activities so much that they are automatic.» Read More

StoryStudio Gives Back in 2013: Edgewater’s Pet Food Pantry

By Claire • In The Writing Life, UncategorizedNo Comments

2013 marks StoryStudio’s tenth anniversary, and to celebrate, we’ve decided to give back. Each month, we’ll donate our time, skills, energy, and community spirit to a different local organization or charity. To kick off our year of giving back, we’ll be collecting pet food and supplies for the Care For Real

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Writing From the Inside Out

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

by Polly Campbell What is faith? What is consciousness? Who am I – really? What can I do right now to live a more compassionate life and to inspire others? What can I do right now to get my husband to remember to clean the countertops?» Read More

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Annette Gendler on Giving Up Christmas

By Claire • In The Writing LifeNo Comments

StoryStudio is lucky to have Annette Gendler on its teaching team. She’s a seasoned memoirist with work published in Bellevue Literary Review, Under the Sun, South Loop Review, Washington Review of Books, and on flashquake.com, and is forthcoming in Natural Bridge, and Kaleidoscope.» Read More

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Performance and Literature: Chicago’s hottest new romance

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

by Jennifer Ann Coffeen Last Friday I had a pretty typical writing day: I spent the morning editing a short story I wrote a few years ago, went over my notes, reworked a few sections, polished it up, and read aloud it in front of forty paying audience members.» Read More

It’s About Becoming Brave: Anna Scott on Teaching Writing

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Anna Scott is teaching Voice Matters at StoryStudio beginning January 24. The class will focus on injecting stories with compelling and distinct voice. Through writing prompts and in-class writing time she’ll show you how much voice really matters. She took a moment to tell us a little bit about her plans

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A Decade of Stories: StoryStudio 2013

By Claire • In The Writing LifeNo Comments

StoryStudio will celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2013, and we couldn’t be more excited. Time has flown by, and like proud parents, the staff is in awe of the progress that the studio and its students have made. For founder Jill Pollack, the momentous double-digit birthday seems surreal.» Read More

“The world is not made up of atoms, it’s made of stories.” -Muriel Rukeyser

By Claire • In Craft, The Writing LifeNo Comments

by Juliet Bond In 2003, my dad had two heart attacks, one of my best friends went into a coma, and my marriage fell into chaos. I felt like all of the happy endings I’d banked on — another holiday with my dad, talking music, marriage, and parenting with my friend,

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No Secrets: Immersing yourself in your characters’ lives

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

By Kevin Davis She was a fiery criminal defense lawyer who wore snakeskin cowboy boots, drank bourbon and liked to quote Shakespeare. Around the courthouse they called her “the gunslinger.” As soon as I met her, I knew I had a character.» Read More

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On being a literary Taurus

By Claire • In The Writing Life, UncategorizedNo Comments

by Adrienne Celt As a child I was steadfastly opposed to the fact that my astrological sign – Taurus the Bull – meant I was supposed to be stubborn. In fact, you might say I was obstinately opposed. Persistently opposed. Mulish.» Read More

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Writing research or why you should focus on the turbans

By Claire • In Craft, Jen, UncategorizedNo Comments

by Jennifer Anne Coffeen I recently gave myself a new writing challenge. Well to be honest, a writing challenge found me. Musa Publishing put out a submission call in August for holiday short stories. Holiday romances are fun to write and a great way to attract new readers.» Read

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How to Be Friends With a Writer

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

by M. Molly Backes and Ali Brown Do read their chapters and say, “I can’t wait to see more! Keep writing!” Don’t ask, “You’re still working on that? STILL?” Do offer to listen if they need to talk through a tricky plot problem.» Read More

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Creative Writing Workshops: Not Like Bass Fishing or Spelunking

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

by Robert Quinlivan Some say that creative writing “can’t be taught.” To the extent that voice and inspiration can’t be transferred from one brain to another, I agree with this statement. Creative writing can’t be taught the way algebra or bass fishing or spelunking can be taught.» Read More

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Scholarship for Emerging Writers

By Claire • In The Writing LifeNo Comments

As the possibility of attending an MFA program fades further into economic impossibility for some of us, alternatives like residencies, StoryStudio classes, or writing conferences are rising in the ranks of go-to resources for budding writers. With that in mind, the Association for Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) is now accepting

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PBR and NPR: Merging Stand-up with Chicago’s Live Lit Scene

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

by Kelsie Huff As a stand-up comedian you say yes to jobs. A lot. You say yes to bridal shower roasts in the burbs, you agree to host corporate events located in loud Mexican restaurants, and you accept gigs in dingy bars with stages conveniently placed outside the men’s urinals.» Read More

Honoring Chicago’s Literary Legacy

By Claire • In The Writing LifeNo Comments

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will hold its third annual ceremony on November 30, showcasing Chicago’s longstanding literary prowess. Chicago is among the greatest literary cities in the world, once home to the likes of Sherwood Anderson, Carolyn Rogers, and Langston Hughes.» Read More

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Collaboration: The Writer and the Editor

By Claire • In Interviews, UncategorizedNo Comments

StoryStudio non-fiction instructor Ellen Blum Barish recently published a piece in Literary Mama entitled, “Exposed.” In it, she described an experience watching her daughter perform an original one-girl play centering on a conversation with her mother. Although the scenario was fiction, Ellen was certain that her daughter was sending a

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The Opportunity to Suck: What I Learned from Live Lit

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

by Lara Levitan I’m writing a novel. Which means I spend hours alone in my office, wrapped up in an imaginary world of my own making, conversing with no one but the voices in my head. To counteract the mental cabin fever this activity can incite, I signed up for Live

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Out of the Outhouse, Into the Blog

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

by Robert Duffer Blog is an ugly word. Not like the words prohibited to children, just plain ugly sounding. Like slacks. Or moist. Blog sounds like something you do in an outhouse. My creative writing students at Columbia College think it’s antiquated when I suggest they use the blog as a

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Learning to Write Around a Busy Schedule

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

By Jennifer Ann Coffeen When I first began writing my novel I figured I needed to carve out endless hours to write. I envisioned myself in an isolated cabin typing away while sipping 12 year old Glenmorangie. So, I did it.» Read More

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Deborah Siegel: “The pace of a writing life has little to do with the city outside one’s head.”

By Claire • In The Writing LifeNo Comments

by Deborah Siegel This summer I moved from Brooklyn to Chicago with my husband and toddler twins.  I thought the change in locale might help slow me down.  The opposite happened instead.  The pace of a writing life has little to do, sometimes, with the city outside one’s head.» Read More

It’s All in the Little Things: Annette Gendler on Teaching Memoir

By Claire • In Uncategorized1 Comments

It’s quite clear reading veteran StoryStudio instructor Annette Gendler’s new piece in the Washington Independent Review of Books, “The Privilege of Teaching Memoir,” that this is a writer who knows memoir inside and out. She reminds us that the stuff of great memoir is not necessarily fodder for headline news,

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Building Relationships with Words at Work

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Jackie Loewe is a member of StoryStudio’s Words at Work faculty, lending great support to the program with a wealth of experience as a networking professional. As founding partner of Sheridan Park Consulting, Loewe specializes in networking training and business development consulting with 25 years of experience as a sales and marketing

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Eco Arts Awards Call for Submissions

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Literature has been an essential component to the environmental movement since the 60s when Rachael Carson asked us to examine the human impact on nature in her seminal text Silent Spring. Periodically we are forced to face that fragility, as we are now, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which

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Mulling Over the New Chicago Cultural Plan

By Claire • In The Writing LifeNo Comments

Ever since the City’s new Cultural Plan went public, journalists have been mulling it over, providing commentary, and listing its omissions and shortcomings, as well as glimmers of potential. Gapers Block, for example, took a well-measured, thoughtful look at the version of the plan released earlier this summer.» Read

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An Interview with DIY Publicity Professionals

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Most anyone will tell you that even big multi-million dollar publishing houses no longer do a whole lot of promotion for their authors’ books. With so many self-promotional tools available online, writers are increasingly responsible for getting their names and books titles out there for the reading masses.» Read

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A Creative Writing Contest to Bring Highschoolers to the Studio

By Claire • In Uncategorized1 Comments

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame has rallied the efforts of Brick-by-Brick, Chicago Quarterly Review, and StoryStudio Chicago to sponsor a creative writing contest for Chicago public school kids. Three winners will be awarded a share of two thousand dollars, including gift certificates to classes here at StoryStudio.» Read More

Learn DIY Publicity at StoryStudio

By Claire • In The Writing LifeNo Comments

Writer Rayme Water recently discussed her post-publishing experience in a Publishers Weekly article entitled “Promote, Promote, Promote: A first-time novelist signs with a small house, learns fast, and shares her tips on guerrilla marketing.” Having signed with small publisher Winter Goose, it didn’t come as much of a surprise to Rayme that

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Small Press Making Big News

By Claire • In Interviews, UncategorizedNo Comments

by Lara Levitan “From what I can tell, our project is the biggest and most ambitious that any newspaper is doing in the United States,” said Doug Seibold, president of the Evanston-based publisher Agate. Seibold’s referring to the recent collaboration between Agate and The Chicago Tribune to release a series of ebooks created from the

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Sarah Dodson on What Lit Mags are Looking For

By Claire • In InterviewsNo Comments

There’s quite a bit on the horizon for MAKE Literary Productions in the coming weeks; events related to the release of the publication’s first bilingual issue, #13, Exchange/Intercambio, will usher the Spanish/English issue into the world on October 26 and 27.» Read More

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Hope for the Novel

By Claire • In The Writing LifeNo Comments

by Mark Baechtel A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us. Franz Kafka, Letter to Oskar Pollak, January 27, 1904 Does the serious literary novel still matter? To many writers, this might seem a ludicrous question. Still, it’s one that comes up fairly often these days, when myriad threats appear to be

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Abby Geni On Fiction and Revision or That Delightful Stage of Tinkering

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Abby Geni is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a recipient of the Iowa Fellowship. Her stories have won first place in the Glimmer Train Fiction Open and the Chautauqua Contest and have appeared in numerous journals. She is an experienced writing instructor and taught most recently at the School

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Richard Thomas on Horror and Neo Noir

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Richard Thomas has published over sixty stories and four Pushcart Prize nominations in 2011. He will have two short story collections out in 2012 entitled, Staring Into the Abyss and Herniated Roots. As if that’s not enough, this neo-noir specialist is teaching a one-nighter at StoryStudio on October 22 (just in time for Halloween!) called

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Jennifer Ann Coffeen on Writing Romance and Twitter Pride

By Claire • In Interviews1 Comments

Jennifer Ann Coffeen is is a romance novelist and freelance writer in Chicago. Her novel Priceless Deception and novella Lover’s Gamble, both published last year, are available now from The Wild Rose Press. Her forthcoming holiday short story Five Golden Suitors will be available from Musa Publishing December 7.» Read More

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Robyn Okrant: Battlestar Galactica and Dystopian Fiction Enthusiast

By Claire • In Uncategorized1 Comments

Robyn Okrant is a Chicago author, freelance writer, actress and yoga teacher. Her book, LIVING OPRAH: My One Year Experiment to Walk the Walk of the Queen of Talk, was published in the US, UK, Australia and Portugal. She also created the long-running play Frodo-A-Go-Go: The Rings Recycled based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the critically-acclaimed,

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Kelly O’Connor McNees on Voices from the Past

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Kelly O’ConnorMcNees taught a class at StoryStudio called Fact in Fiction, and has published two books since then. Carrie Brown of the Washington Post said of McNees’s first novel, The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott: “Devotees of ‘Little Women’ will flock to this story with pleasure.” Her second novel, In Need

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Writing the Unspeakable: Don’t avoid the tough topics in your personal essays.

By Claire • In CraftNo Comments

by Keith Ecker A little more than a year ago, I was sitting in the Book Cellar Café talking to my writing and performance buddy Monte. I had been going through one of my periodic identify crises in which I feel all my writing is cliché and that my voice stands

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Are You In the Write Club?

By Claire • In UncategorizedNo Comments

Live Lit performance is an integral part of this city’s literary life, melding the long legacy of literary culture and Studs Terkel’s oral histories. The Chicago Humanities Festival just announced that it’s adding a second Write Club Show to its lineup, due to popular demand.» Read More

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