Rocker Patti Smith will receive the 2026 Harold Washington Literary Award, the Near South Planning Board announced Tuesday.
The nonprofit community development organization awards the prize annually at a September dinner that kicks off the Printers Row Lit Fest. The 41st edition of the free outdoor literary festival will be held Sept. 12-13.
Smith was born in Chicago before her family moved to New Jersey when she was a young child. At 79, she is known for her work across genres, including her seminal 1975 album “Horses” and her 2010 book “Just Kids,” which chronicles her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and her early years in New York. It won the 2010 National Book Award for Nonfiction.
“Patti Smith is unparalleled in her ability to create deeply literary work across mediums,” said Anne Ream, co-chair of the award selection committee. “While her musical career is widely celebrated, her body of writing is equally profound — marked by moral clarity, artistic rigor, and deep empathy. She exemplifies the spirit of the Harold Washington Literary Award.”
Smith’s other books include titles like “Woolgathering,” “M Train,” and “Year of the Monkey.” Last year, she released another memoir, “Bread of Angels,” which picks up in many ways where “Just Kids” left off, with the relationship with her late husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith. The Harold Washington selection committee called it “among her most intimate and revealing works.”
At an event co-sponsored by WBEZ in March, Smith appeared in conversation with Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. There, she said, writing is part of her daily routine.
“I like to work. I like communicating with people,” Smith said. “I’ve lived alone for a long time now, so I have a lot of time on my hands. I’m compelled to write every day. I get up and I have my coffee, and I write. I’m keeping in contact with the world and keeping in contact with like minds, or helping people who don’t have like minds look at things in a different way.”
Smith, who is also a poet and visual artist, is the latest in a distinguished list of writers to win the Harold Washington prize, named for Chicago’s first Black mayor. Past winners include Sandra Cisneros, Ray Bradbury, Gwendolyn Brooks, Saul Bellow, Kurt Vonnegut, Studs Terkel, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Ralph Ellison.
The prize will be awarded on Sept. 10 at the Union League Club of Chicago.
Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ.