2025 Ultimate Guide to Chicago’s Literary Scene: Bookstores, Clubs, & Events
By Cynthia Okechukwu, Betsy Tomszak, and Allison Yates
Cynthia Okechuwku holding Sandra Cisnero’s The House on Mango Street and Eve L. Ewing’s Electric Arches. Photo credit Kyle Nowacyzk.
Whether you’re new to Chicago, ending your reading hiatus, or a book lover looking for community, Chicago’s literary world offers Chicagoans and visitors alike a chance to dive into a world of endless book-buying opportunities (and an ever-growing TBR list), social connections, and bookish events every night of the week. For a newcomer, suffice to say it can be overwhelming to know where to start.
To simplify the options, book club leads and Chicagoans Cynthia Okechukwu of Black Girls Read Book Club, Betsy Tomszak of Books with Betsy, and Allison Yates of Read & Run Chicago created this guide for where to begin your journey. From literary landmarks and indie bookstores to author talks and social clubs for every interest, here’s your 2025 guide to Chicago’s literary world.
Chicago Bookstores
Call & Response Books in Hyde Park.
Top Independent Bookstores to Visit:
📍 Call & Response (Hyde Park)
📍 Women & Children First (Andersonville)
📍 Pilsen Community Books (Pilsen)
Chicago has nearly 50 locally-owned bookstores for all types of readers, whether your preferred genre is romance or comics, if you want to read books by AANHPI authors, or seek untranslated versions of books by Spanish or Polish-speaking authors. Reading–“romantasy” and escapism, in particular–may be having a cultural moment, but Chicago’s legacy as a literary city started far before BookTok and is most evident in both longstanding and recently opened bookstores.
[Related: Best Chicago Bookstores to Visit in 2025]
Part of Read & Run Chicago’s mission is to support small businesses, namely indie bookstores. Small businesses heavily contribute to their local communities, benefitting everything from jobs, local charity donations, and directly reinvesting in their communities. Opt for your neighborhood store to make the most impact, whether Da Book Joint in South Shore, Plot Twist Used Books in Portage Park, or Three Avenues Bookshop in Lakeview.
Stretching from Roger's Park to Roseland, Chicago’s best independent bookstores represent the ultimate central hub for not just books and great recommendations, but special events including book clubs and author talks. They’ll also clue you into industry news and often even political action. Follow Chicago’s indie bookstores on social media and subscribe to their events newsletters for updates.
Chicago Book Clubs
Members of Read & Run Chicago and Black Girls Read Book Club at Da Book Joint.
Must-Join Book Clubs
📚 Chicago Public Library Book Clubs – Free discussions for all ages
📚 Black Girls Read Book Club – Celebrating books by Black women authors
📚 Ladies Who Lit – Combines book discussions with social events
🌟 Looking for silent reading meetups? Join Silent Book Club Chicago at Dorothy Downstairs or Two Mile Coffee.
There’s a book club for every reader in Chicago, if you know where to look!
Start with Chicago Public Library, which sponsors a range of book discussion groups for children, teens, and adults, both in-person and virtually, at branches across the city. For example, you can join the Weird Book Club for fans of speculative fiction or the Chicago History Book Club to discuss titles like There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz and The South Side by Natalie Y. Moore. Or if you’re looking for a more nontraditional book club experience, there’s the No Book Club, described as “an informal meeting to share your thoughts about a book you recently read or a favorite you'd like to recommend.”
Chicago also boasts a strong independent bookstore community that hosts a variety of monthly book discussions. Try signing up for your favorite bookstore’s email newsletter to stay in the loop on their book club happenings. In Andersonville, Women & Children First’s Banned Books Book Group reads books that have been challenged or banned in the U.S. Unabridged Bookstore in Lakeview East recently launched its Reading Is Resistance Book Club, which is “dedicated to new books and classic texts that are relevant for one to remain informed and engaged.” In West Town, you can grab a cup of something to sip on at Passages Wine and Books, a combination bookstore and (soon-to-be!) wine cafe, and stay for its relaxed book club discussion.
In addition, Chicago is overflowing with exciting book clubs organized by individual book lovers. Some center books from specific ethnic or cultural communities—like Las Chicas de Pilsen, a Pilsen-based book and social club focused on Latina-authored books, or Cynthia Okechwuku’s own book club, Black Girls Read Book Club, which features books by Black women authors. Others offer both book discussions and social or cultural experiences for readers who want to get out, experience the city, and meet new people. Make sure to check out the Ladies Who Lit, which hosts movie nights, themed dinner parties, and more to pair with its book selections by women authors, and Off Color Book Club, co-hosted by Betsy Tomszak of Books With Betsy, at The Mousetrap for books and beer pairings.
And for the introverts among us, Chicago is home to a number of chapters of the national Silent Book Club, where you can gather with other book lovers and read a book of your choice. You can search for your local chapter on their website. The queer-centered chapter meets at Dorothy Downstairs, a lesbian cocktail lounge in West Town, and a South Side chapter meets at Two Mile Coffee in Beverly. Call & Response Books in Hyde Park/Kenwood also regularly hosts its own silent reading party, “Do Not Disturb.”
Start here:
Find and register for a Chicago Public Library book discussion group by visiting the CPL Events page, where you can filter by target age, location, language, and more. Also check out CPL’s One Book, One Chicago, a citywide reading program offering events (including book discussions) that bring Chicago residents together around the same book.
Join a local chapter of a national book club, such as No Name Book Club’s Chicago Book Club or the Well-Read Black Girl Book Group at Women & Children First.
Sign up for Read & Run Chicago email newsletter so you’ll be among the first to know when the running tours and book club runs for Summer 2025 are announced!
Bookish Events & Social Clubs in Chicago
Read & Run Chicago volunteer Tahnee Lacey meets author Christie Tate at a Read & Run Chicago event. Photo credit Casey Alexandra.
Looking for bookish events to experience alongside fellow book lovers, but not necessarily traditional book clubs? Chicago has lots of that, too, and while each organization, bookstore, or institution unites around a shared love of literature, each offers a unique spin and ranges from formal author talks to no-frills meetups.
For formal events and author talks, subscribe and follow newsletters and social media accounts of independent bookstores and literary institutions on this blog post for upcoming events. Most of these talks and events are ticketed.
Community groups like Read & Run Chicago and others like Chicago Books & Social Club and Expand the Classroom pop up at bookshops, gardens, and other venues across the city with book swaps, craft nights, and more. At Read & Run Chicago, we host book-themed guided field trips and social outings outside of our formal guided running events related to Chicago’s literary world, along with weekly meetups of 30 minutes of movement your way followed by 30 minutes of movement and social time. Most of these events are free and community focused.
Besides those groups, Chicago Literary Hall of Fame offers literary-focused field trips like South Side literary bus tours.
Checking each of these groups’ social media accounts is a good way to get a sense of what they offer and where you’ll be most comfortable.
Start here:
Subscribe to Read & Run Chicago’s newsletter for news on our upcoming literary-themed field trips and social outings
Chicago Books & Social Club’s meetups for women and non-binary readers are promoted on their Instagram
[Related: Best Black-Owned Bookstores in Chicago 2025]
Storytelling & Open Mic Nights in Chicago
If you’re interested in hearing directly from authors, poets, and other storytellers, there are a host (pun intended) of live storytelling events, author readings, and open mics in Chicago! You can attend readings throughout the city that support new and upcoming writers, along with those that are more established or even try your hand at sharing your story.
For an established series, try the Sunday Reading Series at the Hungry Brain. This is a monthly free reading series on the third Sunday of the month curated by Simone Muench and Kenyatta Rogers. For a combination of free in-person and zoom reading experiences, Sunday Salon Chicago at Roscoe Books. This features both local and farther afield authors (on zoom) sharing from their work.
There are also several storytelling events throughout the city, including Outspoken at Sidetracks, a monthly storytelling event featuring stories from the LGBTQ+ community and Grown Folks Stories sponsored by the Silver Room, which meets every third Thursday of the month at The Promontory in Hyde Park and features BIPOC storytellers. And if you’re interested in trying your own hand at an open mic in a safe and welcoming environment, you can join Work it Out: A Work-in-Progress Open mic at Dorothy, hosted by comedian Rogue Schmidt.
Start here:
If you need to be convinced of why an open mic might be worth your time, especially in Chicago, listen to this episode of City Cast Chicago
For a comprehensive list, see both the Chicago Poetry Center and the Chicago Storytelling events calendars to find just the right event for you
Chicago’s Literary Landmarks
The George C. Hall Branch of the Chicago Public Library, where CPL’ s first Black librarian, Vivian G. Harsh, served as its first branch manager and welcomed famous Black literary figures like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.
Whether you’re a recent transplant or a lifelong resident, you know that Chicago’s rich literary tradition has influenced writers and readers the world over. Throughout the city, sites with connections to Chicago’s famous literary figures abound.
Up north, you’ll find the second-floor Ravenswood apartment where Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and biographer Carl Sandberg wrote his iconic poem “Chicago.” Down south in the Back of the Yards, The Union Stock Yard Gate at Exchange Avenue and Peoria Street is all that remains of Chicago’s meatpacking district, infamously depicted in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Out west, the suburb of Oak Park is the location of the birth home of Ernest Hemingway (now a museum celebrating the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author’s life and work), as well as the childhood home of Jane Hamilton, the award-winning and internationally bestselling author of The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World.
Humboldt Park has several literary claims to fame. As of 2012, the 2600 block of West Augusta Boulevard is known as the “Honorary Saul Bellow Way,” after the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author whose childhood home still stands on that stretch of Augusta between Washtenaw and Rockwell. In 2019, a commemorative yellow brick road was built on the sidewalk at Humboldt Boulevard and Wabansia Avenue, near the former site of the home where L. Frank Baum lived while writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1899. And while Sandra Cisneros’s childhood home at 1525 North Campbell Avenue (the inspiration for The House on Mango Street) has been torn down, other nearby homes are similar to the one young Esperanza describes in the novel.
Cynthia is particularly partial to sites with connections to writers of the Chicago Black Renaissance, who helped make the South Side a thriving intellectual, artistic, and cultural center in the 1930s through 1950s. In Bronzeville, the home of Richard Wright, author of Native Son and Black Boy, is a Chicago Landmark. Just a few blocks away is the George C. Hall Branch of the Chicago Public Library, where CPL’ s first Black librarian, Vivian G. Harsh, served as its first branch manager and welcomed famous Black literary figures like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.
A bit further south in Woodlawn, you’ll find the three-flat Lorraine Hansberry’s family purchased in 1937, despite the fact that it was subject to a restrictive housing covenant intended to prevent sales of homes to African Americans. The Hansberrys’ legal battle against racially-restrictive housing covenants inspired her classic A Raisin in the Sun, the first play by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway. And in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood is the home of Gwendolyn Brooks, where the first Black Pulitzer Prize winner and former Poet Laureate of Illinois spent most of her adult life.
Start here:
The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s interactive map to Chicago’s literary landmarks
Lifting As They Climbed: Mapping a History of Trailblazing Black Women in Chicago by Mariame Kaba and Essence McDowell for self-guided walking tours, including locations with connections to significant Black women literary figures from the South and West sides
Chicago’s Literary-Focused Museums & Institutions
Read & Run Chicago visits Gerber/Hart Library & Archives.
Part of Chicago’s underrated literary scene is the wealth of museums, libraries, and literary institutions. A major historical landmark in Chicago’s literary history, and an excellent architectural experience, is the Chicago Cultural Center. This was Chicago’s original library, a gift from Queen Victoria after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
Today, the Cultural Center is no longer a library, but the Chicago Public Library has 81 locations featuring incredible architecture and locally curated events. Some branches of note are the Lozano in Pilsen, Chinatown, Little Italy, and the main branch, Harold Washington.
In addition to the public library, The Newberry Library has a huge collection of rare and historical primary sources related to the humanities, in addition to literary exhibits and events. Chicago is also home to The Poetry Foundation, a brick and mortar location for the publication Poetry magazine. It hosts events, exhibits, and an over 40,000 volume poetry library. The Stony Island Arts Bank is a gorgeous project by the Rebuild Foundation featuring Chicago-based artists, writers, and community organizations.
Start here:
The American Writers Museum is a Chicago institution, celebrating American writers of all types: fiction, non-fiction, journalists, poets, and more, with interactive exhibits and an excellent children’s literature room.
A hidden gem in Chicago is the Gerber/Hart Library & Archives, featuring a library of LGBTQ+ texts, historical documents, ephemera from LGBTQ+ movements, and biographical materials from LGBTQ+ individuals and organizations.
Chicago Literary Festivals
Read & Run Chicago at Printer’s Row Lit Fest with Alicia Burton and Peter Cole of the 1919 Chicago Race Riot Commemoration Project.
Top Chicago Literary Festivals
✍️ Printer’s Row Lit Fest (September) – The Midwest’s largest book festival
✍️ Words of Wonder (July) – A celebration of diverse literature
✍️ Lit & Luz Festival (Fall) – Spotlighting Latinx authors
There’s nothing quite as exciting as seeing all your favorite authors speak about their latest books back to back, all while fangirling alongside fellow book lovers. Both hyper-local and world-renowned authors grace the stages of the biyearly weekend festival in April, American Writers Festival, July’s annual Words of Wonder Literary Festival and September’s Printer’s Row Lit Fest, the Midwest’s largest annual outdoor literary festival. Find a selection of indie bookstores, community groups, and plenty of book-related networking at these events.
For Spanish language speakers and learners, the Chicago portion of Lit & Luz Festival takes place during Latinx Heritage Month each fall, while the festival’s Mexico City counterpart pops up each spring. Find your next favorite Mexican poet or hear a masterclass on translation.
The Chicago Public Library often hosts or co-hosts festivals, such as the 2024 South Side Lit Fest at the Bridgeport Library Branch.
Prefer something more intimate? Follow news and social media from local bookstores for smaller-scale, single-day literary festivals that pop-up throughout the year.
Literary-Themed Bars & Restaurants in Chicago
Kibbitznest in Lincoln Park.
Best Chicago Bars for Book Lovers
🍸 Kibbitznest (Lincoln Park) - a no-WiFi zone full of books
🍸 Wilde Bar (Lakeview) an upscale Irish pub food and an extensive beer list named for Oscar Wilde
Chicago has an incredible restaurant and bar scene, with celebrity chefs, cocktail experts, delicious bakeries, and a thriving craft beer market. Naturally, as Chicago is a literary city, there is quite a lot of crossover between these two interests. Not only are there so many great places to read but bars and restaurants specifically curated for the reading customer.
To begin your day in a literary setting, head to The Bourgeois Pig Cafe for a coffee and pastry as you read. Continue on by visiting Lady Gregory’s in Andersonville which has a library room in the back. You can spend the afternoon in a cozy chair by the fire at the Drawing Room in the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel. Find a heartwarming dinner surrounded by walls lined with books at The Red Lion Pub and finish your night at The Gatsby, the speakeasy located in The Bourgeois Pig for prohibition-style cocktails.
If you just want a great place to park and read, there are a ton of bars and cafes that welcome readers, aren’t too loud, and some even have bookshelves to borrow from: Gilt Bar in River North; Beermiscuous in Lakeview; Pleasant House in Pilsen; Dorothy’s in West Town; Off Color Mousetrap in Lincoln Park; Plein Air Cafe in Hyde Park; Map Room in Bucktown; and Old Town Ale House in Old Town.
Related: Best Places to Read in Chicago This Winter
Resources for Up-and-Coming Writers in Chicago
Top Resources for Writers
✍️ StoryStudio Chicago
✍️ The Newberry Library
This is for all the readers & runners who write. If you’ve considered writing your own works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and more, Chicago is full of resources for up-and-coming writers to strengthen their skills or give you the nudge to finally take the plunge. With so many world-renowned authors living in Chicago, that means that you often get to learn from the best at many institutions in Chicago–and not just formal university settings.
One of the most well-known educational centers is StoryStudio Chicago, helmed by our very own Rebecca Makkai, award-winning author of The Great Believers. Learn everything from honing your craft to the nuts and bolts of the publishing process, or opt into an intense writers retreat. Other institutions like The Newberry Library offer continuing education.