As the Pilcrow flies

The first Pilcrow Literary Festival packs a lot into Memorial Day weekend, starting with a kickoff reception at Matilda’s/babyATLAS (3101 N Sheffield Ave at Barry Ave) at 8:30pm on Friday 23. Then things really get rolling on Saturday 24. From 9am to 5pm, Pilcrow will operate out of the Fixx Coffee Bar (3053 N Sheffield Ave at Nelson St), where bookselling happens and guests can stop in for information. Two panels run simultaneously every hour, so here are our picks for how to spend the day. Visit pilcrowlitfest.com for the full schedule.

The God Language Panel
10am, upstairs at Trader Todd’s (3216 N Sheffield Ave at Belmont Ave)
Poet Jill Alexander Essbaum (Harlot) and short-story author Elizabeth Crane (You Must Be This Happy to Enter) discuss the “new taboo” of religion in literature, with Peter Bebergal and Scott Korb, co-authors of The Faith Between Us.

Re-Routing
Noon, upstairs at Trader Todd’s
Gail Konop Baker (Cancer Is a Bitch), Bebergal, Lynn Brewer (Cliterature), Rachel Cline (What to Keep), Cristina Henriquez (Come Together, Fall Apart), Amy Sayre-Roberts and Katie Schwartz (Emotionally Pantsed) discuss the way recovery and other life derailments affect their work. Ninth Letter editor Adam Deutsch moderates.

Breaking Form
2pm, Matilda’s
Please Don’t editor (and TOC contributor) Pete Coco moderates this panel on writing across numerous formats, featuring Charles Blackstone (The Week You Weren’t Here), William L. Bryan (The Reverend Nobody), Cline, Larry O. Dean (I Am Spam), Angela Gant (Jill the Ripper), Schwartz, 2ndStory honcho Megan Stielstra and Make fiction editor Mike Zapata.

The Design Panel
3pm, upstairs at Trader Todd’s
Featherproof Books cofounder Zach Dodson hosts this panel on what goes into making a book look pretty. Poet Peter Davis (Hitler’s Mustache), Impetus press cofounder Willy Blackmore and designer Chris Szostek join him.

The State of the Small Press
5pm, upstairs at Trader Todd’s
Independent publicist Lauren Cerand moderates this panel full of independent publishers, including Impetus cofounders Jennifer Banash and Blackmore, Word Riot editor Jackie Corley, Dodson, OV Books editor Gina Frangello, Cris Mazza (Waterbaby), TOC Books editor Jonathan Messinger, RAGAD editor Nick Ostdick and writer D.E. Rasso.

Click here to read more about the Pilcrow Literary Festival.