Twenty-five years. That’s how long the Chicago Public Library Foundation Awards have been honoring writers, artists and local changemakers. In a quarter of a century, the honorees have been many.

This year, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Percival Everett is receiving the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, Calumet City poet José Olivarez is the recipient of the 21st Century Award and Mary Dempsey, former commissioner of the Chicago Public Library, is taking home the Civic Award.

“It does kind of feel like fate … when we identify what it means to lift up an author in a certain moment in time,” CPLF president and CEO Brenda Langstraat Bui said about the choice of the awardees.

On Percival Everett : “This is the first time that somebody is receiving the Sandburg award in

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