Past Events

For more than a century, the Cliff Dwellers Club has promoted and celebrated fine arts in Chicago. It's fitting that the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame partnered with the Cliff Dwellers to put on a special celebration in honor of Poetry Month. Several contributors to Wherever I'm At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry, including Naoko Fujimoto, Elise Paschen and Kathleen Rooney read poems and discussed their art. In addition, the Club mounted a modest exhibit of Wherever I’m At visual artists that included works by Mary Livoni and Chuck Walker.

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame celebrated the arrival of a new baseball season and spring with Opening Day, a festive themefest of song, story, poetry, and comedy at Mrs. Murphy & Sons on Friday, March 31 at 7:30 p.m.   

This themefest included performances of songs like Go, Cubs, Go, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and Centerfield; baseball readings of poetry and prose; and a live auction of Cub tickets, copies of the anthology, Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year autographed by various combinations of players and authors; and other baseball souvenirs, maybe even a vintage bobblehead or two.     

Free peanuts and Crackerjacks, were passed out to all attendees. 

Hosted by J.B. Pariah. Special guests included Donald G. Evans, Salli Berg Seeley, Dave Kossy, James Finn Garner, Michele Morano, Dave Cihla, and McKenna Liesman.

Harriette Gillem Robinet, the acclaimed author of 11 historical novels for young adults, received the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame's Fuller Award at a ceremony on Tuesday, March 14. The ceremony took place at Dominican University's Blake Recital Hall; a reception with appetizers and drinks followed. Speakers included Linda Robinet, Nora Brooks Blakely, Athena Williams, Frank Lipo, Glennette Tilley Turner, and Tsehaye Geralyn Hébert. In addition, Timothy Rey and several Beye Elementary School students read two very short stage adaptations based on the author's work. The event was free and open to the public.

Robinet was the 14th recipient of CLHOF's highest honor for living writers. Over the past three decades, she earned recognition from such prestigious organizations as the Friends of American Writers and Midland Authors. She won a Carl Sandburg Award and a Scott O'Dell Award, and been a finalist for an Edgar Award, a Willam Allen White Award, a Texas Bluebonnet Award, and a Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award. Walking to the Bus-Rider Blues was recognized as Jane Addams Award Honor book in 2001.

Born in Washington D.C., Robinet spent her childhood summers in Arlington, Virginia, where her mother's father had been a slave under General Robert E. Lee. She attended the College of New Rochelle in New York and received graduate degrees in microbiology from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Robinet has long been a Chicago-area resident; in fact, she and her husband Mac have lived in the same Oak Park house since 1965. The couple, newlyweds, then, were among the first integrators to Oak Park. As part of the movement to expose the real estate industry’s racially-motivated practices, the Robinets joined the North Shore Project, which documented the unequal treatment of Black couples and white couples. Last year, the Robinet family was honored by the Historical Society of Oak Park-River Forest with its annual Heart of Our Villages Award.

Robinet's novels explore various themes related to social justice, often using historically significant moments as a springboard. Chicago appears as a primary setting in several books, notably Children of the Fire and Missing From Haymarket Square. In addition, Ride the Red Cycle fictionalizes aspects of Gillem's experience as a mother raising a handicapped child.

In addition to the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame and Dominican University, the Oak Park River Forest Museum, Oak Park Regional Housing Center, American Writers Museum, Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, Housing Forward, and The Happy Apple Pie Shop helped present this honor. Contributing partners included River Forest Public Library, Oak Park Public Library, Sisters in Crime Chicagoland, and Mystery Writers of America.

Read our blog interview with Harriette's daughter, Linda Robinet.

For the third straight year, but the first in person, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame hosted an evening that was part cocktail party, part bartending seminar, and part plain old excuse to enjoy pleasant company. Throughout the festivities, we highlighted Chicago literature and its strong association with the drinks we made and consumed. We focused on margaritas this time around.

The $100 registration fee included appetizers and drinks--there were three unique cocktails created--as well as a small pdf cocktail recipe book featuring a smattering of drinks with Chicago literary associations.

Hosts Mike Burke and Robert Charles guided us through the evening; Rita Dragonette hosted.

Mike is a Chicago author (What You Don’t Know About Men) and Robert a Chicago magician (Magic Chicago), and between the two of them they have a magical way with words. If you think you’re in good hands, it might be an illusion. Robert for 12 years produced and starred in “Magic Chicago: The Windy City’s Premiere Showcase for Magic, Mystery and Wonder.” Robert also is a tarot reader. Michael and Robert live on the city’s North Side, in the Edgewater neighborhood. 

Rita is an author and literary salon host. After a career telling the stories of others as an award-winning public relations executive, she returned to her original creative path. The Fourteenth of September, her debut novel, is based upon her personal experiences on campus during the Vietnam War. She lives and writes in the Chicago home she will open up to all of us for this special evening.

Ryan Prindle was our bartender and Professor of Cocktails. He started his professional bartending career at the bottom working for a chain restaurant and learning the basics. After developing his knowledge and technique he has worked and done menu development for Iron Chef Stefanie Izard, Band of Bohemia (1 Michelin star), Billy Sunday (Top 10 acclaimed Amaro bars in the US) and Mordecai (2018 ChicagoEater bar of the year). He says, “It’s easy to make a cocktail but, a perfectly balanced cocktail takes practice and repetition.”

Registration closed at a sold-out plus crowd of nearly 40.

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame hosted its end-of-the-year Fundraiser Party on Saturday, December 3 from 2-4 p.m. at Roscoe Village’s Beat Kitchen, “home to every genre of music, hosting some of the biggest names in live music & comedy.”

The Fundraiser Party was 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 were light appetizers, a cash bar, lots of mingling and throughout the afternoon, there were many chances to win prizes. The event culminated with a LIVE AUCTION hosted by Nelson Algren Award winner for fiction and friend of the CLHOF billy lombardo.

Leading up to the event, the CLHOF hosted an ONLINE SILENT AUCTION.

Thanks to all the organizations whose donations made this such a successful afternoon:105F, After Hours Press, Alla Vita, BMO Harris Bank, Broadway Antique Market, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Writers Association, City Lit Theater Company, Eckartz Press, Escape Artistry, First Folio Theatre, Float Sixty, Greater Reach Consulting, Joffrey Ballet, Kohl Children's Museum, La Scarola, May I Have This Dance, Metro Chicago, Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, Music of the Baroque, Northwestern University Press, Paper Craft Panda, Peterson Picture Company, Roots Pizza, StoryStudio Chicago, Third World Press Foundation & Bookstore, Women & Children First Bookstore.

Special thanks, too, to the writers and artists who donated items to the auction: Randy Albers, Anne Marie-Akin, Barry Benson, Giano Cromley, Steve Fiffer, Rick Kogan, Ananda Lima, billy lombardo, Faisal Mohyuddin, Sara Paretsky, Kathleen Rooney, Dmitry Samarov, Shermann Dilla Thomas, Ruben Quesada, and Toya Wolfe.

CLHOF formally inducted Carol Shields, Ethel Payne, and Ray Bradbury. Presenters included Jason Aukerman, Tammy Gibson, Anne Collins, Paul McComas and Susan Swan. Shields’ niece, Natalie Beglen, as well as Payne’s niece, Sylvia Peters, were among the family members on hand to participate in the ceremony. Partners included the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, the Ray Bradbury Center, the Ray Bradbury Experience Museum, and Greater Reach Consulting. The event was free and open to the public.

Download the program

View the ceremony
 

DePaul University professors feature prominently in Wherever I'm At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry, and they will gather together to showcase their contributions on Thursday, October 27, starting at five p.m. Refreshments will be served. Tara Betts, Chris Solis Green, Richard Jones, Coya Paz, and Mark Turcotte, along with editor Donald G. Evans, will participate in the event. Salli Berg Seeley. who is using the anthology in her current Exploring Chicago class, will lead the procession.

“Afterwards Chicago, Global Poetry Night,” was a hybrid poetry reading event that will happen at After-Words Bookstore on Friday, October 21, starting at five p.m. Central Time. Live performers at the large reading room stage alternate with remote poets seen on a large screen using Zoom. Eight local Chicago poets, including Wherever I’m At contributors Mike Puican, Beatriz Badikian-Gartler, and Nina Corwin, as well as eight poets from around the world, will each perform a five-minute set.

Organizer Mark Fishbein is a member of PGN-Poetry Global Network, an online resource for workshops, events, and festivals. This past year, PGN partnered with The Nottingham Poetry Festival and Poetry Festival Singapore in similar events.

Rick Kogan started working as a reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times at the age of 16 and for the past half century has continued to turn out bylines in our city’s most important daily papers. Among his dozen nonfiction books, Rick’s true crime story, Everybody Pays: Two Men, One Murder and the Price of Truth, co-authored with Maurice Possley, stands out as a classic. He has served as an on-line reporter, commentator and host for a variety of television and radio outlets, including his current Sunday WGN-720 AM show, After Hours. Rick is a constant presence in Chicago’s cultural community, serving as impresario and interviewer for major events at the Printers Row Lit Festival, Chicago Humanities Festival, the old Story Week Festival, and many others. On Tuesday, Oct. 18, starting at seven p.m., Kogan was the 13th author honored with the Chicago’s prestigious Fuller Award for lifetime achievement. Newcity President & Founder Brian Hieggelke emceed a ceremony that included a performance by singer and writer Jamie O’Reilly, tributes by Nestor Gomez and Tony Fitzpatrick, and a conversation between Chicago Tribune editor Chris Jones and Rick. Photographer Charles Osgood presented the statue. Food and a cash bar followed the ceremony, with guests encouraged to enjoy the Chopin Theatre’s beautiful and spacious reception area. The event was free and open to the public.

In addition to Chopin Theatre, partners for the evening included Kurtis Productions, American Writers Museum, Newberry Library, WGN Radio, Eckhartz Press, Lamb’s Farm, Chicago Writers Association, Cliff Dwellers, All Things Literary, the Book Cellar, Open Books, Centuries & Sleuths, Seminary Co-op Bookstores, the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Bar Association, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Guild Literary Complex. A trio of Rick’s favorite Chicago dining spots have generously offered to provide food: the Billy Goat Tavern. Gibson’s Bar & Steakhouse, and Eli’s Cheesecake. Individual contributors include Paul Teodo and Tom Myers, Randy Albers, and Eve Moran.

Printers Row Lit Fest returns, and the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will have a tent for the second straight year. The Chicago Poetry Center, After Hours Press, Rhino, Chicago Quarterly Review, Guild Literary Complex, and Stories Matter Foundation will all be under our tent, along with an author table that includes Melanie Weiss, Amerlia Forczak, Paul Teodo, and Carlos Cumpian. More information when it becomes available.