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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By Donald G. Evans Chicago (Love) Classics Saturday, Feb. 13 7-8 p.m. Free and Open to the Public Advanced Registration Required Valentine’s Day isn’t for everybody, and, now, thanks to our ongoing health pandemic, it’s not really for anybody. There will be no fancy restaurants, no…

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by Donald G. Evans Strong associations between drinking and writing, for better or worse, continue to be the stuff of legend, especially in Chicago. Hard drinking literary heroes like Ernest Hemingway (not to mention Terkel and Royko etc. and etc.) earn much of the attention, though more polite…

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By Donald G. Evans What: 14th Annual MLK Literacy Festival When: 12:30-4 p.m. on Monday, January 18. Where: Facebook Live / Zoom Register at: https://linktr.ee/Projectyes The very fact that Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday offers a profound civics lesson for all of us…

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By Randy Richardson On January 16th the Chicago Writers Association will host its 10th annual Book of the Year Awards. This year the celebration will be virtual. For the past nine years CWA’s book awards were held at The Book Cellar, the charming little bookstore in the heart of Lincoln…

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By Donald G. Evans Life is hard in author Patricia Ann McNair’s new collection, Responsible Adults. It is hard in ways inherited, and hard in ways self-inflicted, and hard in ways merely unlucky. But what’s telling about these uncommonly good stories is that that difficulty is assumed,…

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By Donald G. Evans Every year of every life takes on its own texture. Even in the most routine of years, there is crazy. Even in the most crazy of years, there is routine. Sometimes, our meticulous plans just don’t work out at all; other times, our half-baked ideas come to fruition. We try to…

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by Ana Carolina Jorge   According to the Lake Geneva Visitor Center, other than the requirement to wear masks, it is basically business as usual around town. That’s great news for those of us tempted to bid on the Lake Geneva Getaway that will be auctioned off live at the Chicago Literary…

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by Donald G. Evans On Thursday, Dec. 10 of this year, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will host a virtual auction—our only major fundraiser of 2020. It is, at once, a tried-and-true little road trip, and a drive into completely unknown terrain. Since 2010, our first year, CLHOF has hosted…

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