Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: The Legend of Top-Shelf Books Open Mic
Ever hear of the legend of Top Shelf Books? Gene Wolfe did!
I first heard about the legendary Top Shelf Books from four
people who had frequented that mythical venue. However, they were not together
when they mentioned the place, and the interval between tellings was years and
across many locations. What I eventually learned was that it was a used book
shop that hosted open-mic readings for writers. The “open-mic” writer’s group
ran from ~2007-2013, in Top Shelf Books in Palatine, Illinois. It was uncanny
that Top Shelf kept creeping into conversations, so I had to find out the
history and then share it! Here are those who introduced me to the legend.
2015: Author Joe Bonadonna was the first. Back in 2015, he had reviewed my first novel and, by serendipity, we both joined forces as Perseid Press contributors for Heroika and Heroes in Hell, sharing six volumes; we even jointly wrote a story for Monsters in Hell. I adore Joe’s Dorgo the Dowser (Mad Shadows) books and interviewed him in 2022. Several times over the last decade, he mentioned Top Shelf.
2016: Chief editor of Black Gate, John O’Neill, was another Top Shelfer. I met John in person at the 2016 World Fantasy Convention, the same year and event in which Black Gate won the World Fantasy Special Award. I began contributing to Black Gate in 2018, with one of my lead articles being coverage of Todd McAulty’s Robots of Gotham (spoiler alert: Todd McAulty is a pseudonym for John O’Neill). In 2019, at a Gen Con event with John and Howard Andrew Jones, I heard about the editing opportunity at Black Gate that led to becoming the Managing Editor.
2012 – 2022: David C. Smith’s Oron and Red Sonja books were hot topics in the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery group that I led for a decade. In fact, one of my better-cited Black Gate articles evolved from reading his work: Tales of Attluma: Review and Oron Series Tour Guide. Of course, David is still very active and just released his perspective on writing Sword & Sorcery in 2026 with Dark Muse News: Reviewing Arcane Arts and Cold Steel.
2021-2023: While leading the Gen Con Writers symposium and moderating panels, I met C.S.E. Cooney (Claire), a lead champion of Top Shelf. C. S. E. Cooney is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author: first, for Bone Swans: Stories (2016), and most recently for Saint Death’s Daughter (2023); she also has a 2011 Rhysling Award! Before this recognition, she was helping other authors. Ha! She actually revealed all the secrets back in 2011, before I was Black Gate reader: Writers’ Nights, Open Mics, Literary Soirees: The Importance of Community.
These four all mentioned Top Shelf books to me across the last decade in disparate venues! Cripes, I kept saying: “Wait, you were there too?” Now, I feel like a want-to-be member trying to sign up after the show is over. Truthfully, I feel blessed to have met these folks. Their desire to better their craft while helping others is contagious and top-notch.
Top Shelf Books is closed now, but take heed. These visitors
were largely meeting at Top Shelf before their writing careers/recognition took
off, and they have all been actively helping other authors continuously for
decades! Their infectious gratitude and creativity still spread.
Writer’s groups can very well be fun, providing camaraderie
and legendary donuts. Let us learn from these role models and from their time
at Top Shelf.
Time to re-read CSE’s “Writers’ Nights, Open
Mics, Literary Soirees: The Importance of Community.”
Top Shelf Books Open Mic: where John O’Neill first heard the rough drafts of Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney’s SAINT DEATH’S DAUGHTER, Patty Templeton’s THERE IS NO LOVELY END, Dennis Depcik’s WOULDN’T IT BE SOMETHING, Jeffrey Westhoff’s THE BOY WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, Brendan Detzner’s WEIRD STORIES trilogy, and wonderful new stories by Gene Wolfe, Michael Penkas, Tina Jens, Joe Bonadonna, David C. Smith, and many others. Behind the counter (bottom right), doing God’s work selling books, is the one and only Claire Cooney, who masterminded it all with Katie Redding.
First, a note from Top Shelf Owner Katie Redding
If anyone was a “mastermind” behind our literary salon, it
was Claire. We met at Harper College in January of 2022 in an anthropology
class. We hit things off immediately, and things developed from
there. My main role was to operate the business and I wanted to support
artists. I can’t take much more credit than that. I guess I am the person
who said, “YES, we can do that.”
The Top Shelf Years, by C. S. E. Cooney
I met Katie in a Native American anthropology class while
completing my Gen Eds at Harper Community college in 2002. She mentioned that
her mom owned a used bookstore in Palatine. I don’t think she believed me when
I enthusiastically screamed how I’d always wanted to work at a bookstore!
A used bookstore particularly! I think she got
that a lot.
But I showed up for the interview and was hired. I’d worked
at Crown Book previously, so I at least had some experience. When I moved to
Chicago the next year to attend Columbia College Chicago for Fiction Writing
and Acting, Katie mentioned that no one who ever moved to Chicago comes back to
work in the Northwest suburbs. But I kept returning, every Saturday, to work at
least one day a week throughout my college career, and to help run our
once-a-month open mics as well.
I graduated in 2006, and Katie opened a second store in
Chicago, just a few blocks from where I lived, called Kate the Great’s Book
Emporium. It became a beacon for the arts. My co-manager J9 Vaughn and I, along
with Katie, hosted art galleries, new plays festivals, open mics, poetry
nights, concerts — the gamut. It was a wonderful place and certainly honed our
hosting skills. Alas, Kate the Great’s Book Emporium never brought in as much
foot traffic as we wished, and Katie had to close it after a few years.
Happily, the closing of Kate’s marked my return to Top Shelf
Books! I started reverse-commuting back to the suburbs, and running more events
there. I loved every minute of working hip-deep in dusty books, and meeting
readers every day. These last three years, from 2008-2011 were when the open
mics really started happening with greater regularity. We began to pull in
people who used to attend Kate the Great’s events, as well as horror writing
friends from Twilight Tales, a weekly reading series run by Tina Jens.
My friend and mentor, Gene Wolfe, who lived a few miles away
in Barrington, IL, sometimes came to our events with his wonderful wife
Rosemary, and would read from whatever short story or novel he happened to be
working on.
In that time, John O’Neill would read, chapter by chapter,
as he wrote The Robots of Gotham under his (then SUPER SECRET)
pseudonym, Todd McAulty. I’d read from early drafts of Saint Death’s
Daughter (in those days titled Miscellaneous Stones:
Necromancer), or sometimes recite poetry.
My time at Top Shelf Books ended when I packed everything up
and moved to Westerly, Rhode Island, which I’d visited once as a child and kept
meaning to return to. It was the best and wisest move I’d ever made, even
though it was the middle of a recession, and I was moving to a town where I had
no job and few prospects. Though it was the adventure of a lifetime, and opened
so many doors to me I could not at the time imagine, I will always regard my
time at Top Shelf Books as formative. It was my favorite retail job I’ve ever
worked, and certainly one of the most vibrant reading and writing communities
I’ve ever been a part of. I’ll be grateful forever.
Gene Wolfe
As C.S.E. Cooney revealed, Gene Wolfe (yes, one of the Grand
Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, SFWA!) would
sometimes attend Top Shelf Books. C.S.E. Cooney interviewed
Gene Wolfe in 2010 for Black Gate where he provided
writerly advice and explained the evolution of the New Sun series.
John O’Neill explains the legend.
Interesting footnote to these photos, and the saga of Top
Shelf. Rosemary had dementia, and Gene was her primary caregiver. He used to
bring her to conventions with him, but that gradually became more challenging.
One day, he was talking to his friend Rory at church, asking if he knew anyone
who could help. Rory suggested his daughter, who eventually came to work for
Gene, helping him and Rosemary travel to conventions. Over the years she got to
meet and dine with numerous writers and publishers, including more than a few
who offered writing advice and helped nudge her toward a stellar writing
career. That hard-working young woman? None other than your friend and
mine, C.S.E. Cooney…
In Gene Wolfe’s foreword, “Introducing C. S. E. Cooney” for
her Bone Swans book, he detailed their fascinating
relationship, and more amazingly, he described Top Shelf books! BTW, my
daughter Erin Lindberg, who is a bibliophile and was studying Claire’s work
because I was drafting this article, found this wonderful excerpt from Gene
Wolfe (2015).
Picture me sitting in a small used-book shop with a banana
cream pie on my lap. The young man reading at the lectern has given us a
short-story that is certainly publishable and has now launched upon one that is
not. We have had the poetry that suggests a poor article in Reader’s
Digest cut up into uneven lengths, and the heart-wrenching personal
memoir of the sister of a soldier killed overseas. And others. You know.
The readers are kept in order by Claire Cooney, a startling
young blonde with a smile capable of lighting up a good-sized theater. At last
she reads herself, a poem that rhymes and scans and grabs you from the opening
line. The hero is a disfigured corpse floating down a city sewer, and it is
funny when it is not horrible. (And sometimes when it is). She chants it, and
her voice is clear and musical. I couldn’t be prouder of her if I were her
father.
Reflections from John O’Neill
In November 2007, I attended the World Fantasy Convention in
Saratoga Springs, New York. There I met two young women from Chicago, Claire
Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney and Katie Redding, who ran Top Shelf Books in
Palatine. They invited me to join their small monthly reading group that met
once a month.
The Top Shelf Open Mic evenings changed my life. It featured
some enormously talented writers – including Gene Wolfe, Tina Jens, Michael
Penkas, Joe Bonadonna, David C. Smith, Brendan Detzner, Dennis Depcik, and
Patty Templeton. And of course, C.S.E. Cooney herself, who would later win a
World Fantasy Award for the book she workshopped at our gatherings, Saint
Death’s Daughter.
At the time I was writing and publishing short stories
in Black Gate under the name Todd McAulty, but the
support and encouragement I received at Top Shelf gave me the courage I needed
to try something much more ambitious. I started working on a series of stories
set in a near-future Chicago after a robot apocalypse, which eventually became
my first novel The Robots of Gotham. I wrote the first chapters in
hotels while traveling for business, and read them out loud every month to the
welcoming and enthusiastic attendees at Top Shelf.
If it wasn’t for Claire, who emailed me relentlessly until I
finally came to my first Top Shelf Open Mic, and who was an incredibly astute
and supportive listener, Robots would not exist. I owe her a
huge debt of gratitude for that, and for much more. Claire eventually became
our first website editor at Black Gate, and many of the talented
folks I met at Top Shelf – including Michael Penkas, Joe Bonadonna, and Patty
Templeton – became regular bloggers for us.
Katie eventually sold Top Shelf Books in 2011, and it closed
shortly thereafter. Claire moved to Rhode Island at the same time. The Open Mic
carried on for a while, booking space in libraries and police stations, but it
didn’t last long without a permanent home — or Katie and Claire behind the
scenes. I miss it very much. To this day, when struggling writers ask for
advice, I tell them the same thing: find a supportive writer’s group. If you’re
very lucky, and find one that supports and energizes you the way the Top Shelf
Open Mic did for so many of us, the results can be magical.
TOP (Left to Right): Lindsey Dayton (at podium), unknown, unknown, J9 Vaughn, Karin Thogersen, Sarah Detzner, Cynthia Glasson, Patty Templeton, John O’Neill. BOTTOM: Joe Bonadonna reading from Mad Shadows: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser (circa 2011)
Joe Bonadonna: BOOKS, DONUTS, SNACKETY SNACKS & THE TOP SHELF SCRIBBLERS
I can’t recall the exact year when friend and fellow author
David C. Smith took me to Top Shelf Books in Palatine, Illinois for a “browse
and buy.” Katie Redding’s mother was the owner and manager at that time.
Anyway, Dave’s wife, Janine, was working next door at the art supply store and
she tuned us in to Top Shelf. At that time the bookstore had an adjacent room,
Kindred Spirits, an arts-and-crafts store that sold a varietyof gift items and
some antiques, where I often purchased some cool items. Sadly, Kindred Spirts
closed, and the entrance leading from Top Shelf into the shop was walled off to
allow for a small tea room that operated for some time.
Anyway, Top Shelf remained a favorite haunt for Dave and me.
Memory fails me as to when we learned of the writer’s group that met there
every second Thursday of the month, but in late 2010, Dave brought me there and
introduced me to many of the regulars. At first, I was just spectator, and Dave
was reading from his previously published works, as well as works in progress,
such as Coven House and the revised, new edition of his
trilogy, The Fall of the First World. Eventually, when my first
novel — Mad Shadows: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser — was
published in 2011, I finally joined in and read excerpts from it, and later I’d
read from my current works-in-progress.
Author Claire (C.S.E.) Cooney ran the show in those days and
delighted us with excerpts from her World Fantasy Award Winning, Bone
Swans. Then she moved on and Janelle Bada took over and remained our
ringmaster until Top Shelf closed permanently. After that, she searched for
other places where we could meet, such as the Palatine Police Department (true)
and then the Palatine Public Library. Sadly, we could not find a suitable
meeting place and the group disbanded, although many would continue to meet in
downtown Chicago and even Oak Park, if memory serves me.
Top Shelf holds a special place in our hearts and in our
memories. I made many friends and associates there, and pigged out on all the
great snacks everyone brought to the monthly gatherings, especially Spunky
Dunkers Donuts, courtesy of John O’Neill, who would then read excerpts from his
novel, the terrific The Robots of Gotham. (I eventually became a
contributor for Black Gate magazine.) Besides John, Dave Smith,
Brendan Detzner (The Orphan Fleet), Janelle Bada, and Jeanine (J9)
Vaughn entertaining us from their works-in-progress, there was also Michael
Penkas, whose weird and wild short stories were worthy of the original Twilight
Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Patty Templeton
read from her wonderful, There Is No Lovely End. Jeffrey Westhoff
read from his then work-in-progress, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, and
Tina Jens introduced us to her The Blues Ain’t Nothin’: Tales of the
Lonesome Blues Pub.
The Top Shelf Books Open Mic Writers’ Group: This photo was taken by John, I believe. It’s not at Top Shelf. It’s either at the Palatine Library or the Palatine Police Department (we weren’t arrested for disturbing the peace; it was simply a small meeting room in the department’s new building). STANDING LEFT TO RIGHT: Janelle Bada (nee McHugh), then Dennis Depcik (author of Wouldn’t It Be Something), Karin Thogersen, Shawna Flavell, the lady with red hair and blue scarf is Patty Templeton (author of There Is No Lovely End). The woman with a white stocking cap and a leather jacket is Katie Redding. The tall guy behind Katie is Brendan Detzner (author of The Orphan Fleet). Seated is Joe Bonadonna. By the door in the back is David C. Smith, the lady in the wolf-head hat is Julie Barnett (Mike Penkas’s “better half”), beside Michael Penkas (author of Mistress Bunny and the Cancelled Client). Lastly, Jeffrey Westhoff (author of The Boy Who Knew Too Much).
Sometimes there were book discussions and Q&A sessions,
but never any harsh criticism that I recall. These evenings proved to be
helpful, constructive, and even enlightening. It was a great group of people
and those Thursday nights were made of pure magic.
There were also other forms of entertainment: Sally Tibbets
would read poems from her favorite poets. Her daughter, Cynthia Glasson, would
sing and play her ukelele. Julie Barnett (Mike Penkas’s gal), belonged to a
choral group — The Sweet Adelines — and still does, I believe — and she would
touch our emotions with many a song. I think Katie Redding also read from some
of her favorite authors.
I remember meeting Arminzerella Smith, the late author Gene
Wolfe, and a couple of guys named Dave, whose last names I, unfortunately,
cannot recall. I did not meet Jason Waltz at Top Shelf but at Windy City Pulp
and Paperback Convention (the exact year escapes me.) Also, while I had already
exchanged a few emails with the late master of heroic fantasy, Howard Andrew
Jones, we did not meet at Top Shelf but at the Windy City Pulp and Paperback
Convention in 2011, where we exchanged copies of our first novels; we met again
at Chicon 7 in 2012, I think it was.
Those were halcyon nights, for sure and we all wish they
could have gone on forever. I miss the people, the conversations, the readings,
the smell of old, used books, the variety of used books… and of course I miss
all those great Snackety Snacks . . . especially the donuts.
David C. Smith
Joe recalls far more folks who used to attend the Top Shelf
readings than I do, so I’m confident he has that part handled for you. The
famous Patty Templeton! Mike Penkas! Howard Andrew Jones came by one time!
Others!
My recollection is that they were held once a month on — the
second Thursday of the month? John usually brought in two boxes of Spunky
Dunkers donuts, famous here around Palatine and the general northwest environs
of Chitown, which made John a very special member of our loose association.
That and his robots.
I miss those evenings, miss them, miss them, miss
them! Every time Janine and I drive past that plaza (we are close by) and
see the building with part of a private school since having taken over the
building, damn, I swear out loud.
I found two photos of myself, attached. There’s a group
photo that I was sure I had somewhere, but now I can’t find it, *grrrr.* I even
checked the old thumb drives I have in the filing cabinet drawer here. Nada.
[Editor’s sidebar: don’t worry, David, the others had you
covered]
But look at those overloaded bookshelves behind me in both
of those snapshots. An honest-to-God real live used-book store made for loafing
and smiling in.
Now, Black Gate readers, it is time to
soiree!Start more legends!
