Lily Be is a Chicago West Side born-and-raised, award-winning storyteller. She is the first Latinx winner of a Moth GrandSLAM championship, and creator and producer of Stoop Style Stories, formerly The Stoop. She is a huge advocate for the marginalized...  read

Marc Fischer is the administrator of Public Collectors, an initiative he formed in 2007. Public Collectors’ work brings the periphery to the foreground. Its projects include the Library Excavations publication series and Hardcore Architecture—a blog and publication about the houses...  read

Meredith Nnoka is a Chicago-based poet, educator, and prison abolitionist. They have a BA from Smith College and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, both in Africana studies. They teach poetry in carceral facilities and have received fellowships from...  read

Rachel Mennies is the author of three poetry collections: The Wolf, forthcoming from BOA Editions in 2027; The Naomi Letters (also BOA Editions); and The Glad Hand of God Points Backwards (from Texas Tech University Press). Her poems have appeared...  read

Kim Moldofsky is the Bold Belief Builder at Scrappy Affirmations, where she helps people find meaning, reflect and make art, and navigate transitions right up until the end of life. Known for creative gatherings, she fosters welcoming spaces that invite...  read

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