Last Friday, we announced the second annual Chicago Review of Books Awards during a live ceremony at Volumes Bookcafe. In partnership with the Chicagoland Independent Bookstore Alliance, the “Chirby” awards celebrate the best books published by Chicago-based writers and poets in the past year.
Here are 2017’s winners, finalists, and judges.
Best Fiction
How to Behave in a Crowd, Camille Bordas (Winner, Random House)
Only Eat When You’re Hungry, Lindsay Hunter (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
The Grip of It, Jac Jemc (FSG Originals)
The Answers, Catherine Lacey (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Best Worst American, Juan Martinez (Small Beer Press)
Lillian Boxfish Takes A Walk, Kathleen Rooney (St. Martin’s Press)
The Readymade Thief by Augustus Rose (Viking)
Best Creative Nonfiction
The Wrong Way to Save Your Life By Megan Stielstra (Winner, Harper Perennial)
A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun, Angela Jackson (Beacon Press)
Revise the Psalm, Quraysh Ali Lansana and Sandra Jackson-Opoku (Curbside Splendor)
The Whiskey of Our Discontent, Quraysh Ali Lansana and Georgia A. Popoff (Haymarket Books)
Body Horror, Anne Elizabeth Moore (Curbside Splendor)
Who Reads Poetry, Don Share and Fred Sasaki (University of Chicago Press)
Best Poetry
Electric Arches, Eve Ewing (Winner, Haymarket Books)
A People’s History of Chicago, Kevin Coval (Haymarket Books)
Civilization Makes Me Lonely, Jennifer Nelson (Ahsahta Press)
The Price of Scarlet, Brianna Noll (University Press of Kentucky)
The Nightlife, Elise Paschen (Red Hen Press)
Perception, Christina Pugh (Fourth Estate Books)
Thank you to The Chicago Review of Books. This means so much. I'm so proud to be a part of literature in this city. I'm so proud to make things with you. xo @ChicagoRevBooks pic.twitter.com/FGZafU82MR
— Megan Stielstra (@meganstielstra) December 2, 2017
https://twitter.com/eveewing/status/936796291656380417
2017 Judges
Judges for the 2017 Chicago Review of Books Awards include many representatives from Chicago’s independent bookstores and the Chicago Independent Bookstore Alliance:
- Suzy Takacs, The Book Cellar
- Rebecca George, Volumes Bookcafe
- Thomas Flynn, Volumes Bookcafe
- Timothy Moore, Unabridged Bookstore
- Sara Hollenbeck, Women & Children First
- Jeff Deutsch, Seminary Co-op and 57th Street Books
- Linda Quinde, Seminary Co-op and 57th Street Books
- Wayne Giacalone, RoscoeBooks
As well as members of the Chicago Review of Books and Arcturus magazine editorial and contributing staffs:
- Adam Morgan, CHIRB Editor-in-Chief
- Kristen Raddatz, CHIRB Executive Editor
- Sara Cutaia, Editor-in-Chief at Arcturus magazine
- Rachel León, Editor at Arcturus magazine
- Aram Mrjoian, CHIRB contributing staff and TriQuarterly fiction editor
Congrats again to last year’s winners and finalists!
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