Past Events

On Thursday, February 17, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame teamed up with contributing authors from Open Heart Chicago: An Anthology of Chicago Writers to present a special virtual reading.

The lineup, emceed by editor Vincent Francone included Joe Mallon, David Matthews, Dipika Mukherjee, Nancy Werking Poling, Steve Trumpeter, and Cyn Vargas.

The event was free and open to the public.

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Our Chicago Classics series continues with a themed program celebrating Black History Month. Ronne Hartfield, Claire Hartfield, and Tracy Clark will join host Jarrett Neal in sharing excerpts from their own work plus the work of a favorite Chicago author. Ronne’s memoir, Another Way Home The Tangled Roots of Race in One Chicago Family, tells the story of her family’s history, which spans most of the twentieth century. Claire’s nonfiction study, A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919, is an in-depth examination of a particularly horrendous period of racial strife in…

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Thank you for joining us at our 2021 Virtual Fundraiser! Bidding started with nearly 50 items. The fundraiser helps us out while at the same time treating yourself to a night at the symphony or theatre, a collectible book, a literary consult, sports memorabilia, or the like.

The fundraiser culminated in the live event on Friday, Dec. 10. It was free and open to the public.

• Hosted by Amy Danzer with readings by authors Juan Martinez, George Saunders, and Megan Stielstra.
• The live auction and trivia contest were co-hosted by special guests Kim L.…

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Luis Alberto Urrea became the 11th Chicago author to receive the prestigious Fuller Award for his lifetime achievements as an author, teacher, and activist. The event was free and open to the public, with live attendance at the National Museum of Mexican Art and livestreamed. Live audience was limited to 150 fully vaccinated, masked people; proof of vaccination required. Virtual audience is unlimited. Rick Najera was emcee of the ceremony; Sara Paretsky, Daniel Borzutzky and Dave Eggers will offer tributes; actress Laura Crotte will perform a dramatic reading; and Coya Paz will lead…

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Reginald Gibbons’s prolific writing career has included publication of ten full-length poetry collections; a short story collection and a novel; numerous essays, reviews, columns, and translations; and as editor a myriad of anthologies. His work is widely anthologized and has earned Gibbons many prestigious literary honors, including the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Carl Sandburg Prize, and the Folger Shakespeare Library’s 2004 O. B. Hardison Jr. Poetry Prize. Reg will become the tenth Chicago author to receive the Fuller Award for his lifetime achievements as an author, scholar, teacher, and institution builder. The event is free and open to…

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In this, our 11th season, and after a year-long posponement due to the health pandemic, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will induct a new class on Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021 at City Lit Theater. Frank London Brown, Jeannette Howard Foster, and Carlos Cortez represent the 2019 class, along with Gene Wolfe, who, as a former Fuller Award honoree, gained automatic induction upon his death. Co-presenters for the ceremony include the American Writers Museum, Poetry Foundation, Guild Literary Complex, National Museum of Mexican Art, Third World Press, Open Books,

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Printers Row Lit Fest is back after a year’s hiatus due to the pandemic. This all-weekend festival draws authors, booksellers, and other literary people from across the country. CLHOF for the first time has a tent. Our partners under the tent are After Hours, Rhino, Chicago Poetry Center, Chicago Quarterly Review, Stories Matter Foundation, Guild Literary Complex, and an author table with Melanie Weiss, Carolyn Armstrong, and Amerlia Forczak. We’ll be passing out literature, chatting with whomever wants to chat, and generally making ourselves available. Come see us. Authors include Colson Whitehead, Faisal…

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Edward Hopper’s painting Nighthawks, which hangs in the Art Institute, has been the subject of much literary exploration. Stuart Dybek and Joyce Carol Oates are among the authors who’ve used the painting in their own fictional explorations. Hopper himself was inspired, according to some reliable accounts, to create the masterpiece after reading Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers, a short story set near Chicago at a diner much like the one in the painting. The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will team up with Phantom Collective, the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, and

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Jerakah Greene, recent recipient of the Pen America 2021 Emerging Voices Fellowships, will lead this summer's Chicago Literary Hall of Fame virtual creative writing workshop for high school students. "Chicago Voices" is free, but registration is required. Throughout this one-month workshop, high school-aged students from across Chicagoland will form their own writing community engaged in reading and writing exercises related to the city. Jerakah will help students find and develop their own voices as they produce and elevate work inspired by their lives, their city, and a diverse selection of notable Chicago literature. The workshop meets 4-5…

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Cyrus Colter’s 1970 short story “The Lookout,” in which aspiring socialite Mildred stalks a Woodlawn street to witness the goings on at a party to which she was not invited, was dramatized in a special theatrical reading. Mardra Thomas directed and starred in a staged reading of Sandra Seaton’s adaptation. Eric May introduced Colter and his work. Afterward, Mardra and Sandra, who has written two other one-act plays based on Colter stories, participated in a question and answer with the Zoom crowd. The Guild Literary Complex, Cliff Dwellers, and Chicago Writers Association teamed…

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