The American Library Association Annual Conference is in town, and Bill Ott is one of the rock stars of that world. As the editor and publisher of Booklist, Bill’s also regularly hailed as one of the most important lit folks in Chicago. (He even cracked the Top 20 in this list.)

Beyond that, though, Bill, whom I’ve known professionally for most of this decade, turns out to be a delightful storyteller over a drink as well. That shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me, given that he turns out entertaining and informative Back Page columns for most issues of Booklist. Bill’s passionate about hardboiled crime fiction and Chicago, but he’s widely read beyond those interest areas, and I always get a new insight or three from his columns.

So I’m delighted to have Time Out Chicago host a Q&A session with Bill today from 5-7pm at Pritzker Park (it’s at State & Van Buren Streets, just north of the Harold Washington Library, fittingly). He’s got a new collection of his columns out, called, naturally, The Back Page, and it’ll be available at a special launch-event discount. Bill will sign one for you, too, if you’d like. I asked him to do this event over Manhattans at the Green Mill, so how could this not be a good time?

Even if you don’t make it to Pritzker Park for the event, see how well you do on Bill’s rigorous Literary Chicago Quiz. Writes Bill, “A perfect score earns a beer on me at Billy Goat Tavern.”