On December 8, 2022, we came together for the 2022 CHIRBy Awards, co-presented by StoryStudio Chicago! Now in its seventh year, the CHIRBy Awards is our annual celebration of the Chicago literary community where we honor the best Chicago-focused fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and short essays.
Congratulations to this year’s winners and to all of our incredible finalists!
(Read the shortlist here)
Poetry:
Against Heaven
By Kemi Alabi
Graywolf Press
Nonfiction:
Crying in the Bathroom: A Memoir
By Erika L. Sánchez
Viking
Fiction:
The School For Good Mothers
By Jessamine Chan
Simon & Schuster
Essay/Short Story:
“It’s quiet around here until it’s not”
By Salem Collo-Julin
Chicago Reader
The Adam Morgan Literary Leadership Award:
This year the Adam Morgan Literary Leadership Award went to Director of Seminary Co-op Bookstores Jeff Deutsch for his long-time advocacy of independent bookselling and the Chicago literary community, as well as his work to republish Leon Forrest’s Divine Days.
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, Editor-In-Chief
- Rebecca George, Volumes Bookcafe
- Thomas Flynn, And Other Stories
- Jeff Deutsch, Seminary Co-op and 57th Street Books
- Sarah Hollenbeck, Women & Children First
- Stephanie Kitchen, City Lit Books
- Suzy Takacs, The Book Cellar
- Javier Ramirez, Exile in Bookville
- Dana Dunham, Managing Director
- Sara Batkie, CHIRB Editor-at-Large
- Adam Morgan, CHIRB Founding Editor
- Jen St. Jude, Editor-at-Large
- Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, CHIRB Publishing Director
- Sara Cutaia, Editor-in-Chief at Arcturus Magazine and CHIRB Editor-at-Large
- Mandana Chaffa, CHIRB Editor-at-Large
- Christina Drill – CHIRB Social Media Editor
- Cait Stout, CHIRB Daily Editor
- Victor Ladis Schultz, CHIRB Daily Editor
- Rachel León, CHIRB Daily Editor
- Elizabeth McNeill, CHIRB Daily Editor
- Farooq Chaudhry, CHIRB Daily Editor
