Open Stacks
On Open Stacks, we bring you conversations with scholars, poets, novelists and activists on books that surprise challenge delight and impress. Here, as in our stores, the most seasoned of readers can once again feel a sense of wonder in discovering a book.
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Havens for the Heterodox: Seminary Co-op Director Jeff Deutsch on Good Bookstores
06/30/2022
Havens for the Heterodox: Seminary Co-op Director Jeff Deutsch on Good Bookstores
On this special episode of Open Stacks, we hear from Jeff Deutsch, the Director of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores. Jeff's book, , came out from Princeton University Press this Spring, and Jeff has been traveling the country visiting other independent bookstores to talk about it, and about the value of bookselling and bookstores in the 21st century. Jeff spoke at the Seminary Co-op with Ydalmi Noriega, a member of the Co-op's board of directors, and director of programs and community engagement at the Poetry Foundation. Find out more about and . This episode was produced by Jackson Roach, hosted by Alena Jones, and features music by Andrei Pohorelsky and .
/episode/index/show/semcoop/id/23589860
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Meeting Again: Mikki Kendall, Jack Cella, & Colin McDonald
12/02/2021
Meeting Again: Mikki Kendall, Jack Cella, & Colin McDonald
On this episode of Open Stacks, the last of the fourth season, Mikki Kendall remembers a childhood at 57th Street Books and the reading that shapes her writing. We also hear from old friends Jack Cella and Colin McDonald, and from booksellers on the books they return to year after year. For a list of books discussed, music credits, and directions for submitting your favorite passages, .
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Curiosity Is a Skill: On Reading Seriously
11/11/2021
Curiosity Is a Skill: On Reading Seriously
This time on Open Stacks, with Philip Leventhal, Elizabeth Branch Dyson, Paul Yamazaki, and Dan Wells, we ask what makes a book "serious." Booksellers Amélie, Annie, and Artemie share scholarly favorites. We're releasing this episode during , the 10th annual of these important institutions and the knowledge and culture they help to cultivate. is Senior Editor at , acquiring titles in journalism, film and media Studies, and literary studies. He also worked at the Co-op for many years, and was the managing editor of , the Co-op's print catalog and newsletter. You can hear him on from earlier in the season. is Assistant Editorial Director and Executive Editor at , acquiring titles in education, sociology, and music, especially jazz and blues studies. She's appeared a on this season of Open Stacks. is the principal buyer at , where he has worked for over 50 years. He has also appeared a on this season of Open Stacks, and will soon be publishing with . Dan Wells is the founder of the publisher and bookstore . He also appeared on an this season. Thanks to listener Marie for sharing a passage from by Gertrude Beasley. If you'd like to share a piece of great writing with us, . This episode was hosted by Alena Jones and produced by Jackson Roach, and features music by Blue Dot Sessions, Los Amparito, Loyalty Freak Music, and Daniel Birch. Find a list of books discussed in this episode .
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A Cave with Windows: Bookstore as Building
10/28/2021
A Cave with Windows: Bookstore as Building
This time on Open Stacks: We explore the rabbit warren of the Co-op’s original location in the old Chicago Theological Seminary with manager emeritus and veteran bookseller Katy O’Brien Weintraub, then emerge from the underground with architect Margaret McCurry, who was integral in the creation of our new space in the sun. , legendary book buyer at in San Francisco, gestures toward a spatial theory of bookstores—how the shape of the room and the number of books on a shelf can encourage the symbiosis of reader and bookseller—and Co-op manager Bryce Lucas takes an ecological (and mycological) squint at the Front Table. Head to for music credits, a list of books, extra material, and directions for sending us your favorite passages from books.
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At All Costs: Dave Eggers, Dan Wells, Ann Kjellberg, & Paul Yamazaki
10/15/2021
At All Costs: Dave Eggers, Dan Wells, Ann Kjellberg, & Paul Yamazaki
On this episode, authors, publishers, editors and booksellers reflect on the value of their work, and what it takes to make a great bookstore thrive. Plus, an out-of-the-way reading list from our bookseller Mrittika: queer historical fiction... thrillers. For more from the voices you hear in this episode, a list of books mentioned, music credits, and instructions for sending us audio of yourself reading writing that you love, visit us
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What's There and What's Not: A Visit to the Front Table
09/23/2021
What's There and What's Not: A Visit to the Front Table
On this episode of open stacks: a ghostly tour of the Co-op's Front Table, from the hauntings of american history to life (and death) advice from Spinoza. For a list of books featured in this episode, music and production credits, and more, .
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Escape Tunnel: Philip Leventhal on The Front Table
09/09/2021
Escape Tunnel: Philip Leventhal on The Front Table
This time on Open Stacks we hear from Philip Leventhal, editor at Columbia University Press and veteran Co-opian, about the history of the famous Front Table catalog, in its print and digital forms. Then we head to the Front Table (the actual table) for some recent titles on underground transformation. is Senior Editor at Columbia University Press, acquiring titles in Journalism, Film and Media Studies, and Literary Studies. He also worked at the Co-op for many years, and was the managing editor of The Front Table, the Co-op's print catalog and newsletter. Last year we revived The Front Table as a digital publication, featuring bookseller recommendations and notable titles, author interviews, news and numbers from the Co-op, and much more. You can read every issue of the digital Front Table , and find many of the original print issues on display in the vestibule leading into the Co-op. Thanks to our Children's Marketing Manager, Thulasi, for sharing a passage from Inkheart for this episode, released only a week or so after the re-opening of 57th Street Books for in-person browsing. We'd love to hear something wonderful you've read recently. Find instructions for recording yourself and sharing your reading with us . Open Stacks is hosted by Alena Jones and produced by Jackson Roach. This episode features music by , , , , and . Find a list of every book mentioned in this episode .
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Place to Place: Katarzyna Bartoszyńska & Reuben Jonathan Miller
08/26/2021
Place to Place: Katarzyna Bartoszyńska & Reuben Jonathan Miller
On this episode of Open Stacks with Katarzyna Bartoszyńska and Reuben Jonathan Miller, we trace paths between: academia and bookselling; Poland and Ireland; animal navigation and interpersonal knowledge; the inside and the outside of the American prison. For a complete list of books mentioned in this episode, music credits, and supplementary materials, click . Want to submit a passage you've dog-eared? Click .
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A Land Without Trees: A Visit to the Front Table
08/05/2021
A Land Without Trees: A Visit to the Front Table
On this episode of Open Stacks, books from the land of the and , from the midnight , where the hot flow. In the middle of the Summer, a stack of Front Table books from the heart(s) of Winter. Thanks to bookseller Joey for sharing a favorite passage from Roberto Bolaño's . If you want to share something you read with us (and other listeners' like you), . We'd love to hear about what you're reading. Open Stacks is hosted by Alena Jones, the director of buying and content. Bryce Lucas, the Co-op's manager, is our Front Table correspondent. Jackson Roach is the producer. This episode features music by , , and . Find a list of every book mentioned in this episode .
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Washing a Book: Elizabeth Branch Dyson, Eve Ewing, and Ann Kjellberg
07/22/2021
Washing a Book: Elizabeth Branch Dyson, Eve Ewing, and Ann Kjellberg
On this episode of Open Stacks: a prismatic exploration of new releases at the Front Table, an editorial dialogue with Elizabeth Branch Dyson and Eve Ewing, and Ann Kjellberg on a life in publishing, Joseph Brodsky, and how serious books connect us to one another and the world. is Assistant Editorial Director and Executive Editor at . She also appears on the of this season of Open Stacks. is a sociologist, activist writer, assistant professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, and . is an editor, publisher, writer and translator, the of , and the creator of the book culture newsletter . Run into some great writing lately? Read it to us! We want to know what draws you in as a reader, and we're always excited to feature listeners' voices on the show. Find everything you need to send us a passage right . Open Stacks is hosted by Alena Jones and produced by Jackson Roach. This episode features music by , , , Andrei Pohorelsky, and , as well as excerpts from a talk given by Kurt Vonnegut at Case Western Reserve University in 2004. Find a list of every book mentioned in this episode .
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Common Languages: A Visit to the Front Table
07/08/2021
Common Languages: A Visit to the Front Table
On this episode of Open Stacks, a circle around the Co-op’s Front Table: from a post-war pioneer of on Chicago’s South Side to the complex communal powers of games like spades, mahjong, and pickup soccer. Thanks to Bryce Lucas for taking us on a tour of the Front Table this time. In this episode, you hear fragments of archival recordings of Sun Ra, including brief excerpts from his film and the track from his album The Sub-Dwellers. You also hear Aleksandar Hemon reading at the of the Co-op's current location. If you'd like to hear more from Hanif Abdurraqib, you might start with his in May of 2019, and then check out his own podcast, , or his 1980-focused season of the KCRW show . This episode's passage of the week comes from Philip Roth, by way of Alex at the Co-op. Have you read something recently that moved you, surprised you, made you laugh, or that you couldn't stop thinking about? Open Stacks is hosted by Alena Jones and produced by Jackson Roach. This episode features music by and . Find a complete list of every book mentioned in this episode on .
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A Spirit in the Space: On Reopening Our Doors
06/25/2021
A Spirit in the Space: On Reopening Our Doors
On this episode of Open Stacks, we celebrate the Co-op reopening its doors for in-person browsing – the first time since we closed 15 months ago. Browsers, booksellers, authors, and our own Clancey D'Isa and Bryce Lucas discuss the transfiguration of space, absence and presence, the "invisible" work of bookselling, and how reading needn't be a solo activity. Have you read something recently (or over the last year) that moved you, that made you laugh, that you can't stop thinking about, or, simply, that changed you? We'd love to hear you reading an excerpt from the book. Click to find everything you need to know to send us a voicemail – and you might hear yourself on the show sometime! Open Stacks is produced by Jackson Roach and hosted by Alena Jones. This episode features music by Loyalty Freak Music, Blue Dot Sessions, Daniel Birch, Gallery Six, and Andrei Pohorelsky, as well as excerpts from virtual events co-hosted by the Seminary Co-op and our myriad community partners over the last year. For a complete list of books mentioned in this episode, as well as details about the events you heard excerpts from, click .
/episode/index/show/semcoop/id/19607720
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Observer Observed: A Visit to the Front Table
06/09/2021
Observer Observed: A Visit to the Front Table
In this episode, Alena takes a tour around the Front Table, guided by Bryce Lucas, manager of 57th Street Books. Circling the table, they move from bald philosophy to the physics of crumpled paper, from an Icelandic fisheries museum to the shifting nature of observation itself. Have a perspective to share? We'll be featuring listeners' voices throughout the season. This time: tell us about a book you loved on first reading, but hated the second time around – or vice versa. Share the story of your change in perspective, and your favorite (or least favorite) passage from the book. Find recording guidelines and send in your answer . Open Stacks is hosted by Alena Jones and produced by Jackson Roach. This episode features music by , and Andrei Pohorelsky. Find a list of books mentioned in this episode .
/episode/index/show/semcoop/id/19417361
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Not New in a New Way: Elizabeth Branch Dyson & Haki Madhubuti
05/26/2021
Not New in a New Way: Elizabeth Branch Dyson & Haki Madhubuti
In this first episode of the fourth season, we sit down with Elizabeth Branch Dyson, assistant editorial director and executive editor at the University of Chicago Press, to hear how she approaches acquiring widely accessible books for an academic press. Bryce (manager of 57th Street Books) takes us on a tour around the Co-op's Front Table, checking out a few recent releases. We're then joined by poet, author, and publisher Haki Madhubuti, who talks to us about his journey through books, the founding of Third World Press, and the draw of the Front Table. Throughout, we hear "spine poems" composed by booksellers at the Seminary Co-op and 57th Street Books. Have something to say? We'll be featuring listeners' voices throughout the season. First up: tell us about a meaningful book you've come across accidentally in the past year. We'd love to hear the story behind your discovery or even just your favorite passage. Submit your answers through . Open Stacks is hosted by Alena Jones (director of buying and content) and produced by Jackson Roach. This episode features music by , , , and . For a close-to-complete list of books featured in this (and every) episode, head to our website: semcoop.com/openstacks
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Open Stacks Returns
05/14/2021
Open Stacks Returns
A new season of Open Stacks, coming soon from the Seminary Co-op Bookstores in Chicago, the first not-for-profit bookstores whose mission is bookselling. This teaser features music by Blue Dot Sessions.
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Narrative Threads: Jordan Alexander Stein & Jasmon Drain
03/15/2020
Narrative Threads: Jordan Alexander Stein & Jasmon Drain
Think you know how fiction works? Think again on this episode of Open Stacks with literary theorist Jordan Alexander Stein, who joins us in the stacks for a look at When Novels Were Books. Plus, Jasmon Drain and Ben Austen discuss Drain’s novelistic collection of stories about the interconnected lives of residents of “the biggest concrete building on Chicago’s South Side,” Stateway’s Garden. And the Co-op’s Colin and Alena find humor in paying attention. You’ll never judge a book by its genre again. This episode was produced by Elliot Ducree, Veronica Karlin, and Jackson Roach. It features music by Andrei Pohorelsky, Kevin MacLeod, and Blue Dot Sessions.
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Books on Books: Craig Fehrman, Anna Kornbluh & Booksellers Off the Clock
03/02/2020
Books on Books: Craig Fehrman, Anna Kornbluh & Booksellers Off the Clock
From our nation’s highest office to the uncharted territories of political formalism, we trust in books to take us in and out of the bookstore on this episode of Open Stacks, with journalist and historian Craig Fehrman on presidential authorship and literary theorist Anna Kornbluh on the future of social space and the novels on which it stands. Plus, booksellers off the clock, and what’s not to like about Wuthering Heights. Find books that break ground and more reasons to dig into what might be our most meta episode yet.
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Visual Memories: Berthold Hoeckner, Leila Taylor & Adam Sonderberg
02/17/2020
Visual Memories: Berthold Hoeckner, Leila Taylor & Adam Sonderberg
On this episode of Open Stacks, Professor of Music Berthold Hoeckner spins a record of cultural memory made audible in films focused on the past, from Casablanca to Sleepless in Seattle in his book, , as Leila Taylor turns over our shared, if buried, history of racism in . Plus, looking back with Adam Sonderberg on his tenure at the Co-op and the books that struck a chord. This episode was produced by Elliot Ducree, Veronica Karlin, and Jackson Roach. It features music by Andrei Pohorelsky, Kevin MacLeod, johnny_ripper, and Blue Dot Sessions,.
/episode/index/show/semcoop/id/13179245
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The Front Table: 2/13/20
02/13/2020
The Front Table: 2/13/20
In his final hours as Manager of the Seminary Co-op, Adam Sonderberg sat down to let his favorite books speak (mostly) for themselves. Join us as we reminisce on Adam’s tenure at the Co-op, killing time with Kierkegaard, and coming to inhabit a world that books create on this week’s Front Table podcast.
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Picture Book
02/03/2020
Picture Book
Ahead of the Oscars, Open Stacks returns with a long red carpet full of books on Hollywood, Hitchcock, Hegel and more with scholars Sharon Marcus on The Drama of Celebrity and Robert B. Pippin’s Filmed Thought. Plus, re-viewing The Arcades Project and seeing Self-Help through the lens of Samuel Beckett. Fail better, read better on this episode of Open Stacks: The Seminary Co-op Bookstore Podcast. This episode was produced by Elliot Ducree, Veronica Karlin, and Jackson Roach. It features music by Andrei Pohorelsky, Kevin MacLeod, Blue Dot Sessions, and johnny_ripper.
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The Front Table: 1/29/20
01/29/2020
The Front Table: 1/29/20
New year. New books. New you? The Seminary Co-op’s Colin and Alena search for Self-Help in the guise (and stacks) of literature, capitalist spirituality, ancient philosophy and more on this week’s Front Table. Featured Books: The Self Help Compulsion: Searching for Advice in Modern Literature by Beth Blum (from Columbia University Press) Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life by Edith Hall (from Penguin) McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality by Ronald Purser (from Repeater) How to be a Leader by Plutarch (from Princeton University Press) This episode features music by Kevin MacLeod
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Children Aren’t Boats: Kim Brooks, Julissa Arce & Franny Billingsley
12/09/2019
Children Aren’t Boats: Kim Brooks, Julissa Arce & Franny Billingsley
The pleasures of reading are often introduced at a young age, and on this episode of Open Stacks, we revisit young adulthood and the child in the 21st century, in Kim Brooks’ Small Animals: Parenthood in the Age of Fear and Julissa Arce’s Someone Like Me: How One Undocumented Girl Fought for Her American Dream. Plus Children’s Book Specialist Franny Billingsley and Colin sit down with 2019’s best picture books. This episode was produced by Veronica Karlin and Jackson Roach, and features music by Andrei Pohorelsky.
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The Front Table: 12/3/19
12/03/2019
The Front Table: 12/3/19
Not all cities are created equal, and on this week’s Front Table we go behind the scenes and un-seens of cities near and far, from the depths of London to the extravagant annals of Pyongyang’s “model” utopias.
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Out of Season: Kathryn Scanlan & Devin Johnston
11/25/2019
Out of Season: Kathryn Scanlan & Devin Johnston
At 82, May Sarton “made a dialogue out of what had been a soliloquy,” in her journal. On this entry of Open Stacks, we take the measure of our days in diaries and diaristic units of shared sense in conversations with Kathryn Scanlan and Devin Johnston. This episode was produced by Veronica Karlin and Jackson Roach, and features music by Kevin MacLeod, Daniel Birch, Gallery Six, and Andrei Pohorelsky. Special thanks to Co-op booksellers Adam Stern and Fred Tadrowski.
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The Front Table: 11/19/19
11/19/2019
The Front Table: 11/19/19
A planet, a republic, a meal, and a question: what is the future of food? Specifically that which comes from animals. This week’s Front Table is serving up thick cuts of scholarship on “The Meat Question” and history of our relationship to meat past, present, and beyond. This episode features voices of the Co-op's Colin McDonald and Alena Jones, as well as music by Kevin MacLeod. It was produced by Jackson Roach.
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How to Explode Slowly: Etgar Keret, Jessica Laser & Daniel Poppick
11/14/2019
How to Explode Slowly: Etgar Keret, Jessica Laser & Daniel Poppick
From the depths of Moby Dick to the light of something like poetry in author Etgar Keret’s new collection, Fly Already, we follow a line (or is it a fuse?) running between the past and present of contemporary literature on this episode of Open Stacks, featuring Etgar Keret, Jessica Laser, and Daniel Poppick. This episode was produced by Veronica Karlin and Jackson Roach, and featured music by Kevin MacLeod, Gallery Six, Cursor Miner, Daniel Birch, and Andrei Pohorelsky.
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The Front Table: 11/5/19
11/05/2019
The Front Table: 11/5/19
It’s a long and winding road on this week’s Front Table from idea to book, career, and other forms of written livelihood. This episode of the Front Table features the voices of the Co-op's Colin McDonald and Alena Jones. It was produced by Jackson Roach, and includes music by Kevin MacLeod, and very brief excerpts of "The Long and Winding Road" as performed by Aretha Franklin and the Langley Schools Music Project.
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World Makers: Ocean Vuong & Rebecca Clarren
10/27/2019
World Makers: Ocean Vuong & Rebecca Clarren
Award winning poet Ocean Vuong and journalist Rebecca Clarren turn a romantic and empiric lens on the art of fiction in their acclaimed debut novels, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and Kickdown, both of which plunge new emotional depths of American experience on this episode of Open Stacks.
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The Front Table: 10/21/19
10/22/2019
The Front Table: 10/21/19
Space is the place on this week’s Front Table with the Seminary Co-op's Colin and Alena looking up and down at a veritable galaxy of new books about our universe and multiverse.
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Placemaking: Timothy Cresswell & Dani Shapiro
10/06/2019
Placemaking: Timothy Cresswell & Dani Shapiro
A place like the Seminary Co-op is in some sense made of writing, but what can writing make? That question is at the center of conversations with Timothy Cresswell, Dani Shapiro and others on the first episode of the third season of Open Stacks.
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