Saturday, September 6th
12pm CT – Center Stage

James Stewart III is a Black writer from Chicago and the author of Defiant Acts (Acre Books, 2025), a debut novel praised as “a new classic in the storied tradition of Chicago novels” (Lindsay Hunter) and “an unflinching look into multi-racial America” (David Wright Faladé). Told in vivid, vignette-style chapters, the book follows a multiracial, working-class family navigating race, labor, and belonging in a 1990s Chicago suburb. Stewart’s writing appears in Lampblack, Zone 3, Midwest Review, and more. He holds an MFA from SAIC, an MA from North Central College, and co-founded the reading series Exhibit B. www.jamesstewart3.com