CTA Chronicles

by Marcy Rae Henry

The one book about Chicago's "EL" everyone should read

Filled with the contrasts between the public, the private, the banal and the imaginative, 'The CTA Chronicles' chew on the unavoidable characters and stories found on the Chicago El.

Marcy Henry s moody, intimate, playful, speculative and erotic musings are at turns lyrical, colorful and brash. At times they travel no further than the train carriage, at others, they reach deep into the recesses of memory and as far as Thailand and Vietnam.

Uniquely capturing the rhythm of the inner as well as the outer dialogues that accompany daily train rides across the city, each of the descriptive tales explore the beauty in the familiar and the fleeting.

104 pages, Unknown Binding

First published December 16, 2006

About the author

Marcy Rae Henry is a multidisciplinary Xicana artist from the Borderlands who’s had motorcycle incidences in Mexican-America, Turkey and Nepal. She is the author of death is a mariachi, winner of the 2024 May Sarton Poetry Prize (Bauhan Press 2025), when to go to the Taj Mahal (Bottlecap Press 2025), the body is where it all begins (Querencia Press 2025), dream life of night owls, winner of the Open Country Chapbook Contest (Open Country Press 2024), and We Are Primary Colors (DoubleCross Press 2023). Her work has received a Chicago Community Arts Assistance Grant, an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, a Pushcart nomination, first prize in Suburbia’s Novel Excerpt Contest and Kaveh Akbar recently choose her collection of fiction as a finalist for the George Garrett Fiction Prize. MRae is a digital minimalist with no social media accounts and an associate editor for RHINO Poetry. marcyraehenry.com

Reviews

[Lakeesha J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, so first I must admit that this is probably coming from someone who is a bit partial. Marcy is one of my dearest friends and I've come to value her opinion in regards to literature. Taking all this into account I find that reading this book was simply transporting. She challenges the reader to come to place that she has traveled and from the name you would thing it was only via CTA. However, through this book she has taken me to place like India and has been a consummate tour guide. The imagery in this book is wonderful.

[Kitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

it sorta seemed like a self published book. there were some good stories, but then it got all "poetic" and i got frustrated. i had really high hopes for it, and i think that's why i'm so critical.

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Made it to page 13 and stopped.