Plymouth Court Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 1pm Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press and a founding member of Poems While You Wait. She is the author of the novels Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk and Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, and her latest poetry collection Where Are the Snows, winner ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 12pm Veronica Roth is The New York Times best-selling author of Poster Girl, Chosen Ones, Arch-Conspirator, When Among Crows, the Divergent series, and the Carve the Mark duology. She is also the guest editor of The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021. She lives ... Read more
North Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 1pm Francesca T. Royster is Professor of English at DePaul University in Chicago, and received her PhD in English from University of California, Berkeley. She’s written scholarly work on Shakespeare, Black Lesbian Country music fans, Prince, and Fela Kuti on Broadway among other topics. Her books include Black Country ... Read more
Jazz Showcase Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 4:30pm Jacob Saenz is the author of Throwing the Crown, winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize. His poetry has appeared in The Boiler, Memorious, Poetry, RHINO, and other journals. A CantoMundo fellow, he's been the recipient of a Letras Latinas Residency, a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship and ... Read more
Plymouth Court Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 12pm Bill Savage is Professor of Instruction in the English Department at Northwestern University. He has taught adult education seminars at the Newberry Library of Chicago since 1992. He has taught Mike Royko's columns and his biography of Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago since the turn of ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 2:30pm Suzanne Scanlon is the author of the memoir Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen and of the novels Promising Young Women, and Her 37th Year, An Index. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Granta, BOMB Magazine, Fence, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. She teaches ... Read more
Grace Place Stage (1st floor) Saturday, Sept. 7th at 1pm Barbara Scharres is a film curator, film journalist, and lecturer. She is currently the artistic director for the Donald M. Ephraim Sun & Stars International Film Festival, having formerly served as the longtime Director of Programming for the Gene Siskel Film Center at the School ... Read more
Grace Place Stage (2nd floor) Saturday, Sept. 7th at 10am Lynn Schmeidler is an award-winning writer of fiction and poetry. Half-Lives, her new collection of short stories, won the 2023 Autumn House Rising Writer Prize in Fiction. Her story, InventEd was chosen by Jonathan Lethem as the winner of BOMB Magazine’s 2023 Fiction Contest. Schmeidler’s ... Read more
Plymouth Court Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 4pm Mary Schmich is a Chicago journalist who wrote for the Chicago Tribune for 36 years. She won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. One of her columns, loosely called Wear Sunscreen, was turned into a popular song by Baz Luhrmann. Her columns have been collected in a ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 2pm 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 Public Library’s Best of the ... Read more
Plymouth Court Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 5pm Daniel Schulman is the New York Times bestselling author of Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty, and The Money Kings: The Epic Story of the Jewish Immigrants Who Transformed Wall Street and Shaped Modern America. His work has appeared ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 11:15am Donna Seaman is the Editor for the adult books section in Booklist. A recipient of the Louis Shores Award for Excellence in Book Reviewing, the James Friend Memorial Award for Literary Criticism, and the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award, Seaman is a member of ... Read more
Grace Place Stage (2nd floor) Saturday, Sept. 7th at 11am Harrison Sherrod is the Executive Director of Pentimenti Productions, an arts non-profit and film production company based in Chicago. He is a producer and co-writer of the recently released 3-D documentary about the artist and Marine H.C. Westermann, which features narration by Ed Harris, and ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 11am Dick Simpson is UIC Professor Emeritus and former Chicago Alderman. He has combined a distinguished public service and academic career. He is the author of Chicago's Modern Mayors and 25 other books.
North Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 11am Callie Siskel is the author of Two Minds (W. W. Norton) and Arctic Revival, winner of a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. Her poems have been featured in NPR’s Weekend Edition and Poetry Daily and published in The Paris Review, The Atlantic, and the New York Review ... Read more
Center Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 11am Sandra is a Chicago documentary photographer working on assignments about education, the arts and community development. For two years, she photographed the transformation of the former Morton Salt complex along the Chicago River, chronicled in her book, The Salt Shed. Sandra is a silver gelatin master printer and ... Read more
Center Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 11am Heidi Stevens is the Director of External Affairs at the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health, a research institute at the University of Chicago. She worked for 23 years as a writer and editor at the Chicago Tribune, writing a daily column called Balancing Act for ... Read more
Center Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 12pm James Stewart III is a Black writer from Chicago whose debut novel, Defiant Acts, is forthcoming from Acre Books in May 2025. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Lampblack, Midwest Review, Zone 3, The Forge, 580 Split, Pangyrus, Cleaver, and Another Chicago Magazine. He earned an ... Read more
Grace Place Stage (1st floor) Saturday, Sept. 7th at 11am Megan Stielstra is the author of three collections: Everyone Remain Calm, Once I Was Cool, and The Wrong Way to Save Your Life. Her work appears in the Best American Essays, New York Times, The Believer, Poets & Writers, Tin House, and elsewhere. A longtime ... Read more
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 3pm Louise Story is an award-winning investigative journalist who spent more than fifteen years at the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, where she was a top masthead editor. Her investigative reporting has led to the largest kleptocracy forfeiture in US history, the ... Read more
Center Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 12pm Dan “Sully” Sullivan is a Chicago-born poet residing in Bloomington, IN. Sully’s new book, O Body (Haymarket Books 2024), considers the male body—its momentum and privilege, but also its softness and vulnerability. With appearances on HBO Def Poetry, WGN, and NPR, Sully is a three-time Chicago Slam Champion, ... Read more
Grace Place Stage (2nd floor) Saturday, Sept. 7th at 10am Guggenheim-winner and author of over twenty books of poetry, fiction, biography, memoir and translation, Terese Svoboda has won the Bobst Prize in fiction, the Iowa Poetry Prize, an NEH translation grant, the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize, Jerome Foundation and NEA media grants, the O. Henry Award ... Read more
Plymouth Court Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 2pm Rachel Swearingen is the author of the story collection How to Walk on Water and Other Stories. Her stories, essays, interviews and reviews have appeared in Electric Lit, VICE, The Missouri Review, Kenyon Review, Off Assignment, Agni, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere. She lives in Chicago.
North Stage Saturday, Sept. 7th at 4pm Thomas Swick grew up in Phillipsburg, NJ, and lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL, where he spent 19 years as the travel editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He is the author of four books, the most recent being Falling into Place: A Story of Love, Poland, and the ... Read more
Center Stage Sunday, Sept. 8th at 10am Rich Swierzewski is a seasoned improv performer with a passion for spontaneous storytelling and comedy. With years of experience in the world of improvisation, Rich has honed his craft, delighting audiences with his creativity. Known for his dynamic stage presence and ability to think on his feet, he ... Read more
