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The Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Book Award at the Newberry Library 

The Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Book Award at the Newberry Library is presented annually to a book that transforms public understanding of Chicago, its history, or its people. The prize, established in 2021 in partnership with the Newberry Library, brings attention to publications that advance greater insight into the city among a general readership while resonating with the Newberry’s collections related to the history and people of Chicago.  Eligible books may be fiction or nonfiction and may come from all subject areas, disciplines and genres.  Titles must be available for purchase by the general public and promote the public understanding of Chicago.  The award is presented at a public event at the Newberry Library and includes a lecture or conversation with the prize winner. 

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2026 Prize Winner

The Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Book Award 2026 prize winner is Clout City: The Rise and Fall of the Chicago Political Machine by Dominic A Pacyga 

2026 Honorable
Mention

 

This is Rhythm: Ella Jenkins, Children's Music and the Long Civil Rights Movement by Gayle F. Wald (University of Chicago Press)

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To learn more about the most recent award receiptients or submit a book for consideration, please visit the Newberry Library. 

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Past Winners

2024

Prize Winner: Chicago Skyscrapers 1934-1986: How Technology, Politics, Finance and Race Reshaped the City by Thomas Leslie (University of Illinois Press)

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Honorable Mention: Muddy Ground: Native Peoples, Chicago’s Portage, and the Transformation of the Continent by John William Nelson (University of North Carolina Press) 

2023

Prize Winner: Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe (William Morrow Publishing)​

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Honorable Mention: When the News Broke: Chicago 1968 and the Polarizing of America by Heather Hendershot (University of Chicago Press)

2022

Prize Winner: Three Girls from Bronzeville by Dawn Turner (Simon & Schuster)​

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Honorable Mentions:

Refugee High: Coming of Age in America by Elly Fishman(The New Press)

 

Louis Sullivan’s Idea by Tim Samuelson (Alphawood Foundation; distributed by University of Minnesota Press). Edited and designed by Chris Ware

 

Sun Ra’s Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City by William Sites (University of Chicago Press)

 

Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City by Carl Smith (Atlantic Monthly Press)

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