Sunday, September 7th 2pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Miles Harvey’s collection of short stories, The Registry of Forgotten Objects (Mad Creek Books, 2024) won the Journal Non/Fiction Prize and the Society of Midland Authors award for best work of adult fiction. His nonfiction includes The King of Confidence (Little, Brown & ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 5pm CT - Plymouth Court Stage Karen Hawkins is story editor at The 19th*, an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. She previously served as co-publisher and editor-in-chief of the Chicago Reader. She’s the founder of Rebellious Magazine for Women and the Feminist Media Foundation, and co-host of Of ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 12pm CT - North Stage Marcy Rae Henry is a multidisciplinary Xicana artist originally from the Borderlands and author of death is a mariachi, winner of the 2024 May Sarton NH Poetry Prize, when to go to the Taj Mahal, the body is where it all begins, dream life of night owls, ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 11am CT - Grace Place Stage Jane Hseu is Professor of English at Dominican University, board member of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, and core organizer for Banyan: Asian American Writers Collective. She has published personal essays and poetry and is currently at work on a memoir about a family history ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 10am CT - North Stage Sandra Jackson-Opoku is the author of novels The River Where Blood is Born and Hot Johnny and the Women Who Loved Him. Her debut mystery, Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes, releases in July 2025. Jackson-Opoku’s fiction, nonfiction, and dramatic works are widely published and produced. ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 10am CT - North Stage Sahan Jayasuriya is a Milwaukee-based music writer and musician whose obsessive love of underground music was forged in the fires of ‘90s alt radio, Dischord releases, and dusty bins at independent record stores. A veteran contributor to Shepherd Express and Milwaukee Magazine, Jayasuriya has spent over a ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 4pm CT - North Stage A native of Chicago’s South Side, Nancy Johnson is the author of People of Means, a story of race, class, and resistance in 1960s Nashville and 1992 Chicago, released in February from William Morrow/HarperCollins. People magazine named it one of its most anticipated books for 2025, calling ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 3pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Tonika Johnson is an award-winning, multidisciplinary social justice artist and photographer whose work explores segregation’s enduring impact on Black communities in Chicago. Through her Folded Map™ Project, UnBlocked Englewood project, and grassroots organizing, Tonika reclaims narratives, space, and power for communities long harmed ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 11am CT - Plymouth Court Stage Born in New York and educated at Kenyon College and Columbia University, Scott Kenemore is the national bestselling author of Edge of the Wire, The Grand Hotel, Zombie Ohio, and numerous other works of horror and satire. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.
Saturday, September 6th 10am CT - Center Stage Roy Kinsey is a Chicago-born rapper, librarian, and founder of Rapbrary—a cultural sanctuary preserving hip-hop as literature and celebrating banned books and marginalized voices. Blending archival work with sharp lyricism, Roy uses storytelling to explore identity, queerness, history, and liberation. His latest album, Dandelions: Gods Don’t Cry, ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 3pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Maria Krysan, LAS Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois Chicago, has spent decades teaching, researching, and writing about residential segregation. Her multiple award-winning book, Cycle of Segregation, offers an innovative framework for understanding the causes of segregation and served as ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 5pm CT - North Stage Maud Lavin’s most recent books are the eco-novel Mermaids and Lazy Activists: A Lake Michigan Tale (From Beyond Press), with a portion of each sale going to FLOW: For Love of Water, and the poetry collection Swim Lessons (Tulipwood). She is also the author of Cut with ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 12pm CT - North Stage Viola Lee graduated from NYU with an MFA in Poetry. Her book Lightening after the Echo was published by Another New Calligraphy. She has published poems in literary journals throughout the US, and recently published in Wayfarer Magazine, Mayday Magazine, Mississippi Review, Barrow Street, and Another Chicago ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 1pm CT - Grace Place Stage Tod Lending is a novelist and an Academy Award® nominated and Emmy winning documentary filmmaker whose work, over 38 years, has broadcasted nationally and internationally on the major networks, screened theatrically and received awards at ‘A’ list national and international festivals, and inspired the creation of ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 1pm CT - North Stage Rachel León is a writer, editor, and social worker who has worked in child welfare for over a decade. She serves as Managing Director of Chicago Review of Books and Fiction Director for Arcturus. She’s the editor of The Rockford Anthology, forthcoming from Belt Publishing in October. ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 11am CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Tasslyn Magnusson is a senior advisor with the Freedom to Read program at PEN America. She researches censorship attempts in the K-12 libraries and supports PEN America’s work in creating resources to support authors whose work is targeted.
Saturday, September 6th 10am CT - Grace Place Stage Michael McColly's essays have appeared in The New York Times, the Boston Review, and The Sun magazine. He is the author of the Lambda Literary Award–winning memoir The After-Death Room, chronicling his journey reporting on AIDS activism in Africa, Asia, and the United States.
Sunday, September 7th 5pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage MD pioneered America’s first hematopoietic stem cell transplant for autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and scleroderma. He was awarded Leukemia Scholar of America, the Lupus Foundation Fidelitas Award, the European van Bekkum Award, the Clinical Research Forum Distinguished Clinical Achievement Award, the “Keys ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 4pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Michele Morano is the author of the essay collections Like Love and Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain. Recent work appear in The Sun and The Overturning, an anthology of writers responding to the end of Roe v. Wade. She teaches essay, ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 1:30pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Simone Muench is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship and the author of seven full-length books, including Lampblack & Ash (Sarabande; Kathryn A. Morton Prize), Wolf Centos (Sarabande), and The Under Hum (Black Lawrence Press, 2024), cowritten with ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 4pm CT - North Stage Lonnae O'Neal is a senior writer for ESPN/Andscape, where she specializes in the intersection of race, sports and culture. Prior to her tenure at ESPN/Andscape, she spent nearly two and half decades as a reporter and columnist for The Washington Post. She is also an adjunct lecturer ... Read more
Sunday, September 7th 2pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Born in Chicago, Peter Orner is the author of seven acclaimed books including Maggie Brown & Others, Love and Shame and Love, Esther Stories, finalist for the Pen/ Hemingway Award, and Am I Alone Here?, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 11am CT - Grace Place Stage Sarah Perry (she/they) is the author of Sweet Nothings: Confessions of a Candy Lover (Mariner, 2025) and After the Eclipse: A Mother’s Murder, a Daughter’s Search (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), which was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Her writing has also appeared ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 5pm CT - Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation Stage Miriam Petty is Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the Graduate School and Associate Professor in Radio/Television/Film at Northwestern University. A scholar of race, stardom, and African American representation in Hollywood, her work appears in leading media studies journals. Her award-winning book Stealing ... Read more
Saturday, September 6th 3pm CT - Grace Place Stage Dr. Ned Scott Laff has over 35 years of university experience, working in curriculum development, program assessment, general education review and revision, self-designed majors, and developing centers that integrate mentoring, and career development. He was awarded the Civic Engagement Award from The Washington Center for his ... Read more