North Stage
(On S. Dearborn St., just south of Ida B. Wells Dr.)
Saturday 9/12, 4pm

Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. is the author of Chicago-set award-winning story collections Sacred Smokes, Sacred City, and Sacred Folks. He is the co-editor of the award-winning, bestselling Never Whistle at Night from Vintage/Penguin Random House. His debut novel, The El, a Chicago Public Library Favorite Book of 2025, was shortlisted for the Pattis Family Foundation Book Award as well as the Chicago Reader’s Best New Book of 2025, and won the 2025 Chicago Review of Books Fiction of the Year. His work has appeared in Southwest Review, Chicago Review, The Journal of Working-Class Studies, and elsewhere.