Rachel Z. Arndt is the author of the essay collection Beyond Measure, which came out from Sarabande in April 2018. She received MFAs in nonfiction and poetry from the University of Iowa, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow and...  read

James Finn Garner is the author of the Politically Correct Bedtime Stories trilogy, which will soon be published in the Czech Republic and Turkey. He recently launched the webcomic, Single White Vigilante, about a superhero hitting the lonely stretch of...  read

Michi Trota is the two-time Hugo Award-winning Managing Editor of Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the first Filipina Hugo Award winner. She is an essayist, public speaker, fire performance artist, and serves as president on the...  read

Emerge from your winter cocoon tonight and come hear some great writing by Tracy Harford-Porter, Nestor Gomez, Kelly Swails, Ruben Quesada, and Levi Todd! Helmed, as always, by your trusty co-captains, Andrew Huff and Eden Robins. Our readings take place...  read

Levi Todd is a queer poet and lifelong witness to the Chicago Renaissance. He is the founder of Reacting Out Loud, an independent organization devoted to uplifting poetry and affirming community in Muncie, Indiana. He is also a reader for...  read

Ruben Quesada has taught writing, literature, and literary translation at Vermont College of Fine Arts and at Columbia College Chicago. He is the author of Next Extinct Mammal and Exiled from the Throne of Night: Selected Translations of Luis Cernuda....  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

Nestor Gomez was born in Guatemala and has lived in Chicago for the last 30 years. Almost 3 years ago, he told his first story as a way to get over the stuttering that had plagued his childhood, and since...  read

Please join Beyza and our other amazing readers on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 in the upstairs bar at Hopleaf. Doors open at 7pm, and the show starts at 7:30. It's free, and 21-and-over. RSVP on Facebook.  read

Kelly Swails is a writer, editor, and recovering clinical microbiologist. Her work has appeared in anthologies, comics, medical laboratory publications, and Shondaland. She also has two young adult novels out now, with a third appearing later this year. When she...  read