Spencer LaBute "(Clear,) [Bright,] {Dark of Night}" and Joe Rulli "Bread & Circuses"

Join us at The Book Cellar on February 24th where Spencer LaBute will be celebrating the release of his new book, (Clear,) [Bright,] {Dark of Night}, and Joe Rulli will be highlighting his book, Bread & Circuses. There will be a few readers preceding Spencer and Joe, including Morgan St. Laurent and others.

About the Books:

(Clear,) [Bright] {Dark of Night} is a variegated interrobang of worlds both pulled apart and intertwined. This atypical novel will transport intrepid readers into a labyrinthine series of 220+ colors in the form of polyphonic vignettes, wistful reflections, and nightmarish flights of fancy. With this hypnotic, nonlinear, and oftentimes delusive palmful of tales, Spencer LaBute sets out to entice language-loving all comers through the many-splendored corridors and crannies of one intemperate mind’s eye.

Bread & Circuses is a work of fiction dribbled with realism—making it as unsettling as finding a leather bar in your high school cafeteria. When the notorious journalist Addison Desta enters the world of 18-year-old prostitute Lars Shepperton, and his roommate/sometimes boyfriend, Rio Secco, they can never go back to life as it was.

In a society plastered with corporate sponsorships, power-lusting politicians parade themselves before a populace salivating for the next diversion. A system of underground child prostitution is the political establishment’s lifeblood. Fed by youth, and milked by a twisted, sell-your-soul spirit of entrepreneurialism, the great American Lunocracy is kept in a costume of propriety.

Addy is monitored by the powerful for raking up so much muck on their doings; and these political elites are not a patient lot. As Addy helps Lars and Rio free themselves from their past and present conundrums, all three step right into the unknown. They quickly realize redemption is a heavy crown to wear.

About the Authors:

Spencer LaBute is a creative writer currently living in Milwaukee, by way of Chicago and a slew of other places. He has written one book, (Clear,) [Bright,] {Dark of Night}.

Joseph Anthony Rulli is a transplanted Hoosier, living in Chicago since the fall of 2006. A 1987 graduate of the University of Notre Dame (BA, History) and a 1992 graduate of St. Meinrad School of Theology (MDiv) he taught Social Studies, Religion, Philosophy and History at the high school level. He began writing as a career upon his arrival to his second city and has had two short stories published, a stage play performed, an electronic tour book published online and The Chicago Haymarket Affair (History Press/Arcadia Publishing, 2016) his first print book, followed by Chicago Socialism: The People’s History (History Press/Arcadia Publishing, 2019). Bread & Circuses was published in the fall of 2021.

About the Readers:

Morgan St Laurent is an American / Canadian human design reader & poet. Her poetry work focuses on the documentation of mundane life & human emotions. She currently lives in Chicago.