"By nights when the yellow salamanders of the EL bend all one way and the cold rain runs with the red-lit rain.
By the way the city's million wires are burdened only by lightest snow;
When chairs are stacked and glasses are turned and arc-lamps all are dimmed.
By days when the wind bangs alley gates ajar and the sun goes by on the wind.
By nights when the moon is an only child above the measured thunder of the cars, you may know Chicago's heart at last."

- From Chicago: City on the Make, Nelson Algren (b. 1909)

"The Heart Of Chicago: Opportunity For Creating A Convenient And Unified City
The Heart of Chicago is that portion of the city area between Halsted Street and the Lake, and between the main river and Twelfth Street [now Roosevelt Road]…The treatment of this area…involves the most serious problems encountered in the plan of the city.

…All that is necessary is to take advantage of existing possibilities by combining the various elements into a consistent whole. By so doing a unified city, wherein each portion will have organic relation to all other portions, will result."

- From The Plan of Chicago, Chapter VII, Daniel Burnham (1909)

Submissions will be accepted via email to Kate Soto at katesoto@uchicago.edu beginning September 14, 2009.  The deadline for submissions is Monday, November 30, 2009 at 5 pm.

Any College student at the University of Chicago may submit an entry. Submissions in any category should not be longer than 2500 words (~ten pages double spaced). Submissions must include the author's name and email address and be identified as to which category they are in: Poetry, Narrative Fiction, and Narrative Non-fiction. The best submissions will reflect your ability to express ideas and artfully convey your idea of the Heart of Chicago.

The panel of judges will be assembled from a pool of faculty, staff, graduate students and affiliates who have expertise in creative writing. This group will choose a winner from each category. Winners will be notified via email before December 10, 2009.