QUIZ:
Literature of ILLINOIS

Name the author:

1.  Hog Butcher for the World,
       Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
       Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
       Stormy, husky, brawling,
       City of the Big Shoulders:

       They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women        under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.


2. Born in Quebec two years after his family emigrated from Saint Petersburg, Russia, this Nobel Prize winner's family soon moved to the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago, the city that formed the backdrop of many of his novels.


3.  She grew up in the Washington Park Subdivision of the South Side of Chicago,  and went on to become the first black female author to have a play performed on Broadway.


4.  Though not born in Chicago, it can be argued that this writer owes a great deal of his success to Chicago and its literary renaissance that spanned over the first quarter of the 20th century. He found outlets for his experimental prose and short fiction in such famed Chicago publications as The Little Review, The Masses, Seven Arts, and Poetry. 

5. Known as the "a sort of bard of the down-and-outer," this writer was born in Detroit, but at age three his family moved to Chicago. Most famous quote comes from his "three rules of life": "Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own."

6. Born in Kansas, this poet's family moved to Chicago when she was six weeks old and she never left.  She was the first African-American to win the Pulitzer.


7.  What most people do not know about this author is that he worked for seven years at low wages as a pencil-sharpener wholesaler, and later, at nearly 70, became one of the oldest U.S. war correspondents during World War II. Between those times, he gave us a famous jungle hero.


8. Recipient of numerous awards, this Mexican-American, born in Chicago, is regarded as a key figure in Chicana literature. As the family constantly migrated between Mexico City and  Chicago, she felt caught between two cultures, which figures in her writing, especially her greatest work, which is set in Humboldt Park, a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood on Chicago's West Side.


9.  Playwright, film director, screenwriter and author, this Pulitzer Prize winner  - and Tony award nominee - is quoted as saying: " My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign."


10.  Born in Bombay, India, this writer grew up in Batavia, Illinois and obtained a degree from the University of Chicago.  Her award-wining debut novel in 2018 concerns a Muslim Indian-American teen filmmaker making plans about her future while dealing with islamophobia.


11.  This Nobel Prize winner's economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction. 

12. Famous for his no-holds-barred memoir Pimp, the imagery and tone of this African-American's  writing have been acknowledged as an influence by several gangsta rap musicians, including Ice-T and Ice Cube, whose names are homages to him.


13.  Born in a Chicago hotel room, to a father in organized crime, this author, poet, and screenwriter is known for his distinctive mix of American landscapes and prose influenced by film noir and the Beat Generation.  We have him to thank for Sailor and Lula.


14. Tagged by Time magazine as the  "Bard of the Litigious Age," this lawyer/writer from Chicago is known for his award-winning, best-selling legal thrillers.


15.  Fresh out in 2018, this Chicagoan's debut novel is set in Chicago's posh Randolph Street restaurant scene.

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