I get very attached to my adopted homes. Evanston is probably the smallest of the cities I’ve lived in for long periods of time and, for that reason, I find it the most fascinating. Sitting like a little hat on the top of Chicago, it seems to have this odd ability to pull in talent from all walks of life. Recently I heard about a new author resident, recently relocated to town, and I got to thinking about all the writers that currently live here. Curious? Here’s a quick list of some of our most famous literary residents (just the ones living here today). And, naturally, you can find their books at the Evanston Public Library.
Natasha Tretheway
This Pulitzer Prize winner is a recent transplant to the area, all thanks to a job relocation to Northwestern. Amongst her many accomplishments, you’ll find that she was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 2012 and again in 2014. There’s nothing worse than having an accomplished writer move to your city only to find you don’t have any of their books in your library collection. Happily we have a large swath of books. Catch up on your reading and check out her books Thrall, Native Guard, or Domestic Work.
Scott Turow
The New York Times bestseller isn’t easy to spot around town, but his books certainly are. Haven’t read his stuff? Why not start with his most recent titles. We have Testimony, Identical, and Preseumed Innocent as well as a slew of his other books. Good for the thriller inside you.
Joseph Epstein
A frequent patron of the library, to his credit, and a charming individual to boot. This essayist and short-story writer was the editor of the magazine The American Scholar for more than twenty years. Treat yourself to Frozen In Time: Stories, Wind Sprints: Shorter Essays, or Gossip: The Untrivial Pursuit for starters.
Garry Wills
Ms. Tretheway is not the only Pulitzer winner in town, of course. In 1993 Mr. Wills won the prize for General Non-Fiction and unless Wikipedia is leading me much astray (not an impossible probability) he is currently an Emeritus Professor of History at Northwestern University. His most recent titles include What the Qur’an Meant and Why It Matters, The Future of the Catholic Church With Pope Francis, and Making Make-Believe Real: Politics as Theater in Shakespeare’s Time.
Laurence Gonzalez
Dividing his time between Evanston and Sante Fe, you’ll find such titles as Surviving Survival,Flight 232, and the bestseller Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why in the Evanston Public Library Collection.
And by the way, if you want to travel down a rabbit hole from which you will never emerge, I highly suggest that you check out the Wikipedia pages List of People From Evanston, IL and the Evanston Township High School Alumni list as well. Warning: You may never emerge again.
