This week, the Chicago Review of Books announced the finalists for its eighth annual literary awards. The shortlisted works for the 2023 Chicago Review of Books Awards (CHIRBy Awards) in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and short story/essay range in subject matter from queer motherhood to belonging and migration, Chicago’s Black cowboy culture, and women’s overlooked heroism during World War II.
“The mission of the Chicago Review of Books is to shine a light on the Chicago literary scene,” says Editor-in-Chief Michael Welch. “Our founding editor Adam Morgan introduced the CHIRBy Awards in 2016, as a way to celebrate our vibrant writing community, and it's only grown since then as Chicago continues to enjoy a literary renaissance. Many of the works featured in our 2023 shortlist are both critical and commercial standouts, proving once again that our city leads the way in the publishing world.”
The CHIRBy Awards celebrate outstanding literary works from the past year that were either written by authors living in the Chicagoland area, or in which Chicago plays a prominent role. Among this year’s shortlisted finalists is Dipika Mukherjee, an award-winning author of fiction and poetry, for her new poetry collection Dialect of Distant Harbors (CavanKerry Press, October 2022). The book explores issues of illness and family in the home as well as broader themes of belonging and migration in a prejudiced world.
“I am thrilled to have Dialect of Distant Harbors on the shortlist for the 2023 CHIRBy Awards!” says Mukherjee. “I love the work of so many people on this list—beyond just poetry—and I am overwhelmed, and also very grateful to CavanKerry Press and the University of Chicago Press for getting this book out into the world and in the hands of readers.”
Author Dipika Mukherjee, photo credit Winnie Gwee
National bestselling author Luis Alberto Urrea, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction, is nominated for a CHIRBy Award for his new novel Good Night, Irene (Little, Brown and Company, May 2023), an epic based on the true story of heroic Red Cross women in wartime, including his own mother. Urrea lives in the Chicago area with his family and is a distinguished professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois—Chicago.
“To be a finalist in this esteemed publication’s awards is utterly delightful,” he says of the Chicago Review of Books recognition. “You have honored the tragically forgotten women who risked everything for their country in WWII. If my mother were here, she’d be weeping with joy.”
Author Luis Alberto Urrea, photo credit Joe Mazza - Brave Lux
Francesca T. Royster, a Chicago native and professor of English literature at DePaul University, was nominated for her nonfiction book Choosing Family: A Memoir of Queer Motherhood and Black Resistance (Abrams Press, February 2023). This literary memoir of a multiracial household and chosen family is told against the backdrop of Chicago’s North and South Sides.
"I am so proud to be a part of Chicago's vibrant community of writers, and appreciate so much the nomination of Choosing Family: A Memoir of Queer Motherhood and Black Resistance for the CHIRBy Awards shortlist,” says Royster. “As I was writing it, I imagined this as a Chicago story, including my own close community of loved ones. I've appreciated the warm reception the book has received so far. In a cultural moment of increased tensions around publishing and teaching stories about African American and LGBTQIA+ life, I'm heartened that Choosing Family has been included in conversations about the changing face of what family means and how we can remake it.”
Author Francesca T. Royster, photo credit Vidura Jang Bahadur
Mukherjee, who teaches at StoryStudio Chicago and the University of Chicago’s Graham School, notes she was surprised at how warmly Dialect of Distant Harbors has been received by young writers specifically—from being approached by students at readings, to receiving MFA papers written in appreciation of her book for class assignments.
“This is my ninth book, and by now I strongly believe that every book comes with its own destiny, poetry or prose, and all we can do is write the best possible book that we have within us, and let the readers take it further," she says. "This book is no longer only mine, it belongs to everyone who reads it."
The CHIRBy Awards are voted on by a committee of Chicago booksellers and Chicago Review of Books staff. Past winners include renowned authors Mikki Kendall (for Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot), Rebecca Makkai (for The Great Believers), Erika L. Sánchez (for Crying in the Bathroom: A Memoir), Megan Stielstra (for The Wrong Way to Save Your Life and “An Axe for the Frozen Sea”) and Eve L. Ewing (for Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side; 1919; and Electric Arches).
This year's winners will be announced at a public ceremony on Thursday, December 7 at Volumes Bookcafe (1373 N. Milwaukee Avenue). More details will be announced soon.
Finalists for the 2023 CHIRBy Awards
2023 Fiction Award
- Island City, by Laura Adamczyk
- Maddalena and the Dark, by Julia Fine
- Biography of X, by Catherine Lacey
- Bliss Montage, by Ling Ma
- Extended Stay, by Juan Martinez
- Book of Extraordinary Tragedies, by Joe Meno
- Good Night, Irene, by Luis Alberto Urrea
2023 Nonfiction Award
- King: A Life, by Jonathan Eig
- Who is the City For?: Architecture, Equity, and the Public Realm in Chicago, by Blair Kamin with Photographs by Lee Bey
- Choosing Family: A Memoir of Queer Motherhood and Black Resistance, by Francesca T. Royster
- B.F.F.: A Memoir of Friendship Lost and Found, by Christie Tate
- The Wandering Womb: Essays in Search of Home, by S.L. Wisenberg
2023 Poetry Award
- I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times, by Taylor Byas
- Dialect of Distant Harbors, by Dipika Mukherjee
- Where Are the Snows, by Kathleen Rooney
- Trace Evidence, by Charif Shanahan
- Super Sad Black Girl, by Diamond Sharp
2023 Essay/Short Story Award
- "Black Cowboy Culture in Chicago Lives On", by Bianca Cseke & Meha Ahmad in WBEZ
- "Question Mark, Ohio", by Joe Meno and Dan Sinker, an immersive shortform narrative series run on Instagram & online
- "Why you talking to a bum?", by Katie Prout in Chicago Reader
- "After the Buses: Meet the Migrants at the Center of Texas' Manufactured Crisis", by Madison Savedra in Block Club Chicago & Borderless Magazine
- "Life and Death in Chicago's Most Dangerous Bike Lane", by Casey Toner, Mina Bloom, and Illinois Answers Project in Block Club Chicago