Skip to main content
matt haig author photo
PastAuthor EventBook SigningFictionLiterary FictionPaid

This event has passed

Matt Haig Midnight Train

Featured Book

midnight train book cover

Midnight Train

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES | TODAY | SHEREADS | WOMAN’S WORLD | PARADE | THE NERD DAILY | HER CAMPUS | BOOKPAGE When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop? No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there. The chance to re-live the moments that meant most. To see what kind of person you really were. For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice. Before he gave it all away. He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything . . . A magical, time-travelling love story, from the world of The Midnight Library.

This book will be available for purchase at the event.

About This Event

Join us for an evening with Matt Haig, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Midnight Library, The Life Impossible, and How to Stop Time, as well as the acclaimed memoirs Reasons to Stay Alive and Notes on a Nervous Planet. Expanding on the time-traveling world of The Midnight Library, Haig’s newest novel The Midnight Train asks the question: When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop? This enlightening conversation will traverse Haig’s journey with mental health, the choices that go into a life well lived, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

A book signing will follow this event.

Chicago Humanities is pleased to partner with Chicago’s Seminary Co-op Bookstores, the country’s first not-for-profit bookstore.
Tickets include a copy of The Midnight Train, which you pick up at the event by showing the book voucher in your PDF ticket. Student, teacher, and Humanist Circle member tickets do not include a book, but anyone can add a book to their cart when selecting their tickets.
If you are purchasing multiple tickets for patrons in the same household, call the box office at (312) 661-1239 for additional information about book bundle exemptions.
Please visit our FAQ for more information.

Featured Author

matt haig author photo

Matt Haig

Matt Haig was born in Sheffield, England. His novels include The Humans, How to Stop Time, and The Midnight Library, which has been a number one New York Times bestseller and sold more than fourteen million copies world-wide. His non-fiction works include his award-winning mental illness memoir Reasons to Stay Alive and The Comfort Book. His most recent fiction, The Life Impossible, was a New York Times bestseller. He has also written several children’s books, including A Boy Called Christmas, which became a major feature film. His work has been published in fifty-six languages and he is an advocate for literacy, libraries, and better mental health provision for everyone.

About the Venue

Athenaeum Center for Thought & Culture

Presented by Seminary Co-Op Bookstore

Lake View

2936 N. Southport Ave
Chicago, IL 60657

Open in Maps

More at Seminary Co-Op Bookstore

Sep17
A Conversation with Nikita Gill!
Author EventFictionHyde Park

A Conversation with Nikita Gill!

7:00 PM • Thursday, September 17, 2026Seminary Co-Op Bookstore$29.02

Nikita Gill will discuss her newest book STYX: The River, followed by a book signing. She will be joined in conversation by Erika L. Sánchez. BUY TICKETS HERE (Tickets are Required) Join us for a conversation with New York Times bestselling author Nikita Gill as she discusses her new book, STYX: The River. She will be joined in conversation by New York Times bestselling author Erika L. Sánchez. A book signing will follow the discussion. We are so excited to welcome Nikita Gill and Erika L. Sánchez to the Seminary Co-op! About the Book: Perfect for fans of Madeline Miller and Alexandra Bracken, this novel-in-verse from world-renowned poet Nikita Gill is a richly imagined retelling of the Greek myth of Styx, goddess of the underworld river. Before the tale of Zeus and Hera, and their powerful siblings, there were the Titans. A golden age of divinity when the earth was still new. Back then, there was no hierarchy. There were simply Gods and Goddesses. Until one God broke the sacred peace and decided that under his new order, lesser Goddesses would lose their divinity and were instead named nymphs. But Goddesses are an ancient force, unanswerable to anyone. This is an untold story of a nymph who fought the odds. A tale of a nymph who became a Goddess. This fierce and heartrending tale of sisterhood, identity, love, and war reimagines a Greek myth to explore the fall of the Titanomachy and showcases the coming of age of one of the most infamous deities of the underworld. Meet all the Goddesses of the Underworld: Hekate: The Witch Styx: The River Nyx: The Night (coming Fall 2027!) About Nikita Gill: Nikita Gill is an Irish-Indian poet, playwright, illustrator, and author based in the south of England. She has written and curated seven volumes of poetry, including Wild Embers, Fierce Fairytales, Great Goddesses, and These Are the Words. Her novel Hekate: The Witch, the first book in her chthonic gods trilogy, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Nikita is one of the most followed poets on Instagram and her work is beloved around the world. Nikita invites you to visit her on Instagram @nikita_gill About Erika L. Sánchez: Erika L. Sánchez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. Her debut poetry collection, Lessons on Expulsion, was a finalist for the PEN America Open Book Award. Her debut young adult novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a National Book Awards finalist, and Tomás Rivera Award winner. Time has recognized it as one of the best YA novels of all time. It is now is being made into a MGM Orion film directed by America Ferrera. She is an executive producer on the project. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter has also been adapted to the theater at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, Seattle Rep Theater, Greenway Court Theater in Los Angeles, and Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Also, her novel has been banned across the country due to its “controversial” themes. Most recently, Sánchez published a critically acclaimed memoir-in-essays titled Crying in the Bathroom with Viking Books. It won the Chicago Review of Books Nonfiction award and has been optioned for television. Sánchez was a Fulbright Scholar, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent fellow from the Poetry Foundation, a Princeton Arts Fellow, a recipient of the 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation, and a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in poetry. Sánchez earned a BA from UIC and an MFA from the University of New Mexico. Her books have been translated and published in Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Brazil, France, Mexico, Poland, Turkey, and Italy. She’s appeared on WGN, PBS, NPR, Good Morning America, Telemundo, Univision, and MSNBC. Erika holds an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from New School University. She lives in Chicago with her family.

Sep18
naomi klein stra taylor event
Author EventNon-FictionThe Loop

Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor on End Times Fascism

7:30 PM • Friday, September 18, 2026First United Methodist Church at the Chicago TemplePresented by Chicago HumanitiesPresented with Seminary Co-Op Bookstore$34

A new iteration of the far right is on the rise. Award-winning authors and organizers Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor join us to share a dangerous development they’ve identified: Christian nationalists, tech-bro reactionaries, and populist survivalists are united in their apocalyptic belief that some kind of cleansing cataclysm is coming. And, rather than avoiding this conflagration, they welcome it. Klein and Taylor will provide a recipe for how to fight back, because most of us desperately want a future we can believe in — and leaders who believe in us. This event is generously underwritten by Ellen Stone Belic. We are pleased to partner with the Seminary Co-op Bookstores, the country’s first not-for-profit bookstore. Pre-order End Times Fascism through the Chicago Humanities box office and save up to 20% while supporting local, independent bookselling. Add books to your cart when adding tickets. Your PDF ticket will contain a book voucher, which you show to the bookseller on-site to pick up your book(s). Please visit our FAQ for more information.

Sep26
emily st john mandel event image
Author EventFictionPilsen

Emily St. John Mandel - Exit Party

2:00 PM • Saturday, September 26, 2026Thalia HallPresented by Chicago HumanitiesPresented with Seminary Co-Op Bookstore$44.12

Join us as Emily St. John Mandel, the award-winning author of Station Eleven, Sea of Tranquility, and The Glass Hotel, celebrates the release of her breathtaking new novel, Exit Party. Known for her genre-defying works of fiction, Mandel will explore the price of safety, the perils of the surveillance state, and resilience in the face of cataclysmic change. She’ll be joined in conversation by podcast host Greta Johnsen. Mandel’s books have been translated into 25 languages, and Station Eleven was adapted into a critically acclaimed 10-episode limited series on HBO, set and filmed in Chicago.