Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage (On W. Polk St., just east of Clark St.) Sunday, Sept. 8th at 2pm Samira Ahmed is The New York Times bestselling author of Love, Hate, and Other Filters and Internment. She was born in Bombay, India, and has lived in New York, Chicago, and Kauai, where she spent ... Read more
Center Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 12pm Christian Aldana (they/she) is the author of The Water We Swim In (Sampaguita Press, 2023) They are a Filipinx artist, educator, and community organizer based in Chicago. Christian founded Luya, a poetry organization that centers the voices of peoole of color. Their poetry is a safe space for ... Read more
Grace Place Stage (2nd floor) Saturday, Sept. 7th at 10am Izidora Angel is a Bulgarian-born writer and literary translator in Chicago. She received an NEA fellowship for her work on Yordanka Beleva’s collection, Keder, and the Gulf Coast Translation Prize for her work on Rene Karabash’s She Who Remains, forthcoming from Sandorf Passage in 2026. ... Read more
Center Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 2pm Erisa Apantaku (she/her) is a Black/biracial, queer journalist, filmmaker, and educator from the lands of the Three Fires Confederacy of the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi (Chicagoland). Erisa was a producer on the Invisible Institute’s award-winning podcast You Didn’t See Nothin. Outside of the Invisible Institute, Erisa also produces ... Read more
North Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 2pm Gint Aras (Karolis Gintaras Zukauskas) has been trapped on planet earth since 1973. He’s an award winning writer.
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 3:30pm Heather Augustyn is Assistant Professor of Practice in Writing at Purdue University Northwest. She is author of eight books on ska and Jamaican music history and has interviewed hundreds of musicians which are housed at the Archives of African American Music and Culture at ... Read more
Plymouth Court Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 4pm Ben Austen is the author of Correction: Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change, which was named one of the best books of 2023 by the Washington Post. His book High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing was named one of the best books of ... Read more
Jazz Showcase Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 4:30pm Diego Báez is a writer, educator, and abolitionist. He is the author of Yaguareté White (Univ. of Arizona, 2024). He is the recipient of fellowships from CantoMundo, the Surge Institute, and the Poetry Foundation’s Incubator for Community-Engaged Poets. His writing has appeared in Freeman’s, The Rumpus, Harriet ... Read more
Plymouth Court Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 10am Peter C. Baker's first novel, Planes, was published in 2022. He writes regularly for The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere. He also edits Tracks On Tracks, a Substack publication where people write about their experiences of the ... Read more
Center Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 1pm Ximena N. Beltran Quan Kiu writes to explore her identity as an immigrant raised by a single mother. Born in Mexico City, raised in Chicago, she has more than 200 bylines in publications such as The New York Times, CNN, Food & Wine, and Harper’s Bazaar. Journalist Elizabeth ... Read more
Plymouth Court Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 12pm Mitchell Bisschop is a seasoned theatre artist and playwright from Los Angeles with over 20 years of experience in theatre, sketch, and improv (Second City, Annoyance, UCB, and The PIT). His past solo work has garnered two Encore Awards and two Fringe Award nominations for best solo ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 5pm Sharon Nagel is one half of the writing duo that is Juneau Black. She is a public librarian and a cat mom in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is fond of mysteries, coffee, and cheese.
Grace Place Stage (2nd floor) Sunday, Sept. 8th at 11am Derek Black is a doctoral student in history at the University of Chicago. Since 2016, they have spoken to many audiences at universities, foundations, institutions, museums, synagogues, and churches. They were honored with the first Elie Wiesel Award, given by the Wiesel family after the ... Read more
Plymouth Court Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 12pm Kathleen Blackburn is the author of the memoir Loose of Earth. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Texas Observer, Belt, Guernica, Gulf Coast, River Teeth, and elsewhere. She earned an MFA from the Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois ... Read more