The Man with the Golden Amaretto Set for Early February, 2025, at Colvin House
Registration is now open. The CLHOF’s fifth annual literary cocktail party is set for Saturday, February 8, 2025. The Man with the Golden Amaretto gives us lots of fun options to dress up in the fashion of Nelson Algren-era characters. For the second straight year, we’ll be at the lovely Colvin House (5940 N. Sheridan Chicago, IL 60660), which includes a speakeasy basement. This party includes appetizers, desserts, and three unique cocktails, plus lessons on drink mixing and cocktail history, literary readings, and more. Mostly a party, though. Cost for the fundraiser is $125.
Open Enrollment for Seminar on Early Chicago Literature
Enroll to attend a seminar with Chicago literary expert Jesse Raber. Over the course of five Tuesday evenings via Zoom, Raber will 
explore with students the important authors and books produced during Chicago’s early history. Tuition for the seminar is $250; registration will be limited to 12. The first session is Tuesday, February 11; the last session is Tuesday, March 11. The sessions run from 6:30-8 p.m.
By the end of the Civil War, Chicago was transforming from a commercial crossroads to an industrial center, the fortunes of its business leaders rising alongside the numbers of immigrants, unskilled workers, and paupers. The city’s writers wondered how high it could rise (could it ever become a cultural capital equal to New York or Boston?), and also how far it might fall if crime or labor agitation got out of hand. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the Great Strike of 1877 crystallized these issues, seeming to underline the need for more elite control of the masses, while the Haymarket Affair forced a radical reconsideration of that conclusion. In this course we will study the literature surrounding these events, from Mary Healy Bigot’s polite novel of manners Lakeville through the Chicago Fire bestseller Barriers Burned Away, the crime writing of Allan Pinkerton, and poems from the Haymarket anarchists’ newspapers, The Alarm and Die Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeitung (in translation), among other works.
Submit NOW to Enter
the 2025 Randall Albers
Young Writers Award!
Calling all Chicago area high school writers! Submissions for the 2024-25 Randall Albers Young Writers Award are officially open. We again welcome submissions in both poetry and prose. Now in its third year, this award encourages the literary pursuits of our next generation of great Chicago authors.
The contest is open to all Chicago area students currently enrolled in grades 9-12 and will remain open until March 3, 2025 at 5 p.m. CT. Read the Rules & Guidelines before entering.
Winners in each of our two categories—prose and poetry—will receive awards in the following amounts:
1st place: $250
2nd place: $150
3rd place: $100
4th place: $50
Each winner will also receive publication in the commemorative program we produce for the award ceremony, which is scheduled for May 17, 2025 at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago. Winners will also be listed on our website and will be invited to read from their entries during the awards ceremony.
