Anne Abel moved to Chicago from suburban Philadelphia in January 2016, for what she thought would be only four months. Anne received a Bachelor of Science from Tufts University, an MBA from The University of Chicago, and an MFA in...  read

Ines Bellina is a writer, translator and performer. She is the co-founder of the monthly live lit show, Is This a Thing? and has read at Story Club, Serving the Sentence, 20X2, The Marrow, Miss Spoken, Essay Fiesta, and other...  read

Tom Haley is a writer and pre-amateur freestyle lap swimmer. He has published several essays, and previously worked as a writing instructor, copywriter, and book critic for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Time Out Chicago, the Believer and others. He is...  read

Jeff Phillips is a washed up varsity cross country skier and storefront theatre method actor. His short fiction has appeared in Seeding Meat, This Zine Will Change Your Life, Metazen, Chicago Literati, and Literary Orphans. He is the co-founder of...  read

Angel Simmons is a Chicago south-sider who was raised in Englewood. As a Columbia College alumna, she does it all as a speaker, mentor, coach, runway and print model, president and CEO of The Message, Inc., and the current Ms....  read

Michael Fischer is currently earning an MFA in Creative Writing from Sierra Nevada College. He is co-editor of Sierra Nevada Review, an assistant nonfiction editor of Profane, and a Moth Chicago StorySlam winner. His work has been supported by fellowships...  read

Lily Be is a Chicago native, born and raised in Humboldt Park. A momma, a nanny, and storyteller. Lily Be is the creator and cohost of the bimonthly storytelling series, The Stoop, which takes place second and last Thursday of...  read

Evan W. Stoner is the author of this bio and the novel Birthday Suits, a book that asks the question: if you inherit a disease from your parents, can you hold them legally responsible? While not a courtroom drama, the...  read

Mary Winn Heider writes for kids, but has also worked as a public radio reporter, a high school teacher, and a bartender on a train in Alaska. She teaches writing to kids in Chicago Public Schools with the theater company...  read

Jonathan Winston Jones has struggled more to come out as a writer than he did when coming out as gay. Whenever he hits his stride with his writing, he hears the voice of his deceased grandfather who raised him saying,...  read