Past Events

Our new Chicago Literary Hall of Fame class of Hamlin Garland, Eunice Tietjens, and E. Donald-Two Rivers was inducted at a ceremony featuring a lineup that included William J. Bowe, Melissa Bradshaw, Naomi Athena, Carlos Cumpián, Arica Hilton, Jesse Raber, and Dorene Wiese. Two-Rivers’s daughter, Annabelle Broeffle, Garland’s great grandson, Christopher Harper, and the Poetry Foundation were on hand to accept the CLHOF statues. Richard Guzman emceed the ceremony. A reception in the CHM's Guild Gallery followed the ceremony. The event was free and open to the public. The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame presented these statues alongside our partners, which included American Writers Museum, Chicago History Museum, Cliff Dwellers, Fastener Superstore, Inc., Glencoe Study Center, Greater Reach Consulting, Guild Literary Complex, Hamlin Garland Society, Hilton Contemporary, Mitchell County (IA) Historical Society, and Stories Matter Foundation.

Hamlin Garland (September 14, 1860–March 4, 1940) wrote nearly 50 books in his decorated literary career, distinguishing himself in a wide range of formats and a broad array of topics. His literature demanded more humane treatment of the American Indian, portrayed the Midwest farmer with nunance and compassion, expressed forward-thinking views about the role of women, and explored various psychic phenomenon. He was an early practioner in realism, but also at the forefront of frontier or Western genre fiction. He won the 1922 Pulitzer Prize in Biography for A Daughter of the Middle Border, then produced two more volumes of his family history:Trail-Makers of the Middle Border (1926) and Back-Trailers from the Middle Border (1928). Though born in West Salem, Wisconsin, Garland arrived in Chicago in 1893, after a succession of homesteads in Iowa and South Dakota and an aborted effort to make a literary career in Boston. Garland was 33 years old when he embarked in Chicago, just two years after his story collection, Main-Travelled Roads, made a splash as a literary and commercial success. In Chicago, even as he prolifically added to his literary ouevre and lectured widely on literary topics, Garland distinguished himself as a community builder. He was briefly associated with The Litttle Room, members of whom gathered in the Auditorium Hotel and the Fine Arts Building for afternoon teas and late-night theatrical productions. He helped found The Attic Club, which eventually morphed into The Cliff Dwellers Club. He was a founding member of Eagle’s Nest Art Colony in Salem, Illinois. In 1895 he published Rose of Dutcher’s Coolly, partially set in Chicago and perhaps his finest novel. He published more than two dozen books while living in Chicago, a tenure that ended in 1915 when he moved to New York City to be closer to the publishing industry. He moved to Hollywood, California in 1929.

Eunice Tietjens (July 29, 1884–September 6, 1944) was a major figure in the Chicago Literary Renaissance of the 1920s and 30s, as an editor, journalist, poet, playwright, novelist and conduit between writers at home and around the world. Tietjens published four collections of poetry—Profiles of China: Sketches in Free Verse of People and Things Seen in the Interior (1917), Body and Raiment (1919), Leaves in Windy Weather (1929), and China (1930). Her children’s books included Boy of the South Seas (1931). She also published translations from French and Spanish, plays, the novel Jake (1921), and the memoir The World at My Shoulder (1938). She edited the anthology Poetry of the Orient: An Anthology of the Classic Secular Poetry of the Major Eastern Nations (1928). Her work is featured in the anthology The Home Book of Modern Verse (1963). The daughter of an artist trained in Europe, Tietjens was educated in European schools and traveled extensively throughout her life. At various times, Tietjens lived in Japan, China, Italy, Tunisia, and on the South Pacific island of Moorea. During World War I, she worked as the Chicago Daily News correspondent in France. She served as an associate editor for Poetry Magazine for 25 years under editor-in-chief Harriet Monroe, beginning in the early years of its existence. She was instrumental in helping to shape the magazine’s aesthetic and propelling it to a status as the most important poetry publication in the United States.

E. Donald Two-Rivers (June 29, 1945–December 27, 2008), was an Anishanobae from the Ojibwa tribe of northwestern Ontario. Brought up first on the reservation and then in the Native community in Chicago, Two-Rivers emerged as a powerful voice of Chicago poetry and drama, and perhaps especially as a spoken word performer. He won a 1999 American Book Award for his collection of short stories, Survivor’s Medicine. For several years in the early 1990s, Two-Rivers wrote a weekly column called “Life in Albany Park” for a North Side newspaper chain. He has also authored numerous plays, including those collected in Briefcase Warriors: Stories for the Stage (2001). His poems have appeared widely in literary magazines and anthologies. Two-Rivers was awarded the Iron Eyes Cody Award for Peace in 1992, an acknowledgement of his activism for Native rights that began in the 1970s. Two-Rivers was a strong supporter of programs that worked toward the independence of disadvantaged Native peoples. He criticized Euro-American directors and actors as lacking the sensitivity, as non-Natives, to perform Native American plays. Two-Rivers was the founding Artistic Director of the Chicago-based Red Path Theater Company. In 2007, he returned to Chicago, to work on his last book In the Spirit of the Coyote. In 2009, a mosaic inspired by his poem "Indian Land Dancing" was dedicated in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.

View the 2024 Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Program

A nice crowd celebrated a brand new season of baseball and the betting that attends it at the second annual Opening Day themefest last Friday night, March 29, upstairs at Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro. This free themefest featured live music and spoken word presentations on the themes of baseball and betting, along with comic relief and a raffle of prizes. Peanuts and Cracker Jacks were on the house. 

Join literary organizations from around the city to discuss what it means to build literary community in Chicago. Panelists include DL Moore (Semicolon Bookstore), Carey Cranston (American Writers Museum, Chris Aldana (Luya Poetry), and Mike Zapata (MAKE Literary Productions). Audrey Niffenegger (Artists Book House) will moderate the conversation. 

Meet representatives from:

826CHI | American Writers Museum | Big Shoulders Books | Chicago Literary Hall of Fame | Guild Literary Complex | Luya Poetry | MAKE Literary Magazine | Off Campus Writers Workshop | Printers Row Lit Fest |Ragdale Foundation | RHINO Poetry | Northwestern MFA in Prose & Poetry| Northwestern Summer Writers Conference | Northwestern University Press | Semicolon Bookstore...and more.

Colvin House is located in Edgewater. Red line to Thorndale | Buses 201, 206. Limited free parking available in the Swift School lot. Pull into the Colvin House entrance on Thorndale to receive a pass (first come, first served). Free street parking is findable for the perseverant.

Suggested Donation: $15

Chicago writer, educator, and abolitionist Diego Báez will launch his debut poetry collection, Yaguareté White, with a reading that includes fellow poets Jacob Saenz and Pablo E. Ramirez. In Yaguareté White (University of Arizona Press), English, Spanish, and Guaraní encounter each other with humor and insight through the elusive yet potent figure of the jaguar.

Báez was a finalist for The Georgia Poetry Prize and a semi-finalist for the Berkshire Prize for Poetry. A recipient of fellowships from CantoMundo, the Surge Institute, the Poetry Foundation Incubator for Community-Engaged Poets, and DreamYard’s Rad(ical) Poetry Consortium, Diego has served on the boards of the National Book Critics Circle, the International David Foster Wallace Society, and Families Together Cooperative Nursery School. His poems have previously appeared or are forthcoming in Freeman's, Poetry Northwest, and Latino Poetry: A New Anthology. Essays and other non-fiction have been published in The Georgia Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Los Angeles Review of Books. Diego teaches poetry, English composition, and first-year seminars at the City Colleges, where he is an Assistant Professor of Multidisciplinary Studies.

Jacob was born in Chicago and raised in Cicero, Illinois. He earned a BA in creative writing from Columbia College in Chicago. His first collection of poetry, Throwing the Crown (Copper Canyon Press, 2018), was awarded the 2018 American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize. He has been an editor at Columbia Poetry Review and an associate editor at RHINO. He works as an acquisitions assistant at the Columbia College library and has read his poetry at a number of Chicago venues. A CantoMundo fellow, Jacob has also been the recipient of a Letras Latinas Residency Fellowship and a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship.

Pablo shares his poetic exploration of 21st century Chicago's ethnic and working-class heritage neighborhood of Pilsen. Pocho Love: Pilsen Heart Beats To Chicago Streets is soaked in colorful imagery forming a powerful collage of tattoo, wall murals, pop culture and Chicano graphics. This debut collection is written in English and some Spanish.In addition to being a visual artist and poet, Pablo is an activist and curator for cultural events in the Pilsen community. 

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame is an official partner in this exciting event. The reading is free and open to the public. Guests will have an opportunity to read their own poems in a short open mic reading at the conclusion of the featured program. 

Rana Segal has been filming Chicago Literary Hall of Fame events for nearly a decade, and in that time her substantial body of work has increased steadily. Her latest project is a documentary called Light of Truth: Richard Hunt's Monument for Ida B. Wells. The film weaves together the stories of Richard Hunt’s life, his fabrication of the Light of Truth monument, and Ida B. Wells’ heroic fight for justice, as told by her great-granddaughter, Michelle Duster. On Tuesday, Feb. 27, Dominican University hosted a screening of Rana's 60-minute documentary, as well as a panel presentation with Rana, Michelle, and filmmaker Laurie Little. This program was free and open to the public. The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame was a sponsoring partner in this event. Wells was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame as part of its second class, in 2011. Hunt, the highly celebrated sculptor who died last December 16 at the age of 88, presented Leon Forrest’s induction into the CLHOF, in 2013. Duster serves on CLHOF’s Advisory Council.

Event recording.

For the fourth straight year, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame hosted a literary cocktail party. This year the fabulous Colvin House welcomed about 60 guests for The Great Gimlet. Proceeds helped CLHOF fund upcoming programs, such as our induction ceremony and two Fuller Award ceremonies. Mixologist Ryan Prindle made drinks based on Chicago's connection to The Great Gatsby. Scholar Michelle Moore told us how Chicago socialite Ginevra King became the model for F. Scott Fitzgerald's character, Daisy Buchanan. Rita Dragonette helped host; Mike Burke and Robert Charles again served as our impressarios; Robert also performed an incredible magic trick.

Some guests dressed in their finest Jazz Age attire. Colvin House provided delicious appetizers and desserts throughout the evening. We played period jazz and blues songs with connections to Chicago.

Built in 1909, Colvin House was designated as a Chicago landmark in 1994. The house was built in the Prairie Style, by architect George Maher, then the house interior was mostly renovated in the 1920s.

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will again host its end-of-the-year Fundraiser Party on Saturday, December 2, from 1:30-3:30 p.m., at Roscoe Village’s Beat Kitchen, “home to every genre of music, hosting some of the biggest names in live music & comedy.” Registration is NOW OPEN. 

The Fundraiser Party is a perfect opportunity to celebrate the season while supporting an organization that organizes events and programming to honor, preserve, and celebrate Chicago's great literary heritage, as well as to help foster new voices.

There will be light appetizers, a cash bar, lots of mingling and throughout the afternoon, as well as many chances to win prizes. The event will culminate with a LIVE AUCTION. There is a $20 admission fee. 

Leading up to the event, the CLHOF will host an ONLINE SILENT AUCTION. Bidding on the silent auction will go through the end of The Beat Kitchen Party. Get your bids in NOW!

We will close registration for the party when we hit the The Beat Kitchen's capacity. Register now. 

Scott Turow, the acclaimed author of 15 books, received CLHOF's highest honor for living writers, the Fuller Award. The ceremony took place at the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, and was a signature event in the Chicago Public Library's 150th Anniversary Celebration. A reception at the Plymouth Restaurant & Rooftop Bar followed the ceremony. The event was free and open to the public. 

The Chicago born and bred bestselling author rocketed onto the literary scene with his debut novel, the New York Times #1 Best Seller Presumed Innocent (1986) and has sustained his early, volcanic success these past 37 years, up to and including Suspect (2022). Presumed Innocent is the first in a series of twelve novels set in fictional Kindle County, which bears resemblance to Cook County. In addition he has written two nonfiction books, including One L about his experiences at Harvard Law School. One L remains a "must-read" for law students. His books have been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, and have been adapted into movies and television projects. He has frequently contributed essays and op-ed pieces to publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. He also edited the two-volume Guilty As Charged: A Mystery Writers of America Anthology (1996, 1997), which was reissued as a single volume in 2017.  

Turow was born in Chicago in 1949 and attended New Trier High School. He graduated with honors from Amherst College and received an Edith Mirrielees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center. He earned his law degree (J.D.) with honors from Harvard University in 1978. While serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago he prosecuted several high profile cases including as lead counsel in Operation Greylord, the investigation into judicial corruption in Cook County. He continues to practice law, focusing on white collar criminal litigation, and resides in the Chicago area. 

Bill Kurtis and Donna LaPietra emceed an event that included comments and readings by Aaron Freeman, Cornelia Grumman, Richard Guzman, Jane Hamilton, and Christie Hefner. Elizabeth Taylor led a conversation with Scott after he accepted the award. Partners for the evening included CPL, the Poetry Foundation, the Authors Guild, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc, Dentons, Smith Gambrell Russell, Clifford Law Offices, Chicago Writers Association, Grand Central Publishing, Eli's Cheesecake and the American Writers Museum. 

Printers Row Lit Fest returns for its 38th year. The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will again be active throughout the weekend under our tent and as part of the programming. More details to come.

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame survives and thrives because of our wonderful army of supporters, including volunteers, board members, associate board members, our advisory council, and donors. Throughout the year, speakers and writers and educators and administrators lend their time to our various programs. Our regular independent contractors, such as printers and designers, go above and beyond the call of duty. We are only here because of the enormous generosity and talent of these people. Least we could do was throw them a party. We gathered in an Oak Park backyard in a few gracious hours between one rainstorm and another. Other than a light drizzle and lots of clouds, it was a fine summer day. We ate, drank, and listened to Anne-Marie Akin's superb music, including her original, "What Do You Do with a Drunken Writer?" and a duet with Ugochi Nwaogwugwu of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds."