Chicago literature is writing, primarily by writers born or living in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, that reflects the culture of the city.

Themes and movements

James Atlas, in his biography of Chicago writer Saul Bellow, suggests that "the city's reputation for nurturing literary and intellectual talent can be traced to the same geographical centrality that made it a great industrial power." When Chicago was incorporated in 1837, it was a frontier outpost with about 4,000 people. The population rose rapidly to approximately 100,000 in 1860. By 1890, the city had over 1 million people. Chicago's dynamic growth, as well as the manufacturing, economics, and politics that fueled this growth, can be seen in the works of writers like

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg w ...

Theodore Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalism (literature), naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despi ...

Sherwood Anderson Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and ...

, Hamlin Garland,

Frank Norris Benjamin Franklin Norris Jr. (March 5, 1870 – October 25, 1902) was an American journalist and novelist during the Progressive Era, whose fiction was predominantly in the naturalism (literature), naturalist genre. His notable works include ''M ...

Upton Sinclair Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American author, muckraker journalist, and political activist, and the 1934 California gubernatorial election, 1934 Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

Willa Cather Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including ''O Pioneers!'', ''The Song of the Lark (novel), The Song of the Lark'', a ...

, and

Edna Ferber Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), '' Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' Cima ...

. Due to these rapid changes, Chicago writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries faced the challenge of how to depict this potentially disorienting new urban reality. Narrative fiction of that time, much of it in the style of "high-flown romance" and "genteel realism", needed a new approach to describe Chicago's social, political, and economic conditions. Chicagoans worked hard to create a literary tradition that would stand the test of time, and create a "city of feeling" out of concrete, steel, vast lake, and open prairie. Among the new techniques and styles embraced by Chicago writers were " naturalism", "

imagism Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism has been termed "a successi ...

", and "

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry which does not use a prescribed or regular meter or rhyme and tends to follow the rhythm of natural or irregular speech. Free verse encompasses a large range of poetic form, and the distinction between free ...

". Themes often centered on an exciting but dirty urbanism, as well as the quaint but dark and sometimes stultifying small town. Chicago's early twentieth-century writers and publishers were seen as producing innovative work that broke with the literary traditions of Europe and the Eastern United States. In 1920, the critic

H. L. Mencken Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...

wrote in a London magazine, ''The'' ''Nation'''','' that Chicago was the "Literary Capital of the United States". Expressing the attitude that Chicago writers were creating a distinctive, new, and far from genteel literary idiom, he wrote, "Find a writer who is indubitably an American in every pulse-beat, snort, and adenoid, an American who has something new and peculiarly American to say and who says it in an unmistakable American way, and nine times out of ten you will find that he has some sort of connection with the gargantuan and inordinate abattoir by Lake Michigan." Poetry cover1

While Chicago produced much realist and naturalist fiction, its literary institutions also played a crucial role in promoting international

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

. The avant-garde '' Little Review'' (founded 1914 by Margaret Anderson) began in Chicago, though it later moved elsewhere. The ''Little Review'' provided an important platform for experimental literature, famously it was the first to publish

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's novel '' Ulysses,'' in serial form until the magazine was forced to discontinue the novel due to obscenity charges. Similarly, the publication that became ''

Poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

'' magazine (founded 1912 by

Harriet Monroe Harriet Monroe (December 23, 1860 – September 26, 1936) was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, poet, and patron of the arts. She was the founding publisher and long-time editor of ''Poetry'' magazine, which she established in 1912 ...

) was instrumental in launching the

Imagist Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized literary modernism, modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism has bee ...

and Objectivist poetic movements.

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

's first professionally published poem, " The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", appeared in ''Poetry''. Contributors have included

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. His '' Spring and All'' (1923) was written in the wake of T. S. Eliot's '' The Waste Land'' (1922). ...

Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. An early innovator of jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harl ...

and

, among others. The magazine also discovered such poets as

Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poet ...

, James Merrill, and

John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

.Goodyear, Dana
"The Moneyed Muse: What can two hundred million dollars do for poetry?"
article, ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', February 19 and February 26 double issue, 2007 ''Poetry'' and the ''Little Review'' were "daring" in their editorial championship of the modernist movement. Later editors also made substantial contributions in poetry, as did Chicago's university and performance venues. Chicago's universities also have a strong reputation for developing literary talent. In the second half of the 20th century, the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

served as a hub for many emerging

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

writers such as

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; June 10, 1915April 5, 2005) was a Canadian-American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only write ...

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut ( ; November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American author known for his Satire, satirical and darkly humorous novels. His published work includes fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfict ...

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (; March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophical ...

, and

Robert Coover Robert Lowell Coover (February 4, 1932 – October 5, 2024) was an American novelist, Short story, short story writer, and T. B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation ...

. Bellow received his Bachelor's from nearby

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

, which has also produced acclaimed authors such as George R.R. Martin, Tina Rosenberg and Kate Walbert. Today, Chicago is home to the world's largest youth poetry festival, Louder Than a Bomb. Since its founding in 2001, Louder Than a Bomb has grown into a multi-week celebration that includes competitions, workshops, and other poetry-related events. By 2018, the festival was drawing over 100 teams for a total of more than 1000 young poets competing in spoken word tournaments. The festival is credited with influencing contemporary Chicago poets like Nate Marshall and José Olivarez. According to Bill Savage in ''The Encyclopedia of Chicago'', today's Chicago writers are still interested in the same social themes and urban landscapes that compelled earlier Chicago writers: "the fundamental dilemmas presented by city life in general and by the specifics of Chicago's urban spaces, history, and relentless change."

Periodization

''The Encyclopedia of Chicago'' identifies three periods of works from Chicago which had a major influence on

American Literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the British colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also ...

: *A period around the turn of the 20th century, which featured "Midland realism" of authors such as Henry Blake Fuller,

and

Eugene Field Eugene Field Sr. (September 2, 1850 – November 4, 1895) was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. He was known as the "poet of childhood". Early life and education Field was born in St. Louis, Missouri ...

; *A period in the 1910s and 1920s in which literary works were published by newspapers and new literary magazines based in Chicago. Sometimes called the "Chicago Renaissance" which includes the later works of Dreiser and the work of authors such as

, Floyd Dell,

, and Margaret Anderson; *A period in the 1940s featuring what it calls "neighborhood novels". Authors in this period include James T. Farrell, Richard Wright,

and

. Literature scholar Robert Bone argues for the existence of an overlapping fourth period: *A second "Chicago Renaissance", this time lasting approximately 1935 to 1950 and referring to a wave of creativity from Chicago's African American writers. Bone suggests that this Chicago Renaissance was comparable in influence and importance to the earlier

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...

. Bone's list of Chicago Renaissance writers includes fiction writers like Richard Wright, William Attaway, and

Willard Motley Willard Francis Motley (July 14, 1909 – March 4, 1965) was an American author. Beginning as a teenager, Motley published a column in the African-American oriented ''Chicago Defender'' newspaper under the pen-name Bud Billiken. He worked as a f ...

along with poets like Frank Marshall Davis and Margaret Walker. The term "

Chicago Black Renaissance The Chicago Black Renaissance (also known as the Black Chicago Renaissance) was a creative movement that blossomed out of the Chicago Black Belt on the city's South Side and spanned the 1930s and 1940s before a transformation in art and cultur ...

" is often used to denote creativity in all the arts, not just in literature, during the 1930s–1950s.

Works about Chicago or set in Chicago

Much notable Chicago writing focuses on the city itself, with social criticism keeping exultation in check. Here is a selection of Chicago's most famous works about itself:

Fiction, drama, and poetry

Nelson Algren Nelson Algren (born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham; March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981) was an American writer. His 1949 novel '' The Man with the Golden Arm'' won the National Book Award and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name. Algren articulate ...

's '' Chicago: City on the Make'' (1951) is a prose poem about the alleys and the El tracks, the neon and the dive bars, the beauty and cruelty of Chicago. *

David Auburn David Auburn (born November 30, 1969) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and theatre director. He is best known for his 2000 play ''Proof'', which won the 2001 Tony Award for Best Play and Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He also wrote the scree ...

's play ''

Proof Proof most often refers to: * Proof (truth), argument or sufficient evidence for the truth of a proposition * Alcohol proof, a measure of an alcoholic drink's strength Proof may also refer to: Mathematics and formal logic * Formal proof, a co ...

'' (2000 New York debut) is set on the porch of a house in Hyde Park. The play focuses on the emotional turmoil experienced by Catherine, a young woman who recently lost her father, a prominent

mathematician who suffered from an unspecified mental illness. *

's ''

The Adventures of Augie March ''The Adventures of Augie March'' is a picaresque novel by Saul Bellow, published in 1953 by Viking Press. It features the eponymous Augie March, who grows up during the Great Depression, and it is an example of ''Bildungsroman'', tracing the d ...

'' (1953) charts the long, drifting life of a Jewish Chicagoan and his myriad eccentric acquaintances throughout the early 20th century: growing up in the then Eastern European neighborhood of Humboldt Park, cavorting with heiresses on Chicago's Gold Coast, studying at the University of Chicago, fleeing union thugs in the Loop, and taking the odd detour to hang out with Trotsky in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

while eagle-hunting giant iguanas on horseback. Novelist

Martin Amis Sir Martin Louis Amis (25 August 1949 – 19 May 2023) was an English novelist, essayist, memoirist, screenwriter and critic. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and '' London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Mem ...

describes the book as "An epic about the so-called ordinary", a remark that indicates the text's sprawling, episodic structure. Amis also goes so far as to claim that "''The Adventures of Augie March'' is the Great American Novel." *

' ''A Street in Bronzeville'' (1945) is the collection of poems that launched the career of the famous Chicago poet, focusing on the aspirations, disappointments, and daily life of African-Americans living in 1940s Bronzeville. * Frank London Brown's powerful debut novel, ''Trumbull Park'' (1959) fictionalizes the real-life ordeals of the first black families to integrate South Side Chicago's Trumbull Park public housing project in the 1950s. First published 1959. Henry Regnery Company, Chicago. Re-published 2004, 2005 by Northeastern University Press (Northeastern Library of Black Literature). *

Sandra Cisneros Sandra Cisneros (born December 20, 1954) is an American writer. She is best known for her first novel, ''The House on Mango Street'' (1984), and her subsequent short story collection, ''Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories'' (1991). Her wo ...

's '' The House on Mango Street'' (1983) is a Mexican-American coming-of-age novel, dealing with a young Latina girl, Esperanza Cordero, growing up in a neighborhood modeled on Chicago's Humboldt Park. It commonly appears in American high school reading lists. *

's '' Sister Carrie'' (1900) tells the tale of a country girl who leaves home to seek her fortune, first in Chicago and later in New York. Its descriptions of Chicago include a portrait of Loop department stores at the end of the nineteenth century. According to the ''Dictionary of Literary Biography,'' Dreiser was an important figure in American naturalism. * Stuart Dybek's ''The Coast of Chicago'' (2004), written in a style blending the gritty with the dreamlike, is a collection of fourteen short stories about growing up in Chicago, largely in neighborhoods such as Pilsen and Little Village populated by Eastern European and Latino immigrant communities. * Eve Ewing's poetry collection ''1919'' (2019), a follow-up to her 2017 volume ''Electric Arches,'' uses poetry to depict the Chicago race riot of 1919 and grapple with its legacy a century after the Red Summer of 1919. * James T. Farrell's ''Studs Lonigan: A Trilogy'' (1935) focuses on the often bitter lives of Chicago's South Side Irish-Americans during the 1920s and 30s, tying their fates to larger cultural narratives like the American Dream and to historical events like

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

and the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. *

Lorraine Hansberry Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an American playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Her best-known work, the play ''A Raisin ...

's play ''

A Raisin in the Sun ''A Raisin in the Sun'' is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes. The story tells of a black family's experiences in south Ch ...

'' (1959 Broadway debut) depicts the struggles faced by a working-class family of black Chicagoans who attempt to purchase a home in a segregated white neighborhood. The play echoes a real event: in 1938, Hansberry's father challenged the

restrictive covenant A covenant, in its most general and covenant (historical), historical sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. Under historical English common law, a covenant was distinguished from an ordinary contract by the ...

that enforced racial segregation in Chicago's Washington Park Subdivision. *

Audrey Niffenegger Audrey Niffenegger (born June 13, 1963) is an American writer, artist, and academic. Her debut novel, '' The Time Traveler's Wife'', published in 2003, was a bestseller. Biography Audrey Niffenegger was born in 1963 in South Haven, Michigan. At ...

's science fiction love story ''

The Time Traveler's Wife ''The Time Traveler's Wife'' is the debut novel by American author Audrey Niffenegger, published in 2003. It is a love story about Henry, a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably, and about Clare, his wife, an a ...

'' (2003) takes place largely in North Side Chicago settings, including the

Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities. It is located in Chicago, Illinois, and has been free and open to the public since 1887. The Newberry's mission is to foster a deeper understanding of our wo ...

. *

's '' The Pit'' (1903) is a naturalistic novel about greed and speculation at the early 20th-century

Chicago Board of Trade The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), is an American futures exchange, futures and options exchange that was founded in 1848. On July 12, 2007, the CBOT merged with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to form CME Group. CBOT and three other excha ...

. It is the second installment in ''The Epic of Wheat,'' a never-finished trilogy in which Norris planned to depict the economic life cycle of this crucial commodity from production to consumption. *

's '' Chicago Poems'' (1916) depicts scenes from early-twentieth-century Chicago, often focusing on working-class characters and commenting on the class divide. With this early volume, Sandburg established his reputation as the poet of the common American. *

's ''

The Jungle ''The Jungle'' is a novel by American author and muckraking-journalist Upton Sinclair, known for his efforts to expose corruption in government and business in the early 20th century. In 1904, Sinclair spent seven weeks gathering information ...

'' (1906) belongs to the canons of both Chicago literature and US labor history for its muckraking depiction of the desolation experienced by Lithuanian immigrants working in the

Union Stock Yards The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards, was the meatpacking district in Chicago for more than a century, starting in 1865. The district was formed by a group of railroad companies that acquired marshland and turned it into a vast cen ...

on Chicago's Southwest Side. * Richard Wright's '' Native Son'' (1940), set in Depression-era Bronzeville and Hyde Park, is about a doomed, young, black man warped by the racism and poverty that define his surroundings.

Nonfiction

* Karen Abbott's ''Sin in the Second City'' (2007) provides a history of Chicago's vice district, the Levee, and some of the early twentieth-century personalities involved: gangsters, corrupt politicians, crusading reformers, and two sisters who ran the most elite brothel in town. *

Jane Addams Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860May 21, 1935) was an American Settlement movement, settlement activist, Social reform, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, philosopher, and author. She was a leader in the history of s ...

' ''Twenty Years at Hull-House'' (1910), written by a social reformer who won the 1931 Nobel Peace prize, is an autobiography combined with firsthand investigation of poverty, immigrant communities, and political activism in turn-of-the-20th-century Chicago. * Erik Larson's ''Devil in the White City'' (2003) is a best-selling popular history about the 1893 Colombian Exposition; it's also about the serial killer who was stalking the city at the same time. Straight history of the Exposition and also the workers' paradise in Pullman is found in James Gilbert's ''Perfect Cities: Chicago's Utopias of 1893''. *

Mike Royko Michael Royko Jr. (September 19, 1932 – April 29, 1997) was an American newspaper columnist from Chicago, Illinois. Over his 42-year career, he wrote more than 7,500 daily columns for the '' Chicago Daily News'', the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', an ...

's ''Boss'' (1971), written by a ''Chicago Daily News'' columnist, is a biography of the powerful mayor Richard J. Daley. The book provides a critical look at Daley's rise to power and at Chicago's political culture of "clout". ''American Pharaoh'' (Cohen and Taylor) is a scholarly treatment of the same subject. *

Studs Terkel Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1985 for ''The Good War'' and is best remembered for his oral histor ...

's ''Working'' (1974) is a series of interviews with American workers. Although Terkel interviewed people in other cities, most of his material comes from Chicago, and the book uses interviews to paint a composite portrait of Chicago as a laboring town.Austen, Jake.
Building Stories vs. Working: Greatest Chicago Book Tournament, round one
" ''Chicago Reader'' 29 Dec 2014.

Alternate Chicagos

Alternative versions of Chicago sometimes appear in fantasy and science fiction novels. * Rena Barron's ''Maya and the Rising Dark'' (2020) is the start of a middle-grade fantasy series set in contemporary Chicago. *

Jim Butcher Jim Butcher (born October 26, 1971) is an American author., He has written the contemporary Fantasy literature, fantasy ''The Dresden Files'', ''Codex Alera'', and ''Cinder Spires'' book series. Personal life Butcher was born in Independence, M ...

's ''

The Dresden Files ''The Dresden Files'' is a series of contemporary fantasy/Mystery fiction, mystery novels written by American author Jim Butcher. The first novel, ''Storm Front (The Dresden Files), Storm Front''—which was also Butcher's writing debut—was p ...

'' (begun 2000) is a series set in Chicago about Harry Dresden, Chicago's first (and only) Wizard PI, who protects the city from supernatural attack. * C. L. Polk's '' Even Though I Knew the End'' (2022), which won the

Nebula Award for Best Novella The Nebula Award for Best Novella is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy novellas. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a novella if it is between 17,500 and 4 ...

, is set in a fantasy version of 1940s Chicago. *

Veronica Roth Veronica Anne Roth (born August 19, 1988) is an American novelist and short story writer, known for her bestselling ''Divergent'' trilogy which has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide. Personal and early life Veronica Roth was born ...

's ''Divergent'' trilogy (2011–2013) is a young-adult series set in a dystopian future Chicago.

Other

Other noted writers, who were from Chicago or who spent a significant amount of their careers in Chicago include,

David Mamet David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, author, and filmmaker. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony Award, Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and ''Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first ...

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

Ben Hecht Ben Hecht (; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and play ...

John Dos Passos John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist, most notable for his U.S.A. (trilogy), ''U.S.A.'' trilogy. Born in Chicago, Dos Passos graduated from Harvard College in 1916. He traveled widely as a ...

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American writer, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best known for creating the characters Tarzan (who appeared in ...

, Edgar Lee Masters,

, and Hamlin Garland.

Notes

Furthur reading

*Duffey, Bernard, ''The Chicago Renaissance in American Letters,''

Greenwood Press Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG) was an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which was part of ABC-Clio. Since 2021, ABC-Clio and its suite of imprints, including GPG, are collectively imprints of B ...

, Westport CT (1972) * * Moore, Michelle E., ''Chicago and the Making of American Modernism: Cather, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald in Conflict'', Bloomsbury Academic, London and New York (2019)

External links

Chicago Literary Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago Literature Chicago in fiction Literature by topic

Themes and movements

Periodization

Works about Chicago or set in Chicago

Fiction, drama, and poetry

Nonfiction

Alternate Chicagos

Other

See also

Notes

Furthur reading

External links