On December 11, 2025, we came together for the 2025 Chicago Review of Books (CHIRBy) Awards, co-presented by StoryStudio Chicago and Exile in Bookville! Now in its tenth year, the CHIRBy Awards honor the best fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and short essays and stories that feature Chicago and our literary community.
Congratulations to this year’s winners and to all of our incredible finalists!
(Read the shortlist here)
Fiction:
The El
By Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
Vintage
Nonfiction:
Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism
By Eve L. Ewing
One World
Poetry:
Hardly Creatures
By Rob Macaisa Colgate
Tin House
Essay/Short Story:
“A trans migrant came to Chicago to escape violence. Now she’s afraid of deportation.”
By Adriana Cardona-Maguigad
WBEZ Chicago
The Adam Morgan Literary Leadership Award:
This year, the Adam Morgan Literary Leadership Award went to Samira Ahmed, author and a national leader of Authors Against Book Bans, for her dedicated work in protecting our freedom to read widely.
A huge thank you to our co-sponsors StoryStudio Chicago and Exile in Bookville as well as 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
Booksellers
- Rebecca George, Volumes Bookcafe
- Kimberly George, Volumes Bookcafe
- Sarah Hollenbeck, Women & Children First
- Mandy Medley, Pilsen Community Books
- Kristin Ramirez, Exile in Bookville
- Suzy Takacs, The Book Cellar
- Timothy Wurman, Three Avenues Bookshop
- Hannah Madonia, Seminary Co-Op
Chicago Review of Books Staff
- Aaron Wolfson, Daily Editor
- Rachel León, Managing Director
- Adam Morgan, Founding Editor
- Reema Saleh, Daily Editor
- Victor Ladis Schultz, Daily Editor
- Jen St. Jude, Editor-at-Large
- Greg Zimmerman, Daily Editor & Roscoe Books Bookseller
- Karen Bellovich, Daily Editor
