Mare Swallow is a full-time public speaking and communications coach, occasional writer, and sometimes ukulele player. She shares her stories at events like this one - Tuesday Funk! Find her at mariannaswallow.com. Please join Mare and our other amazing readers...  read

James Finn Garner is a humorist and author of 9 books, the most famous of which is Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, which was an international bestseller and can be found on top of toilet tanks in bathrooms nationwide. He has...  read

Erin Watson is a Southern person living in Chicago. Her poetry chapbooks include No Experiences and Breathtaken. Her essays and criticism appear on the Volta Blog and in the forthcoming zine We Can Turn the World To Gold: A Carly...  read

Bill Savage teaches Chicago literature, history, and culture at Northwestern University and the Newberry Library of Chicago. He is currently working on a book entitled The City Logical: Or Why Daniel Burnham is Freaking Over-Rated, a history of Chicago based...  read

Tracy Harford-Porter was born in Brooklyn, NY and now resides in the Chicago suburbs. She has worked for Essence Communications as a photo editor, the Harlem Children's Zone as the managing editor of Harlem Overheard, StoryCorps as a facilitator coordinator,...  read

Jocelyn Geboy is a freelance writer and performer living in Albany Park. She's the creator of CHIRP Radio's story series The First Time and hopes to get a one woman show on the books by the end of the year....  read

You can hear Jenn Rourke on the air at CHIRP Radio 107.1 FM as DJ Ninja on Fridays from 6-8 p.m. Jenn has been a DJ for 18 years at various community and college stations across Illinois. She currently serves...  read

Megan Maile Manley is a writer and director. She's written for The Onion, ClickHole, McSweeney's, UPROXX's daily news comedy show theDESK, and sketch comedy groups The Wheel Show, The Late Live Show, and Drew's Tumbler. She and her friends made...  read

Kathryn Kruse is the Executive Director of Residency on the Farm, an interdisciplinary artists residency. Among other places, her work is forthcoming from or has appeared on the walls of the I Hope You Are Feeling Better Collaborative Art Exhibition,...  read

Stuti Sharma is an immigrant artist, stand up comic, clumsy poet, and educator based in Chicago. She's a poet in residence with the Chicago Poetry Center. She is a Leo sun, Virgo moon and only trust restaurants where the cooks...  read