Newberry Announces Prize Honoring Chicago
The Newberry Library in Chicago announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with the Pattis Family Foundation, headquartered in Highland Park, Ill., to present the Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Award. A $25,000 prize will be given each year to the fiction or nonfiction title that, according to the announcement, best “transforms public understanding of Chicago, its history, or its people.” The award is intended to spotlight books that provide greater insight into the Windy City “while resonating with the Newberry’s collections related to the history and people of Chicago.”
Each year, the award will be presented at a public event at the Newberry, which will feature a lecture by or conversation with the recipient will be recorded for broadcast on the Newberry’s website and social media channels. Books nominated for the inaugural 2022 Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Award must bear a 2020 or 2021 copyright date.
The Newberry, founded in 1887, contains a collection of 1.6 million books, 5 million manuscript pages, and 600,000 maps illustrating the history of humankind from the Middle Ages to the present.
