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Paper Cuts: My Life in Chicago’s Volatile LGBTQ Press
Rick Karlin
$17.97
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Description
The Hedda Hopper of Halsted Street
Paper Cuts: My Life in Chicago’s Volatile LGBTQ Press is the story of Rick Karlin’s life writing for Chicago’s newspapers, balancing that with his family life outside of it. Joining the staff at GayLife in 1978 gave Karlin a front- row seat at some of the momentous events in post-Stonewall LGBTQ history. From the privileged vantage point of a newspaper office, he watched the rise and fall of disco, the AIDS crisis, same sex marriage, bars opening and closing, and LGBTQ newspapers coming and going. Like gossip columnists, Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, Karlin knew the dirt going on behind the scenes. … Scratch the veneer of what Karlin calls his “so-called celebrity” and you will find a man of conviction, morals, and a keen sense of community. In short, Rick Karlin is a jewel in the crown of Chicago’s LGBTQ press. In 1978 he dived into a polluted pool and, holding his nose, swam in it for decades. And Chicago is all the better for it.
Reads From
Rick Karlin is a playwright (“Witches Among Us,” “Spin Cycle”, “As Time Goes By” and “Seuss on the Loose”), novelist (Show Biz Kids, Tales of the Second City, Death on the Rocks), free-lance journalist (Chicago Free Press, Bay Area Reporter, Windy City Times, Chicago Tribune’s Metromix and OutTraveler.com) and was the Entertainment Editor for Gay Chicago Magazine for 10 years.
A community activist, he was inducted into the City of Chicago’s LGBT Hall of Fame in 1997. He founded the popular charity fundraisers, “Night of 100 Drag Queens” and Gay Chicago Magazine’s “After Dark Awards.” In his stage personae, Charity Case and Helen Highwater, he is renowned for his quick wit and snappy repartee as a performer and emcee for charity events and shows,
He was also an award-winning teacher. Rick is the proud father of his adult son, Adam and lives in Fort Lauderdale with his husband, the award-winning poet and writer, Gregg Shapiro, and their dog Coco.