Lindsay Porter is a standup comedian, storyteller, and teaching artist in Chicago. She’s performed at Zanies and the Laugh Factory, and at bars, parks, cannabis lounges, nursing homes, and in line at Trader Joes. She tours nationally with the Bad...  read

Mary Winn Heider’s novels for children include The Losers at the Center of the Galaxy (Little, Brown, 2021), The Stupendous Switcheroo series (Knopf, 2023-24), and The Mortification of Fovea Munson (Disney-Hyperion, 2018). The latter was long-listed for the Edgar Award;...  read

Andrew Cothren grew up in New York's Hudson Valley, though he has spent the last three and a half years living in Chicago, where he works as an editorial assistant for the city government. He holds an MFA from the...  read

Kat Jercich is a writer and editor living in Chicago. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Advocate, Bust, Cosmopolitan, and the Sacramento News and Review, along with several other gone-but-not-forgotten outlets. She attended...  read

Keidra Chaney works at a national disability justice nonprofit by day. After work hours, she plays bass, fusses over plants, makes zines about music and fandom, and watches movies from the 1970s and '80s on Tubi. She’s @kdc and @WildRampPublishing...  read

Robert Eric Shoemaker is a poet, translator, and interdisciplinary artist. Eric is the author of Magical Poetics (Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming), Ca'Venezia (2021, Partial Press), We Knew No Mortality (2018, Acta Publications), and 30 Days Dry (2015, Thought Collection Publishing). Eric’s...  read

Amy Eaton is a Ragdale alum, the second runner up of the Daisy Pettles Women’s Writing Contest and the second person to receive the Rod Serling Scholarship at her high school in Binghamton NY (because there aren’t a lot of...  read

Scott Whitehair is a storyteller, producer, and teaching artist. He is the producer of This Much Is True, now in its 17th year, the creator of Story Lab Chicago, which has put 900+ new or first time tellers on stage...  read

Mare Swallow is an executive coach, storyteller, and occasional comedian. A lifelong performer, she’s a graduate of the Second City Conservatory. She holds a BA from Northern Illinois University, and an MFA from Goucher College. Please join Mare and our...  read

Bill Savage teaches courses on Chicago history, literature and culture at Northwestern University and the Newberry Library of Chicago. At the Newberry, he co-curated their recent exhibit on Mike Royko, and he also works as an editor at the University...  read