After all the rhetorical sparring that marked the campaign season, this weekend we’ll see a much different verbal slugfest. Twelve wordsmiths will duke it out for the championship title in the Windy City Story Slam. Every month for the past year, published writers and average-Joes have taken the mic at the slam, to try and out-dazzle each other with their storytelling.

Don de Grazia is one of the organizers, and a participant. He’s a professor at Columbia College Chicago and the author of the novel, American Skin. The Windy City Story Slam is the brainchild of former Golden Gloves boxer Bill “The Butcher” Hillmann. Hillmann and de Grazia joined us in studio recently for a special WBEZ story slam.

The Windy City Story Slam championships take place this Saturday night at 8 at the Metro and is free.

Music Button: Rithma, “Dream Again”, from the CD Music Fiction, (Om records)