On December 9, 2021, we celebrated the 2021 CHIRBy Awards, co-presented by StoryStudio Chicago. Now in its sixth year, the CHIRBy Awards is a celebration of the Chicago literary community that honors the best Chicago-focused fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and short essays.
Congratulations to this year’s winners and to our incredible finalists!
(You can read the shortlist here)

Poetry:

Wolf Lamb Bomb
By Aviya Kushner
Orison Books

Nonfiction:

Three Girls from Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood
By Dawn Turner
Simon & Schuster

Essay/Short Story:

“The climate crisis haunts Chicago’s Future. A Battle Between a Great City and a Great Lake”
By Dan Egan
The New York Times

Fiction:

The Upstairs House
By Julia Fine
Harper

The Adam Morgan Literary Citizen Award:
This year the Adam Morgan Literary Citizen Award went to Kathleen Rooney for her work with Poems While You Wait and Rose Metal Press.


A huge thank you to this year’s judges, which included many of the Chicago Review of Books‘s editorial staff and representatives from Chicago’s independent bookstores:
Chair
Michael Welch, CHIRBy Awards Director
- Rebecca George, Volumes Bookcafe
- Jeff Deutsch, Seminary Co-op and 57th Street Books
- Wayne Giacalone, Madison Street Books
- DL Mullen, Semicolon Bookstore & Gallery
- Stephanie Kitchen, City Lit Books
- Suzy Takacs, The Book Cellar
- Sarah Hollenbeck, Women & Children First
- Sara Batkie, Editor-in-Chief
- Adam Morgan, CHIRB Founding Editor
- Amy Brady, CHIRB Contributing Editor & Publishing Consultant
- Jen St. Jude, CHIRB Managing Director
- Todd Van Luling, CHIRB Senior Director
- Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, CHIRB Publishing Director
- Sara Cutaia, Editor-in-Chief at Arcturus Magazine and CHIRB Editor-at-Large
- Clancey D’Isa, CHIRB Project Editor
- Dana Dunham, CHIRB Senior Editor
- Mandana Chaffa, CHIRB Editor & Senior Strategist
- Christina Drill – CHIRB Social Media Editor
- Cait Stout, CHIRB Daily Editor
- Greer Macallister, CHIRB Editor-at-Large, Historical Fiction & Lit on Screen
- Rachel León, CHIRB Contributing Editor

Michael Welch is the Editor-In-Chief for the Chicago Review of Books. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Electric Lit, Iron Horse Literary Review, North American Review, and elsewhere. Find him at www.michaelbwelch.com and @MBWwelch.