A staged reading of CLHOF founder Don Evans's story "Bah!" will be featured at the Nineteenth Century Club's regular Monday enrichment series. "Bah!" is one of 12 stories in his short story collection, An Off-Whte Christmas, which was just released as an audio and e-book. Kevin Theis, Savanna Rae, and Bryan Wakefield, all affilated with the Oak Park Festival Theatre, provided voice to the story on audio and will peform at the luncheon. Reservations are required for the lunch, which precedes the performance. Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, as a co-sponsoring nonprofit organization, is able to offer our audience the member rate of $20 (as compared to the non-member rate of $25) that includes social time (starting at 11:30 a.m.), lunch (noon), program (1 p.m.) and tea (2:15 p.m.). 

Reservations should be made before Dec. 10. Two options for making making reservations: 1. call the 19th Century Club directly (708.386.2729) and let them know you are taking advantage of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame's $20 membership rate, 2. email CLHOF or call (773.414.2603) and we'll add you to our list of attendees. For those who can't make the luncheon, there is a suggested program donation of $15. Books will be available for sale.

A party to show our gratitude for all the support we've received throughout the year, from volunteers, to partners, to board members, to authors and scholars. There will be food, drink, and a plenty of conversation. At the party, we'll recap our 2019 accomplishments and unveil our 2020 calendar.

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will induct its newest class of three writers on Thursday, Oct. 24 at Cliff-Dwellers, this event will be held at Cliff Dwellers. Though this is a private club, the event is open to the public. Reservations are required. Cost of dinner is $35; to reserve a seat for the program only costs $10. There is a cash bar beginning at 4:30 p.m.; dinner is served at 6:15 p.m.; the ceremony starts promptly at 7:15 p.m. Reservations can also be made by phone at 312-922-8080.

The new class inclues three of our finest historical authors: Frank Marshall Davis, Sam Greenlee, and Salima Rivera. Program presenters will be announced shortly.

After seven classes of six writers, CLHOF reduced its class size to three last year, partly in order to ensure the highest standards for selection and in part to allow more detailed commentary on each writer at the ceremony. All 45 CLHOF inductees were selected after a rigorous process that relied on the expertise and passion of the finest minds in our literary community. Nominators and selectors include a range of scholars, authors, artists, and others known for their close and relentless interest in Chicago literature. This year's class will bring the total number of inductees to 48.

Sterling Plumpp will receive the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s Fuller Award for lifetime achievement at a ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 19 at the Poetry Foundation. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is highly recommended.

On hand to pay tribute will be a distinguished lineup of speakers and performers, including Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tyehimba Jess, Ronne Hartfield, Duriel E. Harris, Abdul Alkalimat, Reginald Gibbons, Ginger Mance, and Billy Branch. During Sterling’s long and distinguished poetry career, he has written about African American ancestry, racism, economic oppression, the blues, and a myriad of other subjects reflecting an aesthetic steeped in a dignified advocacy for social justice. Though born in Mississippi, Sterling came to Chicago in 1962, and his experiences as a student, postal worker, and draftee have informed his art. Among his many awards, Sterling has won several Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards, the American Book Award, and the Carl Sandburg Literary Award for Poetry from the Friends of the Chicago Public Library.

Publisher’s Weekly, in reviewing Johannesburg & Other Poems, said that Sterling was “a poet who looks with his ears.” Indeed, Sterling has infused jazz and blues rhythms throughout his work, and has said, “I’m directly influenced by blues performers and not record performance. You know, I spent fifty years of my life witnessing blues singers, and that’s what I’m trying to capture.”

In addition to his poetry work, Sterling has edited several anthologies, and served as editor for the Third World Press and the Institute for Positive Education. He has also served as an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle since the 1970s. 

A reception will follow the ceremony. To ensure your place at the ceremony and reception, please register soon. Chicago Literary Hall of Fame only inducts historical writers into the Hall of Fame, and so the Fuller was created as a way to acknowledge our greatest living Chicago writers. Gene Wolfe (2012), Harry Mark Petrakis (2014), Haki Madhubuti (2015), Rosellen Brown (2016), Angela Jackson (2018), Stuart Dybek (2018) and Sara Paretsky (spring, 2019) have all previously been honored.

The author of Chicago: City on the Make and The Man with the Golden Arm spent much of his life near the Polish Triangle, and both he and his characters bopped about the Wicker Park and Bucktown neighborhoods for many decades. On this walking tour, we’ll visit the places that figured prominently in Algren’s life and work, and investigate settings related to his fiction and fictional characters. Guide Salli Berg Seeley will also touch upon other literary associations in the area, including the Russian Baths featured in Saul Bellow’s Humboldt's Gift, connections to the Haymarket Event, a brief history of Charles G. Wicker, information about Chopin Theater and Young Chicago authors, and more.

Maximum Registration: 10
Cost: $20 per person
 

For more information, call (773.414.2603) or email Don Evans. To register, go to the Eventbrite page.

Groups (8 or more walking tour: 40 or more bus tour) can arrange a date and time for any of the available tours.

Almost right from that moment--the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month--when the shooting stopped, American writers set out to capture the essence of their experiences with that war and that peace. War and peace, along with love and death, constitute the most enduring and important topics of literary exploration, here and across the globe. How American writers have grappled with such profound and disturbing themes speaks much to our national consciousness, and also the diversity of our experiences. War and peace manifest themselves differently to different people. On the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, an extraordinary blend of literary artists will share their stories (as well as the stories of others throughout literary history). Readers include Haki Madhubuti, Nina Corwin, Reginald Gibbons, Chris Green, and contributors to his anthology I Remember: Chicago Veterans of War, and Gerald Brennan, among others. This event is free and open to the public, and is co-sponsored by American Writers Museum and Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. Admission to the museum entitles guests to attend the reading.

Stuart Dybek, considered among the best short story writers of his generation and also acclaimed for his poetry, will be honored with a Fuller Award for lifetime achievement at the Poetry Foundation on Tuesday, Oct. 30, from 7--9:30 p.m. Dybek grew up in Chicago’s Little Village and has written extensively about Chicago, particularly in his brilliant short story collections A Childhood and Other Neighborhoods, The Coast of Chicago, Paper Lantern: Love Stories, and Ecstatic Cahoots: Fifty Short Stories. His novel-in-stories, I Sailed with Magellan, as well as his two poetry collections, Brass Knuckles and Streets in their Own Ink, also explore the city. Dybek’s many literary awards include MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, a Pen/Malamud Award, and a Lannan Prize. He has been Northwestern University’s Distinguished Writer in Residence for the past decade. Speakers from throughout the literary community will pay tribute to Dybek, including Bill Savage, Henry Bienen, Donna Seaman, Mark Turcotte, Alex Kotlowitz, Malcolm O’Hagan, Rachel Jamison Webster, Reginald Gibbons, Mary Dempsey, Dennis Zacek, and Scott Turow. A reception will follow the program. Free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 and it’s advisable to arrive early.

It's the twentieth anniversary of Don De Grazia's American Skin, and the novel is at least as relevant today as when it first came out. The story of teenager Alex Verdi's move from a downstate farmhouse to the big city harkens back to great Chicago realists like Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, and Floyd Dell. The gritty 80s landscape has, to some extent, left Nelson Algren's Neon Wilderness behind, but in other ways it's updated the clouds in this seemingly glorious skyline. Alex's struggle to find himself, notably in a community of skinheads, leads to a brilliant, inspiring exploration of race, wealth, family, work, and success. We're honored to have Don be our special guest at this month's installment of the Great Chicago Books Club, which raises funds for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame's (mostly free) programming throughout the year. The first half of the evening is a cocktail party; the second half is a discussion with Don about his novel and career. The event will be held at a private home in Lincoln Park--we'll give you the address when you register for the event. Cost is $40, and includes appetizers and drinks. Registration is limited to 15 people, and can be done simply by emailing or calling Don Evans (773.414.2603).

On Sept. 15, 2018, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will host a fundraiser in the fabulous penthouse party room of the 1700 Building. All proceeds from the evening will go to fund programming throughout the year, including our end-of-the-year induction ceremony and our next Fuller Award for lifetime achievement. 

The main activities for the evening are Trivia and our Silent Auction, but it is also an evening of food, drink, music, conversation, and a spectacular lake view

Teams of five to seven players will compete for prizes and boasting rights. The cost is $30 per person and includes drink and food. Gather your friends to form your own team, or sign up as an individual and we’ll place you with other singles. 

Due to space limitations, reservations are limited to 10 teams or 70 total players. Please reserve your tickets for a fun evening that will help the CLHOF continue doing its best to serve our literary community. 

There will be a good dose of Chicago and literary themed trivia questions, along with more general knowledge questions in a variety of categories.

Silent auction items will include original artwork, collectible books, theme baskets (such as At the Movies, Play Ball, and Sweet Tooth), tickets for cultural events around town, special experiential packages, and much more. Time will be built into the Trivia contest—before, after, and between rounds—in order for people to bid on items. There will be a half hour at the completion of trivia for guests to make final bids. We accept cash, credit cards and checks. 

Thanks for your participation and see you on Sept. 15! Please email Don Evans if you'd like to make a donation to the silent auction. 

GCBC Hosts Scott Turow for Fundraising Dinner and Discussion

Great Chicago Books Club will feature Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent on Sunday, Aug. 26 in Evanston. This event will help raise funds for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s continued programming throughout the course of this year, including our upcoming Fuller Award for lifetime achievement and our annual induction ceremony.

The author will join guests for a cocktail hour, dinner, and then discussion, in a lovely Queen Anne Victorian home built in 1890 by the well-known Chicago architectural firm Holabird and Roche. The current owners gut renovated the house in 2006 to bring back many of its original features, such as a Juliet balcony, leaded-glass windows, and a second-floor library. The original owner, Edwin Dawson, worked for the Pennsylvania railroad system, and when he retired in 1915 he was given a five-chime Westminster grandfather clock.  After an 80-year absence, the clock once again resides in this warm, welcoming home. 

Turow’s Presumed Innocent was his first novel, and its enormous success, both critically and commercially, launched the lawyer-author into the highest echelons of our nation’s literary elite.  The New York Times’ Adam Liptak, in a Sunday review of Identical, calls Turow’s Kindle County a “shadow version of greater Chicago, which he has been building and populating since he all but created the modern legal thriller in 1987 with Presumed Innocent.”

Turow is the author of 11 best-selling novels, including Presumed Innocent (1987) and The Burden of Proof (1990).  He has also written two non-fiction books—One L (1977) about his experience as a law student, and Ultimate Punishment (2003), a reflection on the death penalty. He has frequently contributed essays and op-ed pieces to publications such as The New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Playboy and The Atlantic.  Turow’s books have won a number of literary awards, including the Heartland Prize in 2003 for Reversible Errors, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award in 2004 for Ultimate Punishment, and the Carl Sandburg Award in 2016.  His books have been translated into more than 25 languages and have sold more than 30 million copies world-wide. His novels have been translated into a number of films, including the movie, Presumed Innocent (1990), as well as two TV mini-series (Burden of Proof, 1992 and Reversible Errors, 2004) and a TV movie, Innocent (2011).  More recently, he has written three pilot scripts for TV. Turow continues to work as an attorney. He has been a partner in the Chicago office of Dentons (formerly Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal), an international law firm, since 1986, concentrating on white collar criminal defense, while also devoting a substantial part of his time to pro bono matters.  In one such case, he represented Alejandro Hernandez in the successful appeal that preceded Hernandez’s release after nearly twelve years in prison – including five on death row – for a murder he did not commit.

Registration, which is $200, is extremely limited. All of the seats will be sold in a matter of days, so if you want to participate in this fantastic event email Don Evans right away.