PEORIA MAGAZINE June 2023

W O R D C O U N T

CENTRAL PLACES ARE FAMILIAR PLACES

Dunlap native Delia Cai is making a name for herself in the Big Apple, starting with her maiden novel BY PHIL LUCIANO W hen Audrey Zhou leaves the big city to visit her childhood hometown, she sees a lot of familiar Peoria-area landmarks. There’s Eastwoods Community Church, which each December hosts what she describes as the “big East woods Christmas show.” Hmmm,

Illinois town where she grew up.” But it’s not Cai’s Dunlap but Hickory Grove, a name that adorns a Dunlap school and subdivision but nary a municipality in Illinois. The big church near Hickory Grove is Eastwoods, not the real world’s Northwoods Community Church near Dunlap. The weathered tap isn’t Sullivan’s but actually Last Chance, a longtime favorite in Alta. And the fictionalized high school sports squads are called the Chiefs, with a logo much like that of the real-life Peoria Chiefs minor-league baseball team, rather than Dunlap High’s Eagles. Those Easter eggs might push a smile of familiarity for central Illinoisans reading the book, as will the novel’s references to car rides along the Murray Baker Bridge, Illinois Route 91 and Legion Hall Road.

sounds like Northwoods Community Church, which annually puts out a slam bang yuletide extravaganza. And there’s Sullivan’s, the familiar and comfy bar just outside town, a favorite low-dough spot for locals that doubles as a reunion place for former residents who come in for the holidays. And there are the high school athletic teams known as the Chiefs, represented with a dalmatian wearing a firefighter’s hat. This might sound like greater Peoria in The Twilight Zone — vaguely familiar but somewhat out of whack. And that’s exactly the case, as Audrey Zhou comes from the world of imagination. She is the fictional version of Delia Cai, a 2011 Dunlap High School grad whose Central Places novel is – per the book’s jacket – set in “the tiny central

58 JUNE 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE