Gabriel Bump Named Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award Recipient
The assistant professor of English’s third novel, Don’t Stop Snowing, will be published Nov. 10.
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Gabriel Bump, assistant professor of English at UMass Amherst, has been named the recipient of the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 2026 21st Century Award. The foundation’s Oct. 13 awards celebration in Chicago also honors author and illustrator Mo Willems and philanthropist Helen Zell.
The recognition comes ahead of the Nov. 10 publication of Bump’s third novel, Don’t Stop Snowing, from Algonquin Books. The novel follows a young man seeking to move beyond his father’s troubled legacy and build a life of his own. In an early review, Publishers Weekly calls it “a memorable portrait of a young man who finds refuge in literature.”
A native of Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, Bump teaches in UMass Amherst’s MFA for Poets and Writers, where he earned his degree in 2017. His previous novels, Everywhere You Don’t Belong and The New Naturals, were both named New York Times Notable Books.