
Daniel Kraus - Angel Down
Featured Books

Changing Gender
From the groundbreaking trans scholar Susan Stryker, a provocative, genre-bending call to reconsider the story we tell about gender itself.
That gender is a hotly contested topic becomes ever clearer as 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? Where did the concept itself come from, and where might it go?
In Changing Gender, the leading trans scholar Susan Stryker invites readers to ride along on her lifelong quest to uncover what gender means and does. She traces the gender concept's roots in grammar and tells the story of how it transformed into a battleground of the culture wars. From the origins of “Yankee Doodle” to acid trips in Joshua Tree National Park, from nineteenth-century phrenology to present-day anti-trans conspiracy theorists, Stryker finds surprising places to tune in to the origins, idiosyncrasies, and generative possibilities of the gender concept. Along the way, she weaves stories drawn from her lifetime as a pathbreaking historian, filmmaker, activist, and founding figure of transgender studies.
Poignant and deeply researched, lyrical and authoritative, Changing Gender is a book for our fraught time, exposing limiting assumptions about gender across the political spectrum and imagining what life might look like if some of those limitations were lifted. Ultimately, Stryker argues, to change gender is to change what it means to be human—and to change reality itself.
About This Event
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.
Featured Author

Aziz Z. Huq
Aziz Z. Huq is a scholar of U.S. and comparative constitutional law at the University of Chicago. He has worked on topics ranging from democratic backsliding to regulating AI. His award-winning scholarly work is published in several books and leading law reviews, social science, and political science journals. He has also written for the Washington Post, the New York Times, Dissent, The Nation, and many other non-specialist publications. In 2015, he received the Graduating Students Award for Teaching Excellence. He has an active pro bono practice. He is now on the board of the American Constitution Society, the New Press, and the ACLU of Illinois. Before joining the Law School, he worked as counsel and then director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Project, Senior Consultant Analyst for the International Crisis Group, and as a law clerk for Judge Robert D. Sack of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and also for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court of the United States. Aziz Z. Huq is the Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law. His books include The Collapse of Constitutional Remedies (2020), How to Save a Constitutional Democracy (2018) (with Tom Ginsburg), and Unchecked and Unbalance: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror (2007) (with Fritz Schwarz).
In Conversation With

Augustus Rose
Augustus Rose is the author of The Readymade Thief, a novel about Marcel Duchamp, urban exploration, and the shotgun marriage of alchemy and string theory. His screenplay, Far from Cool, was an Academy Nicholl Fellowships finalist that he is currently working into a novel. He is Associate Professor of Practice in the Arts in the Creative Writing Program at University of Chicago. A native of San Francisco, he lives in Chicago with his wife and son.
About the Venue
University of Chicago - Ida Noyes Hall
Presented by Chicago Humanities
Presented with Seminary Co-Op Bookstore
Hyde Park
1212 E 59th St
Chicago, IL 60637
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A Conversation with John Scalzi!
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.