Happy National Book Lovers Day! Here are Chicago’s top book lovers.
Did you know that today, August 9th, is National Book Lovers Day? At the American Writers Museum, we love books every day and this day is extra special. But we’re just one of Chicago’s many book lovers. The city is full of organizations that foster and spread a love of reading and writing.
To celebrate the holiday, we’ve compiled a list of Chicago’s premier book-loving organizations like us and the offerings they present to the city. From small to large, from well-known to more niche.
Written by Jules Yaeger
Chicago Public Libraries
The Chicago Public Library does not mess around about loving literature. Across its 81 locations, it holds nearly 6 million physical books and tons more online resources.
Getting a library card is easy—and free!—for Chicago residents. And it grants access not only to those physical books, but to CPL’s collection of audio- and e-books as well. Magazines and newspapers like the Chicago Sun-Times and the New Yorker are also available for free online. A Chicago Public Library card can even score you discounted museum tickets or a free concert at Ravinia.
The Library system hosts programming at its branches all across the city, like its summer reading challenges for kids, teens, and adults. Events also appeal to many different groups, like Family Story Time, Lawyers in the Library, Senior Computer Help sessions, Film Screenings of movies new and old, and even free Summer Meals for children.
Visit chipublib.org for info on how you can love books too.
Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation is a Chicago landmark—the real-world manifestation of Poetry Magazine’s century-old mission to “expand and enhance the presence of poetry in the United States.”
The Foundation’s building, off Dearborn street in River North, houses over 40,000 physical volumes of poetry, as well as a reading room, performance hall, and space for rotating exhibitions. Its current exhibition is entitled A Bigger Table: 50 years of the Chicago Poetry Center—a tribute to Chicago’s other famed poetry organization—and features archives alongside contemporary materials to tell the story of how the Poetry Center forged its own literary space.
The Poetry Foundation also hosts readings and creative workshops in its event space and is open to the public for use as a reading library.
Learn more at poetryfoundation.org.
Chicago Poetry Center
The Chicago Poetry Center was founded as a reaction to the literary censorship trials of the 1950s, as a place for writers to come together and freely share diverse writings. These principles still guide their work today.
The Center partners with schools across Chicago to provide in-school, after-school, and pop-up assembly programs, bringing poetry to students. The Center also makes educational resources available online at no cost.
If you’re itching to go to an in-person event, the Poetry Center hosts them at various venues around the city. BLUE HOUR is their monthly “reading series and generative writing workshop” at Haymarket House in Buena Park. Their summer weekly reading and open mic series takes place at The Green at 320, a park just over the river from the Loop.
Learn about all the Chicago Poetry Center has to offer at poetrycenter.org.
StoryStudio Chicago
StoryStudio is a nonprofit writing center in Lincoln Square. They offer everything from one-off On Demand classes on specific topics, like how to write flashbacks, to longer and more intensive programs, like their In-a-Year Book program or Six Month Spark.
StoryStudio isn’t limited by genre. They’ve taught everything from fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry to memoir, personal essays, short stories, speculative fiction, performance literature, and flash fiction.
Stories certainly aren’t just for adults: StoryStudio hosts summer camps for grade schoolers, runs writing contests, and even publishes its own youth literary magazine.
To start writing, visit storystudiochicago.org.
Newberry Library
The Newberry Library is one of Chicago’s oldest research institutions, commissioned to be built by Walter Newberry in 1868. While it mainly functions as a reference library, for curious citizens or students from nearby universities to inquire with a librarian or comb through the miles of bookstacks, there are offerings for the masses as well.
The Newberry has an exhibition space, which currently houses Chicago Style: Mike Royko and Windy City Journalism, an exhibit about the famed Sun-Times and Tribune journalist. Upcoming exhibits include Indigenous Chicago and Making an Impression: Immigrant Printing in Chicago, among others. The Newberry’s reading rooms are open to the public Tuesday through Saturday during working hours.
Guided tours are available during the week and multiple times on weekends, for those who want a more in-depth history of the space. The Newberry also offers online and in-person lectures and seminars by experts in a variety of topics, such as everyday life in East Germany, Chicago in 1968, or introductory genealogy. In fact, the Newberry is one of America’s leading resources for genealogical research and makes its family history specialists available to the public.
Newberry.org has all the rest.
American Writers Museum
We can’t go without mentioning ourselves! With all of our exhibits, we give a comprehensive, engaging account of book lovers throughout the history of America. That’s why our members love us.
Come check out our new special exhibit, Level Up: Writers and Gamers, to see how writing is an integral part of game development, and how it has evolved as the gaming industry has. Or, sign up for Get Lit, our monthly happy hour series.
Get out there, book lovers! Let us know in the comments where you go to share your love of books in Chicago.