11/9 - Catch a Fish, Eat a Fish – Our student reading series featuring the lyrical stylings of 826CHI's young authors. 6-7 p.m.


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Workshops– 826CHI hosts a variety of free writing workshops throughout the school year for students of all ages. Click here to see the latest schedules and to sign-up.

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Drop-in Tutoring – Starting September 11th, every Monday through Thursday from 3-5:30, 826CHI will assign free tutors to help students who come to our center with homework and writing help.

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826CHI Field Trips - During the school year, 826CHI offers a series of field trips to support teachers and improve student writing. To find out more about our field trips or to schedule a class visit during the 2006/2007 school year, click here. Those who have been wondering what our never-before-seen, cantankerous publisher, Admiral Moody, is doing during the summer break, can learn more here.
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826CHI Book Club: We are pleased to announce our new reading group, led by the incomparable Patrick Shaffner. To learn more, click here.


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View all Upcoming Events.

Saturday, October 21st – Pure, unadulterated horror was afoot during this afternoon’s “Witches, Ghosts and Goblins” workshop. Cobwebs instantly collected on bookshelves; spooky music and fog swirled through the air, and a few of our students even grew fangs. While we prefer the place to be a bit less dusty, and our students to be of the non-lupine variety, we do have to admit that they met their goal and successfully scared the daylights out of us. Their story, which included a demon ghost, a haunted wardrobe, a smoking keyhole, five spooky spiders, and “something sticky on the floor,” was the stuff of nightmares. And, Admiral Moody noted, perhaps the stuff of Pubbies as well!?!?

Tuesday, October 10th – Last night at 826CHI we hosted A Night of Convergences with Lawrence Weschler and TJ Jagodowski. As attendees entered, many expressed confusion over what precisely the evening would entail. “What is a convergence?” they asked. “Was I supposed to bring one?” they muttered, “…and what was that you said a convergence was again?” Although we may have fallen short in our attempts to concisely advertise the system of visual rhymes that are Weschler’s most recent topic of inquiry, we were thrilled to see that simple curiosity mixed with just the right amount of confusion was enough to bring many an audience member to our site. Even better, all were glad they came: where else could you take a trip through topics as wide-ranging as Vermeer, Mark Twain, and J Crew advertisements?

Thursday, October 5th – The hippos were, indeed, hungry at tonight’s volunteer game night, but the clear winner of the evening’s popularity contest was assuredly a lesser-known commodities trading game called Pit. While there are few individuals who can resist the pleasure of consuming marbles, through a surrogate, at a wild and frantic pace, it appears that simulating the trading of fake wheat and barley futures can bring our volunteers to comparable levels of joy. Whatever their taste in games, tonight proved what we’ve long known, that we are beyond fortunate to have found such a spirited and dynamic group of volunteers here at 826CHI. It also proved that, in addition to being spirited and dynamic, they’re also very loud.

Wednesday, September 20th – All of us at Admiral Moody Publications were thrilled to hear that the first Storytelling and Bookmaking field trip of the new school year had been scheduled. In the two weeks since our boss, Admiral Moody, has been back from his summertime Japanese squid-hunting voyage, he has aggravated staff members, volunteers and even our landlord with this his newfound obsession with winning a second Pubby. When the 5th grade students from Mr. Aldridge’s Lincoln Elementary School class arrived, we hoped that they would come up with a story at least compelling enough to momentarily distract our curmudgeonly superior. Fortunately, as it turned out, this class was packed full of experienced authors, and engineering a smashing plotline was simply a breeze. Admiral Moody was most impressed, and we were personally thankful for the full fifteen minutes of respite we got from his incessant Pubby-centric rants. We also were pretty happy to get this photo of the class with their newly-published books taken back in their classroom.

Saturday, September 9th – It is a rare day when we do not marvel at how fortunate we are to have such an amazing group of volunteers who keep 826CHI running smoothly. Today we spent our time marveling over Matt Vester, a new volunteer who took time out of his Saturday afternoon to install a spacious utility sink at our site. While the primary benefit of this sink is practical (we no longer have to endure the monotony of filling a bucket cup-by-tedious-cup), the secondary rewards are quite nice as well. Who knew the grandiose size of the sink would inspire both volunteers and students to write verses in its honor? From the philosophical “Sink – makes you think” to the Emily Dickinson-like “Nothing can big as big as a sink,” we were impressed. Many thanks to you, Matt, for bringing both inspiration and a means to mop the floors to 826CHI.

Friday, August 25th – By the sounds of it, last night’s Revenge of the Bookeaters concert, should have been filled with retribution, reprisal and, well, revenge. However, nothing could be more removed from the truth because, quite frankly, we were feeling the love. The Park West was packed with supporters new and old, and our special guests put on a spectacular show. Host Ira Glass even treated the crowd to dramatic renditions of two of our all-time favorite pieces of 826CHI student writing, “Barry the Humongous Apple” and “Dr. Peanut and his Deformed Treasures.” Many thanks to everyone who went to work groggy today after our marathon show, to Fred Armisen for allowing us to extract him from his comfy chair and coax him onto the stage, and especially to Ira Glass, The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, ZZ Packer, John Roderick, Dave Eggers, Valentino Achak Deng, and Ben Gibbard for making it all happen.

September 22nd – Today a group of 5th graders from Washington Irving School gathered at 826CHI with the goal of creating an annotated recipe book, filled not only with instructions on how to make their favorite dishes, but also with stories about what special meanings and memories certain meals evoke for them. After students tasted and then wrote descriptively about a series of food items ranging from chocolate to pickles, they began to explain some of their personal culinary traditions. Some of the stories hit a sentimental note, as when one student wrote about passing the garlic and olive oil to her mom while they made pasta with red sauce together: “That for me is some special time for my mom and I,” she noted. Other stories spoke to food’s magical power, detailing the way that banana pudding, when eaten right before playing football in the house, can act as “an energy food, like Gatorade.” And other stories had us angling for a dinner invitation, such as one student’s description of his favorite meal: “First it tastes like plain chili; next it tastes like bell peppers and other veggies; and then later it tastes like you want a whole lot more.”

Sunday, August 6th – Volunteer-extraordinaire Stephanie Levi was at it again, bringing her skills as a molecular geneticist to the realm of 826CHI workshops. In today’s workshop, entitled “Creepy Crawlies,” students were asked to collect samples of various surfaces around the room in order to determine which housed the most bacteria. After swearing off ever touching another cell phone again (who knew?), the students began writing stories, proving that the personal lives of noxious microorganisms can be fascinating. The class’s final publication, “Super Gross Tales of the Secret Lives of Bacteria,” includes a range of fascinating stories, including “Bacteria House,” in which a seemingly normal house wages germ warfare to protect itself from robbers. Super gross indeed.

Thursday, July 6th - While our goal in today's workshop entitled "Writing for your Pet" was to create the opportunity for students to indulge their imaginations and perfect their storytelling skills, what we ended up doing was creating a highly literate dog. Students met Lucy, a charming beagle, at the beginning of the workshop and were told to imagine characters and plots that would delight and entertain her. The students definitely came through, with tales full of action and intrigue, all of which ended with dramatic canine victories - even when vicious crocodiles were involved. We weren't surprised when, at the end of the workshop, Lucy was thrilled to have these stories read to her, but were a bit shocked at just how much she liked the story about an unattended pie made of cheese and celery. Who knew?

Tuesday, June 20th – When Charles Blackstone approached us a few months ago with an idea for a fundraiser that involved both wine and words, we wondered “What will we call it?” Fortunately, Charles had an answer: “Let’s call it ‘Wine and Words,’’ he said. How could we lose? Yes, it was unlikely that such a concept would fail and, indeed, tonight’s event was a resounding success. As the evening commenced, host Alpana Singh from WTTW’s “Check, Please!” guided audience members through a wine tasting after which the crowd turned their attention to the assembled panelists. The first reading, a story written by students at 826CHI, entitled “Dr. Peanuthead and his Deformed Treasures,” set the tone of the evening. Luckily, authors Charles Blackstone, Cris Mazza and Gina Frangello were not intimidated by this heartwarming tale of alienation and redemption, and went on to share their own work with the admiring crowd. Many thanks to all of those involved in making this evening so enjoyable, and to the Heartland Café for so graciously hosting it.

Saturday, June 10th – Although the school year may have come to a close, we’re happy to announce that 826CHI’s student writing programs will continue throughout the summer. We are offering a range of programming, including both a weekly story hour and weekly drop-in writing session, as well as a full schedule of workshops. In today’s first summer workshop, a session entitled “Dig It,” students were called upon to imagine, construct and describe in poetic form an entirely new form of plant life. As audience members gathered at the end of the workshop for a briefing on these young botanists’ discoveries, they were shocked to learn that new organisms such as The Rude Tulip and The High-Speed Daisy were there in their midst. If today’s workshop is any indication, we have an exciting summer of invention and creativity ahead of us, and – as always seems to be the case at 826CHI – our days are likely to be filled with discoveries we have yet to imagine.

Thursday, June 8th – It is hard to believe, but today we finished our first school year by hosting our last session of after-school drop-in tutoring. While there are many noble activities that we could have undertaken to commemorate this special day – composing odes, reciting orations, donning gallant robes – we decided simply to make a big mess with ice cream instead. Granted, we at 826CHI all believe in the power of words as a means to express oneself. However, language should never trump the ice cream sundae as a communicative medium: we firmly believe that chocolate sauce, marshmallows and bananas will compete with your nouns, adjectives and verbs any day. After our expressive indulgence was completed, with sugar as our fuel, an intense after-party that included multiple, raucous rounds of hangman ensued. With all of the good cheer and camaraderie in our midst this afternoon, we found ourselves particularly sad to wave goodbye to all of the students who made this first year at 826CHI feel like such a success, even though said students were rather sticky.

Saturday, June 3rd – Today we took several talented 826CHI students to the Printers’ Row Book Fair, where the group joined Dave Eggers in reading from their works. Jose read a tale about a hideous monster who was, appropriately, named Hideous; Melissa and Felicia recited a poem about friendship; and Kayla dazzled the crowd with her upbeat delivery of a piece entitled “Me.” We were already, upon arrival, impressed with the work that went into composing these pieces and were pleased, after hearing audience members compliment the students on their pieces, that we were not alone in our view. However, as a long line of admirers queued to get the authors’ autographs after the event, it became clear that, even in our optimism, we had underestimated these students’ star power, not to mention their stamina for repeatedly signing their names.

Friday, June 2nd – While it is certainly true that we would not have made it so successfully through our first year without the incredible outpouring of community support here in Chicago, it is also true that without our friends at the other 826 chapters around the country, our road would have been much more rugged. We were reminded of our incredible support system this weekend when we traveled to New York for our annual national meeting. On our first evening together, we engaged in a show-and-tell session where each person shared an artifact from their home 826 site, an object that signified an accomplishment – big or small – from the past year. Items as wide-ranging as professional publications, heartfelt thank-you notes, grant award letters, student zines – and a bizarre, dilapidated trophy masquerading as a “Pubby” – were showcased. As is the case with all of our meetings, fierce turf wars abound, with each city arguing that its students are the most talented; however, in spite of these showdowns, to say that we find support and inspiration in our 826 community, and that we are proud to be in the company of our colleagues, would be the understatement of the year. Many thanks to the Brooklyn team for their hospitality and for the rest of the 826 family for so clearly putting their hearts and souls into making the national organization as imaginative and effective as it can be.

Saturday, May 15th - Magic was assuredly afoot in the Catherine Cook School gymnasium tonight as we hosted the 826CHI prom, appropriately subtitled “One Night of Magic.” While we were confident that attendees would show up in ruffled tuxes and musty taffeta that fulfilled our second-hand formal request, we were overwhelmed by the range of creative attire, not to mention the distinct smell of Febreeze in the air. As DJ Tom Pazen spun a spectacular set of hits, as the Amazing Tomas dazzled the crowd with his magic tricks, and as guests posed in front of the spectacularly be-latticed photo booth, it became quite clear that this would need to be an annual event. Many thanks to the Catherine Cook School for hosting our festivities, to those who donated goods and services to our raffle, and to all of the spectacular volunteers who pitched in to make it all happen.

Tuesday, May 9th – Today we had the privilege of being joined by a group of students from the Washington Irving School for a small-group storytelling and bookmaking field trip. This field trip, aimed at older students who intimidate Admiral Moody, is fashioned to allow groups o