Chicago’s lit world emerges from a long winter with two notable events next week: The Poetry Foundation will present its 2009 Pegasus Awards on May 19th to Fanny Howe, who will receive the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (along with $100,000), and to Ange Mlinko, winner of the Randall Jarrell Award in Poetry Criticism (Mlinko’s contributed to the first-annual 20 Interviews issue of STOP SMILING); meanwhile, the second-annual Pilcrow Lit Fest will host readings, panels and gatherings focused on small press publishing May 17th-23rd throughout the city.