Saturday, September 6th 12pm CT - Grace Place Stage Nicole Zelniker (she/they) is the author of several books, including From Where We Are, which has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and the young adult novel All I Know So Far. In their free time, Nicole enjoys re-reading their favorite books, talking about the intersection ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 5pm CT - Center Stage Zoe Zolbrod is the author of the memoir The Telling, the novel Currency, and the novel Coin of the Realm, which is forthcoming. Her essays have appeared in places such as Salon, HuffPo, The Guardian, and The Rumpus, where she served as the Sunday co-editor.
Isaac Danzer is a high school English teacher from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He lives in the Riverwest neighborhood with his beautiful wife, Isabelle, and darling dog, Boots.
Saturday, September 6th 1:30pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Stuart Dybek is the author of Paper Lantern: Love Stories and five other books of fiction, as well as two collections of poetry, Streets in Their Own Ink (FSG) and Brass Knuckles (Carnegie-Mellon.) His work is widely anthologized. Dybek’s awards include a selection ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 11am CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Alexi Giannoulias was sworn in as Illinois’ 38th Secretary of State in 2023. Overseeing the largest Secretary of State’s office in the nation with more than 4,000 employees and 25 departments, Giannoulias’ top priorities have been to enhance road safety, modernize office operations ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 4pm CT - North Stage Kimberley Goode is an experienced chief communications officer, corporate board director and senior advisor. A storyteller at heart, she earned a bachelor’s degree from Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and began her career as a newspaper reporter. She has earned numerous honors as a public ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 12pm CT - Grace Place Stage 3pm CT - Center Stage Born and raised in Chicago, Rick Kogan writes for the Chicago Tribune, is creator/host of WGN radio’s After Hours and author of a dozen books, including Everybody Pays: Two Men, One Murder and the Price of Truth (with Maurice Possley) and ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 5pm CT - Center Stage Corrbette Pasko is a writer, actor, producer, singer, host, and self-proclaimed professional swearer. She loves creating things with other people and handing them a microphone. She is the host/producer/Overbeing at Write Club Chicago, which happens on the third Tuesday of each month at GMan Tavern. She does ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 12pm CT - North Stage Kenyatta Rogers (he/him) is a Cave Canem Fellow and has been awarded scholarships from the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference. His work has been previously published in or is forthcoming from The Academy of American Poets, Poetry Magazine, Jubilat, Vinyl, Bat City Review, The Volta, PANK, MAKE Magazine among ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 4pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage R. Clifton Spargo is a novelist, short story writer, and music and cultural critic. His novel Beautiful Fools tells the missing final chapter in the tragic romance of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald. His fiction and other writings have appeared in The Antioch Review, ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 12pm CT - Center Stage Alma Washington is a labor activist and actor. Serves on the Chicago Local SAG-AFTRA Board and is a Vice President of Perennial Theatre Chicago. Alma has been seen on the Goodman, Steppenwolf and other local stages. Television appearances include The Bear, The Chi, Empire, Chicago Med, Fire ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 5pm CT - Center Stage
Sunday, September 7th 12pm CT - Center Stage Gerald H. Bailey (plays Carl Sandburg in Perennial Theatre Chicago's presentation of Bread and Salt at Lit Fest) has been involved in over 200 productions as an actor, director, music director, and composer in several professional Mid-west theatres. As an actor, he has worked with Orson Bean ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 4pm CT - Center Stage Marco Escalante is a Peruvian writer born in 1968. He has lived in Chicago since 1991. He is the author of Malabarismos del tedio, published by Siete Vientos Press in 2013. Currently, he coordinates the editorial project Residuos, in partnership with Contratiempo Magazine.
Saturday, September 6th 5pm CT - Center Stage Jeffrey Nils Gardner (they/them) is a director, audio artist, and sound designer. They’ve made fiction podcasts like Unwell, a Midwestern Gothic Mystery, World Gone Wrong, and The Harbingers, and have designed shows for Audible, Vox, Rusty Quill Ltd, and others. They’re also a team leader for the ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 12pm CT - Center Stage John S. Green was twice nominated and won a Jeff Award for playing George in Of Mice and Men. He was recently nominated Best Actor Denver for The Last Romance. His play, The Liquid Moon, won the After Dark and Jeff Awards and was nominated for a ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 3pm CT - Plymouth Court Stage Blair Hurley is the author of The Devoted, which was longlisted for The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. Her second novel, Minor Prophets, was published in 2023. Her work is published in New England Review, Electric Literature, The Georgia Review, Guernica, Paris Review Daily, and ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 5pm CT - Center Stage Britt Julious is a writer, editor, essayist, and storyteller. A firm believer in the underground, the avant-garde and the underdog, Britt currently serves as the music critic for the Chicago Tribune. As a journalist, she has written for Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, Glamour, The Cut, The New York ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 5pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Natalie Y. Moore is a journalist, author, playwright and senior lecturer at Northwestern University.
Sunday, September 7th 4pm CT - Center Stage Fernando Olszanski was born in Argentina and has lived in Scotland, Ecuador, Japan, and several cities in the United States. His books include the novel Rezos de marihuana, the poetry collection Parte del polvo, and the short story collection El orden natural de las cosas. He has ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 3pm CT - Center Stage Mary Webber O'Malley is a Virtual Bookseller for Skylark Bookshop in Missouri, a Program Coordinator for the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc), and a Host and Author Liaison for A Mighty Blaze. She is also a writer, frequent book reviewer, and blurber. She lives outside Chicago with ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 12pm CT - Center Stage Suzanne Petri is a founding member of Perennial Theatre Chicago and Chicago Cabaret Professionals, an ensemble member of American Blues, a Jeff Award nominated actor, a Cabaret Fellow, Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, an After Dark Award winning Cabaret Artist, performing Marlene Musik at the Pritzker Auditorium and ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 4pm CT - Center Stage Born in Mexico, Julio Rangel lives in Chicago since 2000. In Mexico he was a journalist and rural teacher. Along with a group of Latino writers, he cofounded Contratiempo magazine in 2003. His essays have appeared in Marcos Raya: "Fetishizing the Imaginary" and René Arceo: "Between the ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 2pm CT - Center Stage Alicia Ross is a bookseller at Booked, Evanston’s cozy independent bookstore! A Northwestern alum, but originally from the south, she was sucked in by the cuteness of Evanston and the clout of telling out-of-towners she lives in Chicago (they can't prove otherwise). Alicia hosts Sunday Smut, the ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 4pm CT - Center Stage Margarita Saona was born in Lima, Peru. She currently teaches literature and cultural studies in Chicago. Her academic work deals with gender and national identity, memory, and, most recently, medical humanities. She writes short fiction, poetry, and mix-genre non-fiction. Her work has appeared in English and Spanish. ... Read more