Truth, Distortion and Alternative Facts

Gisella Faggi has had short fiction and poetry published in such magazines as So to Speak, About Place Journal, and War, Literature & the Arts, among others. The recipient of fellowships from 33 Officina Creativa and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, she lives and writes in Chicago. You can find her online at www.gisellafaggi.com and on Twitter @gisellafaggi.care.

Jennifer Finstrom is an adjunct instructor at DePaul University in the Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse Department and is also Outreach Coordinator at DePaul’s University Center for Writing-based Learning (UCWbL). She was the poetry editor of Eclectica Magazine for thirteen years, and recent publications include Escape Into Life and MockingHeart Review. Her work also appears in Silver Birch Press’s Ides: A Collection of Poetry Chapbooks and other Silver Birch Press anthologies.

Stephanie Friedman’s writing has appeared in venues such as Michigan Quarterly Review, Blood Orange Review, RiverTeeth’s “Beautiful Things” series, and Jewishfiction.net, and was listed among the “Notables” for the year in Best American Short Stories. She holds an MA in English from the University of Chicago and an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and teaches in the Writer’s Studio, a creative writing program for adult students at the University of Chicago.

Jae Green is a poet, second generation artist, mother and cancer survivor originally from the South side of Chicago. Her poetry can be found in anthologies such as Tia Chucha’s “Open Fist”, “Smithsonian Magazine” and “Voices from the Heartland”. She has performed at The Green Mill, Randolph Street Gallery, Uncommon Ground, The Chicago Cultural Center, Woman Made Gallery, The Chicago Poetry Fest, Metro and Around the Coyote. She recently participated in BodyPassages, year-long collaboration between the Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble and The Chicago Poetry Center.

Christine Rhein is the author of Wild Flight, a winner of the Walt McDonald First Book Prize in Poetry (Texas Tech University Press). Her poems have appeared widely in literary journals, including The Southern Review and The Gettysburg Review, and have won awards from Michigan Quarterly Review and Green Mountains Review. Her anthology credits include The Best New Poets 2007 and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2017. A former automotive engineer, Christine lives in Brighton, Michigan. www.ChristineRhein.com

Nina Corwin — WMG Literary Events Curator.
Nina Corwin is a published poet, Founding Editor for Fifth Wednesday Journal and psychotherapist/advocate for victims of sexual assault. She is the author of two books of poetry, The Uncertainty of Maps and Conversations With Friendly Demons and Tainted Saints. Her work has appeared in ACM, Forklift OH, Hotel Amerika, New Ohio Review, Southern Poetry Review, Verse and has been nominated for the Pushcart prize. Corwin is an Advisory Editor for Fifth Wednesday Journal and co-edited Inhabiting the Body: A Collection of Poetry and Art By Women. She has read and performed her work across the country, at times set with musical or choreographic compositions.

Jennifer Steele – WMG Literary Events Outreach Coordinator.
Jennifer Steele is a published poet and educator and serves as Partnerships Coordinator for Teen Services at Chicago Public Library.  She served as co-founder and co-curator of the Revolving Door Reading Series. Her work has appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, Callaloo Journal, Columbia Poetry Review, Warpland Journal, So To Speak, and others, and is a Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop fellow. She has taught creative writing and digital media arts across Chicago since 2008 and has collaborated with numerous youth organizations and cultural institutions, designing innovative arts programming.

Kurt Eric Heintz – WMG Literary Events Audio Recordist.
Kurt Eric Heinz once taught computer graphics programming at Columbia College, and worked as an independent web developer. He’s since become the lead video director at Britannica. Heintz is known for his poetry videos, begun in the early 1990s. He also videoconferenced his colleagues’ poetry in the late 1990s — years before Skype and the iPhone. He was a technical adviser to the Electronic Literature Organization in its earliest years, and is the video content editor for Another Chicago Magazine.

Thank you Angela Narciso Torres, for your wonderful work and support for WMG and our Literary Program!