Go On Girl! Book Club Celebrates Authors in Chicago

[Guest Lynda M. Johnson]

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT:
Lynda Johnson                      
Co-Founder/Co-Chair
Go On Girl! Book Club
lyndajgog@gmail.com
917-923-8035

Go On Girl! Book Club Hosts 25th Annual Author Awards
GALA  Saturday, June 3rd in Chicago, Illinois

NEW YORK – May 17, 2017 – Go On Girl! Book Club (GOG!), one of the largest national reading organizations in the U.S. dedicated to supporting the work of authors of the African Diaspora, will host its 25th Annual Author Awards Gala on Saturday, June 3rd at 4pm at the Loews Chicago O'Hare Hotel in Chicago, Illinois.

The Annual Author Awards event is the highlight of a weekend of activities for club members and guests and is an important part in carrying out the mission of the organization.  

As Go On Girl! Book Club Co-Founder, Lynda Johnson explains, “Our author awards event is done to shine a light on the writers who tell our stories and keep black culture relevant on the literary landscape.  We take the time to celebrate them and let them know we’re out there reading and discussing their work and that what they do matters.”

The organization will present top honors to its favorite 2016 authors:  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie voted 2016 Author of the Year for her gripping and intriguing novel, Americanah.  Chigozie Obioma voted 2016 New Author of the Year for his debut novel, The Fishermen.  A Literary Legend Award goes to Dr. Haki Madhubuti for his body of work and the major contributions he's made to our literary landscape.  A Literary Beacon Award  goes to Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant, authors of Tryin' To Sleep In The Bed You Made. Additionally, two scholarship awards are presented: an Unpublished Writer's Award to encourage and celebrate a writer who has not yet been published; and An Aspiring Literary Scholar Award to a student attending an HBCU and studying literature or communications.  Among the guest authors who will be joining the organization for the weekend include Marita Golden who will discuss her latest novel, The Wide Circumference of Love and facilitate a young writers workshop.   Edward Kelsey Moore will discuss his latest novel, The Supremes Sing the Happy Heartache Blues.  The organization will also donate books to The Chicago Books to Women In Prison non-profit as part of their Literary Community Service.

To top off the evening there will be an all-star dramatic performances of the novels written by Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their novel, Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made at 8:00 pm.

Tickets to the Go On Girl! Book Club Awards Dinner is $85 and can be purchased until May 19th at www.GoOnGirl.org.  There will be an author meet and greet book signing featuring the honorees and guest writers. Books will be available for purchase at the event by Chicago's own Underground Bookstore. Tickets to the Dramatic Presentation are $25 until May 29th and $45 until June 3rd

 

Go On Girl! Book Club                                   

ABOUT GO ON GIRL! BOOK CLUB

Go On Girl! Book Club is a multi-faceted organization that, in addition to producing an annual author awards event, provides scholarships awards to aspiring writers; produces a literary magazine; organizes & mentors Jr. GOG Chapters for young girls and much more.  Go On Girl! Book Club has been the subject of a PhD dissertation on black female reading groups and group members have written, produced and recorded GOG’s theme song.  The organization’s papers are archived at the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature in Chicago, Illinois.  

The very first Go On Girl! Book Club Author Awards event was held in 1993 at Royston’s Jazz Club in Brooklyn, New York.  It was a small, intimate affair attended by the members of the first and only GOG chapter and the 1992 Author of the Year, Gloria Naylor (Bailey’s Café).  Since then, Go On Girl! Book Club has honored countless writers including Bebe Moore Campbell (Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine), Octavia Butler (Parable of the Sower), Valerie Wilson Wesley (Where Evil Sleeps), Lawrence Hill (Someone Knows My Name), Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa (Daughters of the Stone), Daniel Black (Perfect Peace), Marlon James (The Book of Night Women) and many others.  

The organization has grown from a group of three New York City co-workers who discussed the latest books by Black authors over lunch to a national non-profit literary organization with over 30 chapters in 15 states including New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, Illinois, Virginia, Indiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, California, and the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.  For more information on Go On Girl! Book Club visit www.GoOnGirl.org.