Samira Ahmed is the New York Times bestselling author of Love, Hate, and Other Filters, Internment, This Book Won't Burn, and The Singular Life of Aria Patel. She was born in Bombay, India, and has lived in New York, Chicago, and Kauai, where she spent a year searching for the perfect mango. She invites you ... Read more
The Rev. Amity grew up in two countries (the United States and Germany) and five states before her family settled in Chicagoland while she was in high school. Trained as a scientist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she worked in pharmaceutical research before taking a leap of faith to serve in the church. Amity ... Read more
Abigail Jacklyn Burke is very excited to enter her second year on the Steppenwolf Young Adult Council and celebrating Steppenwolf’s 50 year anniversary. She has recently been seen in Urinetown as Ma Josephine and Frozen as Anna at Infinity Arts Academy. Abigail has also been working with Model Act Studios in the digital media world. ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 12pm CT - North Stage Angelica Julia Dávila is author of poetry chapbook, Bilingual Bitch (Abode Press 2025). She is a multidisciplinary artist, focusing on writing, comedy, and performance. She received her PhD from the Program for Writers at UIC. Her literary work has been published in a variety of magazines, and ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 12pm CT - North Stage Angelique Zobitz's (she/her) debut collection Seraphim (CavanKerry Press, 2024), explores Black joy as communal resistance and was a finalist for the Jake Adam York and Philip Levine Prizes. The author of two chapbooks Burn Down Your House (Milk & Cake Press, 2021) and Love Letters to The ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 12pm CT - Center Stage Brigid Duffy appeared in Mornings at Seven at Drury Lane Water Tower, Hedda Gabler at Steppenwolf, A Life at Irish Rep. She was dialect coach for Northlight, Goodman, and Gift Theatre. Favorite roles include Gabrielle in The Madwoman of Chaillot with Zoe Caldwell, Lady Macduff in Macbeth ... Read more
Christina Clancy is the author of the bestselling novel The Snowbirds, Shoulder Season, and The Second Home. Her work has appeared in The Sun, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and in various literary journals. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Sunday, September 7th 12pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Deacon Damarion Jackson of Greater Christian Love Baptist Church is a hardworking humble teen from south side Chicago with a huge love for his country especially the city of Chicago and the people of the city. His love for improving the city of ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 12pm CT - North Stage Dipika Mukherjee is a sociolinguist and the author of eight books, most recently the collection of travel essays, Writers' Postcards. Her poetry collection, Dialect of Distant Harbors, was published by CavanKerry Press in October 2022, and won the Quill and Ink Award for Poetry in 2023; it ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 12pm CT - North Stage Faylita Hicks (she/they) is a poet, Grammy-nominated recording artist, and spirit-led creative strategist. They are the author of A Map of My Want (Haymarket, 2024), winner of the 2025 Midwest Book Award, and HoodWitch (Acre, 2019), a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Their debut memoir, A ... Read more
Of South Asian descent, Ignatius Valentine Aloysius earned his MFA in Creative Writing from Northwestern University, where he teaches. He is the author of the novel Fishhead. Republic of Want (Tortoise Books), Salt Pruning, a collaborative poetry collection (Hummingbird Poetry Press), and two forthcoming collections, Everything I Touch Is—& Isn’t—You (Roadside Press, Spring 2026), and ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 12pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Jiayang Wu is a rising junior at Whitney Young Magnet High School. Jiayang is in The Young Company, a theater program at Whitney Young and joined the Steppenwolf Young Adult Council in 2025.
Sunday, September 7th 12pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Karen Jessica Dorado is a first-generation Mexican American from Chicago's Gage Park, she proudly embraces her cultural heritage as a cornerstone of her identity. Currently studying at the University of Illinois at Chicago, she is pursuing a BFA in Acting, with an anticipated ... Read more
Molly Burns, a member of Perennial Theatre, recently played in We The People, Kaleidoscope and A Spoon River Anthology. She played Clara in ShawChicago’s Hay Fever. With Equity Library Theatre Chicago, Molly played Kate in Marisa Smith’s Saving Kitty, and Dionyza in Act IV of Pericles, directed a reading of Sheila Cowley’s Flying, and Frank ... Read more
A member of the Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble, Robert Breuler, has performed in over fifty shows including A Walk in the Woods (Jeff Award), Grapes of Wrath, and The Song of Jacob Zulu. He has worked at the Guthrie Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Milwaukee Rep and the Hartford Stage. He received a grant from the William ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 1pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Brad Walrond is a poet, author, performance artist, and one of the foremost writers and performers of the 1990s Black Arts Movement centered in New York City. Walrond’s debut collection, Every Where Alien, (2024) Moore Black Press | Amistad / HarperCollins, chronicles the ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 1pm CT - Center Stage Donald G. Evans is the author of a novel and short story collection, as well as the editor of two Chicago literary anthologies. He is the Founding Executive Director of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.
Sunday, September 7th 1pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Edward Kelsey Moore is an award-winning author whose works include the New York Times and international bestselling novel The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat, the film adaptation of which was released by Searchlight Pictures in 2024. His short fiction and essays have appeared in ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 1pm CT - North Stage Elise Paschen, an enrolled member of the Osage Nation, is the author of six poetry collections, most recently, Blood Wolf Moon (2025). Her poems have been published widely, including Poetry Magazine, The New Yorker, A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, and The Best American Poetry. She ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 1pm CT - Plymouth Court Stage Elizabeth Taylor is co-author with Adam Cohen of American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley, His Battle for Chicago and the Nation. She is currently working on a book involving women in the Civil War/Reconstruction Era in America. (forthcoming with W.W. Norton/Liveright). She is the former Chicago ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 1pm CT - North Stage Faisal Mohyuddin is the author of Elsewhere: An Elegy (Next Page Press, 2024), The Displaced Children of Displaced Children, (Eyewear, 2018), and the chapbook The Riddle of Longing (Backbone Press, 2017). He teaches high school English in suburban Chicago and creative writing at Northwestern University's School of ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 1pm CT - Center Stage Jane Hamilton is the author of seven critically acclaimed and bestselling novels, including The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World, both of which were Oprah's Book Club selections. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Allure, Elle, and various ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 1pm CT - Plymouth Court Stage Jane S. Smith’s new book, A Blacklist Education: American History, a Family Mystery, and a Teacher Under Fire, reveals the little-known 1950s program to purge public schools of left-leaning teachers, particularly in New York City. Other prize-winning books include Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk ... Read more
He’s produced three albums, appeared on several others, been published in a number of anthologies and released one book, Haiku 4 Justice. He’s co-produced an award-winning documentary on his annual arts and music production, "Thee Debauchery Ball," established 2004, while developing educational content around correlations between expressions of Black sexuality and liberation the event embodies. ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 2pm CT - Center Stage Adrienne Gunn is a writer and podcaster obsessed with pop culture. Her bestselling novel Fan Favorite follows a messy thirtysomething as she plummets into the unhinged world of reality TV dating. Adrienne’s podcast, Don't Ruin This For Me, revisits the 80s and 90s pop culture that set ... Read more