Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage (On W. Polk St., just east of Clark St.) Sunday 9/13, 1pm Sandra Jackson-Opoku is the author of four award winning and critically-acclaimed novels: The River Where Blood is Born, Hot Johnny and the Women Who Loved Him, and mystery novels, Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes, and ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage (On W. Polk St., just east of Clark St.) Saturday 9/12, 4:30pm Sandra Santiago is a second-generation Puerto Rican poet, educator, and activist from Chicago. She earned a B.A. in Education from Roosevelt University and an M.Ed. in Bilingual Education and Linguistics from DePaul University. In 2013, she founded ... Read more
North Stage (On S. Dearborn St., just south of Ida B. Wells Dr.) Saturday 9/12, 10am Sara Connell is a 5X bestselling author and the founder of Thought Leader Media where she helps experts write and publish transformational books and become TEDx/Keynote speakers. She has been featured on/in Oprah, The New York Times, Forbes, and ... Read more
Grace Place, 1st Floor (637 S. Dearborn St.) Saturday 9/12, 11am Sara Levine is the author of novels The Hitch and Treasure Island!!! and the short story collection Short Dark Oracles. She earned a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from Brown University and teaches writing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago ... Read more
North Stage (On S. Dearborn St., just south of Ida B. Wells Dr.) Saturday 9/12, 5pm Sarah Edmondson is a Canadian actress and voice-over artist who has starred in multiple TV series and more than a dozen films. Her whistleblower story following her departure from personal and professional development company NXIVM is told in her ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage (On W. Polk St., just east of Clark St.) Saturday 9/12, 2:30pm Sarah Karp is a reporter at WBEZ. A former reporter for Catalyst-Chicago, the Chicago Reporter and the Daily Southtown, Karp has covered education, and children and family issues for more than twenty years. She is a graduate ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage (On W. Polk St., just east of Clark St.) Saturday 9/12, 2:30pm Sarah Taylor is a leader in adult literacy innovation: advancing trauma-informed approaches that promote healing, belonging, and learner success. As Regional Director of Adult Education for World Relief Chicagoland, she develops and leads English language and workforce ... Read more
Center Stage (On S. Dearborn St. in Printers Row Park between Polk and Harrison Streets, West Side of Dearborn.) Sunday 9/13, 2pm Robert SCOOP JACKSON is an author, journalist, and columnist with the Chicago Sun-Times. He has also written for ESPN, SLAM, XXL, Nike. He co-authored The Poohprintwith Derrick Rose and Birth of A Culture ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage (On W. Polk St., just east of Clark St.) Sunday 9/13, 10am Screenshot Scott Simon hosts NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday and Up First, and is special contributor to CBS News Sunday Morning. A winner of Emmy and Peabody Awards, he is in the Radio Hall of Fame and the ... Read more
Digital Realty Stage (On W. Polk St., at Plymouth Ct.) Sunday 9/13, 1pm Scott Turow, a writer and former practicing lawyer, is the author of thirteen bestselling works of fiction, including Presumed Innocent and most recently, Suspect. Mr. Turow has also published two nonfiction books, including One L, about his experience as a law student. ... Read more
Center Stage (On S. Dearborn St. in Printers Row Park between Polk and Harrison Streets, West Side of Dearborn.) Saturday 9/12, 3pm Shannon Baker writes about strong women in the West who face down danger, heartbreak, and the kind of secrets that don’t stay buried. A Nebraska native with a love for big skies and ... Read more
North Stage (On S. Dearborn St., just south of Ida B. Wells Dr.) Sunday 9/13, 4pm Shifa Saltagi Safadi is the author of Kareem Between and several picture books, including The Gift of Eid. She has a bachelor’s degree in English literature, teaches ELA at a local middle school, and reviews Muslim books on her ... Read more
North Stage (On S. Dearborn St., just south of Ida B. Wells Dr.) Sunday 9/13, 4pm Skyler Schrempp writes historical fiction for young people. Her first novel Three Strike Summer received four starred reviews and was listed on several “best of” lists including Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books of the Year, Chicago ... Read more
Center Stage (On S. Dearborn St. in Printers Row Park between Polk and Harrison Streets, West Side of Dearborn.) Sunday 9/13, 11am Steve Musgrave is an illustrator living in Chicago with his wife Jane and their dog Lily. He has worked with Lurie Children's Hospital, The Chicago Public Library and the Lincoln Park Zoo. Steve ... Read more
Center Stage (On S. Dearborn St. in Printers Row Park between Polk and Harrison Streets, West Side of Dearborn.) Saturday 9/12, 2pm Susanna Cakins is the award-winning author of the Lucy Campion historical mysteries and the Speakeasy Mysteries (set in 1920s Chicago). She holds a PhD in history and currently works at Rosalind Franklin University ... Read more
North Stage (On S. Dearborn St., just south of Ida B. Wells Dr.) Saturday 9/12, 12pm Dr. Taylor Byas, Ph.D. is a Black Chicago native, where she edits for multiple publications. Her debut full-length, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times from Soft Skull Press, won the 2023 Maya Angelou Book Award, the 2023 Chicago ... Read more
Digital Realty Stage (On W. Polk St., at Plymouth Ct.) Saturday 9/12, 1pm Dr. Taylor Cole Miller is an associate professor of media studies at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse. He is editor of The Golden Girls: Tales from the Lanai and content creator under the handle @tvdoc.
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, ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage (On W. Polk St., just east of Clark St.) Saturday 9/12, 4:30pm Teresa Dzieglewicz is a Pushcart-winning poet, Black Earth Institute Fellow, a Poet-in-Residence at the Chicago Poetry Center, and part of the founding team of Mni Wichoni Nakicizin Wounspe (Defenders of the Water School). Her first book of ... Read more
Grace Place, 2nd Floor (637 S. Dearborn St.) Sunday 9/13, 11:30am The Rev. Amity grew up in two countries and five states before her family settled in Chicagoland. Trained as a scientist, she worked in research before taking a leap of faith to serve in the church. Amity went on to study theology at Episcopal ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage (On W. Polk St., just east of Clark St.) Sunday 9/13, 1pm Tim Chapman is a former forensic scientist for the Chicago Police Department and English teacher at Malcolm X college. His fiction has been published in The Southeast Review, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and the anthologies, The Rich ... Read more
North Stage (On S. Dearborn St., just south of Ida B. Wells Dr.) Sunday 9/13, 1pm Timothy J. Hillegonds is the author of the memoirs And You Will Call It Fate (University of Nebraska Press, 2026) and The Distance Between (University of Nebraska Press, 2019), a finalist for the Chicago Writers Association Book of the ... Read more
Digital Realty Stage (On W. Polk St., at Plymouth Ct.) Saturday 9/12, 5pm Tisa Bryant is the author of Residual, a nonfiction assemblage of the interiors of grief, the home as archive, and the mystery of mothers, published in 2026 from Nightboat Books. Her first book, Unexplained Presence, a collection of hybrid essays on the ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage (On W. Polk St., just east of Clark St.) Saturday 9/12, 10am Center Stage (On S. Dearborn St. in Printers Row Park between Polk and Harrison Streets, West Side of Dearborn.) Saturday 9/12, 11:30 Toni Preckwinkle is the 35th President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners and the ... Read more
Center Stage (On S. Dearborn St. in Printers Row Park between Polk and Harrison Streets, West Side of Dearborn.) Saturday 9/12, 2pm Tracy Clark, a native Chicagoan, is the award-winning author of the Cass Raines Chicago Mystery series and the Detective Harriet Foster series, both set in Chicago. She is a multi-nominated Anthony, Lefty, Edgar, ... Read more