Register to Attend the 2025 Randall Albers Young Writers Awards
The third annual Randall Albers Young Writers Awards cermony happens in just two weeks. Please join us to celebrate this year's prize-winning young authors at our awards ceremony on Saturday, May 17 at the Harold Washington Library Center. (400 S. State Street, Chicago, IL). The program begins at 2 p.m. Refreshments will be served after the presentations and readings. The program is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Congratulations to our our prize-winning student authors. Our judges have evaluated nearly 150 submissions and selected four place winners and two honorable mentions in each category, poetry and prose. Thanks to each and every student who participated. In this, the third year, the quality of submissions was better than ever. The evaluation process was difficult and nuanced; there were many, many worthy submissions.
Poetry
1st Place: Oluwatomi Ogundimu,
“Sundance // opulence”
2nd Place: Emma Keating,
“Beneath the Surface”
3rd Place: Ashra Roshy,
“know me, the ugly girl”
4th Place: Parker Koehler,
“what the tea leaves tell us”
Poetry, Honorable Mentions
(in no particular order)
Simon Archer III,
“Blue Swallow of Hope”
Bodhi Haines,
“Gumbo”
Prose
1st Place: Ivy Faust Lefebvre,
“Directions”
2nd Place: Fiona Jin,
“L’Hôpital’s Rule”
3rd Place: Lucinda De Maio,
“Tail of a Frog”
4th Place: Lucille Hachtel,
“In the Modern World”
Prose, Honorable Mentions
(in no particular order)
Aanya Santosh,
“Everything Comes to Be”
Destiny Sacluti,
“Rising from Setbacks”
The American Writers Museum is bringing beloved columnist Dave Barry to Chicago for a live, off site event on Thursday, May 15. Better yet, AWM is offering all CLHOF people a discount to attend. When you register, use the code "CLHOFMember" to get 15 percent off. You'll have the option to register for the event only or for Dave's new book plus event.
Summary: How does the son of a Presbyterian minister wind up winning a Pulitzer Prize for writing a wildly inaccurate newspaper column read by millions of people? America's most beloved wiseass, Dave Barry, finally tells his life story with all the humor you’d expect from a man who made a career out of making fun of pretty much everything. Barry will be interviewed by Mark Bazer of The Interview Show on WTTW. Books will be sold at the event and Barry will sign them following the program.
This is event takes place at Chicago Hope Academy. The entrance to the auditorium is through the parking lot at 2156 W. Ogden Ave., Chicago, IL 60612. This lot can be used for parking, as well as additional street parking on neighboring streets. Please leave enough time for transportation and parking. The program begins promptly at 6:00 pm CT.
CLHOF followers: register using the code CLHOFMember for 15 percent off your order!
2025 Randall Albers Young Writers Awards Ceremony & Open Mic
Saturday, May 17, 2025
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