Guests

Jabari Asim is the Distinguished Professor of Multidisciplinary Letters at Emerson College. He has also been a scholar-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, an editor and columnist at the Washington Post, and editor-in-chief of the NAACP’s Crisis Magazine. His work has been included in Best American Poetry and Best American Essays. A Guggenheim Fellow, he is the author of 14 books for children and 8 books for adults, including Preaching to the Chickens, named a New York Times Best Illustrated Book in 2016, and Yonder, a novel, named a New York Times Notable Book in 2022.

Reza Aslan is a renowned writer, commentator, professor, Emmy- and Peabody-nominated producer, and scholar of religions. He is the author of numerous internationally bestselling books, including the #1 New York Times Bestseller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, currently in development at Fremantle Media with Pablo Larrain attached to direct. A former Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and recipient of the prestigious James Joyce Award, Aslan has helped craft the mythologies for Hollywood’s most acclaimed franchises, including Dune, Game of Thrones, and The Leftovers. In addition to his writing and production work, he has served as host and executive producer of CNN’s Believer and Rough Draft with Reza Aslan, and co-hosts the podcast Metaphysical Milkshake alongside Rainn Wilson. His latest book, An American Martyr in Persia, was nominated for the PEN/Jacqueline Beograd Weld Award. Born in Iran, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their four children.

Quan Barry is the author of eight books of fiction and poetry including When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East; We Ride Upon Sticks, winner of the 2020 ALA Alex Award; and She Weeps Each Time You’re Born. Her most recent poetry collection, Auction, was named one of the five best collections of 2023 by the New York Times. Her first play, The Mytilenean Debate, premiered in 2022. She is the Lorraine Hansberry Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. More info at https://www.quanbarry.com/

Roberta Beary (they/she) identifies as gender fluid, and writes to connect with the silenced, to let them know they are not alone. After 60 rejections, their prose poem “After You Self Medicate with Roethke’s ‘The Waking’ Read by Text to Speech App” won the Bridport Prize. Their work appears in The New York Times (Modern Love/Tiny Love Stories), Rattle, and 100 Word Story. The longtime haibun editor at Modern Haiku, she travels the world as Roving Ambassador for The Haiku Foundation.

Sara Benincasa is a Chicago-based author, journalist, comedian and actress. She’s published a memoir, Agorafabulous!, two novels, Great and D.C. Trip; and a book of essays, Real Artists Have Day Jobs. She’s adapted two of her books for TV/film and has written for Marvel Comics and Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Her 2025 essay for the New York Times Magazine, “An Agoraphobe Goes to the Grocery Store,” illustrated by Nata Metlukh, won the American Society of Magazine Editors Award for Best Illustrated Story. She holds an M.A. in Education from Teachers College at Columbia University and a B.A. in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College.

Amy Bizzarri is a Chicago-based author whose books celebrate the flavors, stories, and roadways that shaped American culture. Her work spans the country’s most iconic routes and eras, from Route 66 Recipes, a culinary journey along the Mother Road, to The Civilian Conservation Corps Cookbook, which revives dishes from one of the nation’s most influential New Deal programs. She has chronicled regional food traditions in Iconic Chicago Dishes, Drinks and Desserts and Iconic Hollywood Dishes, Drinks and Desserts, and explored America’s legendary highways in The Best Hits on Route 66 and The Best Hits on Route 61.

Reginald Blount, Murray H. Leiffer Associate Professor of Formation, Leadership and Culture and Director of the Center for the Church and the Black Experience at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, has research interests in African American identity formation, adolescent and young adult identity formation, Christian education theory, Christian education and the Black church, and African/African American spirituality. He is the author of Let Your Light Shine: Mobilizing for Justice with Children and Youth. 

Darius Bost is Associate Professor of Black Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of Evidence of Being: The Black Gay Cultural Renaissance and the Politics of Violence (University of Chicago Press).

Born on the South Side of Chicago, Tanikia “Nikki” Carpenter is a playwright and actor. She is the writer of the award-winning documentary Roots and Blues, which honors the life and legacy of Blues singer Muddy Waters. Nikki is the founder of Good Content Productions, a company dedicated to preserving sacred stories through theatre and essays. She received her B.F.A. in Media Studies from North Park University with a minor in Africana Studies and is the creator of Black Theatre Chicago, a platform highlighting Black theatre, actors, and productions in the city. In 2024, Nikki was selected as a researcher/writer for the August Wilson Society’s upcoming book Centering & Celebrating Wilsonian Warriors. In 2025, she received the DCASE Playwright in Residency grant from the City of Chicago, and that same year her play, The Last Senior Home in Bronzeville, was workshopped at Goodman Theatre as part of their 100 Free Acts of Theatre initiative. Chance the Rapper has credited Nikki’s original poem, “No Grandfathers in Chicago,” as the inspiration for his hit song “No More Old Men” featuring Jamila Woods. She is married to her husband, Stephen, and they share a daughter, India.

Kat Chen is a kid at heart. A USA Today and Amazon bestseller of books for grownups, she recently became a grateful, gleeful grandmother. “Nothing sparks my imagination as much as playing with a toddler. Especially if I don’t have to worry about diapers, nutrition, or sleep schedules. I get to do the fun stuff.” By that, she means conversation, crayons, and crawling all over the playroom. Then she’s the one who needs a nap whether or not the child does.

Amy Chu is a multi-genre writer for graphic novels and animation. Her most recent book is the Nebula Award nominated Carmilla: The Eternal (Dark Horse / Berger Books) the final chapter in the award-winning Carmilla the First Vampire trilogy. She teaches at the Kubert School and the School of Visual Arts, and is a board member of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. A frequent convention speaker, she has also judged the Harvey, Ringo and MoCCA awards. Amy holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a double bachelor’s degree in Architectural Design from MIT and East Asian Studies from Wellesley College.

Tracy Clark is the author of the Cass Raines Chicago Mystery and Detective Harriet Foster series, award-winning books with tough, smart, Black female characters working the mean streets of the Windy City. Her debut novel, Broken Places, was CrimeReads’ Best New PI Book of 2018 and made Library Journal’s Best Crime Fiction list that same year. She is a proud member of Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime and sits on boards at Bouchercon and the Midwest Mystery Conference.

Stephanie Cohen, M.A., CCC-SLP, CLC is a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist, lactation counselor, and mama who has been working with infants and toddlers for over twenty-two years. Her mission is to empower each parent to be their child’s best teacher by supporting emotional connection and early language learning. Stephanie is also a mentor, speaker, and consultant who supports students and clinicians in the field. Stephanie maintains a private practice in Illinois, where she lives with her husband, three children, and two dogs.

Peter Coviello is the author of six books, including Make Yourselves Gods, a finalist for the 2020 John Whitmer Historical Association Best Book Prize, and Long Players, a memoir selected as one of ARTFORUM’s Best Books of 2018. His newest book, Is There God After Prince?: Dispatches from an Age of Last Things, was selected for The Millions’ “Most Anticipated” list for 2023. He is Professor and Head of English at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Catherine-Esther Cowie was born in St. Lucia to a Trinidadian father and a St. Lucian mother. She migrated with her family to Canada and then to the USA. Her debut poetry collection is Heirloom (Carcanet Press, 2025) which was shortlisted for a Forward Poetry Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize and 2026 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Her poems have been published in PN Review, Prairie Schooner, West Branch Journal, The Common, SWWIM, Rhino Poetry and others. She lives in Illinois, USA.

Jeffrey Cranor is the co-creator of the fiction podcasts Welcome to Night Vale, Within the Wires, and Unlicensed.

Stentor Danielson has been a map nerd since reading The Lord of the Rings in third grade. After spending their childhood in both western and eastern Pennsylvania, they earned a BA in Geography from Colgate University and a PhD in Geography from Clark University. Since 2009 they have lived in (or just outside) Pittsburgh while teaching geography and environmental studies at Slippery Rock University. Since 2015, they have run Mapsburgh, an online shop making paper cutout street maps and fantasy-style maps of real places. They currently share a house with one human partner, two feline bosses, and a classic mid-century Pittsburgh pink tile bathroom.

A longtime book collaborator, Lisa Dickey has helped write more than 20 nonfiction books, including 12 New York Times Best Sellers. In 2024, The Situation Room by George Stephanopoulos with Lisa Dickey debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. Lisa has collaborated with such A-list clients as First Lady Jill Biden, actor Patrick Swayze, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, tech reporter Kara Swisher, California governor Gavin Newsom, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, jazz legend Herbie Hancock and many others.

Nicolas DiDomizio holds a bachelor’s degree from Western Connecticut State University and a master’s degree from NYU. His debut novel, Burn It All Down, was published in 2021 and praised as “unforgettable” by James Patterson. He lives in upstate New York with his partner Graig and their shmooshy bulldog Rocco. The Gay Best Friend is his second novel.

Mayda del Valle is a Chicago-born poet, and interdisciplinary artist. A former Grand Slam Champion at the Nuyorican Poets Café, she became the youngest poet and first Latinx winner of the National Poetry Slam. She has appeared on Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry and was an original cast member of the Tony Award-winning Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. She is a 2024 Letras Boricuas Fellow and in January of 2026, began her tenure as the second Poet Laureate of the City of Chicago. She is currently developing Herencia, a multimedia performance exploring Puerto Rican migration to Chicago’s South Side.

Deborah D. Douglas is co-editor in chief of The Emancipator, a collaboration between Boston University and The Boston Globe that centers critical voices, debates and evidence-based opinion to reframe the national conversation on racial equity and hasten racially just outcomes. She has served as the Eugene S. Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Professor of Journalism at DePauw University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project, leading fellowships and programs that include the University of Texas at Austin, Dartmouth College, Columbia University, Urgent Action Fund in South Africa and Kenya, and Youth Narrating Our World (YNOW). While teaching at Northwestern University’s Medill School, she created a graduate investigative journalism capstone on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The founding managing editor of MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, Douglas has been working on her book, U.S. Civil Rights Trail: A Traveler’s Guide to the People, Places and Events That Made the Movement. (Moon Travel, 2021).

Tananarive Due is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. A leading voice in Black speculative fiction for more than 20 years, Due has won an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award, and her writing has been included in best-of-the-year anthologies. Her books include The Reformatory (winner of a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Chautauqua Prize, Bram Stoker Award, Shirley Jackson Award, World Fantasy Award, and a New York Times Notable Book), The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, Ghost Summer: Stories, My Soul to Keep, and The Good House. She and her late mother, civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, co-authored Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights.

Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a writer, scholar, and cultural organizer from Chicago. She is the award-winning author, most recently, of Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism, an instant New York Times and USA Today bestseller. She has also published the poetry collections Electric Arches and 1919, the nonfiction work Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side, and a novel for young readers, Maya and the Robot. She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. She has written several projects for Marvel Comics, most notably, Ironheart, Black Panther, and Exceptional X-Men, and is currently writing X-Men United. Ewing is an associate professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. She is also proud to be a co-owner of Build Coffee & Books. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other venues.

Tom Montgomery Fate is a professor emeritus at College DuPage in Glen Ellyn IL, where he taught creative writing and literature courses for more than 30 years. He is the author of six books of creative nonfiction, including The Long Way Home: Detours and Discoveries, a travel memoir (Ice Cube Press, 2022), Cabin Fever, a nature memoir (Beacon Press), and Steady and Trembling, a spiritual memoir (Chalice Press). A regular contributor to the Chicago Tribune, his essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Orion, The Iowa Review, Christian Century, Fourth Genre, River Teeth, and many others. Dozens of his essays have also aired on NPR and Chicago Public Radio.

Lilia Fernández is professor of history at University of Illinois Chicago, where her current research continues to examine Latino history in the Chicago area, focusing on cross-ethnic interactions among Latinos, their labor politics, class dynamics, activism, and strategic articulations of a panethnic identity.

Joseph Fink is the co-creator of the hit fiction podcast Welcome to Night Vale and the Audible Original Unlicensed. He is also the creator of Alice Isn’t Dead, back this year for a sequel series. He has a bunch of books, a few of which are NYT best sellers, and his live work has been performed in almost every US state, on the West End, and on the main stage of the Sydney Opera House. He lives in LA with his wife, daughter, and chihuahua/pug mix (a “chug”).

Stephen Fishbach is a bestselling novelist and Pushcart Prize-winning short story writer, though he’s probably best known for losing Survivor twice. Through his corporate work, Stephen has tried to use media superpowers for positive social change. At MTV and Logo TV, he worked on campaigns that used those channels’ broad reach to raise awareness about discrimination, marriage equality, and school violence. He also has worked as a speechwriter, and once wrote nine speeches about world peace that Stevie Wonder delivered during a concert at the United Nations. Stephen lives with his wife and two daughters in Washington, DC.

Erica Floyd is the founder and owner of Lake Literary Center, a literary arts hub in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, offering writing workshops, author readings, literary events, books clubs, and open mics. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A former magazine editor-in-chief and marketing director, her writing appears in Electric Literature, The Rumpus, Lunch Ticket, BusinessWeek, and nonfiction books. Floyd is currently writing a second novel, essays, and translations. She lives in rural Wisconsin, where she co-owns her family’s certified organic mushroom farm.

Jeaniene Frost is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of fantasy romance. Her works include the Night Huntress series, the Night Prince series, the Night Rebel series, the Broken Destiny series, and the upcoming Beautiful And Beastly series. Jeaniene’s novels have also appeared on the Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal, ABA Indiebound, and international bestseller lists. Foreign rights for Jeaniene’s novels have sold to twenty-two different countries.

John Fugelsang has been murdered on CSI and picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church. He’s a Drama League–nominated actor, comedian, and broadcaster who’s hosted many TV shows and podcasts, including the acclaimed Tell Me Everything series on SiriusXM Progress. He’s gotten George Harrison to give his final performance on VH1, debated Jerry Falwell and David Duke, and made many appearances on MSNBC, FOX News, and CNN. His epic PBS road trip film on the American Dream, Dream On, directed by Roger Weisberg, was named Best Documentary at the New York Independent Film Festival. Fugelsang lives in New York City with his family.

Syreeta Gates is the founder of The Gates Preserve, a company devoted to protecting the creative record and making sure the worlds we shape outlast us. Her work lives across mediums. She’s led archival research and produced award-winning docs, including Netflix’s Ladies First, Peacock’s Black Pop, The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion, and A Ballerina’s Tale. Currently, she’s producing her first feature, Shaping the Culture—a definitive excavation of hip-hop journalism from Xerox to Twitter. Syreeta was the first Black woman on LEGO® Masters (U.S. Season 2). Where she didn’t just build with bricks, she built Most Incredible Studio. This creative house crafts cultural compositions and collectible artifacts, transforming memories into experiences and intellectual property (IP) into tangible form. She also founded Yo Stay Hungry—a live culinary competition where rap meets recipes and food becomes freestyle. Because when the format doesn’t exist, she invents it. Gates has been featured in and has been recognized by The New York Times, Vogue, Forbes, Black Enterprise, Refinery29, Red Bull, and more. Her work lives on the page in books such as Fresh Fly Fabulous, BLK MKT Vintage, Stand Up!, The Quarter-Life Breakthrough and Creating Innovators.

Lucy Gilmore is a contemporary romance author with a love of puppies, rainbows, and happily ever afters. She began her reading (and writing) career as an English literature major and ended as a die-hard fan of romance in all forms. When she’s not rolling around with her two Akitas, she can be found hiking, biking, or with her nose buried in a book. Visit her online at http://lucygilmore.com.

Jenny Gorelick is a comedian, actor, writer, two-time Emmy-nominated producer, and former Jersey girl based in New York. She’s been called an “ever-charming host” and “crush-worthy comedian” by Time Out New York. Her essays have been featured in The New York Times’s “Modern Love” column, Cosmopolitan, McSweeney’s, and The New Yorker’s “Shouts & Murmurs.” Her Substack series, “Night Out,” about partying and dating in NYC, boasts over 10,000 subscribers and a “2024 Featured Publication” designation.

Lauren Groff is a three-time National Book Award finalist and the New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton, Arcadia, Fates and Furies, Matrix, and The Vaster Wilds, and the celebrated short story collections Delicate Edible Birds and Florida. She has won the Story Prize and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2024 she was named one of the “TIME 100 most influential people.” Groff’s work regularly appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Her work has been translated into thirty-six languages. She lives in Gainesville, Florida, where she and her husband run an independent bookstore, The Lynx.

Valerie Gugala is a historian and public speaker with a profound love for reading, particularly books that have faced censorship throughout history. Valerie’s keen interest in American history provides a rich backdrop for her talks, where she delves into the stories that have shaped the nation’s cultural and political landscape. With over 25 years of experience, Valerie has captivated audiences across the Chicago area and beyond. Her engaging presentations and insightful perspectives have made her a sought-after speaker for a wide range of groups and organizations.

Annabelle Gurwitch is an actress, activist, and New York Times bestselling author of six books and two-time finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor writing. Her writing appears in the New York Times, WaPo, New Yorker, WSJ amongst other publications. She co-hosted Dinner & a Movie on TBS, appeared in too many shows and movies including Seinfeld, Dexter, Better Things, Daddy Day Care and was a regular commentator on NPR. Her most recent book You’re Leaving When? was a NY Times Favorite Book for Healthy Living. The End of My Life is Killing Me came out March 2026.

Jane Hamilton grew up in Oak Park and has written 8 critically acclaimed novels.

Tiffany Hanssen is an on-air host at public radio station WNYC in New York City. During her decades-long career in broadcasting, she has produced award-winning national programs and worked at stations from Las Vegas to Washington D.C. She is also a screenwriter and mom to two boys. And although she was born in Iowa and spent many years in Minnesota, she currently lives in Manhattan.

Zakiya Dalila Harris received her MFA in creative writing from The New School. Her debut novel, The Other Black Girl, was an instant New York Times bestseller and is now a critically acclaimed Hulu Original Series. Her essays and book reviews have appeared in Cosmopolitan, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband.

Sarah Hartshorne is best known as the plus-size contestant on Cycle 9 of America’s Next Top Model. She was also voted Least Annoying Contestant of her cycle by the now defunct annoyingornot.com. After the show, she modeled all over the world for clients like Glamour, Vogue, Skechers and more. Since “retiring” from modeling she’s performed standup all over NYC, toured the country as part of the Vagical Mystery Tour and AbortionAF as well as the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Jen Hatmaker is a bestselling author, award-winning podcaster, speaker, and fierce advocate for women living in freedom and agency. With 15 books—including five New York Times bestsellers—along with her beloved For the Love podcast, Jen Hatmaker Book Club, and more, she reaches millions with her signature mix of humor, vulnerability, and wisdom. Her newest book, AWAKE: A Memoir, released September 23, 2025, and chronicles her raw, real-time journey through the shocking end of her 26-year marriage and surprising reinvention. She lives in a creaky old farmhouse, loves 90s country, and drinks Almond Joy creamer like it’s a personality trait. Find her at JenHatmaker.com.

Scott Hawkins is the author of The Library at Mount Char. He works as a Linux engineer focused on big data. He and his wife live in a woodsy area about an hour north of Atlanta. She keeps a nice garden. He’s in his tenth year of failing to remodel the basement. Blacktail is his second novel.

Felipe Hinojosa, John and Nancy Jackson Endowed Chair in Latin America and Professor of History at Baylor University, is currently working on a book on the Latinx civil rights movement and its role in shaping American democracy in the post-World War II era.

Chelsea Hood is a stand up comedian living in Chicago, IL by way of the comedy scenes in both Dallas, TX and Brooklyn, NY. You may have seen her on WGN, The CW Network’s Eye Opener, or CW33’s Nightcap. She was also featured on Stand Up Records’ “Texas Mess” album recorded at SXSW. She was most frequently featured performer at Limestone Comedy Festival, one of eight chose as the Best of the Midwest at Gilda’s LaughFest and a Comic to Watch at RIOT LA.

Somto Ihezue is a writer and filmmaker. He is an MFA fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Maryland. His writes about boyhood, land, disruption, and joy in Igbo communities. His work has been a finalist for the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, the British Fantasy Award, the ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award, and has appeared in Clarkesworld, POETRY, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Sauúti, and others. He has received residencies and fellowships from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Tin House, Clarion West, Sundress Academy for the Arts, Rabbit Island, and more. He was assistant editor of the Publishing Taught Me Anthology (SFWA & NEA) and co-editor of Will This Be a Problem? The Anthology.

Runako Jahi is a playwright, poet, actor, theater director, former Artistic Director of ETA Creative Arts Foundation, and is currently Jennifer Hudson’s acting coach. To date, they have worked on twelve film projects together, including Dreamgirls. Spirituality is an important element that determines the essence of human character in ways that can be viewed as both positive and negative. There are people who use their “spirituality” as a mask, or coverup to APPEAR to be RIGHTEOUS, good-natured, or forgiving. When in truth, their mindset is racist, hateful, hellbent on chaos within American culture, displaying not an OUNCE of love and compassion for the very people who elected them. My approach to the Arts is to explore CHARACTER in the most human way possible, by revealing the SOUL beneath the LIES.

Ton Johnson is a comedian based in Chicago, IL. He uses storytelling and observational humor to entertain audiences across the country in exchange for drink tickets and rib tips. He’s opened for nationally touring acts like Charlie Berens, Jay Pharoah, Damon Wayans Jr., and more. He’s also been seen on TMZ Live and All Def Digital!

James Kennedy is the author of Bride of the Tornado, which the Chicago Tribune named one of the “Top 10 Books of 2023.” James’ other novels include Dare To Know, which was named by the Times Saturday Review as their “Best Sci-Fi Book of 2021,” and the young adult fantasy The Order of Odd-Fish. James is the founder of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival, an annual video contest in which kid filmmakers create short movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery-winning books. He also hosts the Secrets of Story podcast with Matt Bird.

Described by the Chicago Tribune as having “a straight shooting, pull-no-punches style,: Joe Kilgallon has performed at clubs and colleges all over America. He’s been a personal opener for stars such as Hannibal Buress, Roy Wood Jr., and Matteo Lane. Joe has released 3 albums that have all debuted #1 on the iTunes Comedy Charts! Joe has appeared in NBC’s Chicago Med and was a segment producer on MTV’s Ridiculousness.

Pamala Knight writes historical paranormal, regency romance and mystery. She’s a member of the Regency Fiction Writers, Hearts through History and the Chicago-North Romance Writers where she’s a past president and programs chair. She’s the current co-chair of the biennial conference, Spring Fling.

Daniel Kraus is a New York Times bestselling writer of novels, TV, and film. His latest novel, Angel Down, was a New York Times Top 10 Book of 2025. His novel Whalefall won the Alex Award, was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, and was named a Best Book of 2023 by NPR, The New York Times, Amazon, Chicago Tribune, and more. With Guillermo del Toro, he cowrote The Shape of Water, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar-winning film.

Bill Kurtis celebrates 60 years as an acclaimed television journalist. He is the host and producer of hundreds of documentaries, through his own multimedia production company, KURTIS PRODUCTIONS. He is well known nationally for his role as a news anchor on the CBS network and in Chicago on CBS 2/ WBBM-TV. He created the Peabody-award winning series “The New Explorers” for PBS and “Cold Case Files” for A&E. He has been recognized for breaking the story of the effects of Agent Orange on Viet Nam Veterans with two one hour documentaries. He is also the author The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice and On Assignment which includes photographs he took on assignments that took him around the world.

Aviya Kushner grew up in a Hebrew-speaking home in New York. She is the author of The Grammar of God: A Journey into the Words and Worlds of the Bible (Spiegel & Grau / Penguin Random House), which was a National Jewish Book Award Finalist, a Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature Finalist, and one of Publishers Weekly‘s Top 10 Religion Stories of the year, as well as the poetry chapbook Eve and All the Wrong Men (Dancing Girl Press, 2019). Kushner is The Forward‘s language columnist, and previously wrote a travel column for The International Jerusalem Post. She is an associate professor at Columbia College Chicago, a founding faculty member at the Randolph College MFA program, and a member of The Third Coast Translators Collective. Her work has been supported by the Howard Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture.

Anna O. Law is the Herbert Kurz Chair in Constitutional Rights in the Department of Political Science at CUNY Brooklyn College. She is an interdisciplinary scholar who is mostly a legal historian now. She completed her PhD in Government at the University of Texas at Austin. Her publications appear in political science, history, and law journals and investigate the interaction between law, history, and politics. Her first book, The Immigration Battle in American Courts (2010), examined the role of the federal judiciary in U.S. immigration. She teaches and researches in U.S. constitutional law, federal courts, U.S. immigration policy history, federalism, and race/ethnicity.

Joanne Leedom-Ackerman is a novelist, short story writer, and journalist. Her works of fiction include The Dark Path to the River and No Marble Angels. She is editor of The Journey of Liu Xiaobo: From Dark Horse to Nobel Laureate. A former reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, Joanne is a Vice President Emeritus and former International Secretary of PEN International. She serves on the boards of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, the International Center for Journalists, Words Without Borders and Refugees International. She an emeritus board member of Poets and Writers and Human Rights Watch and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and PEN American Center, where she served as a trustee.

Raised in the HBCU town of Prairie View, Texas, Karen Good Marable is an award winning writer known for her distinctive voice and Southern sensibilities. With a career spanning three decades, Karen’s byline has appeared in numerous magazines and journals including The New Yorker, Vibe, Oxford American, and Essence. Her essays and poetry have been published in several books and best-of collections, most recently Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic (Lookout Books). Karen’s first book, Yaya and the Sea (Denene Millner Books/Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers) was chosen as one of the top ten Illustrated Children’s Books of 2024 by the New York Times and New York Public Library. She is completing her memoir.

Juan Martinez is a writer and an associate professor of English at Northwestern University. He is the author of the horror novel Extended Stay (University of Arizona Press / Camino del Sol, 2023) and of the story collection Best Worst American (Small Beer Press, 2017). He is also the fiction editor for Jackleg Press. Juan lives with his family near Chicago.

Lora McClain-Muhammad is a Gary, IN native and best selling author of the I Need You to Know series, which was inspired by her granddaughter. Her books are meant to provide an educational, inspirational, and beautiful depiction of our children, from their skin complexion to their hair type. Lora and her husband, Abdul, share 4 daughters and one granddaughter. She’s a full time author, entrepreneur, and is fulfilling her purpose by mentoring women and girls all over the world.

Joy McCullough is an author and playwright in the Pacific Northwest. Her books range from picture books through young adult novels and have won the Washington State and Pacific Northwest book awards, as well as honors including the National Book Award longlist, finalist for the ALA Morris Award, Publishers Weekly Flying Start, Junior Library Guild selections, Indie Next selections, finalists for the Washington State Book Award, and a New York Times bestseller.

Mindy Mejia is a CPA and a graduate of the Hamline University MFA program. She lives in the Twin Cities with her family, and is the author of A World of Hurt, which was nominated for the Sue Grafton Memorial Award by the Mystery Writers of America, as well as the USA Today–bestselling To Catch a Storm that kicked off her first series, the Iowa Mysteries; Strike Me Down; Everything You Want Me to Be; and Leave No Trace. More at https://mindymejia.com/.

Joshua Moehling is the USA Today bestselling author of the Ben Packard series. The first book, And There He Kept Her was a Barnes & Noble monthly Mystery/Thriller pick and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBTQ+ Mystery. His second novel, Where the Dead Sleep, was described as “a well-paced whodunit” and “devastating” by The New York Times. Joshua lives in Minneapolis.

Brian J. Morra is a former US intelligence officer and a retired aerospace executive. He grew up in southern Virginia and is married to Tracy Morra. They have four children. His Able Archers series of novels is based on harrowing (and real) events he participated in during his intelligence career in the Cold War and beyond. The Morras have homes in Florida & Virginia.

Sahar Mustafah is an award-winning Palestinian American author of The Slightest Green, The Beauty of Your Face, and Code of the West. Her recent fiction is featured in Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction; The View from Gaza published in The Massachusetts Review; and Redline: Chicago Horror Stories. Mustafah writes and teaches outside of Chicago.

Arionne Nettles ​​is a professor, culture reporter, and audio aficionado who serves as the Garth C. Reeves eminent scholar chair and instructor for digital journalism at Florida A&M University. As a journalist, her stories often examine Chicago history, culture, gun violence, policing, and race & class disparities. She’s held editorial roles at WBEZ, The Associated Press, and the Chicago Defender—one of the oldest Black newspapers in the U.S. She is the author of We Are the Culture: Black Chicago’s Influence on Everything and Journalism for Dummies.

Annalee Newitz writes science fiction and nonfiction. They are the author of four novels: Automatic Noodle, The Terraformers, The Future of Another Timeline, and Autonomous, which won the Lambda Literary Award. As a science journalist, they are the author of Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind, Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age and Scatter, Adapt and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction, which was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in science. They are a writer for the New York Times and elsewhere, and have a monthly column in New Scientist. They have published in The Washington Post, Slate, Scientific American, Ars Technica, The New Yorker, and Technology Review, among others. They were the co-host of the Hugo Award-winning podcast Our Opinions Are Correct, and have contributed to the public radio shows Science Friday, On the Media, KQED Forum, and Here and Now. Previously, they were the founder of io9, and served as the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.

Angela Nissel is the author of the best-selling memoir The Broke Diaries which was featured on Oprah and details the shady ways she made ends meet as a broke college student. Her third book, Good Grief: Pass The Bread, Mom is Dead details her journey through caretaking and grief, while being sued by her mother’s broke ass ex-husband for kidnapping. In addition to being an author, Angela has staffed in TV writers’ rooms for over 25 years and produced more than 150 episodes of television. Fun facts: Dave Chappelle shouted her out and spilled a joke she told him in confidence in his Netflix special, she serves on the board of Black Girls Film Camp, and also worked briefly as a day-shift stripper.

Susan Orlean is the author of nine books, including The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup; My Kind of Place; Saturday Night; and On Animals. In 1999, she published The Orchid Thief, a narrative about orchid poachers in Florida, which was made into the Academy Award-winning film Adaptation starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep. Her book, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend won the Ohioana Book Award and the Richard Wall Memorial Award. In 2018, she published The Library Book, about the arson fire at the Los Angeles Public Library. It won the California Book Award and the Marfield Prize and was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. It is being adapted for television. Her memoir, Joyride, was published in October 2025. Orlean has been a staff writer for the New Yorker since 1992, and has also contributed to Vogue, Rolling Stone, Outside, and Esquire. She has written about taxidermy, umbrellas, origami, chickens, and a wide range of other subjects. She was a 2003 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow. She lives with her husband and son in Los Angeles.

Sara Paretsky revolutionized the mystery world in 1982 when she introduced V.I. Warshawski in Indemnity Only. By creating a detective with the grit and smarts to take on the mean streets, Paretsky challenged a genre in which women historically were vamps or victims. V.I. struck a chord with readers and critics; Indemnity Only was followed by twenty more V.I. novels. Paretsky detailed her journey from Kansas farm-girl to New York Times bestseller in her 2007 memoir, Writing in an Age of Silence, which was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. In addition, Paretsky has written two stand-alone novels, Ghost Country, and Bleeding Kansas, set in the part of rural Kansas where Paretsky grew up. She has published several short story collections, most recently Love & Other Crimes, and has edited numerous other anthologies.

Kai Parker, Assistant Professor of African American Religious History at the University of Virginia, examines how apocalyptic and messianic strains of Black faith have inspired Black social movements, cultural production, and intellectual thought while illuminating the affinities and tensions between conceptions of redemption and freedom. His research combines archival methods of history with conceptual insights drawn from theology as well as Black studies’ engagements with phenomenology.

Walter Pryor is a product of the South, the Black Church, and a strong family unit of resilient, formidable women. He is a cum laude graduate of Hendrix College, the only Black student in the college’s history to have been awarded the President’s Medal, and a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center. His professional career has spanned a myriad of sectors in the legal arena, having worked in both large and small law firms, the U.S. Department of Justice, Capitol Hill, corporations, and higher education. He is passionate about education and has devoted a significant amount of time to volunteer work in that space. Pryor currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Hendrix College as vice chair and the Board of Directors of the Washington Children’s Foundation. He has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Latin School of Chicago, the Board of Directors of Legal Prep Charter Academies in Chicago, and the Board of Trustees of National Collegiate Preparatory Public Charter High School in Washington, D.C. He and his wife Juliette have two adult children, Adjua and Wade Osei, and divide their time between Chicago, Charlotte, and Martha’s Vineyard. This Leaves Me Okay (Heliotrope Books, 2025) is his first book.

Noel Rubinton is a journalist whose writing has appeared in leading publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. He was a reporter and editor for Newsday for many years. His writing has spanned many fields, including politics, culture, transportation, and history. His essay about H.P. Lovecraft and Providence is collected in the New York Times book Footsteps: Literary Pilgrimages Around the World and he wrote the foreword to Repression, Re-invention, & Rugelach: A History of Jews at Colgate. A graduate of Deerfield Academy and Brown University, he has been reading John McPhee’s writing for many decades.

Donna Seaman is the Editor-in-Chief at Booklist, a member of the Content Leadership Team for the American Writers Museum, an adjunct professor for Northwestern University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program, School of Professional Studies, and 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 created the anthology In Our Nature: Stories of Wildness; her author interviews are collected in Writers on the Air: Conversations About Books, and she is the author of Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists. She lives in Chicago. Visit: https://www.donnaseaman.com.

J. L. Seegars is an indie romance author who takes pride in writing books that make you swoon, cry, and swoon some more. All of her works center around Black women and the lovingly possessive men who are obsessed with them. Their stories, like their love, is tinged with a little heartbreak, but it never stops her from delivering the coveted HEA.

Nadirah Simmons is a digital content creator dedicated to preserving Black history, Hip-Hop history, and pop culture. In 2018, she founded The Gumbo, a platform that uses content, events, and cultural commentary to support, reframe, and re-energize Black women’s relationship with Hip-Hop. In January 2024, Nadirah released her debut book, First Things First: Hip-Hop Ladies Who Changed the Game, a celebration of the women in Hip-Hop who broke the mold.

USA Today Bestselling author Naima Simone loves writing sizzling romances with heart, a touch of humor and snark. Her books have been featured in The Washington Post and Entertainment Weekly, and described as balancing “crackling, electric love scenes with exquisitely rendered characters caught in emotional turmoil.” She is wife to Superman, or his non-Kryptonian, less bullet proof equivalent, and mother to the most awesome kids ever. They all live in perfect, sometimes domestically-challenged bliss in the southern United States.

Maggie Smith is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of nine books of poetry and prose, including A Suit or a Suitcase, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Good Bones, Goldenrod, Keep Moving, and My Thoughts Have Wings. She has been widely published, appearing in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Nation, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Best American Poetry, and more. She is the host of The Slowdown. You can find her on social media @MaggieSmithPoet.

C. Riley Snorton is Professor of English and Comparative Literature and jointly appointed with the Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender at Columbia University. He is the author of Nobody Is Supposed to Know: Black Sexuality on the Down Low (University of Minnesota Press, 2014) and Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity (University of Minnesota Press, 2017), and co-editor of Saturation: Race, Art and the Circulation of Value (MIT Press/New Museum, 2020) with Hentyle Yapp and The Flesh of the Matter: A Critical Forum on Hortense Spillers (Vanderbilt University Press, 2024) with Margo Natalie Crawford. He is also the co-author of A Black Queer History of the United States (Beacon Press, 2026) with Darius Bost. Snorton is currently working on his third single-author monograph, Black Trans Matters.

John Stauffer is the Kates Professor of English at Harvard and the author/co-author of 20 books and 100+ articles, including Picturing Frederick Douglass; GIANTS: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln; Battle Hymn of the Republic; and Black Hearts of Men. He has co-curated several exhibitions: ONE LIFE, FREDERICK DOUGLASS (NPG); WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY (MFA Houston); DJANGO UNCHAINED; RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2; RECONSTRUCTION; BLACK PATRIOTS; GOD IN AMERICA; and LOVER OF MEN. He received three teaching awards at Harvard. His two-volume The American Short Story: The Nineteenth Century was published in January 2026 with Library of America.

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American and Latino Cultures at Amherst College, and publisher of Restless Books, devoted to world literature in translation. He has written and edited multiple books.

Karen Su’s goal as a children’s lit creator is to celebrate the joys of Asian American children’s lives for everyone to embrace. She has published four biographies of Asian Americans for the Leaders Like Us series for readers grades 1-4. She won the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators of IL Many Voices Prize in 2022 and was a We Need Diverse Books non-fiction mentee in 2018. She currently teaches in the Global Asian Studies Program at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Randall Sullivan was a contributing editor to Rolling Stone for over twenty years. He is the author of Graveyard of the Pacific, Dead Wrong, The Price of Experience, LAbyrinth, The Miracle Detective, and Untouchable. His work has been published in, among many other places, Wired, Esquire, Outside, Men’s Journal, Washington Post, and the Guardian. He lives in Oregon.

Lew Watts is the co-author, with Roberta Beary and Rich Youmans, of Haibun: A Writer’s Guide, the first definitive guide on the rapidly-growing haibun form. He is the haibun co-editor of Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America, and author of two haibun collections, Tick-Tock and Eira, the latter of which won a 2024 Touchstone Award and the HSA Award for Best Book of Haibun. Originally from Wales, he lives in Chicago.

David Weimer is the Robert A. Holland Curator of Maps and Director of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography at the Newberry. He previously served as Librarian for Cartographic Collections and Learning at the Harvard Map Collection. Weimer has devoted his professional and scholarly work to guiding people into the history of maps and highlighting the interdisciplinary potential of maps. In 2020, he co-curated an exhibition on the tactile reading of texts that earned him the Biennial Disability History Association’s Public Disability History Award.

Nikesha Elise Williams is a two-time Emmy award winning producer, an award-winning author, and producer and host of the Black & Published podcast. A narrative strategist by day and journalist always, her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Bitter Southerner, Essence, and Vox. Nikesha’s work has been supported by the Kimbilio Fiction Fellowship, the DeGroot Foundation, and the Tin House Summer Workshop. A Chicago native, she lives in Florida with her family.

Andy Woodruff is a freelance cartographer, creating everything from digital data visualization to printed hiking maps, who newly claims the title of “author” thanks to his work on map books for Belt Publishing.