Past Events

Fenton Johnson Induction Ceremony at Poetry Foundation, Sept. 14

Thursday, September 14, 2017
7 P.M.

The Poetry Foundation

61 W. Superior St.

Chicago, IL 60654

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…

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Punch Line: The Evolution of Chicago Comics into an Art Form

Tuesday, September 5, 2017
5:30 to 7 p.m.

Chicago Literacy Alliance
641 W. Lake Street, Suite #200, Chicago, IL

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…

At the Typewriter: Roger Ebert Induction Ceremony at AWM

Saturday, August 19, 2017
6-9 p.m.

American Writers Museum, 180 N. Michigan Ave., 2nd Floor

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…

Eugene Field Induction Ceremony at Poetry Foundation

Wednesday, June 21, 2017
7 p.m.

Poetry Foundation
61 W. Superior St.
Chicago, IL

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…

Books are meat and medicine and flame and flight...

Gwendolyn Brooks: A Life in Bronzeville

Saturday, June 17, 2017
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at University of Chicago
915 E. 60th Street, Chicago

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…

Printer’s Row Lit Fest

Saturday, June 10, 2017
June 10 through 11, 2017

Printers Row

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…

Fanny Butcher to be Inducted into CLHOF

Thursday, May 11, 2017
5 to 7:30 p.m.

Ruggles Hall at Newberry Library
60 W. Walton Street, Chicago

Longtime Tribune Literary Critic Fanny Butcher to Be Inducted into CLHOF Fanny Butcher: (September 13, 1888 – May 1987), for four decades a writer and critic for the Chicago Tribune, will be inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame on May 11, 2017 at Newberry Library’s Ruggles Hall. Liesl Olson will give the keynote presentation,…

Cyrus Colter Trilogy: A Staged Reading

Monday, May 8, 2017
7 to 8:30 p.m.

Evanston Public Library
1703 Orrington Ave., Evanston

Cyrus Colter's Short Stories Come to the Stage Director Tim Rhoze and author Sandra Seaton bring to life the frustrations and triumphs of 1960s Black life on Chicago’s South Side, in a powerful adaptation of Cyrus Colter’s prize-winning short stories. The trilogy begins with A Chance Meeting, a two-person play about an…

The Lost Journalism of Ring Lardner book cover

Ring Lardner Luncheon at Cliff Dwellers

Thursday, May 4, 2017
Noon to 1:30 p.m.

Cliff Dwellers
200 S. Michigan Ave., Penthouse, Chicago

Ron Rapoport, longtime sportswriter and author, will be the honored guest at a special Cliff Dwellers luncheon on May 4. Ron is in town from Los Angeles to give keynote remarks at Ring Lardner’s induction into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame later that evening at Newberry Library, and also to promote his new book, Ring…

Ring Lardner to Gain Induction to the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame

Thursday, May 4, 2017
5 to 7:30 p.m.

Newberry Library's Ruggles Hall
60 W. Walton Street, Chicago

Ring Lardner (March 6, 1885-Sept. 25, 1933) will be inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame on May 4, 2017 at Newberry Library's Ruggles Hall. Ron Rapoport, veteran sports journalist and editor of a the newly-released The Lost Journalism of Ring Lardner, will give the keynote address, and James Lardner (The Nation) will accept…