Events › Memoir Panel: Melissa Fraterrigo, Timothy J. Hillegonds, Alex Poppe

Chicago Public Library present a panel of fascinating authors of new memoirs, featuring Melissa Fraterrigo (The Perils of Girlhood), Timothy J. Hillegonds (And You Will Call It Fate: A Memoir) and Alex Poppe (Breakfast Wine), moderated by Miles Harvey.

Melissa Fraterrigo is the author of the memoir in essays, The Perils of Girlhood, the novel Glory Days, and the short story collection The Longest Pregnancy. Her fiction and nonfiction has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies from Shenandoah and The Massachusetts Review to storySouth, and Notre Dame Review. She has been a finalist for awards from Glimmer Train on multiple occasions, twice nominated for Pushcart Awards, and was the winner of the Sam Adams/Zoetrope: All Story Short Fiction Contest. She teaches creative writing at Purdue University and in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Butler University in Indianapolis. She also offers instruction on the art and craft of writing at the Lafayette Writers’ Studio in Lafayette, Indiana.

Alex Poppe spent most of 2006 to 2021 living abroad, much of the time in conflict or post-conflict zones such as Iraq, the West Bank, and Ukraine. Perhaps that is why her stories are written from an outsider’s point of view and fueled by real-life instances of injustice and despair. She wants her fiction to represent the world in which we live because she wants her stories to spur the conversations which drive social change. She is the author of four works of literary fiction and a memoir-in-essays about her wild ride through Iraq as an educator and humanitarian aid volunteer, Breakfast Wine. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Literary Hub, HuffPost, Informed Comment, and elsewhere.

Timothy J. Hillegonds is the author of the memoirs And You Will Call It Fate: A Memoir and The Distance Between, a finalist for the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year and the Eric Hoffer Book Award. His work - exploring masculinity, addiction, and personal reckoning - has appeared in The Guardian, LitHub, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Salon, The Daily Beast, Fourth Genre, River Teeth, Brevity, and elsewhere. Named one of the Guild Literary Complex’s “30 Writers to Watch,” Hillegonds holds an MA in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University and serves as a contributing editor at Slag Glass City, a digital journal of the urban essay arts.

Moderator Miles Harvey won the 2023 Journal Non/Fiction Prize for The Registry of Forgotten Objects, a collection of short stories. He is the author of three books of nonfiction, The King of Confidence, Painter in A Savage Land and The Island of Lost Maps, a national and international bestseller. He teaches creative writing at DePaul University in Chicago, where he chairs the Department of English and is a founding editor of Big Shoulders Books, a nonprofit, social-justice publisher.

How to Attend:

Doors to the Multipurpose Room open at 5:30 p.m., and seating is first come, first served (200 capacity). Books are available for purchase, and the authors will autograph books at the conclusion of the program.

This event will also take place live on CPL's YouTube channel and CPL's Facebook page. You'll be able to ask questions during the event as well! Can't make it to the live stream? We'll archive the video on YouTube to watch later.

Accessibility

Automatic captioning is available via Facebook and YouTube's closed captioning setting. Need sign language interpretation or other accessibility assistance for this event? Please call (312) 747-8184 or email access@chipublib.org to request accommodations. Requests must be made at least 14 business days before the event.

Photo credits:
Melissa Fraterrigo (credit Jenny Modesett)
Alex Poppe (credit Alex Poppe)
Tim Hillegonds (courtesy of author)
Miles Harvey (courtesy of author)