Please check back often for a detailed list of Pilcrow Lit Fest participants, as we're frequently adding people to the mix. If you are interested in participating, please email and tell us a bit about yourself, your work and how you'd like to be involved.
PARTICIPANTS
Jami Attenberg has written about sex, technology, design, graphic novels, books, television, and urban life for Jane, Print, Nylon, Radar, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, Salon, Plenty, Nextbook, Time Out NY, eWeek, and others. Her fiction has been published by Nerve, Pindeldyboz, Spork, and Bullfight Review. She recently appeared in the anthologies Future Misbehavior and Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone. Her debut collection of stories, Instant Love, was published by Crown/Shaye Areheart Books in June 2006. Her new novel, The Kept Man was published by Riverhead Books in January 2008. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Jennifer Banash lives, works, and writes in Iowa City, Iowa. She is the co-founder and co-publisher of Impetus Press, an independent publishing house that champions serious literary fiction with a pop or urban edge. Her novel, Hollywoodland: An American Fairy Tale, is published by Impetus Press, and her Young Adult series, The Elite, will be released in June from Penguin, Berkley.
Peter Bebergal, coauthor of The Faith Between Us, graduated from Brandeis University and the Harvard Divinity School. His writing has appeared in Salon, Nextbook, Beliefnet, the Believer, and the Boston Globe. He is also an editor at Zeek. He teaches in the Experimental College at Tufts University. Peter lives with his wife and son in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Jason Behrends is the creator of the independent arts and culture blog, What to Wear During an Orange Alert. He has interviewed many of the most creative minds in Chicago, and strives to focus the Orange spotlight on the best and most deserving independent artist, writers, and musicians from around the world. Orange Alert was recently named one of the top websites in Chicago by Chicago Magazine. Aside from spending way too much time researching and blogging, he is also the Art Editor for two different literary journals, Thieves Jargon and decomP, and is the father of four amazing girls.
Willy Blackmore was born and raised and continues to live in southeastern Iowa. In 2005, he helped found Impetus Press where he is co-publisher. Someday, he may write a novel himself.
Charles Blackstone is the author of The Week You Weren't Here, a novel, and the co-editor of The Art of Friction: Where (Non) Fictions Come Together, an anthology of creative nonfiction and short foction, featuring prose by Thomas Beller, Bernard Cooper, Junot Diaz, Cris Mazza, and more, which the University of Texas Press will publish this fall. His short fiction has appeared in Esquire, Bridge, Identity Theory, The Evergreen Review, Salt River Review, and others. He is also author of two plays, Corked, produced by Victory Gardens Theater, and Rogers Party, produced by Lifeline Theater Company. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Master Sommelier and host of WTTW-TV's Check, Please!, Alpana Singh.
Anne Boles Levy has been spreading the word about great kids' books since starting her blog, Book Buds, in 2004. She currently edits the children's web page at the Poetry Foundation and is a co-founder of the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards. Her book reviews for grown-ups have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and she's guest-blogged on reviewing techniques for ForeWord Magazine.
Lynne Brewer is a writer, editor, and publisher living in Boulder, Colorado. Her poetry chapbook, SAFARI, debuted in 2006, but her attention has since turned towards prose. While earning her master's in Writing from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. Lynn founded Cliterature an online literary journal dedicated to women's sexuality. She is currently working on her second novel, which takes place in Chicago.
William L. Bryan has written two novels, The Reverend Nobody and Prince Hal. His essay, Family Snapshot, won the 2006 Denver Literary Challenge and he is published semi-regularly in Say what?, a celebrity sports commentary panel for teh Denver Rocky Mountain News. His full-length play, The Body of Eva Peron, co-written with Angela Gant, won Playmarket 2007 and was recently optioned for an Off-Broadway production.
Lauren Cerand is an independent public relations representative and consultant in New York. Her clients are a purposefully eclectic mix of creative professionals, and she specializes in generating initial buzz and building sustained attention for projects and individuals. She is often asked to share her innovative perspective on publicity and has spoken to audiences at the 20th Annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair, Book Promotion 101, Mystery Writers of America, NYU's Center for Publishing, The (Downtown) Omaha Lit Fest, Penguin UK (video clip), Virginia Festival of the Book, Word of Mouth, Women's National Book Association, and next on "Promotion and Publicity for New Authors" in Washington, DC (January 14, 2008) and at the Virginia Festival of the Book (March 28-29, 2008) and the Nebraska Summer Writers' Conference (June 14-15, 2008). The Village Voice included her in its "Best of New York" (2004) issue. She is the vice chair of the board of directors of Girls Write Now, "a nonprofit volunteer mentoring organization that has been matching bright, creative teenage girls from New York City's public high schools with professional women writers in the community since 1998." A Cornell University graduate, Lauren compiles "The Smart Set," a weekly round-up of cultural happenings for MaudNewton.com, and writes about art, politics and style at LuxLotus.com.
Rachel Cline is a New Yorker who spent most of her thirties in L.A. She intended to write the great American movie and get paid buckets of cash. Instead, she got fired after three episodes of knots Landing and went on to create the sanitized airline dialog for David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross. ("It takes brass buns to sell real estate!") She is the author of novels What To Keep and My Liar.
Pete Coco's writing has appeared in Other Voices, Barrelhouse The Madison Review, The 2ndhand, Econoculture, American Book Review, and as a Featherproof Mini-Book. Currently working towards a master's in Library Science, he holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has taught creative writing at both StoryStudio Chicago and the City Colleges of Chicago and is a founding editor of the literary webzine Please Don't.
Jackie Corley's writing has appeared on-line at MobyLives.com, 3AM Magazine and Pequin.org and in various print anthologies. She is the publisher of online literary magazine Word Riot and its print extension, Word Riot Press. Her short story collection, The Suburban Swindle, is coming out Summer 2008 from So New Publishing.
Bruce Covey is Lecturer of Creative Writing at Emory University and the author of three books of poetry�most recently Elapsing Speedway Organism (No Tell Books, 2006) and Ten Pins, Ten Frames (Front Room, 2007). His recent poems also appear or are forthcoming in Jacket, Sonora Review, Parcel, Cake, Pingpong, Columbia Poetry Review, and other journals. He edits the web-based poetry magazine Coconut and curates the What's New in Poetry reading series in Atlanta.
Elizabeth Crane is the author of three collections of short stories, When The Messenger is Hot, All This Heavenly Glory, and You Must Be This Happy To Enter. Her work has also been featured in publications including Other Voices, fivechapters, Ecotone, Nerve, Washington Square, New York Stories, Sycamore Review, Mississippi Review, Florida Review, Eclipse, Bridge, Sonora Review, the Chicago Reader, the Believer, McSweeny's Future Dictionary of America, and several anthologies including The Best Underground Fiction, Loser, Altared and The Show I'll Never Forget. Her stories have also been featured on NPR's Selected Shorts. Her work has been adapted for the stage by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company, and also been adapted for film. In 2003, she received the Chicago Public Library 21st Century Award. She has taught creative writing at Northwestern's School of Continuing Studies and currently teaches at The University of Chicago and The School of the Art Institute.
Peter Davis' book of poems is Hitler's Mustache. He edited Poet's Bookshelf: Contemporary Poets on Books that Shaped Their Art. His poems have appeared in journals like Court Green, McSweeney's, La Petite Zine, Octopus, and Mipoesias. His music project, Short Hand, is available through Collectible Escalators Records. His wife is sweet and his kids are very cute and he lives in Muncie, Indiana and teaches English at Ball State University.
Larry O. Dean was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan, during which time he won three Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing, an honor shared with fellow poets Robert Hayden, Jane Kenyon, and Frank O'Hara, among others. He is author of numerous chapbooks, including I Am Spam (2004), a series poems by junk email; his poetry has also been internationally anthologized. In addition to writing, he is a singer-songwriter, performing solo as well as with his current band, The Injured Parties; he has released many critically-acclaimed CDs including Fables in Slang (2001) with Post Office, and Gentrification is Theft (2002) with The Me Decade. Dean was a 2004 recipient of the Hands on Stanzas Gwendolyn Brooks Award, presented by the Poetry Center of Chicago.
Adam Deutsch was born on Long Island, New York. He's worked on various projects from singing on corners with Molten Soul in Nantucket to performing with The Goat Song Conspiracy in San Diego, and received his M.A. from Hofstra University (2005). Currently he is working on his M.F.A. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (to graduate in 2008) and is the Assistant to the Editor at Ninth Letter.
Sarah Dodson is the co-publisher and nonfiction editor for MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine. She is also an assistant organizer for The Printers' Ball, an annual celebration of print literature.
Zach Dodson is a designer and writer living in Chicago, IL. He is currently growing a mustache inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis's in 'There Will Be Blood'. His hybrid typo/graphic novel boring boring boring boring boring boring boring is due out from featherproof books in August 2008.
Jill Alexander Essbaum's most recent books include Harlot (No Tell Books 2007) and Necropolis (forthcoming 2008, NeoNuma Arts). Her poems have appeared in magazines both secular and religious, both print and online, both well-known and rabidly obscure including Image, The Christian Century, Poetry, No Tell Motel, MiPoesias, and many others. She splits her time between Switzerland and the United States.
Gina Frangello's first novel, My Sister's Continent (Chiasmus), was chosen as one of the top 10 books of 2006 by Las Vegas City Life, and was a "Read This!" finalist at the Litblog Co-Op for Spring 2006. Her short fiction has appeared in many literary venues, including Prairie Schooner, Swink, StoryQuarterly, the Chicago Reader, and the anthologies Homewrecker: An Adultery Reader, and A Stranger Among Us: Stories of Cross Cultural Collision and Connection. A founding editor of the fiction-centered press OV Books in 2004, Gina also served as the Editor of the award-winning literary magazine Other Voices from 1997 until its final issue in 2007, and is currently the Executive Editor of OV Books. She teaches fiction writing at Columbia College Chicago and Northwestern University's School of Continuing Studies. Her journalism and book reviews have appeared in the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Reader. Her second novel, London Calling, is forthcoming from Impetus Press in fall 2008.
Angela Gant received The Paula Vogel Award and The National Student Playwriting Award for Social Darwinism in 2006 at the Kennedy Center ACTF, which received a staged reading at the Bottle Factory Theatre in NYC. She is finishing her Ph.D. at Texas Tech University where she received the esteemed Horn Professors Award for her work, attended the Sundance Theatre Laboratory in July 2006 as the Kennedy Center Grantee. Her play, The Body of Eva Peron, co-written with William L. Bryan won Playmarket 2007 and received a reading at 37 Arts in NYC, as well as at The Last Frontier Theatre Festival 2007 in Valdez, Alaska, where her play Conversations with the Dearly Departed, was listed as one of the "standout works" in Backstage, and was first runner-up in Playworks 2005. Jill the Ripper, Angela's newest play, just received a staged reading at Texas Woman's University and was a finalist in the 2007 Stage West Playwriting Competition.
John Griswold has stories, poems, and essays in or forthcoming from War, Literature & the Arts; Mediphors; Perigee; Juked; MonkeyBicycle; Ninth Letter; and Brevity. As Oronte Churm, he's a regular essayist for McSweeney's and keeps a creative nonfiction blog for Inside Higher Ed called The Education of Oronte Churm. He teaches at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Amy Guth is the founder of Pilcrow Lit Fest and is the author of Three Fallen Women, which she is perpetually touring to pimp out, and a forthcoming second novel. Between travels, she has written for the Believer, Monkeybicycle, Bookslut, Four Magazine, Jewcy, Ninth Letter and The Complete Meal, among others. She has collaborated on a few shows within Second City's Training Center, is an assistant fiction editor at 42 Opus and blogs Bigmouth Indeed Strikes Again. The select few remember the days when she dabbled in improv, as well, including the night she was the "Kill Whitey" crayon.
Tim Hall was born when he was very young and small and has since grown older and much larger. Finding the real world entirely too difficult, he began creating his own worlds in elementary school and still has trouble telling the difference sometimes. He recently relocated from NYC to the Chicago suburbs so when sea levels rise he will be sitting on some prime oceanfront property. He is the creator of AuthorShares, a new way for writers and presses to sell stock in their work.
Cristina Henriquez is the author of Come Together, Fall Apart, a collection of eight stories and a novella. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, and other journals, and she was featured in Virginia Quarterly Review as one of "Fiction's New Luminaries." Her first novel, The World in Half, is forthcoming from Riverhead Books. She lives in Chicago.
Brandi Homan is Editor-in-Chief of Switchback Books, a feminist press that publishes poetry by women including transsexual, transgender, genderqueer, and female-identified individuals. She earned her MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago and is the author of Hard Reds, forthcoming from Shearsman Books, and Two Kinds of Arson, a chapbook from dancing girl press.
Leah Jones is a conversation analyst at Edelman PR, which means she does a lot of research for clients and teaches people how to best utilize tools like RSS and blog monitoring. Before that, she lived all over the world, worked in study abroad administration, university housing, restaurant management, was a stand-up comic and has a degree in chemistry from Millikin University. Obviously, she can discuss almost anything, online and off. She'll be rocking the blogosphere, social networks and webby goodness for Pilcrow Lit Fest. She has been blogging since 2003 at Leah in Chicago, writes for a number of online publications and contributes regularly to TalkShop, Edelman PR's word-of-mouth marketing blog.
Gail Konop Baker's work is published in Literary Mama, Talking River Review, The Potomac, Mota, The Danforth Review, Madison Magazine, Yankee Pot Roast, Wisconsin Trails, Xanadu, Womansong, Pudding Magazine, Glass Review, and an anthology funded by the Ohio Arts Council. Her Literary Mama column "Bare-breasted Mama" made its debut in October of 2006. Gail's memoir, Cancer is a Bitch Or, I'd Rather Be Having a Midlife Crisis will be published by Da Capo Press, October 2008. She has also written two novels, Waitress Of The Month and Paris Smells Like Rotten Eggs. Her short story, "My Religious Education," won third place in the Madison Magazine Short Fiction Contest, chosen by Jane Hamilton, was also a Glimmer Train Top 25 Fiction Open Finalist, a finalist in the 2006 New Millennium Fiction competition and a semi-finalist in the Boston Fiction Festival 2007 contest. She is a graduate of Simon's Rock Early College, and the University of Toledo with honors, and did graduate work at Hunter College, CUNY, and Dartmouth College. Gail has worked as an advertising executive, a stand-up comic, a waitress, and a high school teacher. She is a columnist (on hiatus) for Literary Mama, a freelance essayist, a competitive runner, a Vinyasa flow yoga teacher (having recently returned from Yoga Bootcamp teacher training), a mother of three and a breast cancer survivor.
Scott Korb, coauthor of The Faith Between Us, received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin and graduate degrees from Union Seminary and Columbia University. He has written for Harper's, Gastronomica, the Revealer, Commonweal, and Killing the Buddha. He teaches writing at the New School and New York University and lives in Brooklyn.
John Kuttenberg is the shopkeeper at a moveable Bit, a non-profit organization, whose first initiative is Author's Reading Room, a collection of literary readings, author interviews, biographical information and other related material. The primary objective of a moveable Bit is to provide a public digital venue to authors through a central repository that users may browse, and to provide authors with packaged digital resources for presenting and promoting their works for little or no cost to the author.
Gabriel Levinson is the reviews editor for MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine and associate editor for the online journal Is Greater Than. In summer of 2007, Gabriel created and produced The John & Bill Show, the first and only collaboration between John Kricfalusi (creator of Ren & Stimpy) and Academy Award-nominated animator Bill Plympton. He has since established the independent production company Feather Goes Here and is at work on the next greatest whatever. This summer he will launch Something To Read, a literary initiative in support of independent booksellers.
Wendy McClure is author of the memoir I'm Not the New Me (Riverhead, 2005), a columnist for BUST Magazine, and a children's book editor. Her work has appeared in publications ranging from the New York Times Magazine to Volt. She has published essays in several anthologies, including three that are forthcoming in 2009. She lives in Chicago.
Kelly McMasters is the author of Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town. Her essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, Newsday, Elle Decor, Metropolis, and Time Out New York, among others. She teaches writing at mediabistro.com and in the undergraduate writing program and Journalism Graduate School at Columbia University, and is the co-director of the KGB Nonfiction Reading Series in the East Village. She splits her time between Manhattan and northeast Pennsylvania with her husband, the painter Mark Milroy.
Cris Mazza is the author of a dozen books of fiction, mostly recently Waterbaby (Soft Skull Press 2007). Her other titles include the critically acclaimed Is It Sexual Harassment Yet?, and the PEN Nelson Algren Award winning How to Leave a Country. She also has a collection of personal essays, Indigenous: Growing Up Californian. Mazza has been the recipient of an NEA Fellowship and three Illinois Arts Council literary awards. A native of Southern California, Mazza grew up in San Diego County. Currently she lives 50 miles west of Chicago. She is a professor in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Jonathan Messinger is the author of the short story collection, Hiding Out. He's also the books editor of Time Out Chicago and founder and co-host of The Dollar Store Show, a literary and comedy series featuring performances inspired by junk purchased from a dollar store. He co-publishes Featherproof Books, and his fiction has appeared in various places, including Resonance and Rainbow Curve, and is forthcoming in Other Voices and Awake!, an anthology from Soft Skull Press.
Eric Obenauf graduated from New York University's Tisch Schhol of the Arts with a degree in Dramatic Writing, where he earned the Venable Herndon Award for Screenwriting. Punk Planet described his writing as "insightful, beautiful, and a little bewildering." He co-founded Two Dollar Radio with his wife and brother.
Nick Ostdick studies writing at Carroll College. He is the editor of RAGAD, a broadside and online magazine of short fiction, and his stories have appeared in such places as Slow Trains, Pindeldyboz, Word Riot, THE2NDHAND, Letter X, and elsewhere. He is currently working on a collection of short stories.
Danielle Pafunda lives and writes this spring in Chi-town. Otherwise, Wyoming. She is co-Editor of the online journal La Petite Zine.
D. E. Rasso is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in #1 Hit Song, Blottered, Cornfed, Sweet Action, Young Manhattanite and elsewhere. An essay is forthcoming in Insignificant Others (Plume, 2009). She has attended Benington College and Savannah College of Art and Design and is currently pursuing a master's degree in graphic communications management and technology at New York University. She has read her work at the Pink Pony, Galapagos, and Artland Bar, and been featured in a documentary about the all-women art provocateurs, The Exhibitionists. She lives in New York with her husband, agent Nick Mullendore.
Chris Rettstatt is an author whose day job is developing multimedia entertainment properties for kids. He is currently writing a five-book fantasy series called Kaimira (Candlewick Press and Walker Books). The first book, The Sky Village, will be published July 2008. Kaimira will be developed across other media in partnership with BBC Worldwide. In addition to his creative work, Chris spent the last decade as a specialist in the field of youth-focused virtual community. He lives in Chicago with his wife and twin daughters.
Amy Sayre-Roberts is completing a fiction MFA at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is currently finishing a novel, and beginning a collection of short stories. Her publications include Chicago Noir, Quiddity Literary Journal, Ninth Letter, Rain Taxi, and a story forthcoming in an anthology from Rutgers University Press.
Renee Rosen's debut novel, Every Crooked Pot, published by St. Martin's Press, was selected as a Booklist Editors' Choice Pick. She has studied creative writing under several prestigious authors including, Carol Anshaw, Susan Minot and the Pulitzer Prize Winning novelist, Michael Cunningham. Renee has contributed to many magazines and newspapers, including Chicago Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Complete Woman, DAME and Publisher's Weekly. She lives in Chicago where she is at work on a new novel.
Timothy Schaffert is the author of three novels, most recently Devils in the Sugar Shop, a New York Times Book Review Editors Choice and Book Sense pick. His second novel, The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God, was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and his first novel, The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters, was recently reissued by Unbridled Books. His essays have appeared in the anthologies Brothers and Beasts: An Anthology of Men on Fairy Tales and When I Was a Loser: True Stories of (Barely) Surviving High School, which was banned in New England. Schaffert is the founder and director of the (downtown) omaha lit fest, a contributing editor to the Prairie Schooner literary journal, and director of the Nebraska Summer Writers Conference.
Katie Schwartz's essay collection, Emotionally Pantsed, is due for release from So New Publishing in early summer. Her essays have been featured in Ostrich Ink, Monkeybicycle, Farmhouse Magazine, Girlistic Magazine and Tastes like Chicken, among others. You can read her daily rants about life, love or lack thereof and social commentary at her blog, All the Way from Oy to Vey. Many of her essays have debuted at Comedy Central's Sit-n-Spin Writer's Series. Katie was also a proud participant in Hollywood Hell House.
Elaine Soloway is the author of The Division Street Princess, a memoir published in 2006. The coming-of-age tale of a young girl, a family grocery store, and an old Chicago neighborhood set in the 1940s, was named a Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2006. Currently, Elaine is writing a novel, She's Not The Type, and expects to finish it this year. She's hoping this book gains the same wide audience and recognition as her first. Before writing her memoir, Elaine was a public relations consultant. Her career includes stints as press aide to Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne and communications director for Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Ruth Love. As a freelance writer, her essays have appeared in many print and online publications including New York Times Money & Business, Chicago Tribune WomenNews, Chicago Jewish News, and Web Sites: 2Young2Retire.com, jewishmag.com, skirtmag.com, freshyarn.com, and chijewishnews.com.
Scott Stealey lives and works in Chicago. He contributes regularly to Timeout Chicago and Playboy, has a mini-book out with Featherproof Books and is a founding editor of the webzine Please Don't.
James Stegall publishes books and distills liquor in Eugene, Oregon. His writing has appeared in Nerve, Flak Magazine, Eyeshot and others. So New Media, his press, has been privileged to have published work by Amy Guth, Neal Pollack, David Barringer, Jami Attenberg, Jen Michalski and many other amazing writers. Books are forthcoming from Steve Himmer, Katie Schwarz, Jacki Corley and Savannah Schroll-Guz. You can find James most often through sonewpublishing.com or widemouthspirits.com.
Megan Stielstra is a writer, storyteller and Director of Story Development for 2nd Story, Chicago's urban storytelling series held in wine bars where she regularly tells stories to drunk people. She has performed for The Chicago Poetry Center's No Love For Love show featuring Ira Glass, Looptopia at The Goodman Theatre, Neo-Solo at the Neo-Futurarium, Storyweek Festival of Writers, Literary Gangs of Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Dollar Store, RUI, Sunday Salon, WBEZ's Writer's Block Party and 2nd Story; her writing has appeared in Other Voices, Fresh Yarn, Pindeldyboz, Swink, Perigree, In the Fray, Punk Planet and was recently nominated for Dzanc's Best of the Web 2007 print anthology. She teaches creative writing at Columbia College and the University of Chicago, and has presented for Associated Writing Programs, The National Association of Writing in Education in London and the Center for Art in Public Life in San Fransisco, as well as serving as a storytelling judge for the Third Coast International Audio Festival.
Chris Szostek is not hiding in the north west burbs of Chicago, has no inclination for telling stories and of those stories that he is not telling, none of them involve a man with a body that will not fit into his trunk. His projects of print include a variety of cd covers, posters, & shirts. He has a soft spot for upcoming musicians, it's in the shape of a "Q" and it is hungry. When he is not time traveling, he enjoys spending time right behind you. He has this little thing on the internet at szostekdesign.com. It is not made from rituals in the Irish hills, because that would be silly.
Ben Tanzer is the author the novel Lucky Man (Manx Media, 2007) and has had work published in a variety of magazines and zines including Punk Planet, THE2NDHAND, RAGAD, Chicago Parent, Thieves Jargon, Zygote in My Coffee, Monkeybicycle and Wonka Vision where he is a staff writer. Ben also oversees day-to-day operations for This Zine Will Change Your Life and feverishly blogs at This Blog Will Change Your Life which serves as the base for his ever-expanding albeit faux media empire.
Laura Van Prooyen's work has appeared in Slate, The Greensboro Review, Blackbird and Cimmaron Review, among others. Her first book of poetry, Inkblot and Altar, was published by Pecan Grove Press. Van Prooyen has worked as an editor, teacher and mentor to incarcerated youth, and is currently teaching poetry in Chicago Public Schools. She lives in Brookfield, IL with her husband and three daughters.
Laural Winter is a writer and librarian from Portland, Oregon. She has had poems published in Nosedive, Stanza, Feminist Broadcast Quarterly, River City Review, Playing with a Full Deck, and Riot Grrl Vancouver. She has had a poem traveling in the Binder Archives of Temporary Services Organization. Most recently she had a poem featured on LuxLotus.com. She has spoken to audiences at the 2006 Annual Conference of the Pacific Northwest Library Association, 6th Annual PDX Zine Symposium, and The (Downtown) Omaha LitFest. She will be speaking at the American Library Association 2008 annual conference, and Oregon Library Association/SSD 2008 conference. She writes about books, crafting, Portland, and posts her poems at www.lauralwinter.typepad.com.
Eliza Jane Wood graduated from New York University with a Fine Arts Education degree. She has taught in the New York City public school system, and was a literacy tutor with Literacy*AmeriCorps. She is co-founder of Two Dollar Radio.
Mike Zapata is a writer and educator living in Chicago. He is co-founder, co-publisher, and fiction editor for MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine. He has produced and written for comedy revues at Second City's Donny's Skybox, The Viaduct, The Trap Door Theater, and the Apollo Theater Chicago, and is co-creator, co-writer of the television pilot Settling Up. He also co-hosts Sunday Salon Chicago, a monthly reading series the features local and national writers. He is also a 2008 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship recipient for Prose. Currently, he is working on novel which takes place in Chicago, New Orleans, and Quito, Ecuador.
Claire Zulkey is a television critic and blogger who contributes regularly to the LA Times and Onion AV Club. A 2007 graduate of the Northwestern University Creative Writing Masters program, she will be publishing her first young adult novel with Dutton in 2009. She has written for such publications as the Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal.com, Modern Bride and ElleGirl. She lives in Chicago where she runs her website, Zulkey.com.
PARTICIPANTS
Jami Attenberg has written about sex, technology, design, graphic novels, books, television, and urban life for Jane, Print, Nylon, Radar, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, Salon, Plenty, Nextbook, Time Out NY, eWeek, and others. Her fiction has been published by Nerve, Pindeldyboz, Spork, and Bullfight Review. She recently appeared in the anthologies Future Misbehavior and Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone. Her debut collection of stories, Instant Love, was published by Crown/Shaye Areheart Books in June 2006. Her new novel, The Kept Man was published by Riverhead Books in January 2008. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Jennifer Banash lives, works, and writes in Iowa City, Iowa. She is the co-founder and co-publisher of Impetus Press, an independent publishing house that champions serious literary fiction with a pop or urban edge. Her novel, Hollywoodland: An American Fairy Tale, is published by Impetus Press, and her Young Adult series, The Elite, will be released in June from Penguin, Berkley.
Peter Bebergal, coauthor of The Faith Between Us, graduated from Brandeis University and the Harvard Divinity School. His writing has appeared in Salon, Nextbook, Beliefnet, the Believer, and the Boston Globe. He is also an editor at Zeek. He teaches in the Experimental College at Tufts University. Peter lives with his wife and son in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Jason Behrends is the creator of the independent arts and culture blog, What to Wear During an Orange Alert. He has interviewed many of the most creative minds in Chicago, and strives to focus the Orange spotlight on the best and most deserving independent artist, writers, and musicians from around the world. Orange Alert was recently named one of the top websites in Chicago by Chicago Magazine. Aside from spending way too much time researching and blogging, he is also the Art Editor for two different literary journals, Thieves Jargon and decomP, and is the father of four amazing girls.
Willy Blackmore was born and raised and continues to live in southeastern Iowa. In 2005, he helped found Impetus Press where he is co-publisher. Someday, he may write a novel himself.
Charles Blackstone is the author of The Week You Weren't Here, a novel, and the co-editor of The Art of Friction: Where (Non) Fictions Come Together, an anthology of creative nonfiction and short foction, featuring prose by Thomas Beller, Bernard Cooper, Junot Diaz, Cris Mazza, and more, which the University of Texas Press will publish this fall. His short fiction has appeared in Esquire, Bridge, Identity Theory, The Evergreen Review, Salt River Review, and others. He is also author of two plays, Corked, produced by Victory Gardens Theater, and Rogers Party, produced by Lifeline Theater Company. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Master Sommelier and host of WTTW-TV's Check, Please!, Alpana Singh.
Anne Boles Levy has been spreading the word about great kids' books since starting her blog, Book Buds, in 2004. She currently edits the children's web page at the Poetry Foundation and is a co-founder of the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards. Her book reviews for grown-ups have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and she's guest-blogged on reviewing techniques for ForeWord Magazine.
Lynne Brewer is a writer, editor, and publisher living in Boulder, Colorado. Her poetry chapbook, SAFARI, debuted in 2006, but her attention has since turned towards prose. While earning her master's in Writing from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. Lynn founded Cliterature an online literary journal dedicated to women's sexuality. She is currently working on her second novel, which takes place in Chicago.
William L. Bryan has written two novels, The Reverend Nobody and Prince Hal. His essay, Family Snapshot, won the 2006 Denver Literary Challenge and he is published semi-regularly in Say what?, a celebrity sports commentary panel for teh Denver Rocky Mountain News. His full-length play, The Body of Eva Peron, co-written with Angela Gant, won Playmarket 2007 and was recently optioned for an Off-Broadway production.
Lauren Cerand is an independent public relations representative and consultant in New York. Her clients are a purposefully eclectic mix of creative professionals, and she specializes in generating initial buzz and building sustained attention for projects and individuals. She is often asked to share her innovative perspective on publicity and has spoken to audiences at the 20th Annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair, Book Promotion 101, Mystery Writers of America, NYU's Center for Publishing, The (Downtown) Omaha Lit Fest, Penguin UK (video clip), Virginia Festival of the Book, Word of Mouth, Women's National Book Association, and next on "Promotion and Publicity for New Authors" in Washington, DC (January 14, 2008) and at the Virginia Festival of the Book (March 28-29, 2008) and the Nebraska Summer Writers' Conference (June 14-15, 2008). The Village Voice included her in its "Best of New York" (2004) issue. She is the vice chair of the board of directors of Girls Write Now, "a nonprofit volunteer mentoring organization that has been matching bright, creative teenage girls from New York City's public high schools with professional women writers in the community since 1998." A Cornell University graduate, Lauren compiles "The Smart Set," a weekly round-up of cultural happenings for MaudNewton.com, and writes about art, politics and style at LuxLotus.com.
Rachel Cline is a New Yorker who spent most of her thirties in L.A. She intended to write the great American movie and get paid buckets of cash. Instead, she got fired after three episodes of knots Landing and went on to create the sanitized airline dialog for David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross. ("It takes brass buns to sell real estate!") She is the author of novels What To Keep and My Liar.
Pete Coco's writing has appeared in Other Voices, Barrelhouse The Madison Review, The 2ndhand, Econoculture, American Book Review, and as a Featherproof Mini-Book. Currently working towards a master's in Library Science, he holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has taught creative writing at both StoryStudio Chicago and the City Colleges of Chicago and is a founding editor of the literary webzine Please Don't.
Jackie Corley's writing has appeared on-line at MobyLives.com, 3AM Magazine and Pequin.org and in various print anthologies. She is the publisher of online literary magazine Word Riot and its print extension, Word Riot Press. Her short story collection, The Suburban Swindle, is coming out Summer 2008 from So New Publishing.
Bruce Covey is Lecturer of Creative Writing at Emory University and the author of three books of poetry�most recently Elapsing Speedway Organism (No Tell Books, 2006) and Ten Pins, Ten Frames (Front Room, 2007). His recent poems also appear or are forthcoming in Jacket, Sonora Review, Parcel, Cake, Pingpong, Columbia Poetry Review, and other journals. He edits the web-based poetry magazine Coconut and curates the What's New in Poetry reading series in Atlanta.
Elizabeth Crane is the author of three collections of short stories, When The Messenger is Hot, All This Heavenly Glory, and You Must Be This Happy To Enter. Her work has also been featured in publications including Other Voices, fivechapters, Ecotone, Nerve, Washington Square, New York Stories, Sycamore Review, Mississippi Review, Florida Review, Eclipse, Bridge, Sonora Review, the Chicago Reader, the Believer, McSweeny's Future Dictionary of America, and several anthologies including The Best Underground Fiction, Loser, Altared and The Show I'll Never Forget. Her stories have also been featured on NPR's Selected Shorts. Her work has been adapted for the stage by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company, and also been adapted for film. In 2003, she received the Chicago Public Library 21st Century Award. She has taught creative writing at Northwestern's School of Continuing Studies and currently teaches at The University of Chicago and The School of the Art Institute.
Peter Davis' book of poems is Hitler's Mustache. He edited Poet's Bookshelf: Contemporary Poets on Books that Shaped Their Art. His poems have appeared in journals like Court Green, McSweeney's, La Petite Zine, Octopus, and Mipoesias. His music project, Short Hand, is available through Collectible Escalators Records. His wife is sweet and his kids are very cute and he lives in Muncie, Indiana and teaches English at Ball State University.
Larry O. Dean was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan, during which time he won three Hopwood Awards in Creative Writing, an honor shared with fellow poets Robert Hayden, Jane Kenyon, and Frank O'Hara, among others. He is author of numerous chapbooks, including I Am Spam (2004), a series poems by junk email; his poetry has also been internationally anthologized. In addition to writing, he is a singer-songwriter, performing solo as well as with his current band, The Injured Parties; he has released many critically-acclaimed CDs including Fables in Slang (2001) with Post Office, and Gentrification is Theft (2002) with The Me Decade. Dean was a 2004 recipient of the Hands on Stanzas Gwendolyn Brooks Award, presented by the Poetry Center of Chicago.
Adam Deutsch was born on Long Island, New York. He's worked on various projects from singing on corners with Molten Soul in Nantucket to performing with The Goat Song Conspiracy in San Diego, and received his M.A. from Hofstra University (2005). Currently he is working on his M.F.A. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (to graduate in 2008) and is the Assistant to the Editor at Ninth Letter.
Sarah Dodson is the co-publisher and nonfiction editor for MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine. She is also an assistant organizer for The Printers' Ball, an annual celebration of print literature.
Zach Dodson is a designer and writer living in Chicago, IL. He is currently growing a mustache inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis's in 'There Will Be Blood'. His hybrid typo/graphic novel boring boring boring boring boring boring boring is due out from featherproof books in August 2008.
Jill Alexander Essbaum's most recent books include Harlot (No Tell Books 2007) and Necropolis (forthcoming 2008, NeoNuma Arts). Her poems have appeared in magazines both secular and religious, both print and online, both well-known and rabidly obscure including Image, The Christian Century, Poetry, No Tell Motel, MiPoesias, and many others. She splits her time between Switzerland and the United States.
Gina Frangello's first novel, My Sister's Continent (Chiasmus), was chosen as one of the top 10 books of 2006 by Las Vegas City Life, and was a "Read This!" finalist at the Litblog Co-Op for Spring 2006. Her short fiction has appeared in many literary venues, including Prairie Schooner, Swink, StoryQuarterly, the Chicago Reader, and the anthologies Homewrecker: An Adultery Reader, and A Stranger Among Us: Stories of Cross Cultural Collision and Connection. A founding editor of the fiction-centered press OV Books in 2004, Gina also served as the Editor of the award-winning literary magazine Other Voices from 1997 until its final issue in 2007, and is currently the Executive Editor of OV Books. She teaches fiction writing at Columbia College Chicago and Northwestern University's School of Continuing Studies. Her journalism and book reviews have appeared in the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Reader. Her second novel, London Calling, is forthcoming from Impetus Press in fall 2008.
Angela Gant received The Paula Vogel Award and The National Student Playwriting Award for Social Darwinism in 2006 at the Kennedy Center ACTF, which received a staged reading at the Bottle Factory Theatre in NYC. She is finishing her Ph.D. at Texas Tech University where she received the esteemed Horn Professors Award for her work, attended the Sundance Theatre Laboratory in July 2006 as the Kennedy Center Grantee. Her play, The Body of Eva Peron, co-written with William L. Bryan won Playmarket 2007 and received a reading at 37 Arts in NYC, as well as at The Last Frontier Theatre Festival 2007 in Valdez, Alaska, where her play Conversations with the Dearly Departed, was listed as one of the "standout works" in Backstage, and was first runner-up in Playworks 2005. Jill the Ripper, Angela's newest play, just received a staged reading at Texas Woman's University and was a finalist in the 2007 Stage West Playwriting Competition.
John Griswold has stories, poems, and essays in or forthcoming from War, Literature & the Arts; Mediphors; Perigee; Juked; MonkeyBicycle; Ninth Letter; and Brevity. As Oronte Churm, he's a regular essayist for McSweeney's and keeps a creative nonfiction blog for Inside Higher Ed called The Education of Oronte Churm. He teaches at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Amy Guth is the founder of Pilcrow Lit Fest and is the author of Three Fallen Women, which she is perpetually touring to pimp out, and a forthcoming second novel. Between travels, she has written for the Believer, Monkeybicycle, Bookslut, Four Magazine, Jewcy, Ninth Letter and The Complete Meal, among others. She has collaborated on a few shows within Second City's Training Center, is an assistant fiction editor at 42 Opus and blogs Bigmouth Indeed Strikes Again. The select few remember the days when she dabbled in improv, as well, including the night she was the "Kill Whitey" crayon.
Tim Hall was born when he was very young and small and has since grown older and much larger. Finding the real world entirely too difficult, he began creating his own worlds in elementary school and still has trouble telling the difference sometimes. He recently relocated from NYC to the Chicago suburbs so when sea levels rise he will be sitting on some prime oceanfront property. He is the creator of AuthorShares, a new way for writers and presses to sell stock in their work.
Cristina Henriquez is the author of Come Together, Fall Apart, a collection of eight stories and a novella. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, and other journals, and she was featured in Virginia Quarterly Review as one of "Fiction's New Luminaries." Her first novel, The World in Half, is forthcoming from Riverhead Books. She lives in Chicago.
Brandi Homan is Editor-in-Chief of Switchback Books, a feminist press that publishes poetry by women including transsexual, transgender, genderqueer, and female-identified individuals. She earned her MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago and is the author of Hard Reds, forthcoming from Shearsman Books, and Two Kinds of Arson, a chapbook from dancing girl press.
Leah Jones is a conversation analyst at Edelman PR, which means she does a lot of research for clients and teaches people how to best utilize tools like RSS and blog monitoring. Before that, she lived all over the world, worked in study abroad administration, university housing, restaurant management, was a stand-up comic and has a degree in chemistry from Millikin University. Obviously, she can discuss almost anything, online and off. She'll be rocking the blogosphere, social networks and webby goodness for Pilcrow Lit Fest. She has been blogging since 2003 at Leah in Chicago, writes for a number of online publications and contributes regularly to TalkShop, Edelman PR's word-of-mouth marketing blog.
Gail Konop Baker's work is published in Literary Mama, Talking River Review, The Potomac, Mota, The Danforth Review, Madison Magazine, Yankee Pot Roast, Wisconsin Trails, Xanadu, Womansong, Pudding Magazine, Glass Review, and an anthology funded by the Ohio Arts Council. Her Literary Mama column "Bare-breasted Mama" made its debut in October of 2006. Gail's memoir, Cancer is a Bitch Or, I'd Rather Be Having a Midlife Crisis will be published by Da Capo Press, October 2008. She has also written two novels, Waitress Of The Month and Paris Smells Like Rotten Eggs. Her short story, "My Religious Education," won third place in the Madison Magazine Short Fiction Contest, chosen by Jane Hamilton, was also a Glimmer Train Top 25 Fiction Open Finalist, a finalist in the 2006 New Millennium Fiction competition and a semi-finalist in the Boston Fiction Festival 2007 contest. She is a graduate of Simon's Rock Early College, and the University of Toledo with honors, and did graduate work at Hunter College, CUNY, and Dartmouth College. Gail has worked as an advertising executive, a stand-up comic, a waitress, and a high school teacher. She is a columnist (on hiatus) for Literary Mama, a freelance essayist, a competitive runner, a Vinyasa flow yoga teacher (having recently returned from Yoga Bootcamp teacher training), a mother of three and a breast cancer survivor.
Scott Korb, coauthor of The Faith Between Us, received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin and graduate degrees from Union Seminary and Columbia University. He has written for Harper's, Gastronomica, the Revealer, Commonweal, and Killing the Buddha. He teaches writing at the New School and New York University and lives in Brooklyn.
John Kuttenberg is the shopkeeper at a moveable Bit, a non-profit organization, whose first initiative is Author's Reading Room, a collection of literary readings, author interviews, biographical information and other related material. The primary objective of a moveable Bit is to provide a public digital venue to authors through a central repository that users may browse, and to provide authors with packaged digital resources for presenting and promoting their works for little or no cost to the author.
Gabriel Levinson is the reviews editor for MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine and associate editor for the online journal Is Greater Than. In summer of 2007, Gabriel created and produced The John & Bill Show, the first and only collaboration between John Kricfalusi (creator of Ren & Stimpy) and Academy Award-nominated animator Bill Plympton. He has since established the independent production company Feather Goes Here and is at work on the next greatest whatever. This summer he will launch Something To Read, a literary initiative in support of independent booksellers.
Wendy McClure is author of the memoir I'm Not the New Me (Riverhead, 2005), a columnist for BUST Magazine, and a children's book editor. Her work has appeared in publications ranging from the New York Times Magazine to Volt. She has published essays in several anthologies, including three that are forthcoming in 2009. She lives in Chicago.
Kelly McMasters is the author of Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town. Her essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, Newsday, Elle Decor, Metropolis, and Time Out New York, among others. She teaches writing at mediabistro.com and in the undergraduate writing program and Journalism Graduate School at Columbia University, and is the co-director of the KGB Nonfiction Reading Series in the East Village. She splits her time between Manhattan and northeast Pennsylvania with her husband, the painter Mark Milroy.
Cris Mazza is the author of a dozen books of fiction, mostly recently Waterbaby (Soft Skull Press 2007). Her other titles include the critically acclaimed Is It Sexual Harassment Yet?, and the PEN Nelson Algren Award winning How to Leave a Country. She also has a collection of personal essays, Indigenous: Growing Up Californian. Mazza has been the recipient of an NEA Fellowship and three Illinois Arts Council literary awards. A native of Southern California, Mazza grew up in San Diego County. Currently she lives 50 miles west of Chicago. She is a professor in the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Jonathan Messinger is the author of the short story collection, Hiding Out. He's also the books editor of Time Out Chicago and founder and co-host of The Dollar Store Show, a literary and comedy series featuring performances inspired by junk purchased from a dollar store. He co-publishes Featherproof Books, and his fiction has appeared in various places, including Resonance and Rainbow Curve, and is forthcoming in Other Voices and Awake!, an anthology from Soft Skull Press.
Eric Obenauf graduated from New York University's Tisch Schhol of the Arts with a degree in Dramatic Writing, where he earned the Venable Herndon Award for Screenwriting. Punk Planet described his writing as "insightful, beautiful, and a little bewildering." He co-founded Two Dollar Radio with his wife and brother.
Nick Ostdick studies writing at Carroll College. He is the editor of RAGAD, a broadside and online magazine of short fiction, and his stories have appeared in such places as Slow Trains, Pindeldyboz, Word Riot, THE2NDHAND, Letter X, and elsewhere. He is currently working on a collection of short stories.
Danielle Pafunda lives and writes this spring in Chi-town. Otherwise, Wyoming. She is co-Editor of the online journal La Petite Zine.
D. E. Rasso is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in #1 Hit Song, Blottered, Cornfed, Sweet Action, Young Manhattanite and elsewhere. An essay is forthcoming in Insignificant Others (Plume, 2009). She has attended Benington College and Savannah College of Art and Design and is currently pursuing a master's degree in graphic communications management and technology at New York University. She has read her work at the Pink Pony, Galapagos, and Artland Bar, and been featured in a documentary about the all-women art provocateurs, The Exhibitionists. She lives in New York with her husband, agent Nick Mullendore.
Chris Rettstatt is an author whose day job is developing multimedia entertainment properties for kids. He is currently writing a five-book fantasy series called Kaimira (Candlewick Press and Walker Books). The first book, The Sky Village, will be published July 2008. Kaimira will be developed across other media in partnership with BBC Worldwide. In addition to his creative work, Chris spent the last decade as a specialist in the field of youth-focused virtual community. He lives in Chicago with his wife and twin daughters.
Amy Sayre-Roberts is completing a fiction MFA at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is currently finishing a novel, and beginning a collection of short stories. Her publications include Chicago Noir, Quiddity Literary Journal, Ninth Letter, Rain Taxi, and a story forthcoming in an anthology from Rutgers University Press.
Renee Rosen's debut novel, Every Crooked Pot, published by St. Martin's Press, was selected as a Booklist Editors' Choice Pick. She has studied creative writing under several prestigious authors including, Carol Anshaw, Susan Minot and the Pulitzer Prize Winning novelist, Michael Cunningham. Renee has contributed to many magazines and newspapers, including Chicago Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Complete Woman, DAME and Publisher's Weekly. She lives in Chicago where she is at work on a new novel.
Timothy Schaffert is the author of three novels, most recently Devils in the Sugar Shop, a New York Times Book Review Editors Choice and Book Sense pick. His second novel, The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God, was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and his first novel, The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters, was recently reissued by Unbridled Books. His essays have appeared in the anthologies Brothers and Beasts: An Anthology of Men on Fairy Tales and When I Was a Loser: True Stories of (Barely) Surviving High School, which was banned in New England. Schaffert is the founder and director of the (downtown) omaha lit fest, a contributing editor to the Prairie Schooner literary journal, and director of the Nebraska Summer Writers Conference.
Katie Schwartz's essay collection, Emotionally Pantsed, is due for release from So New Publishing in early summer. Her essays have been featured in Ostrich Ink, Monkeybicycle, Farmhouse Magazine, Girlistic Magazine and Tastes like Chicken, among others. You can read her daily rants about life, love or lack thereof and social commentary at her blog, All the Way from Oy to Vey. Many of her essays have debuted at Comedy Central's Sit-n-Spin Writer's Series. Katie was also a proud participant in Hollywood Hell House.
Elaine Soloway is the author of The Division Street Princess, a memoir published in 2006. The coming-of-age tale of a young girl, a family grocery store, and an old Chicago neighborhood set in the 1940s, was named a Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2006. Currently, Elaine is writing a novel, She's Not The Type, and expects to finish it this year. She's hoping this book gains the same wide audience and recognition as her first. Before writing her memoir, Elaine was a public relations consultant. Her career includes stints as press aide to Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne and communications director for Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Ruth Love. As a freelance writer, her essays have appeared in many print and online publications including New York Times Money & Business, Chicago Tribune WomenNews, Chicago Jewish News, and Web Sites: 2Young2Retire.com, jewishmag.com, skirtmag.com, freshyarn.com, and chijewishnews.com.
Scott Stealey lives and works in Chicago. He contributes regularly to Timeout Chicago and Playboy, has a mini-book out with Featherproof Books and is a founding editor of the webzine Please Don't.
James Stegall publishes books and distills liquor in Eugene, Oregon. His writing has appeared in Nerve, Flak Magazine, Eyeshot and others. So New Media, his press, has been privileged to have published work by Amy Guth, Neal Pollack, David Barringer, Jami Attenberg, Jen Michalski and many other amazing writers. Books are forthcoming from Steve Himmer, Katie Schwarz, Jacki Corley and Savannah Schroll-Guz. You can find James most often through sonewpublishing.com or widemouthspirits.com.
Megan Stielstra is a writer, storyteller and Director of Story Development for 2nd Story, Chicago's urban storytelling series held in wine bars where she regularly tells stories to drunk people. She has performed for The Chicago Poetry Center's No Love For Love show featuring Ira Glass, Looptopia at The Goodman Theatre, Neo-Solo at the Neo-Futurarium, Storyweek Festival of Writers, Literary Gangs of Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Dollar Store, RUI, Sunday Salon, WBEZ's Writer's Block Party and 2nd Story; her writing has appeared in Other Voices, Fresh Yarn, Pindeldyboz, Swink, Perigree, In the Fray, Punk Planet and was recently nominated for Dzanc's Best of the Web 2007 print anthology. She teaches creative writing at Columbia College and the University of Chicago, and has presented for Associated Writing Programs, The National Association of Writing in Education in London and the Center for Art in Public Life in San Fransisco, as well as serving as a storytelling judge for the Third Coast International Audio Festival.
Chris Szostek is not hiding in the north west burbs of Chicago, has no inclination for telling stories and of those stories that he is not telling, none of them involve a man with a body that will not fit into his trunk. His projects of print include a variety of cd covers, posters, & shirts. He has a soft spot for upcoming musicians, it's in the shape of a "Q" and it is hungry. When he is not time traveling, he enjoys spending time right behind you. He has this little thing on the internet at szostekdesign.com. It is not made from rituals in the Irish hills, because that would be silly.
Ben Tanzer is the author the novel Lucky Man (Manx Media, 2007) and has had work published in a variety of magazines and zines including Punk Planet, THE2NDHAND, RAGAD, Chicago Parent, Thieves Jargon, Zygote in My Coffee, Monkeybicycle and Wonka Vision where he is a staff writer. Ben also oversees day-to-day operations for This Zine Will Change Your Life and feverishly blogs at This Blog Will Change Your Life which serves as the base for his ever-expanding albeit faux media empire.
Laura Van Prooyen's work has appeared in Slate, The Greensboro Review, Blackbird and Cimmaron Review, among others. Her first book of poetry, Inkblot and Altar, was published by Pecan Grove Press. Van Prooyen has worked as an editor, teacher and mentor to incarcerated youth, and is currently teaching poetry in Chicago Public Schools. She lives in Brookfield, IL with her husband and three daughters.
Laural Winter is a writer and librarian from Portland, Oregon. She has had poems published in Nosedive, Stanza, Feminist Broadcast Quarterly, River City Review, Playing with a Full Deck, and Riot Grrl Vancouver. She has had a poem traveling in the Binder Archives of Temporary Services Organization. Most recently she had a poem featured on LuxLotus.com. She has spoken to audiences at the 2006 Annual Conference of the Pacific Northwest Library Association, 6th Annual PDX Zine Symposium, and The (Downtown) Omaha LitFest. She will be speaking at the American Library Association 2008 annual conference, and Oregon Library Association/SSD 2008 conference. She writes about books, crafting, Portland, and posts her poems at www.lauralwinter.typepad.com.
Eliza Jane Wood graduated from New York University with a Fine Arts Education degree. She has taught in the New York City public school system, and was a literacy tutor with Literacy*AmeriCorps. She is co-founder of Two Dollar Radio.
Mike Zapata is a writer and educator living in Chicago. He is co-founder, co-publisher, and fiction editor for MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine. He has produced and written for comedy revues at Second City's Donny's Skybox, The Viaduct, The Trap Door Theater, and the Apollo Theater Chicago, and is co-creator, co-writer of the television pilot Settling Up. He also co-hosts Sunday Salon Chicago, a monthly reading series the features local and national writers. He is also a 2008 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship recipient for Prose. Currently, he is working on novel which takes place in Chicago, New Orleans, and Quito, Ecuador.
Claire Zulkey is a television critic and blogger who contributes regularly to the LA Times and Onion AV Club. A 2007 graduate of the Northwestern University Creative Writing Masters program, she will be publishing her first young adult novel with Dutton in 2009. She has written for such publications as the Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal.com, Modern Bride and ElleGirl. She lives in Chicago where she runs her website, Zulkey.com.