Previous Lit 50 lists concentrated on movers and shakers in our city's literary world: the ones who helped shake books off their shelves. This time around we decided to focus on a different kind of player, the literati who help make our city as vibrant as possible by hosting readings and festivals; the bestsellers who flex Chi pride when they're meeting with their New York publisher; the writers whose prose we've always admired. On this year's list we have a living legend, the Nobel Prize winner for literature, a literary card shark, last year's publishing Cinderella story, rock 'n' roll poets, Hef's chronicler and more.

1.Studs Terkel
A veritable walking encyclopedia of Chicago history, Terkel listens before he writes. With the attention to detail of a portrait painter, Terkel has rendered the lifestyles of the "Working," people of every "Race," the good times and the "Hard Times." The latest published work of the American who interviews Americans is "Hope Dies Last," conversations with everyday folks of all stripes, from activist Kathy Kelly to retired farm worker Jessie de la Cruz. At 92 years young, and two martinis a day, Terkel is at work on another collection of interviews with musicians.

2. J.M. Coetzee
The Cape Town, South Africa-born writer spends half the year teaching at the University of Chicago's Committee on Social Thought. The reclusive novelist, famous for disdaining interviews, just had quite the public year. Already anointed with two Booker Prizes, a first for an author, Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. In last year's critically acclaimed "Elizabeth Costello," he sends up this world of receiving awards and giving speeches--his eponymous protagonist is an aging author trapped on the speaking circuit.

3. Scott Turow
Just because Scott Turow has written a slew of crime thrillers doesn't mean he's not grounded in reality. In between working pro-bono international court cases last year, Turow published his most recent book, "Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty." Meanwhile, his 2002 novel "Reversible Errors," just aired as a CBS miniseries. As if the writer doesn't have enough material to defend already, Turow occasionally rocks out with his band of authors--from Matt Groening to Amy Tan--as a member of the Rock Bottom Remainders.

4. Audrey Niffenegger
The respected book artist became last year's publishing Cinderella story with her first stab at a novel, "The Time Traveler's Wife." Scott Turow picked the Columbia College professor's time-traveling romance for the Today Show Book Club, it topped People magazine's top-ten list, and Amazon named the sci-fi love story the best book of the year. The Newberry Library and Ann Sather's, among other Chicago locations, might be scenes in an upcoming film based on the book, as a certain celebrity couple--can you say Bradifer?--has optioned the film rights.

5. Stuart Dybek
Studs Terkel proclaimed this Chicago-born writer to be the new Nelson Algren. He's at the forefront of today's generation of scribes documenting this city's working-class roots, paving the ways for writers like John McNally, author of the recent South-Side-set "The Book of Ralph." Although he technically doesn't live in Chicago--he's across the lake teaching in Kalamazoo--there's not many writers breathing this city's history more. Mayor Daley echoed this thought when he selected "The Coast of Chicago" as spring's new citywide reading pick, now lined up side by side in bookstores with Dybek's latest collection, "I Sailed With Magellan."

6. Mark Strand
After winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for his poetry collection "Blizzard of One," Strand has not rested on his laurels. Besides having written ten books of poetry, the former U.S. poet laureate has been honored by awards from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and fellowships from The Academy of American Poets and the MacArthur Foundation. If history's any indicator, Strand's teaching position at the University of Chicago in the Committee on Social Thought situates him well: it's a program that has hosted such luminaries as T.S. Eliot, Allan Bloom and Saul Bellow.

7. Aleksandar Hemon
The Bosnian-born writer's sophomore effort, "Nowhere Man," didn't get the reception garnered by his first release, "The Question of Bruno." As if that mattered in the least. The ending chapter of "Nowhere Man" threw the introspective caution of Bruno to the wind and unfurled a high-style imagining of Captain Pick. Whether or not Hemon graces us with another glimpse into these worlds (he's even wondered aloud whether his talent's just a phase), he's a rare talent indeed for this city: one who takes Chicago as his home and looks out to larger worlds than previously imagined.

8. Chris Ware
The retrospective on "Comix Chicago" last summer at the Hyde Park Arts Center revealed something we have known all along: some of our biggest literary bragging rights belong to the comic-book artists and graphic novelists residing and thriving in our city, of which Mr. Jimmy Corrigan reigns as king. "Quimby the Mouse," a large-format collection of his early-nineties stuff, came out last year from Fantagraphics, and Ware just edited McSweeney's #13, a comics issue which includes a teaser from Art Spiegelman's new 9/11 book, essays by John Updike and Ira Glass on comics, and includes the likes of Adrian Tomine and Seth.

9. Christian Wiman
It's taken a few issues with Wiman's name on top of the masthead of Poetry magazine to notice any discernible difference from his predecessor, Joseph Parisi. Wiman has maintained the magazine's rigorous standards, while grappling with the pressures of a new multimillion-dollar endowment. On top of this, the poet and essayist has imbued the institution with new life, with its whimsical covers, expanding its stable of frequent contributors, and inviting (gasp!) prose writers to comment on poetry.

10. Garry Wills
Describing Pulitzer Prize-winner Garry Wills, who's penned more than two-dozen books, as a prolific writer is an understatement. His recent book, "Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power," falls aptly on the heels of "Saint Augustine's Sin," and adds to the stack of works he's authored dealing with political figures and religion. Outside of his lectures as an adjunct history professor in Northwestern classrooms, Wills frequently touts his often-controversial opinions on topics like the Catholic Church and "The Passion of the Christ" in essays for The New York Times Book Review. His book "Lead Time: A Journalist's Education," comes out in paperback this July.

11. Alex Kotlowitz
While Alex Kotlowitz says he's drawn to marginal folks, he's certainly inside the Chicago lit scene. He tops off his pair of acclaimed nonfiction immersions this July with a book of essays and travelogues entitled "Never a City So Real." When he's not receiving literary and radio documentary awards--most recently the 2004 Gracie Allen Award for Speaking of Sex, "Burying Breezy"--or writing bits for The New York Times Magazine or The New Yorker, Kotlowitz spends time teaching Northwestern undergrads writing.

12. James McManus
This Art Institute prof sure knows when to hold 'em: since last year's release of Las Vegas rules of the game "Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs and Binion's World Series of Poker," he's rode the poker popularity wave, even teaching a class on the science and literature of the subject, and picking up a Peter Lisagor award for sports journalism. After taking another trip to the World Series of Poker this year, the question remains, what's he playing next?

13. Kenneth Clarke
Wellversed in bringing new audiences to poetry, the Poetry Center's dynamic executive director has, in the past year, staged a reading with Mark Strand at the Metro, and produced ex-Smashing Pumpkin's Billy Corgan debut poetry reading. Other interdisciplinary collaborations he's helped foster include the ongoing broadside's project, which pairs a prominent painter with a poet, and the upcoming event with legendary stanza smith Miller Williams and his daughter, Grammy-winning songstress Lucinda Williams.

14. Joseph Parisi
It's been a while now since the longtime editor of Poetry magazine was seen in the stacks of the Newberry Library, with Wagner blaring from his headphones, while attending to the day-to-day of the verse monthly. Though he's no longer at the helm, and has stayed largely out of the public eye, Parisi's legacy is felt now more than ever. The courting of the Eli Lily pharmaceutical heiress and the hundred-million-dollar gift that resulted is now legend. Parisi's legend at Poetry also lives on in the form of two recent books he edited along with senior editor Stephen Young, "Dear Editor: A History of POETRY in Letters," published by W.W. Norton and "The POETRY Anthology 1912-2002," by Chicago publisher Ivan R. Dee.

15. Lisel Mueller
A Chicago transplant from 1920s Germany, Mueller keeps herself busy long after founding the Poetry Center. Winner of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for "Alive Together: New and Selected Poems," a retrospective of her life's work, she grabbed the prestigious (and lucrative) Ruth Lilly Prize in 2002.

16. Roger Ebert
Everyone loves Chicago's famous film critic--or at least his thumb. Although perpetuating Siskel & Ebert seemed unthinkable after Gene Siskel's sad demise, Ebert's made the iconic television show his own, even bringing in hand-picked Sun-Times cohort Richard Roeper as his sidekick. The Pulitzer Prize-winning essayist's annual "Movie Yearbook" sells tons every time the calendar passes go. Expect another this year. And another after that.

17. Ira Glass
The "This American Life" host has helped launch the careers of such contemporary literary icons as Michael Chabon and former Chicagoans David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell. Beyond his role as a star-maker, the audio essays he edits and helps craft on his show are compelling and literary in both content and form.

18. Eileen Mackevich
Named, after the mayor's wife Maggie and culture czar Lois Weisberg, as the most powerful woman in Chicago's arts in the Sun-Times, the city's literary doyenne for the last fifteen years has run the Chicago Humanities Festival, a two-week-long fall festival which brings in literature's heaviest hitters. Appearing once again on this year's slate will be Susan Sontag, Tom Wolfe, and Jeffrey Eugenides, as well as newcomers Roddy Doyle and William Gibson.

19. Reginald Gibbons
Formerly the editor of Northwestern University's literary journal, TriQuarterly, Gibbons now acts as chair of the university's English Department. He's had a hand in encouraging and helping to build the base of support for many of Chicago's small press and literary arts organizations, all while continuing to turn out stunning new poetry. Thankfully, he's getting some recognition for all his hard work: he was winner of this year's O.B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize.

20. Bill Zehme
The professional profiler, famous for one-on-one's with Andy Kaufman, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Carson, and Regis, bagged an elusive bird when he co-wrote last month's "Hef's Little Black Book" with the mansion-man himself. Word around the campfire is that the longtime Esquire contributor's next work will be a full-on bio of Hefner, but nothing's carved in stone.

21. Haki Madhubuti
The founder of the Third World Press is one of the major literary presences, especially when it comes to preserving our city's literary history. The formidable figure in the Black Arts Movement has published former laureate Gwendolyn Brooks and other African-American poets and writers, like local poet and essayist Sterling Plumpp.

22. Laura Kipnis
"Will all the adulterers in the room please stand up?" So begins Kipnis' "Against Love," a self-proclaimed polemic that set tongues wagging in its inquiry into the labor of love, locating the adulterer as possible social revolutionary in the monogamy wars. That'll be our excuse next time. What with marriage on everyone's mind, the former video artist and Northwestern professor couldn't have been more timely, but Kipnis is used to being provocative--her previous essay collection probed the reading of Hustler magazine.

23. Simone Muench
The Marianne Moore prizewinner for her book, "The Air Lost in Breathing," Muench writes in a seductive narrative style that's deceptively plainspoken yet precisely captures the human spectrum of emotions. The recently appointed poetry editor of Another Chicago Magazine has been all over the map as of late, having won last year's juried reading at the Poetry Center in addition to sharing the stage with Mark Strand and Christian Wiman. Muench also was recently awarded the Kathryn Morton Prize for Poetry from Sarabande Books.

24. Gioia Diliberto
Gioia Diliberto's love affair with Madame X made headlines in 2003 as her novel "I am Madame X" (now available in paperback) became Chicago Tribune's "Best Book of 2003" and part of Booklist's "Top Ten Historical Novels." Waltzing away from her former genre--biography--Diliberto is engaged in a second truth-based tale, a historical novel set in Paris.

25. Harry Mark Petrakis
"'Twilight of the Ice' is a powerful book, a dazzling creation. Grace everywhere," Father Andrew Greeley says of book published by Southern Illinois University Press last May, just after Petrakis turned 80. In the course of his 45-year career, the Chicago author has written nine novels and eighteen books, including memoirs about his Greek-American family, and has been short-listed for the National Book Award twice. "Twilight of the Ice" once again deals with Petrakis' inquiry into the struggles of immigrants and the working class, set in the Chicago rail yards of the early fifties, when railroad-car icemen were facing extinction due to modern refrigeration.

26. Elizabeth Berg
If being on Oprah's book list or authoring a dozen books hasn't made Elizabeth Berg a household name, perhaps the CBS telefilm of her 2003 novel "Say When" (slated to air this holiday season) will do the trick. Meanwhile, her latest book, "The Art of Mending," and an audio version of "Talk Before Sleep" just rolled out.

27. Alex Ross
If Alex Ross were a superhero, his pen would be mightier than his sword. In 2004, the "Norman Rockwell of comics" wielded his pen to illustrate Marvel Books' tenth anniversary compilation book. Ross continues to pop up all over the place: recently in a joint Chicago exhibition with his mother, also an artist, and in upcoming appearances coast to coast (and in Chicago) at national comic conventions.

28. Sara Paretsky
Mystery novelist Sara Paretsky gives fans a peek into her creative process as a character in the 2001 documentary film "Women of Mystery." She will also give a commencement address at DePaul's graduation, where she's poised to receive an honorary doctorate. Her latest chronicle of Chicago private eye VI Warshawski, "Blacklist," comes out in paperback this September.

29. Jeff Tweedy
Yeah, Billy Corgan is a poet, but the ex-Smashing Pumpkins frontman doesn't have a book out yet, not until fall. The crooner behind alt-country pioneers Wilco is leading the way in this new breed of rock-star-turned-poet, with the recently released "Adult Head," his first book of poetry published by Omaha's respected Zoo Press, who started an imprint, Nightingale Editions, to explore the connection between poetry and song lyrics. It might take a while before Tweedy receives as much literary merit as respect as a songwriter, a fact he realizes. "Publishing my poetry is a no-win situation," he told the Sun-Times. "I will only lose. But I like poetry, and I've always written poems. I tear them apart and make songs out of them."

30. Joe Meno
Last year's Nelson Algren-award winner's newest novel is being published by Brooklyn press Akashic's new Punk Planet imprint. The Columbia prof pens a monthly column for the Chicago zine, as well as edits Punk Planet's new skateboarding lifestyles mag, Bail. "Hairstyles of the Damned," in bookstores in September, tells the tale of growing up as a punk on the South Side.

31. Jessa Crispin
She pissed off Dale Peck so much that he dismissed this dominatrix of the literary blogosphere as "ditch-dirty stupid" in an interview. The gleeful catfight with the snarky New Republic book critic landed this Austin transplant on the front page of The Reader. In both her online magazine and daily weblog, the blogger bluestocking seethes with insouciance that's addictive ("Liberal cultural warriors? Where are they? Do they have superhero costumes? If so, I'm totally in. If the leaders of the warriors could just drop me an email, that would be great," drawls one recent post) and an authority on all things in the book world, especially comics, that makes us pay attention and adjust our reading lists.

32. Elizabeth Crane
Yes, still hot--the author of last year's much-praised short-story collection "When the Messenger is Hot," picked up the Chicago Public Library's 21st Century Award last summer. The New York transplant's been busy finishing up her forthcoming novel, "All this Heavenly Glory," due from Little, Brown in 2005.

33. Barry Silesky
The biographer of Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Silesky's latest bio of medievalist and hard-drinking novelist John Gardner earned positive notices from Vanity Fair and The New York Times. Another Chicago Magazine, the literary journal for which Silesky has been longtime editor, has become increasingly relevant with the addition of poetry editor Simone Muench and managing editor John Vincler, who helped launch a recent redesign.

34. Jim DeRogatis
The Sun-Times music scribe or, DeRo, as he's commonly known in the music world, had his greatest literary hit so far with "Let it Blurt," his biography of rock critic extraordinaire Lester Bangs. He's also published his musings on the alternative music scene and psychedelic rock--this month marks the release of the most recent collection he's edited, "Kill Your Idols: A New Generation of Rock Writers Consider the Classics," which includes a takedown of Bob Marley by Newcity's Dave Chamberlain. Word has it DeRo's also shopping around a memoir of his life in music.

35. Randall Albers
As the founder of the wildly successful Columbia College Story Week Festival of Writers, Albers has forced a positive change in the city's literary climate. While other festivals largely bring the literary talent from elsewhere, Story Week integrates them into the fabric of Chicago's literary arts, centered on the newly reinvigorated Columbia Fiction Writing Department, which he chairs.

36. Bayo Ojikutu
Ojikutu's heralded debut, "47th Street Black," published by Random House imprint Three Rivers Press, is named after the street that was at the heart of black Chicago in the early sixties. The novel, told from shifting perspectives, traces the trajectory of two friends as they navigate the mean streets of Chicago.

37. Achy Obejas
So many commas: activist, journalist, critic, novelist. The Cuban-born writer, author of the novel "Memory Mambo" and the story collection "We Came All The Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?" has written for every major publication in the city, both the mainstream and gay press, and is a visiting instructor of fiction writing at the University of Chicago. Her latest, "Days of Awe," came out in 2002 in paperback.

38. Carol Anshaw
The award-winning book critic and novelist is one of our city's most storied writers: her debut novel "Aquamarine" won the Sandburg, and she's twice been the finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, including for her most recent novel, "Lucky in the Corner." She helps pass on the fiction flame, teaching writing at the Art Institute.

39. Rosellen Brown
Few writers can brag that the film version of their book starred Meryl Streep, but Rosellen Brown can say just that of her New York Times bestseller "Before and After." In 1992, the year the film was made, the "Rosellen Brown Reader" was also published. The most recent effort of the award-winning prolific prof at the Art Institute is 2000's "Half a Heart."

40. Li-Young Lee
The Chinese poet was considered for poet laureate of Illinois last time around--not bad for a kid whose father was a private physician for Mao Zedong. His books "Rose," "The City in Which I Love You," and his most recent, 2001's "Book of My Nights," continue to inspire the up-and-comers of the poetry scene. The former Northwestern University instructor, who is still one of the youngest poets ever included in the "Norton Anthology of American Literature," is currently lying low with his family and working on his next book. It may be a while--it was ten years between "The City" and "Book."

41. Charles Dickinson
The O. Henry Award-winner took a ten-year hiatus before releasing last year's well-received "A Shortcut in Time," a family-meets-fantasy dramedy of nostalgia about a father racing back in time to uncover some secrets. Previous works include the acclaimed "Waltz in Marathon" and "Crows."

42. Larry Heinemann
The "Cooler by the Lake" scribe has lived his whole life in these parts--except for his time in Vietnam, which inspired his acclaimed essay "The Fragging," published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1997, and 1986's National Book Award-winner "Paco's Story."

43. Shawn Shiflett
"Storytelling of the highest order" blurbed "Trainspotting"'s Irvine Welsh of Shiflett's literary debut, "Hidden Place," published by Akashic Books, set both in Chicago and Mexico. The Columbia College fiction professor's next novel, "Hey, Liberal," deals again with the theme of race, following a white boy in a predominantly African-American high school just after Martin Luther King's assassination.

44. Kathe Telingator
In 1992, Telingator launched Stories on Stage, a short-story reading series that's both broadcast on Chicago Public Radio and read in front of an audience on stage at the Museum of Contemporary Art by Chicago actors. In its twelve years, Stories on Stage has featured the work of more than 120 authors, many of them local, and also commissioned short stories from both big names and up-and-comers.

45. Dan Koretsky and Dan Osborn
Another example of how rock music has become the unlikely bedmate of poetry and fiction, but for the better. The owners of Chicago indie-record-label Drag City have used their distribution connection to find new audiences for literature, launching a publishing wing that put out the well-received collection of poems by Silver Jews lead singer David Berman, as well as a collection of posthumous memoirs and musings from folk-guitar impresario Jon Fahey. A recent reading with Berman, and other big names like "Kids" and "Gummo" auteur Harmony Korine as headliners, drew a crowd of hipsters to the Empty Bottle, none of whom have likely stepped inside a bookstore for a reading.

46. John Beer and Joel Craig
A dark room, except for a small lamp that illuminates a microphone and reader in a corner facing out. All the while, the cash register rings but patrons maintain a respectful silence. The Danny's Reading Series, held in the Bucktown bar, is the closest thing Chicago has to New York's famous KGB series. Sparked by an offhand comment from Fence publisher Rebecca Wolff to founders Greg Purcell and Joel Craig (Purcell has since moved on, to be replaced by poet John Beer), the Danny's Reading Series has gone on to earn a well-deserved reputation for hosting some of the most admired poetry and literary talents in the nation.

47. Thax Douglas
Who is the guy with the beard and the ball cap who bobs to the music at the front of the stage? Even the most amateur rock kids know the name Thax Douglas, as he has made his mark on the music scene as the rock `n' roll poet who introduces bands with a personalized poem before they play their set. Author of the book of poetry, "Tragic Faggot Syndrome," the definition of lo-fi lit, and creator of audio poetry records "Produced by Steve Albini" and a recent release by WLUW, Douglas founded the Myopic Poetry Series way back when and is the subject of a film documentary-in-progress.

48. Ellen Placey Wadey
The winner of the 2001 Scott Turow Fiction Prize keeps herself entertained as the executive director of the Wicker Park-based Guild Complex, which hosts more than one-hundred literary readings yearly at the neighborhood Chopin Theatre. When her hands aren't full planning the upcoming Pablo Neruda 100th Birthday Celebration, she leads her own short story workshop, "Short Story Sirens."

49. Emily Cook
Cook has successfully navigated the transition from her role as the director of the once grassroots Printers Row Book Fair into her new job as the "event producer" for what is now a property of the Chicago Tribune. The jury's still out on what the Tribune will make of the fair; its touch is already apparent in the lineup of big name sponsors on board and the "integration" of Tribune properties into the programming (to wit, the "Good Eating" food tent), but it's enjoying a bit of a free ride on the programming front this year, thanks to the convergence of writers in Chicago for Book Expo America. The question for the future: will the fair retain its grassroots inclusiveness of Chicago's myriad literary players while upgrading its programming to compete with the acclaimed Miami fair, or turn it into a populist, family-oriented thematic street festival?

50. Todd Dills
"All Hands On: A THE2NDHAND Reader" comes out this month, an anthology of the past four years of "The 2nd Hand," Dills' placemat-sized broadsheet publishing short works by local literati like Elizabeth Crane and Joe Meno. The book might just raise Dills, already a public presence at readings in the city and throughout the country, up from the literary underground.

The Lit 50 was edited by Kate Zambreno and written by Jessica Herman, Tom Lynch, Michael Workman, John Vincler and Kate Zambreno.

Not surprisingly, a list of writers and editors by writers and editors is rife with conflicts: Jessa Crispin and John Beer are contributors to Newcity, Tom Lynch is an assistant editor of Another Chicago Magazine, John Vincler works for the Chicago Humanities Festival and is the managing editor for Another Chicago Magazine, Michael Workman is the editor of Bridge magazine, which publishes some of the authors mentioned.
(2004-06-02)

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