For over 60 years, the Seminary Co-op Bookstores has served as a cultural anchor in and beyond Chicago; as the first not-for-profit bookstore whose mission is bookselling, their stores, which include 57th Street Books, celebrate the power of the browsing experience to inspire curiosity, discovery, and delight.
Upcoming Events
Ruth Bloch Rubin will discuss her new book Divided Parties, Strong Leaders. She will be joined in conversation by John Mark Hansen. A Q&A and book signing will follow the discussion.
Join us for a conversation and book signing with New York Times Bestselling Science Fiction author John Scalzi! We are so excited to welcome beloved Science Fiction author John Scalzi to the Co-op! John will discuss his newest novel MONSTERS OF OHIO. A Q&A and book signing will follow the conversation. About the Book: Welcome to Richland, Ohio. Things aren't great. The town’s biggest employer is closing shop, and Richland's on the brink. It's where Mike Boyd, with his own set of problems, finds himself returning to after decades away. He's not planning to stay. But Richland has other plans for Mike, his old friend Dave, and a newcomer Andi. They're caught in a swirl of local troubles, private equity, executive theft… and something extremely weird involving Jeremy Keller’s prize cow. Welcome to Richland. Leave your expectations behind. Bring a tarp. About John Scalzi: JOHN SCALZI is one of the most popular science fiction authors of his generation. His debut, Old Man's War, won him the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His New York Times bestsellers include The Last Colony, Fuzzy Nation, Redshirts (which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel), The Last Emperox, The Kaiju Preservation Society, Starter Villain, When the Moon Hits Your Eye, and The Shattering Peace. Material from his blog, Whatever, has earned him two other Hugo Awards. He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter. Helpful information: *There is street parking only. There is a parking lot next door to our store but it is NOT ours and we cannot guarantee that you will not be towed. *You may start lining up at 6pm. Doors will open at 6:30pm. *Refund requests will not be accepted after 3pm, 11/04! *If you have a free general admission ticket, you MUST purchase the book at the event to enter the signing line. *Limited seating is available on a first come first serve basis. There will be standing room only once seating is full. If you do require seating, please email mgmt@semcoop.com to reserve a seat. *Additional copies of the book and backlist will be available for purchase at the store during the event.
Join us for a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist David Hume Kennerly, whose lens has captured six decades of defining moments in world history. From the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy to the burning Pentagon on 9/11, from the Ford White House to election nights with presidents and candidates across half a century, Kennerly has stood where few have ever been allowed to stand — and brought the rest of us with him. He'll take us behind his images to what it felt like to be present as history unfolded. This event celebrates the publication of his magnum opus, In the Room: 60 Years on the Front Lines of History, released as the nation marks its 250th birthday.
Daniel Kraus is the bestselling author of Whalefall, Angel Down, and The Sixth Nik. Daniel is based in Chicago and joins us to discuss his prolific career as a writer of novels, TV, and film. His novel Angel Down was awarded the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is the first horror novel to win the prize since 2007. But it isn’t just a horror novel. It’s a war novel that blends magical realism, science fiction, and allegory, plunging you into the heart of World War I. Join us for a conversation with Kraus on writing as a craft, what it takes to write a novel in one sentence (like Angel Down), and how screenwriting opens up new possibilities for storytelling.
Democracies don’t collapse overnight. They erode, one small concession at a time. But what does democratic collapse actually look like from the inside? University of Chicago law professors Aziz Huq and Tom Ginsburg, authors of the new book How to Save a Constitutional Democracy, join NPR's Peter Sagal to unpack how constitutional systems around the world have unraveled — and what safeguards make some democracies more resilient than others.
Today, antigender ideology continues to be mobilized by the far right and transgender people’s lives are increasingly targeted. But what are we talking about when we talk about gender? Leading trans scholar Susan Stryker joins us for an urgent conversation on her new book, Changing Gender. Drawing on her decades of work as a historian, filmmaker, and activist, she’ll explore the concept of gender, its origins, and where we go from here.
Two-time National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward returns to Chicago Humanities to discuss her newest work, On Witness and Repair, a collection of essays documenting more than a decade of her work. The acclaimed titular essay, which appeared in Vanity Fair, tells the story of her partner’s sudden death on the eve of the COVID-19 epidemic. Join us for a conversation with Ward and get a glimpse into the life of a singular writer often lauded as “the heir apparent to Toni Morrison” (LitHub).