On September 10th, 2026, Patti Smith – the iconic singer, poet, essayist, and literary citizen – will receive the 2026 Harold Washington Literary Award in Chicago. This prestigious award, named for Chicago’s first black mayor, will be presented by Chicago’s Near South Planning Board, kicking off Printers Row Lit Fest, one of the largest literary and ideas festivals in the United States.
Past recipients of the Harold Washington Literary Award, launched in 1989, include Isabel Allende, Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, Tracy K. Smith, Susan Sontag and Colson Whitehead, among other literary lights.
A true literary multi-hyphenate, Smith is known for her medium-expansive storytelling, including her groundbreaking 1975 album “Horses” and her 2010 book “Just Kids,” which won the 2010 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
“Patti Smith is unparalleled in her ability to create deeply literary work across genres,” says Center for Story & Witness Co-Founder Anne K. Ream, who co-chaired the award selection committee alongside novelist Rosellen Brown of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
“While her musical career – in which she writes and performs songs that are a kind of punk/poetry fusion – is widely celebrated, her more traditional literary output has been equally impactful. Patti’s work asks us to encounter the pain experienced by ‘the other,’ and to rise up in response to that pain. The stories she tells have never felt more urgent than they do today.”
Thank you, Patti, for your powerful and purposeful literary voice. And a special thanks to the 2026 Harold Washington Literary Award Selection Committee – including Center for Story & Witness’s own R. Clifton Spargo – for your commitment to centering literature that is creatively compelling and change-creating.
THE HAROLD WASHINGTON LITERARY AWARDS :
Presented by the Near South Planning Board
Thursday, September 10th, 2026
5:00 pm
The Union League of Chicago
65 West Jackson, Chicago, IL