Induction Ceremony (Class of 2020)

Program pdf

When the pandemic shut down live programming back in early 2020, we held over an induction class. Then last year, with conditions not dramatically improved, we held the rescheduled ceremony but not the latest class. Finally, this year, we were determined to get up to date on all our new inductees.

The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Class of 2020 includes three extraordinary Chicago literary figures: Harry Mark Petrakis, Era Bell Thompson, and Lisel Mueller. Petrakis, a prolific prose author for more than a half century, received the CLHOF’s Fuller Award back in 2014; upon his passing the CLHOF board unanimously voted his ascension to our canon of important historical writers. Thompson was a memoirist and trailblazing journalist; she worked for Negro Digest and Ebony, among other prominent publications. Mueller was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.

The ceremony featured presentations and readings by Maria Karamitsos, Beverly Cook, B. Metzger Sampson, Marty McConnell and Raquel Flores-Clemons. Lucy Mueller and John Petrakis were among the family members on hand to accept the induction statues.

Registration is limited.