The 2014 Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Fuller Award

You may recall that two years ago, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame awarded its inaugural Fuller Award for lifetime achievement to Gene Wolfe. You can read about the spectacular event here.

The 2013 Award went to Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Lisel Mueller, although with little fanfare per by her family’s request.

On Saturday, October 6, 2014, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame honored Harry Mark Petrakis with the 2014 Fuller Award at a ceremony and reception held at the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago. 

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This from the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s blog:

“Harry Mark Petrakis has been writing very good books for a very long time. He started writing short stories in the late 1940s and finally sold one to The Atlantic in 1955, or nearly six decades ago. At 91, Harry continues to produce literature at the highest levels, is working now on another memoir, Song of My Life, that he says will be more forthcoming still than his other memoirs. In those six decades, Harry has established himself as the premiere chronicler of Chicago’s Greek Town. He has set much of his fiction there. He has authored essays based on his long experiences living in that neighborhood. He has written about his travels to Greece, and his family history of immigration from Crete to America. He has explored Greek history and mythology–its heroes, literary and otherwise. In short, Harry has created and recreated a world of vast possibility and tragedy, a world of gamblers and gangsters, priests and peasants, cabbies and cooks: generations upon generations of the lucky and the cursed. Kurt Vonnegut once blurbed, ‘I’ve often thought what a wonderful basketball team could be formed from Petrakis characters. Everyone of them is at least fourteen feet tall.’”

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It was another lovely ceremony from an writer important to Chicago’s literary landscape, with readings and speeches from friends and admirers, a moving tribute by Harry’s son, and a gracious and eloquent acceptance by Harry.

(Photographs by 8 Eyes Photograph. More photos from the event are available on 8 Eyes Photography’s website.)

Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Fourth Annual Silent Auction

I have two longer blog posts to finish up, but I wanted to be sure to tell you about an important literary event coming up in Chicago this weekend. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ve heard me mention various things about the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, an organization dear to my heart. This Sunday, August 24, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame is holding their fourth silent auction at the Haymarket Pub & Brewery from 5-8 p.m. The gracious and talented David Eigenberg is our special guest.

David Eigenberg, as Christopher Herrmann, on Chicago Fire
David Eigenberg, as Christopher Herrmann, on Chicago Fire

A Chicago-area native, David Eigenberg  graduated from Naperville Central in 1982. He was attending Washburne Trade School at 31st and Kedzie when they went on strike, an event that changed the course of his life.

“I had nothing to do,” David recalls. “Didn’t know how long the strike was going to be. A week into it, there was an audition.”

David tried out and was cast in the chorus of the play, One Shining Moment, and that put him on the path that lead from the U.S. Marine Corp Reserve, to acting school in New York, to one-off parts on shows like Homicide: Life on the StreetsERKing of QueensGhost Whisperer and NCIS, and his eventual breakthrough role of Steve Brady on the popular show Sex in the City. 

Three years ago, David was cast in the role of Christopher Herrmann on Chicago Fire, a show filmed entirely in Chicago. He returned to Chicago, and together with his wife, Chrysti, their five-year-old son Louie, and five-month old daughter Myrna,  they now call Chicago home from their Bucktown bungalow.

We are so grateful for David’s time and support of the auction.  I hope that you’ll take this opportunity to come to Haymarket and say hello, meet David, and support the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.

With the money raised, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame will come closer to realizing their potential of being the primary champion of Chicago literature, finding additional ways to celebrate Chicago’s literary heritage and honor the writers who have shaped it.

Later this year, on October 4, we will present the 2014 Fuller Award to Harry Mark Petrakis at the National Hellenic Museum; and on December 6, 2014, we will hold our fifth annual induction ceremony honoring Margaret Anderson, David Hernandez, Edgar Lee Masters, Shel Silverstein, Willard Motley and Margaret Walker.

I hope to see you there this Sunday! You can buy your tickets at:

http://clhofsilentauction2014.eventbrite.com/

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Join Us for the 4th Annual Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

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Tonight is the 4th Annual Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Roosevelt University. We will be inducting six important historical Chicago writers: L. Frank Baum, Leon Forrest, Edna Ferber, Ben Hecht, John H. Johnson, and Thornton Wilder.

The ever-charming Elysabeth Alfano, host of The Dinner Party and Fear No Art, will be the emcee, and friends and family of the inductees will be there to celebrate, with an after-party to follow the event.

Tickets are free but must be reserved online. 

Over the last four years, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame has assembled an amazing group of inductees, and I love this opportunity to celebrate their work: the unforgettable characters and worlds they created, the ideas they challenged, the books and plays that inspired generations, and the multitude of ways they have left their mark on Chicago’s literary landscape.

I hope you can join us this evening!