by Michael Burke Reginald Gibbons received the Fuller Award for lifetime achievement on September 30, 2021. The fun, moving ceremony was hosted online by the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, the Newberry Library, and more than a dozen other partners. Named after the notable Chicago writer and Hall of…

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by Barbara Egel “Poems are one of the ways we speak ourselves to life—our own poems and those of others”  —R.G., “Homage to Longshot O’Leary” The words in the title of this essay are borrowed wares taken from the love poetry of one of Reginald…

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The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame chats with PEN/Emerging Voices designee Jerakah Greene, who will instruct a free creative writing “Chicago Voices” workshop with local youth, offered by the Hall of Fame as of June 2021. (For more information and registration, click link TBD) Q) In…

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 By Donald G. Evans Arthur Meeker, in his 1949 historical novel, Prairie Avenue, takes us back to a time when the residential district, just south of what is now Printers Row, was the street on which Chicago’s movers and shakers built their homes, raised their families, and feted the…

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by Jarrett Neal Coming out of the destabilization and devastation of the pandemic, worldwide protests over systemic racism, and an increasingly histrionic political climate, place has never meant so much to our daily lives. Our connections to our communities as well as the histories and inhabitants…

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Inside for Indies: Live on Independent Bookstore Day 11 a.m. Until Noon via Zoom Free and Open to the Public Registration Required by Donald G. Evans This pandemic. We're more than a year into it and I think we all feel like we deserve some kind of return to normal. We miss all those things,…

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By Donald G. Evans I have not read nearly all of the Chicago books on baseball. In fact, I own several dozen more than I’ve read, always looking for an opening to move one or more of those onto my nightstand. The insincerity of any “best” list is the insinuation that the…

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by Donald G. Evans In a ceremony on Saturday, March 13, from 7-8 p.m., Sandra Cisneros is to be honored with the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s Fuller Award for lifetime achievement. It is CLHOF’s highest honor for a living writer. Sandra joins an illustrious list of honorees that…

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By Donald G. Evans Harry Mark Petrakis, one of Chicago’s great literary figures, died, unofficially of old age, last Tuesday, Feb. 2, near his longtime home in Chestertown, Indiana. He was 97 years old. Harry gained a reputation as a foremost Greek-American author, but anybody who's read…

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