Stop Smiling was an arts and culture magazine founded by J. C. Gabel in the Chicago suburb of Darien, Illinois.[1] He started the magazine at age 19 in 1995.[2] The magazine was published on a bimonthly basis.[3] The headquarters was in both Chicago and New York.[3] Each issue followed a theme and consisted of feature-length interviews, essays and oral histories. With a focus on preservation, Stop Smiling published some of the last in-depth conversations with Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Altman, Lee Hazlewood, and George Plimpton. The company ended the magazine in 2009 and became an independently owned imprint of Melville House Publishing.[4]
Stop Smiling runs a storefront event space in Wicker Park, Chicago. Readings and Q&As are regularly broadcast on Chicago Public Radio.
