Printers Row Lit Fest returns to South Loop

The 36th annual Printers Row Lit Fest will return (rain or shine) Sept. 11-12 from 10 am to 6 pm at Dearborn Street and Polk in the South Loop. Headlining the festival will be National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates ("The Water Dancer," Between the World and Me", "The Beautiful Struggle") who will be honored the night before the fest, Sept. 10, at a kick-off gala (https://thenspb.org/) as this year's Harold Washington Literary Award winner.

The free festival, one of the largest literary events in the Midwest, will take place along Dearborn Street from Polk St. north to Ida B. Wells Dr. and will include tents filled with booksellers, author events, spoken word performances, writing workshops, Specific programs will feature a BookTok panel exploring the growing presence of book-related presenters on TikTok; a commemorative Sept. 11 event with John Bodnar (“Divided by Terror: American Patriotism after 9/11”) in conversation with University of Illinois Chicago professor Nadine Naber (“Arab America: Gender, Cultural Politics, and Activism”); and an event for the 150th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire with Northwestern University professor Carl Smith (“Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City”).

The festival is presented by the Near South Planning Board, a not-for-profit community based organization serving businesses, institutions and property owners since 1946. (For more information, visit printersrowlitfest.org.)