Past Events

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame hosts author Alex Kotlowitz in a stunning, 1913 Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Oak Park home. We will discuss Alex’s classic true account of two brothers growing up in the Henry Horner Homes, There Are No Children Here. The book is widely acclaimed as one of the best narrative non-fiction books of the 20th century, and Alex generally considered among our country’s elite literary writers. A cocktail hour and dinner will precede our conversation with Alex about his 1991 Chicago classic. Extremely limited availability. Reservations required: $200 contact Don Evans with inquiries or to…

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The Great Chicago Books Club begins the 2018 schedule with Saul Bellow's Humboldt's Gift, which won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 1976, the same year the author received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The novel's narrator, Charles Citrine, a commercially successful writer, explores his relationship with mentor Von Humboldt Fleischer, a poet's poet who died a failure. The novel touches on a wide variety of themes and follows as many intellectural strains. It is set in Chicago, and Bellow penetrates the city with searing analysis and astute observations. He scatters throughout the narrative lines like, "We sat with whiskey,…

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Celebrate the 50th Anniversary:

Thornton Wilder's The Eighth Day

Thornton Wilder (Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, Class of 2013) persists as one of the great American playwrights of the 20th century. Our Town is so universally known and revered that it tends to overshadow Wilder's other accomplishments, which were many and varied. The Eighth Day is high on that list of accomplishments. This novel, revolving around a murder in southern Illinois and partially set in Chicago, won the National Book Award in 1968. A new edition is being released, which is occasion enough to discover or rediscover this literary masterpiece.

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Richard Reeder, Amy Danzer, Lisa Wagner and Valya Dudycz Lupescu will be among the presenters as the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame inducts Margaret Ayer Barnes into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame on Oct. 5 at Volumes Bookcafe. The ceremony starts at 7 p.m. and ends a little after eight. Chicago born and bred, Barnes (April 8, 1886 – October 25, 1967) was a novelist, short story writer and playwright. She began her writing career in earnest after a debilitating car accident at age forty in 1926. Two of her plays, Age of Innocence (adapted…

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Fenton Johnson (May 7, 1888-September 17, 1958) will be inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Sept. 14 at the Poetry Foundation. The ceremony, which features a lineup including Alexander Jacobs, Richard Guzman, Vida Cross, and Rebirth Poetry Ensemble, begins at seven p.m. Michele Jolivette, Johnson’s great grand niece, will accept the statue.

Johnson began writing as a Chicago public school student, as early as the age of nine, and before his career had ended would establish himself as an important and innovative voice in literature, particularly for his poetry. Johnson was born in Chicago, the son of a…

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Newspaper comics started as a hook to attract readers—a quick laugh on the way to becoming fish or gift wrap, something to catch the coffee grinds. But over the past century, the throw-away funnies have evolved into a major art form. Chicago has been at the center of the movement. When Claire Briggs created A. Piker Clerk for the Chicago American in 1903, Chicago planted its flag as a pioneer in comic arts. Since then, comic artists have created an uninterrupted chain of memorable and important characters, and in so doing transformed comics into a form that deftly explores…

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At the Typewriter

Ebert Joins Chicago's Finest Authors

When I write, I fall into the zone many writers, painters, musicians, athletes, and craftsmen of all sorts seem to share: In doing something I enjoy and am expert at, deliberate thought falls aside and it is all just THERE. I think of the next word no more than the composer thinks of the next note. from Life Itself

Beloved film critic Roger Ebert will be inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame on Aug. 19 at the American Writers Museum (180 N.…

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Eugene Field will be inducted into the seventh class of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame on Wednesday, June 21, at the Poetry Foundation (61 W. Superior St., Chicago). The induction ceremony begins at 7 p.m.; doors open at 6:30 p.m. Paul Durica, Laurie Lawlor, Thomas Joyce and June Sawyers will speak about the Field’s contributions to American letters, in particular his significance here in Chicago. Student poets, including Oak Park-River Forest’s Jeanese Shanks and Hands On Stanzas' Ireland Costello and Norah Ludwig (both from Skinner West Elementary), will dramatize some of Field’s better…

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Bus Tour (SOLD OUT), Exhibition, Reception, and Discussion

Gwendolyn Brooks was raised and educated on the South Side, taught at several local colleges, and set much of her poetry in the city. With the publication of A Street in Bronzeville in 1945, Brooks won a Guggenheim Fellowship, became one of Mademoiselle’s “Ten Young Women of the Year,” and generally triggered an avalanche of praise that would continue unabated until her death. With Annie Allen, in 1950, Brooks became the first African-American to capture a Pulitzer Prize; she was poet laureate of Illinois and the United States; she was named National…

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The Printers Row Lit Fest is this weekend, all day Saturday and Sunday, June 10 & 11. The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will be around all weekend, at our table under the Poetry Foundation tent. Stop by. Printers Row Lit Fest is considered the largest free outdoor literary event in the Midwest-drawing more than 125,000 book lovers to the two-day showcase. Now in its 32nd year, the festival includes non-stop programming and a wide variety of vendors, taking up five city blocks (South Dearborn Street from Harrison to Polk, Harold Washington Library Center and Jones College Prep…

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