Past Events

As part of the Printers Row Lit Fest's action-packed schedule, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will host an open mic reading for young writers. Poets Billy Tuggle and Marty McConnell will emcee the open mic, which is open to all high school-aged students. Billy is a South Side Chicago native; a writer, vocalist, performance poet and…

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Come witness the final development reading of Dooley's Place at Chief O'Neill's, where the staged production will take place in the near future.  After successfully introducing Martin J. Dooley back to Chicago audiences in two  development readings, Poet Ape Productions is excited to showcase its final script. Come…

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On July 11, Patricia Smith received the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame's Fuller Award for her lifetime achievements. The ceremony, co-presented with our host the Poetry Foundation, as well as American Writers Museum, Shipman Agency, Inc., Chicago Poetry Center, Guild Literary Complex, Third World Press, and Lee & Low Books was free…

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At the second American Writers Festival on Sunday, May 19, Jane Hseu led a discussion with authors Ugochi Nwaogwugwu, Nestor Gomez, and Lani T. Montreal. These artists came to Chicago from Guatemala, Nigeria, and the Philippines. Each has explored the immigration experience in a variety of ways, including spoken work, memoir, poetry,…

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The Randall Albers Young Writers Award was back for its second year. On Saturday, May 11, we presented awards to young writers of both prose and poetry and listened as they read aloud from their work. We were joined by families, friends, teachers, and a host of notable Chicago writers. It was a touching and entertaining way to welcome our…

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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,…

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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,…

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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…

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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…

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