Author Dawn Turner wins $25,000 from Newberry Library as first recipient of new Pattis Family award

The Newberry Library has awarded Dawn Turner, author of “Three Girls from Bronzeville,” $25,000 as the recipient of the first-ever Pattis Family Foundation Chicago Book Award.

The award aims to highlight works that transform the public’s understanding of Chicago, its history and its people. And the size of the prize is significant — in comparison, the National Book Award is $10,000, while the Pulitzer is $15,000.

“Three Girls from Bronzeville” follows Dawn, her sister Kim and friend Debra as they grow up in the 1970s in that South Side Chicago neighborhood, and was published by Simon & Schuster in 2021. Turner was formerly a writer for the Chicago Tribune.

“‘Three Girls from Bronzeville’ is a bracing memoir that illustrates how race, class and geography intersect to shape both communities and the individual lives of three women in Chicago,” said Daniel Greene, president and librarian of the Newberry. “Dawn Turner’s storytelling embodies the spirit of the Pattis Chicago Book Award, which seeks to advance understanding of our city among readers.”

Turner will receive the award on July 30 as part of the 2022 Newberry Book Fair.

Overall, a panel of Newberry staff members considered 47 books about Chicago for the prize. The group also selected four authors who will receive a smaller prize of $2,500: Elly Fishman, author of “Refugee High: Coming of Age in America;” Tim Samuelson, author of “Louis Sullivan’s Idea;” William Sites, author of “Sun Ra’s Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City;” and Carl Smith, author of “Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City.”