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The books that help you most are those which make you think that most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.        - Pablo Neruda

Lecture

Tony Kushner

Tony Kushner 2009 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize

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ABOUT 

  • ABOUT Chris Jones

    Chris Jones is the chief theater critic for the Chicago Tribune. He has reviewed and commented on culture and politics for the Tribune for more than a decade and writes a weekly column on culture and the arts. Before joining the Tribune, Jones served as Midwestern theater critic for Variety and Daily Variety, publishing hundreds of theater reviews with an emphasis on pre-Broadway tryouts. He has covered theater in cities across the United States, including time as Variety's Broadway critic. Profile

  • ABOUT Tony Kushner

    Tony Kushner’s plays include A Bright Room Called Day; Angels in America, Parts One and Two; Slavs!; Homebody/Kabul; and Caroline, or Change. He has written adaptations of Pierre Corneille’s L’Illusion Comique; S. Ansky's A Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds; and Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Sezuan and Mother Courage and Her Children. The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures premiered in 2009. Kushner has won the Pulitzer Prize, an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, and many other accolades.

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I feel that it’s been a catastrophe for the country that progressive people, people of the left, have abandoned the belief that you can achieve progress through government.       

On November 8, 2009, the Festival had the pleasure once again to host the Chicago Tribune’s presentation of its Literary Prize to playwright Tony Kushner. This annual prize is part of the Chicago Tribune’s ongoing dedication to reading, writing, and ideas.

All proceeds from this program benefitted the Chicago Tribune  Holiday Campaign, a campaign of Chicago Tribune Charities, a McCormick Foundation Fund.

Tags

politics, Chicago Tribune, Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, Munich, drama, literature, playwright

Tony Kushner, Staunch Progressive

Prolific playwright Tony Kushner has challenged unjust authority since leafleting the Ku Klux Klan and refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance because it mentioned God during his childhood in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He has earned a reputation as an outspoken literary figure and, in the vein of Arthur Miller, has insisted through his writing and his public voice on the playwright’s role as political provocateur. In this conversation with Tribune theater critic Chris Jones, Kushner discusses his political beliefs and the plays they have inspired. Currently at work adapting Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals (2005) for an upcoming Steven Spielberg film, Kushner feels Abraham Lincoln’s influence in many of his assessments of the present political landscape. He contextualizes the history of the formerly progressive Republican Party, ponders Lincoln’s malleable reputation and political heirs, and provocatively compares and contrasts the American South from Reconstruction onward to Japan and Germany after those nations’ defeat in World War II. An opponent of whimsical political attention spans and believer in the utility of spirituality, Kushner espouses on international relations, the United States’ role therein, and how theater can serve these causes.

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Jayne Anne Phillips and Nick Reding 2009 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize

Jayne Anne Phillips and Nick Reding accept the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for their books Lark and Termite and Methland.

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2005 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize

Author and poet Margaret Atwood accepts the prestigious 2005 Chicago Tribune Literary Prize honoring her talent, hard work, and passion.  She tells fabulous stories and doles out precious advice to artists and fans alike in this witty acceptance speech.

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