Sunday, June 4, 2023
by Jesse Raber
Chicago’s literary history, according to most accounts, begins around 1893. The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s earliest writers, such as Jane Addams, Henry Blake Fuller, and Carl Sandburg, started publishing around that time, with Fuller’s 1893 novel The Cliff-Dwellers sometimes cited as the first significant work of Chicago literature. Along with writers like…
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Writers, contrary to Hollywood stereotypes, do not materialize in a magical poof, or rise to prominence on the wings of talent alone. Becoming a serious, productive writer requires labor, learning, grit, determination. And support. There is perhaps no apprenticeship longer than that which the average writer undergoes. So much reading. So many drafts to critique and be critiqued. So…
Thursday, April 27, 2023
[June 12, 2004—Present]
Owner: Suzy Takacs
Location: 4736 N. Lincoln Avenue
Neighborhood: Lincoln Square
Independent Bookstore Day Specials: Booksellers tote bags for sale; big balloon photo op; drawings for discounts; free popcorn.
by Donald G. Evans
Books and wine. A simple enough concept, but nobody else had done it, was…
Monday, April 10, 2023
by Floyd Sullivan
An aging writer wishes to end his days alone on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland. Work becomes difficult; walking becomes difficult. His son seems to be concerned for his safety, but only out of perceived filial duty. A young woman, a solitary traveler, appears on the island and needs shelter from a storm. In the end it is she…
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
We celebrated Black History Month in February, then Women’s History Month in March. Poetry claims our collective attention in April. That was by design, according to the Academy of American Poets, who established National Poetry Month in 1996. There are only so many months to go around, and the Academy of American Poets wanted to stake its claim before…
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Sitting in the Oak Park family home that she has known her entire life, Linda Robinet projects and embodies a certain dignity, warmth, humility and generosity that radiate as she patiently listens to the conversation around her. She never interrupts. She always responds thoughtfully. Her intelligence is effortless. She grew up in this house and stayed through young adulthood, dropping out…
Monday, January 23, 2023
Stuart Dybek and Edward Hirsch were born eight years apart, Dybek on April 10, 1942 and Hirsch on January 20, 1950. Dybek was a South Sider, raised in Little Village and Pilsen; Hirsch a North Sider, his earliest years spent in Irving Park and North Park before his family settled in Skokie. Both would depart Chicago in their adulthood,…
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Dear Friends,
Don’t let the name of our organization fool you. Although one of the signature initiatives of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame (CLHOF) is to celebrate the city’s rich literary legacy by inducting past writers into the Hall of Fame, it’s not all we do. We also develop programming, events, and awards to honor Chicago’s living writers and to help foster new and…
Monday, November 7, 2022
by Brian Clancy
Chicago is a city rich with identity, stemming from its long and complicated history and the multitudinous people who have populated it. In Wherever I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry, various poets from different backgrounds and literary styles ruminate on the Windy City, often mingling their own individual identity with that of Chicago.
Poet Mark Turcotte (author of “Hawk Hour,”…
Thursday, October 13, 2022
Rick and I meet—where else?—in the Billy Goat Tavern. Rick’s choice. And appropriate—not only because for decades it has been a home away from home for newspaper people before they drag off to their real homes after a long day, nerves still buzzing despite the shots and beers. And not only because Rick has frequently been among them—at least until corporate “progress” resulted in closing the…
Chicago Literary Hall of Fame
Email: Don Evans
4043 N. Ravenswood Ave., #222
Chicago, IL 60613
773.414.2603
