This year at the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s Carl Sandburg Literary Awards Dinner, local author Christine Sneed was presented the 21st Century Award. She joined the ranks of illustrious honorees: Aleksandar Hemon, Audrey Niffenegger, Rebecca Skloot and Tracy Letts, just to name a few. The award is given in recognition of a significant recent achievement in writing by a Chicago-area writer in hopes of raising awareness of the writer. In the spirit of the award, we’d like to highlight Ms. Sneed’s works of fiction as we look forward to many more contributions from this hometown author.
Portraits of A Few of the People I've Made Cry: A collection of stories examining the ups and downs of romantic relationships between men and women of disparate ages. Sneed’s first outing won the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction and was widely praised. Booklist gushed, “…an honor clearly deserved given the lucidity of her style, the depth of her perception, and her supple mix of wit, frankness, and compassion. …this is an exceptionally smart, connective, and moving collection.”
Little Known Facts: Sneed’s full-length debut tells the story of Renn Ivins, an aging Hollywood star who is not as successful in his personal life as he is in his career as actor, screenwriter, director and all around celebrity. Kirkus notes, “Sneed effectively blurs the line between fact and fiction and brings each character to life.” While Curtis Sittenfeld wrote in her piece for the New York Times Book Review, “…her depiction of both proximity to celebrity and celebrity itself had me totally convinced.”
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