IT’S OUR 8TH BIRTHDAY. You are morally obligated to come down to The Book Cellar on Monday, November 20th at 7pm. Also, this lineup is going to be so good, we might never need to have another birthday:
Britt Julious is a journalist, essayist, and storyteller. Her writing has appeared in the Esquire, ELLE, GQ, The Guardian, NPR, Vice, Pitchfork and many others. She’s a columnist for the Chicago Tribune and an editor for Vice’s THUMP. She also hosts The Back Talk, an award-winning podcast featuring original stories from women of color. As a moderator, she has led events for the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Gene Siskel Film Center and the Chicago Humanities Festival. Britt is a firm believer in the underground, avant grade and underdog.
Danette Chavez is an assistant editor and TV critic at the A.V. Club. She’s a lifelong Chicagoan who can always tell if you’ve never been south of Roosevelt or west of Ashland.
Stephanie Douglass is a Moth GrandSLAM Champion, cofounder of New York Theatre Company the TEAM, and was the head writer for OLN’s “Outside Magazine’s Ultimate Top Ten.” She hosts Story Club North Side and cohosts the Englewood Storytelling Open Mic at Kusanya Cafe. Stephanie served as the Farm Enterprise Director at Growing Home, overseeing job training on Chicago’s first high-production organic farm. She is also a co-founder of Cyahafi (Cha-HA-fi) Blooms, a resource training collective in southwestern Uganda. Stephanie recently became the Associate Director of the Greater West Town Project, which provides job training for disadvantaged adults and re-enrolls students who have dropped out or been pushed out of CPS schools.
Chris Bower is the author of the short story collection Little Boy Needs Ride and the novella The Family Dogs, which was part of the My Very End of the Universe novella collection. He writes plays, hosts the semi-once-in-a-while-almost-never Ray’s Tap Reading Series, and is the creator/owner of Cafe Neckbeard, the most experimental, expensive, and imaginary cafe in Chicago’s historic Logan Square.
Sarah Hollenbeck has published personal essays in Dogwood, TriQuarterly, and Shondaland. Her essay “A Goldmine” was nominated for a Pushcart and received a Notable Mention in Best American Essays. She’s also a contributor to the new anthology NASTY WOMEN, which was published by Picador earlier this year and features Cheryl F*ckin Strayed, among others. But she’s often distracted from her writing by her day-job running Women & Children First, one of the last remaining feminist bookstores in the country.
Andrew Marikis is a storyteller, actor, teaching artist, and dinosaur enthusiast. As a storyteller, Andrew performs all over Chicago and hosts and produces Story Club South Side, monthly – a hybrid curated & open-mic storytelling show in Bridgeport. As an actor he’s worked with Lifeline, Irish Theatre of Chicago, BoHo, Filament, and Adventure Stage Chicago. As a teaching artist, he is an Adventure Stage Trailblazer and the Education Associate at Northlight Theatre. As a dinosaur enthusiast, he’s dressed up as Sue the T-Rex twice – once for compensation. You can find out more at www.AndrewMarikis.com.
Andrew & Sarah are married.
Essay Fiesta 