Age: 41
Occupation: Novelist

The Great Believers, Makkai’s Pulitzer Prize–nominated 2018 novel about the AIDS crisis in Chicago, didn’t just fill in a largely overlooked chapter in our city’s history. It won international acclaim and bestowed upon the novelist — who has championed the local literary community by running the nonprofit writing workshop StoryStudio Chicago and helping organize the Chicago Lit Salon — the unofficial mantle of Chicago’s literary godmother. Now in the works: a limited TV series adaptation of The Great Believers helmed by Amy Poehler.