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FILM CRITIC AND AUTHOR ROGER EBERT TO RECEIVE CARL SANDBURG LITERARY AWARD FROM CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION AND CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY

Posted Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 - Comments Off on FILM CRITIC AND AUTHOR ROGER EBERT TO RECEIVE CARL SANDBURG LITERARY AWARD FROM CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION AND CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Festive Evening To Showcase Chicago’s Literary Community and Give Guests the Opportunity to Dine with Prominent Authors

CHICAGO — The Chicago Public Library and the Chicago Public Library Foundation are proud to announce that Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Roger Ebert will be honored at the annual Carl Sandburg Literary Awards Dinner, Thursday, October 20 at The Forum (725 W. Roosevelt Rd.) on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

2011 is a landmark year for the two organizations, as they celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Chicago Public Library Foundation, the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Harold Washington Library Center and the 10th anniversary of the Library’s award-winning One Book, One Chicago initiative.  In honor of these milestones, the Foundation and Library will pay tribute to Chicago’s impressive literary legacy and showcase the breadth of media—books, music, and film that are available free at the Library’s 76 locations and online.

The celebratory evening, co-chaired by Tom Pritzker, Donna LaPietra and Dia Weil, begins with a cocktail reception at 6 p.m. followed by an elegant dinner at 6:45 p.m.

A prominent writer with ties to Chicago will be seated at each table and engage guests from Chicago’s business, civic and cultural communities in lively and thought-provoking conversation.

Among the literary guests confirmed to date are One Book, One Chicago authors Sandra Cisneros and Stuart Dybek; Apollo 13 commander and memoirist James Lovell; National Humanities Medal and National Book Award winning theologian and author of 60 books on religion Martin Marty; bestselling legal thriller author Scott Turow; celebrated chefs and cookbook authors Art Smith and Gale Gand; New York Times-bestselling fiction author Elizabeth Berg (“Open House”) and past Sandburg Dinner 21st Century Award honorees Blue Balliett, Patrick Somerville and Theresa Schwegel.

Approximately 50 additional authors of works of fiction, non-fiction, design, music, culinary arts and more will also attend.

Capping the evening will be the presentation of the Carl Sandburg Literary Award to Roger Ebert. Ebert, the esteemed author of more than 17 books plus countless reviews, essays, two screenplays and more, will offer remarks following the award presentation. CBS-2 Chicago’s Bill Kurtis, himself the author of three books, will emcee the evening.

Past winners of the Foundation’s prestigious Carl Sandburg Literary Award, which is presented in recognition of a significant body of work has enhanced the public’s awareness of the written word include Toni Morrison, David McCullough, Robert Caro, Joyce Carol Oates, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Kurt Vonnegut, John Updike, David Mamet, Nikki Giovanni, Tom Wolfe and Salman Rushdie.

This evening is the only major fundraising event of the Chicago Public Library Foundation, and proceeds support innovative Library programs including One Book, One Chicago, the Family Summer Reading Program, Teachers in the Library, Cyber Navigator computer tutors and innovative teen and early learning initiatives.

About Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert, one of the most prolific and respected film critics in the world, has been the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967. He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1975, and his reviews are now syndicated in more than 200 newspapers in the U.S., Canada, England, Japan and Greece. Additionally, Ebert, and wife Chaz Ebert are co-executive producers of “Roger Ebert Presents At The Movies,” which is seen nationwide. Ebert co-hosted television’s “Ebert & Roeper,” with fellow Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper from 2000 – 2007, and co-hosted “Siskel & Ebert” with the late Gene Siskel for 23 years.

Ebert is the author of more than 17 books, including the 2002 best-seller “The Great Movies,” “The Great Movies II” (2005), annual volumes of “Roger Ebert’s Movie Yearbook,” “I Hated, Hated, HATED This Movie,” the Norton anthology “Roger Ebert’s Book of Film,” and the best-selling “Ebert’s Bigger Little Movie Glossary.” Additionally, Ebert has written a cook book, travel book and various screenplays.

He annually attends film festivals around the world as a critic and a juror. He also launched “Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival” in 1999, an annual festival held every April in his hometown of Urbana-Champaign, Ill.

Ebert’s commentary can be found on the DVD versions of films such as “Citizen Kane,” “Casablanca,” “Dark City,” and “Floating Weeds.” His website, rogerebert.com, in the most-visited movie critic site on the web with more than 100 million visits annually.

Other notable accomplishments include appearing on television as a critic for ABC-owned WLS-TV in Chicago and hosting the Academy Awards live pre- and post-show broadcasts in Los Angeles, which were broadcast on national television.

Ticket, Table and Sponsorship Information

Sponsorship packages are available at the $50,000, $25,000, $15,000 and $10,000 levels.  One member of Chicago’s literary community will be seated at each table.  Individual tickets are $1,000 and $2,500. Reservations are strictly limited. For information or to purchase tickets, tables or sponsorships, visit cplfoundation.org .

About The Chicago Public Library Foundation and the Chicago Public Library

The Chicago Public Library Foundation was founded in 1986 as a true public/private partnership with the City of Chicago to ensure the margin of excellence for Chicago’s outstanding Library.  Through the support of many civic-minded individuals, corporations and foundations, the Foundation provides on-going funding for collections and a variety of community-responsive programs include the Summer Reading Program, Teachers in the Library, CyberNavigators, and One Book, One Chicago.  In the past 25 years, the Foundation has provided nearly $50 million in support to the Chicago Public Library.

Since 1873, the Chicago Public Library has encouraged lifelong learning by welcoming all people and offering equal access to information, entertainment and knowledge through materials, programs and cutting-edge technology.

The Chicago Public Library is comprised of the Harold Washington Library Center, two regional libraries and more than 70 neighborhood branches.  All locations provide free access to a rich collection of books, DVDs, audio books and music; the Internet and WiFi; sophisticated research databases, many of which can be accessed from a home or office computer; newspapers and magazines; and continue to serve as cultural centers, presenting the highest quality author discussions, exhibits and programs for children, teens and adults.

The Harold Washington Library Center, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library and Conrad Sulzer Regional Library are open 7 days a week, the branch libraries are open 6 days a week and patrons can access all of the Library’s collections online 24 hours a day.  For more information, please visit the website at chicagopubliclibrary.org or call the Chicago Public Library Press Office at (312) 747-4050.

Throughout its 137 year history, the Chicago Public Library has always encouraged Chicagoans of all ages to make reading a priority.  One Book, One Chicago began in the fall of 2001, to encourage all Chicagoans to read the same book at the same time, and discuss a great piece of literature with friends and neighbors.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon