This is a big moment for Chicago literature.
Clybourne Park, written by Chicago playwright, Bruce Norris, just won the Tony Award for Best Play. This comes only two years after Steppenwolf’s Tracy Letts won a Pulitzer Prize for August: Osage County.
The Printers Row Lit Fest was last weekend, and New City just came out with its Lit 50, led by Bosnian-American author Aleksandar Hemon and Scottish-American Irvine (Trainspotting) Welch, who moved here after meeting and marrying a Chicago girl during a teaching gig.
On Wednesday, the Chicago Literary Alliance, in collaboration with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, will hold a meeting on the literary scene, looking for recommendations to include in the 2012 Chicago Cultural Plan. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Powell’s Books, 1218 S. Halsted St.
Expected to attend: Keith Ecker, host of Essay Fiesta, a monthly live lit series at the Book Cellar; Sharon Woodhouse, publisher of Lake Claremont Press; Doug Seibold, president of Agate Publishing; Corrina Lesser of the Chicago Humanities Festival; authors Jack Helbig and Bayo Olayinka Ojikutu; and Valerie Jean Bajorat, managing editor at Poetry Magazine.
This is the third iteration of the Cultural Plan. The first was written in 1986, under Mayor Harold Washington. It was re-written in 1995, when Richard M. Daley was mayor.
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