By Donald G. Evans When you hear the phrase, “How the sausage is made,” it’s usually in the vicinity of another phrase: “You don’t want to know.” The insinuation is that it’s messy, unsanitary, and the organs that get ground together would appall us. With…

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By Donald G. Evans Literary prizes mean something only when they come from a place of absolute integrity. The Pulitzer Prize started to mean something 70 years ago today when Gwendolyn Brooks became the first Black author to capture the prize. This was 1950 and the collection was Annie Allen. It…

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By Donald G. Evans It’s HARD to make a living selling books. The behemoth companies like Amazon do what they do based on volume, millions and millions and millions of little profits that add up to a lot. It’s a nameless, faceless, bottom-line approach that results, for us, in cheaper…

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by Anne Calcagno Herman “Hache” (H.G.) Carrillo lived and worked throughout the eighties and nineties in Chicago.  His multiply-awarded, thematically ambitious and linguistically inventive novel Loosing My Espanish, published in 2004 (Pantheon Books), is pinioned in a Chicago…

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by Donald G. Evans The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s 2019 class is now official, and Gene Wolfe, Frank London Brown, Carlos Cortez, and Jeannette Howard Foster have been selected to join the ranks of our city’s finest writers. This will be the 10th CLHOF class. The induction ceremony…

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By Allison Manley   The Chicago literary community thrives on its independent bookstores. At independent bookstores, you can attend readings and events featuring Chicago authors as well as authors from around the world. You can meet other book lovers and make lifelong friends. You can discover…

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By Donald G. Evans   Chicago’s literary community stands as one of the most productive and supportive in the entire world, and they prove it each and every day, including and maybe most importantly during times of crisis. Here is quick rundown of a few initiatives I’ve stumbled…

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Scholars, Artists and Family to be Present What: CLHOF's 5th Annual Induction Ceremony When: Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014, 7–9 p.m. Where: Roosevelt University's Ganz Hall, 430 S. Michigan Ave., 7th Floor How: Register to Ensure Your Seating PROGRAM Rick Kogan — Opening Remarks Herbert…

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The official list is now complete: a total of 42 authors, including 12 first-timers, will be considered for induction later this year. Top candidates for the Class of 2014 include Edgar Lee Masters, Shel  Shel Silverstein Silverstein and David Hernandez, all of whom were named on three separate…

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