New Board Chair
The Guild Literary Complex announced Tuesday that critically-acclaimed author and Art for Justice Grantee Faylita Hicks has been elected Chair of the Guild Literary Complex’s Board of Directors for a three-year term, effective September 18, 2024. A recent transplant to Chicago (2022), Hicks comes to the Guild from Central Texas with over 20 years of experience as an advocate supporting national arts organizations and justice-focused nonprofits through capacity building and direct engagement.
Faylita Hicks"Serving an organization with such a rich history is truly an honor and privilege. In this role, I plan to uplift the mission of our founding members and empower the Guild Literary Complex to thrive for another 35 years by focusing on what makes this organization so unique: its support of marginalized writers in the Midwest.
During my term, the Guild Literary Complex will deepen our relationships with our organizational partners and collaborators, emphasize our commitment to providing meaningful opportunities to writers from underrepresented communities, establish new monthly programs and offerings, grow our board of directors and staff, and expand our platform to embrace the inclusion of people at every stage of their careers writing in journalism, music, and film.”
Programming Hiatus
As part of its ongoing commitment to supporting Chicago’s literary arts community, the organization will take a strategic planning pause in the first half of 2025 to review and align its organizational goals, expand its offerings, and develop an equitable 3-year member-driven development plan. The Guild will have limited programming during this time but will return with a “35 Years Celebration” and season launch in the summer of 2025.
About Faylita Hicks
FAYLITA HICKS is a Grammy-nominated multidisciplinary artist and the author of A Map of My Want (Haymarket Books, 2024), a finalist for the 2024 CHIRBy Award for Poetry and Chicago Reader’s Best of 2024, and HoodWitch (Acre Books, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Poetry, and others. They are the winner of the 2020 Sappho Poetry Award and Best of Net Prize for Poetry, the Board Chair of Guild Literary Complex, and a 2024 Gwendolyn Brooks Living Legacy Honoree . Their work has been anthologized in Poemhood: Our Black Revival (Harper Collins, 2024), The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood (UGA Press, 2022), and more. Writing, music, and digital art created by Hicks has been featured in American Poetry Review, Academy of American Poets, Poetry Magazine, Kenyon Review, Longreads, Slate, and beyond. Hicks is also the recipient of fellowships and residencies from the Art for Justice Fund, Black Mountain Institute, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, the Center for Art and Advocacy, Tin House, and others. Their debut memoir about their carceral experience, A Body of Wild Light (Haymarket Books), is forthcoming.
About The Guild Literary Complex
In 1989, a local, community-based bookstore, Guild Books (once located on Lincoln Avenue), began regularly hosting progressive, stimulating, and eclectic literary events. Soon after, the Guild Complex established itself as an official non-profit organization with poet Michael Warr as its first executive director.
For the last 35 years, the Guild Literary Complex has been a pioneer in Chicago’s literary landscape, consistently hosting innovative and diverse events, featuring leading literary names, and welcoming new, emerging voices. Actively working with individuals and organizations from all of Chicago’s many neighborhoods and making connections all over the world, the Guild seeks to connect seemingly disparate groups and geographies through literature—bringing unexpected writers, programs, and audiences together.