Join the Chicago Journalists Association Tuesday, Sept. 26, for an inspiring evening as we celebrate some of Chicago’s esteemed journalist authors and their recent literary works.
Guests will have the chance to hear passages from their books, learn about their researching/writing/interviewing process, purchase signed copies and network with others in Chicago’s journalism community. Refreshments will be served.
Tuesday, Sept. 26
6:30-8:30 p.m.
Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University
303 E. Wacker Drive, 16th Floor
This event is FREE for CJA members and $10 for non-members. To RSVP, visit our Eventbrite page: https://shorturl.at/fIZ36.
Learn more about our speakers and the books they’ll be discussing.
PANELISTS
Dave Hoekstra: Hoekstra is a Chicago-based author-journalist, having written for many publications, including the Chicago-Sun Times, where he was a staff columnist and critic for almost 30 years. He was awarded the 2013 Studs Terkel Community Media Award for his columns and critiques and nominated for a Chicago Emmy for his documentary work. He is currently a regular contributor for Newcity.
In 2022, Hoekstra published “Beacons in the Darkness: Hope and Transformation Among America’s Community Newspapers.” Learn more here.
Maudlyne Ihejirika: Ihejirika currently manages the media and storytelling portfolio for the Field Foundation of Illinois. She previously spent 29 years with the Chicago Sun-Times, where she was an award-winning reporter and columnist. Ihejirika served as assistant city editor, and covered beats from crime and the inner city to housing and education, politics, and philanthropy. She also wrote “Chicago Chronicles”—long-form columns of diverse and untold narratives focusing on racial, social, and economic justice issues impacting Black and Brown communities.
Her numerous awards include the prestigious Studs Terkel Award, and top national and local honors from the Society of Professional Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists, Associated Press, and Illinois Press Association. Her myriad civic awards range from the Chicago Defender “Woman of Excellence” and African Festival of the Arts’ “Community Servant” awards; to the Chicago Coalition of African American Leaders’ “Vernon C. Jarrett Par Excellence in Journalism Award,” and the Big 10 BANboree’s 2022 Black Alumni of the Year. She was ranked on the 2019 annual list of “The 25 Most Powerful Women In Chicago Journalism.”
Ihejirika is Immediate Past President of both the Chicago Journalists Association and the National Association of Black Journalists Chicago Chapter. She is also the author of “Escape From Nigeria: A Memoir of Faith, Love and War” — a riveting tale of her family’s survival of the brutal Nigerian-Biafran War and miracles that brought them to the U.S. as refugees. Learn more here.
Evan F. Moore: Moore is an adjunct faculty member in the College of Communication at DePaul University. He was previously the culture/entertainment reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times. His work, which consists of the topics at the intersection of sports, media literacy, race, politics, violence and culture, has been featured in Rolling Stone, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Reader, The Athletic, Global Sport Matters, DNAinfo, ESPN’s The Undefeated (now Andscape) and Bleacher Report. His work was also featured in the 2019 edition of The Best American Sports Writing book series. Moore is a two-time Lisagor Award winner (2018 and 2021), and he has won awards with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and the Society of Feature Journalism. He is the vice president of print for NABJ’s Chicago chapter.
In 2021, Moore co-authored the book, “Game Misconduct: Hockey’s Toxic Culture and How to Fix It.” Learn more here.
Natalie Moore: Moore covers segregation and inequality for WBEZ Chicago. Her enterprise reporting has tackled race, housing, economic development, food injustice and violence. Moore’s work has been broadcast on the BBC, Marketplace and NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition.
She also writes a monthly column for the Chicago Sun-Times. Her work has been published in Essence, Ebony, the Chicago Reporter, Bitch, In These Times, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Guardian. She is the 2017 recipient of Chicago Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award. In 2010, she received the Studs Terkel Community Media Award for reporting on Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods. In 2009, she was a fellow at Columbia College’s Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media, which allowed her to take a reporting trip to Libya. Moore has won several other journalism awards, including a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. Additional honors are from the Radio Television Digital News Association (Edward R. Murrow), Public Radio News Directors Incorporated, National Association of Black Journalists, Illinois Associated Press and Chicago Headline Club. The Chicago Reader named her best journalist in 2017. In 2018, she received an honorary doctorate from Adler University. In These Times gave her the 2017 Voice of Progressive Journalism Award.
Moore has written multiple books. Most recently, she authored “The Billboard,” a play about abortion, which 16th Street Theater produced. Learn more here.
Gregory Pratt (Moderator): Raised in Little Village, Pratt covers City Hall for the Chicago Tribune. Before joining the Tribune in 2013, he worked for the Better Government Association, alt-weeklies in Phoenix and Minneapolis, and Hoy. He has been a finalist for the Livingston Awards and earned other national honors from the National Headliner Awards, Lisagor Awards, Scripps Howard Awards and more.