Evans' position is no secret. He is spearheading the nonprofit Chicago Writers Association's project to build the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.

"As a writer, I've always envied the rock jam - Bono and Springsteen and Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne up there with Chuck Berry, bringing life and merriment and inspiration to Johnny B Goode," Evans writes. "Or Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Trisha Yearwood and so forth joining Johnny Cash for an extended version of I Walk the Line. Van Morrison fronting The Band.

"But there is no literary equivalent to the rock jam, no single space in time when the past, present and future all join hands, combine talents, celebrate a story or poem or memoir that has made deep and loving imprints.

"Mostly this is just the nature of the form: writing is an art practiced and consumed in private. No other art form is quite like that. Musicians have an audience, paintings hang in galleries, clothing designers have the catwalk. Books are read alone.

"The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame is our chance to jam."

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