Guild Literary Complex

⭐️ Wesley Frazier-Keys ⭐️ will be the guest performer for the 2026 Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Awards. After winning GBOMA in 2025, we can’t wait to see what he’s bringing to the stage once again!

🎟️ GRAB YOUR TICKETS at the 🔗 in our bio.

🎫 TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW FOR GBOMA 2026! 🎫 The audience picks the winner! Bring your friends, bring your family, and get ready for an amazing night.

The Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Awards is returning Thursday, October 1st, 2026. Celebrating outstanding original poetry by Illinois writers, finalists have been selected by guest judge I.S. Jones I.S. Jones and will perform their work live for a chance to win a $500 audience prize, publication in RHINO Poetry, and an invitation to read at the Evanston Writers Workshop’s 2026 conference.

📅 Thu, Oct 1st at 7:00pm
📍Epiphany Center For The Arts: Chase House
201 S Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL 60607
📌 Must be 17+ with a valid ID

Buy Tickets NOW through the 🔗 in our bio! / Limited seating available.

⭐ 2026 GBOMA Finalists ⭐
Dywaine Betts Jr
John Franklin Dandridge
Lotus Fulton
Gregorio Gomez
Thomas Gossett
David Mathews
Hilesh Patel
Sandra Santiago
Suzie Torres
Kira Tucker
Sooahn Yang
Miranda Barfuss
E’mon Lauren

New/Next is tomorrow!

Join us at Beat Kitchen for a community reading featuring four Chicago writers and the new and recently released work they’re bringing to the stage.

📅 Thursday, September 17th | 6 PM
📍 Beat Kitchen (2100 W Belmont Ave)

🎤 Shivani Gupta
🎤 C. Russell Price
🎤 Kathleen Rooney
🎤 Billy Tuggle

RSVP at the 🔗 in our bio.

TONIGHT! Brighton Park Poets collabs with Guild Literary Complex for this month’s Palabra Pura event! 🌟 Bilingual open mic featuring writer Michelle Navarro

🗓️Wednesday, September 16th at 7PM
📍18th Street Casa de Cultura - 2057 W. 18th St.

Palabra Pura is a bilingual reading series that promotes literary expression in Spanish, English, and/or other languages. Launched in 2006, the series celebrates the work of Latinx writers in Chicago and beyond, and provides a space for the interaction of diverse voices, ideas, and aesthetics.

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Palabra Pura es una serie de lecturas bilingües que promueve la expresión literaria en español, inglés y otros idiomas. Lanzada en 2006, la serie celebra la obra de escritores latinx dentro y fuera de Chicago, y provee un espacio para la interacción de voces, ideas y estéticas diversas.

🎤 FEATURED ARTIST: MICHELLE NAVARRO
Michelle is a writer, journalist, and producer from the Southwest Side of Chicago. She writes narrative nonfiction and short stories. Currently, she’s a creative producer at City Cast Chicago, with past work in This American Life and The New York Times.

RSVP: link in bio

TOMORROW! Brighton Park Poets collabs with Guild Literary Complex for this month’s Palabra Pura event! 🌟 Bilingual open mic hosted by Paige Savarese, Founder of BPP

🗓️Wednesday, September 16th at 7PM
📍18th Street Casa de Cultura - 2057 W. 18th St.

Palabra Pura is a bilingual reading series that promotes literary expression in Spanish, English, and/or other languages. Launched in 2006, the series celebrates the work of Latinx writers in Chicago and beyond, and provides a space for the interaction of diverse voices, ideas, and aesthetics.

—————————————————————————-

Palabra Pura es una serie de lecturas bilingües que promueve la expresión literaria en español, inglés y otros idiomas. Lanzada en 2006, la serie celebra la obra de escritores latinx dentro y fuera de Chicago, y provee un espacio para la interacción de voces, ideas y estéticas diversas.

🎤 MEET THE HOST + FEATURED POET
Paige Savarese is a tradeswoman and poet born and based in Chicago. She is the creator of Brighton Park Poets, a free, bilingual (ENG/SPA) poetry-writing workshop series on Chicago’s Southwest side.

Palabra Pura x Brighton Park Poets
RSVP: link in bio

SUNDAY! ☀️ Join us at Printers Row Lit Fest at Tent CC for our Authors Table with a book signing of their latest works. ✍️

12-1pm: C. RUSSELL PRICE (Author of Bisquick: An American Seance) is an Appalachian genderqueer poet from Glade Spring, Virginia. They are the author of Bisquick: An American Seance (TriQuarterly Books, 2026) and oh, you thought this was a date?!: Apocalypse Poems (TriQuarterly Books, 2022). A Lambda Literary Fellow and a Ragdale Fellow, they live in Chicago.

1-2pm: ROCÍO FRANCO (Author of Where the Monarchs Never Die) is a Chicana poet born and raised in Chicago. She holds fellowships from The Watering Hole, Roots Wounds Words, and Periplus Collective. The following organizations have supported her work: the Frost Place, The Lighthouse Writers Workshop, VONA, Tin House, and Storystudio Chicago. She is a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee. Her poems have appeared in The Acentos Review, Exposition Review, Lunch Ticket, and others. Her debut chapbook, Where the Monarchs Never Die, won the 2025 Arcana Poetry Press Chapbook Contest. You can connect with her work on Instagram at Rocio Franco and on her website, rociofranco.com.

2-3pm: JAMES STEWART III (Author of Defiant Acts) is a Black writer and arts organizer from Chicago. His debut novel, Defiant Acts (Acre Books, 2025), has been named one of Chicago Magazine’s 2025 Summer “Required Reading” picks. He was also named to Newcity’s 2025 Lit 50 list, recognizing influential voices in Chicago’s literary culture. His writing has appeared in journals including Lampblack, The Forge, and Midwest Review. Additionally, he is a co-founder of the reading series and artist collective Exhibit B. www.jamesstewart3.com.

3-4pm: JULIAN RANDALL (Author of Shook) is the author of six books across three genres, most recently the middle grade novel in verse, Shook (Holt Books for Young Readers, 2026). Author of Refuse (University of Pittsburgh, 2018), Pilar Ramirez and the Escape from Zafa (Holt Books for Young Readers, 2022), Pilar Ramirez and the Curse of San Zenon (HBYR, 2023), The Dead Don’t Need Reminding (Bold Type Books, 2024), The Chainbreakers (HBYR, 2024). https://juliandavidrandall.com/

Newest on the board at the Guild Literary Complex ⭐️✍️

SATURDAY! ☀️ Join us at Printers Row Lit Fest at Tent CC for our Authors Table with a book signing of their latest works. ✍️

12-1pm: MEREDITH NNOKA (Author of Les Portes)
Meredith Nnoka is a Chicago-based poet, teacher, and prison abolitionist. She is the author of Les Portes, winner of the 2025 CAAPP Book Prize, and the chapbooks I Could Never Be Your Woman (2023) and A Hunger Called Music (2016). Meredith has a BA from Smith College and an MA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She teaches poetry in carceral facilities and has received fellowships from Illinois Humanities, Lambda Literary, VONA, and the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project.

1-2pm: I.S. JONES (Author of Bloodmercy)
I.S. Jones is the author of Bloodmercy and the chapbook Spells of My Name. Along with the poet Yazud Brito-Milian, she is the founder and co-organizer of Canto-Kòjo, a monthly open mic and featured reading series based in Chicago at Call & Response Books. Currently, she is a Senior Editor for Poetry Northwest, where she runs her column, The Legacy Suite, a three-part interview documenting the journey of writers publishing their debut poetry collections.

2-3pm: NIKKI PATIN (Author of Working on Me)
Nikki Patin has been featured in the Guardian, Chicago Tribune, HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and on international television and radio. She has performed at EXPO Chicago, the National Black Theater in Harlem, Brooklyn Museum, Black Artists Retreat, and many other spaces. Patin founded Surviving the Mic, which creates brave space for survivors of trauma. Her writing, performance and design work can be found at www.nikkipatin.com.

3-4pm: MEGHAN MALACHI (No Lace Fronts in Iowa City)
Meghan Malachi is a poet and writer from The Bronx, New York. She is the first-place winner of the Spoon River Poetry Review 2022 Editor’s Prize Contest and runner-up of the 2024 Princemere Poetry Prize. She is the author of the chapbook The Autodidact (Ethel Zine & Micro Press, 2020). Her debut collection, No Lace Fronts in Iowa City, was selected by Allison Joseph as runner-up of Madville Publishing’s 2024 Arthur Smith Poetry Prize. She is an Associate Editor at RHINO. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.

"The Peace of Wild Things" by Wendell Berry.

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

🎤 Meet the 2026 GBOMA Finalists!

We’re excited to introduce the 16 writers selected as finalists for this year’s Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Awards, selected by guest judge J.S. Jones.

Join us on October 1 as the finalists take the stage to share their original work and compete for the $500 audience prize!

📅 Thursday, October 1, 2026
🎙️ Show starts at 7 PM
📍 Epiphany Center for the Arts, Chase House
🎟️ Tickets start at $15 in advance

Tickets are available now at the link in our bio!