Welcome friends! We are open for your literary needs!
In this first-ever anthology of Indigenous science fiction Grace Dillon collects some of the finest examples of the craft with contributions by Native American, First Nations, Aboriginal Australian, and New Zealand Maori authors. The collection includes seminal authors such as Gerald Vizenor, historically important contributions often categorized as "magical realism" by authors like Leslie Marmon Silko and Sherman Alexie, and authors more recognizable to science fiction fans like William Sanders and Stephen Graham Jones. Dillon's engaging introduction situates the pieces in the larger context of science fiction and its conventions. Organized by sub-genre, the book starts with Native slipstream, stories infused with time travel, alternate realities and alternative history like Vizenor's "Custer on the Slipstream." Next up are stories about contact with other beings featuring, among others, an excerpt from Gerry William's The Black Ship. Dillon includes stories that highlight Indigenous science like a piece from Archie Weller's Land of the Golden Clouds, asserting that one of the roles of Native science fiction is to disentangle that science from notions of "primitive" knowledge and myth. The fourth section calls out stories of apocalypse like William Sanders' "When This World Is All on Fire" and a piece from Zainab Amadahy's The Moons of Palmares. The anthology closes with examples of biskaabiiyang, or "returning to ourselves," bringing together stories like Eden Robinson's "Terminal Avenue" and a piece from Robert Sullivan's Star Waka. An essential book for readers and students of both Native literature and science fiction, Walking the Clouds is an invaluable collection. It brings together not only great examples of Native science fiction from an internationally-known cast of authors, but Dillon's insightful scholarship sheds new light on the traditions of imagining an Indigenous future.
Coyote & Crow the roleplaying game, is a multiple award winning and nominated sci-fi and fantasy tabletop role playing game set in a First Nations alternate future where colonization never happened. This game was created and lead by an all Native team. In March 2021, Coyote & Crow became one of the most successful role playing games to ever fund on Kickstarter, raising more than $1 million dollars. Since then, they’ve successfully launched two more games, Naasii and Wolves.It is the Newberry Bookshop's honor to carry Coyote and crow!
We crisscrossed the country, going rez to rez, community to community, stopping off at your grandma's and auntie's houses, collecting only the best and keenest fry bread grease across turtle island.NTVS x Steven Paul Judd collector piece. REAL LIP BALM! *not real frybread grease ;)
"The Indigenous Hulk" by Steven Paul Judd. Indigenous Hulk gets mad when treaties are broken.
"The World of Monty and Rose" is a documentary film written and directed by the Newberry’s Bob Dolgan. The film tells the story of a pair of endangered piping plovers that nested at Chicago's Montrose Beach, becoming the first of the species to nest in the city since 1948. The endangered birds took up residence on one of the busiest stretches of the busiest beach in Chicago. The film has been an official selection of the One Earth Film Festival and the Thunder Bay (Mich.) International Film Festival. The film has aired on WTTW Channel 11 in Chicago and other public television stations. Running time: 50 minutes.
Indigenous people are central to the story of popular culture in the Western Hemisphere, and popular culture is important to many Indigenous people and experiences. This exhibition, drawn from the Newberry’s growing collections for American Indian and Indigenous Studies, shares four centuries of Indigenous creators, athletes, activists, and fans engaged with pop—from pamphlets to comic books, and from daguerreotypes to video games.This zine -companion to the show is 56 pages long featuring contributions from three Indigenous creators; Lee Francis 4, Hoka Skenandore, and Azie Dungey.
*Pattis award runner up*WINNER, 2023 Underground Railroad Free Press Hortense Simmons Memorial Prize for the Advancement of Knowledge! Uncovering stories of the freedom network in northeastern Illinois Decades before the Civil War, Illinois's status as a free state beckoned enslaved people, particularly those in Kentucky and Missouri, to cross porous river borders and travel toward new lives. While traditional histories of the Underground Railroad in Illinois start in 1839, and focus largely on the romanticized tales of white men, Larry A. McClellan reframes the story, not only introducing readers to earlier freedom seekers, but also illustrating that those who bravely aided them were Black and white, men and women. McClellan features dozens of individuals who made dangerous journeys to reach freedom as well as residents in Chicago and across northeastern Illinois who made a deliberate choice to break the law to help. Onward to Chicago charts the evolution of the northeastern Illinois freedom network and shows how, despite its small Black community, Chicago emerged as a point of refuge. The 1848 completion of the I & M Canal and later the Chicago to Detroit train system created more opportunities for Black men, women, and children to escape slavery. From eluding authorities to confronting kidnapping bands working out of St. Louis and southern Illinois, these stories of valor are inherently personal. Through deep research into local sources, McClellan presents the engrossing, entwined journeys of freedom seekers and the activists in Chicagoland who supported them. McClellan includes specific freedom seeker journey stories and introduces Black and white activists who provided aid in a range of communities along particular routes. This narrative highlights how significant biracial collaboration led to friendships as Black and white abolitionists worked together to provide support for freedom seekers traveling through the area and ultimately to combat slavery in the United States.
*2025 Pattis award winner* WINNER OF THE MIDLAND AUTHORS AWARD FOR HISTORY - LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE - A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - The "illuminating" (New Yorker) story of the Great Chicago Fire: a raging inferno, a harrowing fight for survival, and the struggle for the soul of a city--told with the "the clarity--and tension--of a well-wrought military narrative" (Wall Street Journal) In the fall of 1871, Chicagoans knew they were due for the "big one"--a massive, uncontrollable fire that would decimate the city. It had been bone-dry for months, and a recent string of blazes had nearly outstripped the fire department's already scant resources. Then, on October 8, a minor fire broke out in the barn of Irishwoman Kate Leary. A series of unfortunate mishaps and misunderstandings along with insufficient preparation and a high south-westerly wind combined to set the stage for an unmitigated catastrophe. The conflagration that spread from the Learys' property quickly overtook the neighborhood, and before long the floating embers had been cast to the far reaches of the city. Nothing to the northeast was safe. Families took to the streets with every possession they could carry. Powerful gusts whipped the flames into a terrifying firestorm. The Chicago River boiled. Over the next forty-eight hours, Chicago fell victim to the largest and most destructive natural disaster the United States had yet endured. The effects of the Great Fire were devastating. But they were also transforming. Out of the ashes, faster than seemed possible, rose new homes, tenements, hotels, and civic buildings, as well as a new political order. The elite seized the reconstruction to crack down on vice, control the disbursement of vast charitable funds, and rebuild the city in their image. But the city's working class recognized only a naked power grab that would challenge their traditions, hurt their chances to keep their hard-earned property, and move power out of the hands of elected officials and into private interests. As soon as the battle against the fire ended, another battle for the future of the city erupted between its entrenched business establishment and its poor and immigrant laborers and shopkeepers. An enrapturing account of the fire's inexorable march and an eye-opening look at its aftermath, The Burning of the World tells the story of one of the most infamous calamities in history and the new Chicago it precipitated--a disaster that still shapes American cities to this day.
*Pattis 2025 runner up*The Salt Shed chronicles the compelling work of reimagining and transforming Chicago's impressive and iconic Morton Salt Warehouse while honoring its history and its working-class roots.Originally constructed in 1929, the Morton Salt Shed and Warehouse Complex has been a familiar and beloved Chicago landmark along Elston Avenue between Division Street and North Avenue. For decades, the iconic hand-painted sign has captivated people traveling along busy Interstate I-90 and on Elston Avenue at ground level. As times changed, the building was no longer used for salt storage and processing, and eventually lay dormant. Recently, the building has been repurposed and transformed into a stunning music venue. The Salt Shed tells the story of the building's reimagining and transformation. Photographer and writer Sandra Steinbrecher spent nearly two years documenting the deconstruction, reconstruction, and reinvigoration of this classic, industrial Chicago building. Through breathtaking photos and interviews with the people who made the restoration possible--including architects, developers and workers who did the daily labor-The Salt Shed takes the reader behind the scenes in one of Chicago's most distinctive restoration projects of the 21st century.
This imprinted cap is made from 100% cotton.Each cap features an unstructured, low-profile design with a soft-lined front.Designed with a six-paneled crown and a pre-curved visor.Includes a self-fabric closure strap with an antique silver buckle.
Given our old-school predilection for print, we found a kindred spirit in Starshaped Press, the print shop behind this exclusive letterpress print depicting our beautiful building.Since 1999, Chicago-based Starshaped Press has stayed true to the original craft of letterpress. Using antique metal and wood type, the shop has bucked popular trends by showcasing the beauty and relevance of well-designed, historic type. Unlike most letterpress shops, Starshaped Press focuses on reusing existing materials (some over 150 years old) for all projects—meaning that no plastic is ever used in production.A stellar expression of the shop’s style and ethos, this handsome poster is 9 by 12" and fabulous for framing.
In honor of the Newberry's 2023 exhibition, Pop-Up Books through the Ages, Hannah Batsel and Shawn Sheehy created a wonderfully wild (and also architecturally accurate!) pop-up version of the library. Brimming with detail and imagination, the pop-up is a celebration of the centuries of history lurking within the Newberry's walls.There are plenty of Easter eggs for keen observers to uncover: The mysterious unfinished arches on the exterior of the Newberry building, the bust of Walter L. Newberry at the foot of the library's main staircase, and an early 20th-century postcard Ferriswheel located in the library's third-floor reference center.Batsel wanted to give expression to the sense of possibility and discovery she feels when she’s in the Newberry.“ You don't know what you're going to find when you go around a corner at the Newberry. In our pop-version of the library, if you're willing to pry into little crevices and look into windows, you will be rewarded.”Hannah BatselArtistBatsel's illustrations bring the pop-up Newberry to life, while Sheehy's paper engineering gives it a structure worthy of the library's iconic architecture.“ The building has a lot of character. The building IS a character. There was strong interest in featuring it in the pop-up.”Shawn SheehyPaper Engineer
