The American Writers Museum Meijer Gallery is hosting a temporary exhibit featuring a collection of American writer portraits by award- winning photojournalist Art Shay from October 21, 2017- Spring, 2018.

For more that 50 years, Shay's photographs recorded the bombast and energy of postwar America, finding unique angles on the moments and personalities for magazines such as Life, Time, Ebony and Sports Illustrated. But Shay started out as a reporter and he shot with a writer's eye; his images are stories just waiting to be told. It's not surprising that he captured the literary world with such unusual sensitivity and insight, from the clarity in the eyes of Gwendolyn Brooks and the weary look of an aging Ernest Hemingway, to Allen Ginsberg teaching a rapt crowd in Grant Park during the 1968 Democratic Convention. A world-class street photographer, Shay wandered countless miles throughout the 1950s exploring Chicago with author and close friend Nelson Algren. On October 29, 2017, Shay will join Gordon Parks, Henri Cartier-Bresson and William Klein as winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lucie Foundation. Special programs will be offered in conjunction with Capturing Stories.