three debut novelists help Chicago’s literary fire burn a little brighter
KYLE BEACHY The Slide (Dial Press; $13) After completing his philosophy degree in 2001 at Pomona College in California
Kyle Beachy returned to his hometown of St
he began working on the book that would be published eight years later
a recent college graduate who suffers from delayed adolescence
Beachy had some difficulty making the transition from undergraduate study to postgrad life
He was initially rejected by a number of creative writing programs
but was finally accepted to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Beachy says he “fell into a circle of people doing things”: editing their own magazines
As proof of the city’s cultural influence
The Slide features cover art by the local graphic novelist Anders Nilsen
and the February 13th release party at Beat Kitchen will include Chicago indie favorites Bound Stems and the local hip-hop artist Serengeti
NAMI MUN Miles from Nowhere (Riverhead; $21.95) Nami Mun began Miles from Nowhere on January 1
Riverhead Books has published this beautifully grim
Miles from Nowhere depicts 13-year-old Joon
a Korean runaway who is hurtled from job    to job—underage escort
smalltime crook—and her attempts at finding legitimate work
which are upended by her frequent drug use
was raised in the Bronx in New York and left home as a young teen
an activities coordinator at a nursing home
After finishing a bachelor’s at the University of California–Berkeley
she completed a master’s degree at the University of Michigan in 2007
revising the material that would become her novel
who recently joined the faculty of the fiction writing department at Columbia College Chicago (where I teach)
finds el trains are a great place to listen for dialogue
The el also reminds her of her New York childhood: “When I ride the train
which is a definite rarity for an ex-runaway.”
FRANCES DE PONTES PEEBLES The Seamstress (HarperCollins; $25.95) It was her grandmother’s rural stories—like the one about a great-uncle who was kicked to death by a horse—that helped inspire Frances de Pontes Peebles’s novel
raised in Miami—sets her tale in the northern countryside of Brazil in the 1930s
Having spent summers each year on a family farm in the rural town of Taquaritinga do Norte
the place where most of the novel takes place
Peebles drew on hours of interviews to build the incredibly evocative world of two orphaned sisters and their country caught in a moment of extraordinary historical change
Although Peebles earned her graduate degree from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and spent two years in Brazil researching the book
it was not until she moved to Chicago in the winter of 2005 that she began writing The Seamstress
which is  as compelling and violent as any James Michener novel
which gave me a chance to hole up and write
I credit Chicago with giving me the discipline to finish the book.”   
Photography: (portraits) Kevin Banna (books) Michael Boone Photography; 1st Asst.: Greg Hanrahan  Hair & Makeup:  Eileen McNulty  Stylist:  Matt Idzikowsk  Producer:  Kyle Kramer
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