JC Aevaliotis

JC has taken a winding path to Chicago. After a stint studying with The Groundlings and waiting tables in L.A., he received a master's degree in religion and theater from the Yale Divinity School. During grad school, he taught at a magnet school for the arts, performed at the Yale Drama School Cabaret, and took classes on comic theory, Scandinavian theater, and linguistics. Since his 2006 move to Chicago, JC has completed the conservatory program at Second City and studied with the Neofuturists. JC has worked with various theatre companies in Chicago as an actor (Dead Letters and Toxoplasmosis), dramaturgical consultant (As Told by the Vivian Girls), and set builder. Currently, JC writes and performs with Serendipity Theatre Collective's 2nd Story, and performs regularly with the Second City Training Center House Ensemble. JC also works for an art-education not-for-profit called Marwen (both to pay the bills and because he believes in it). 

JT Berg

James Berg has studied at the University of Iowa, DePaul University, Sorbonne University in Paris and the University of Chicago. When he's on his bike and he sees you, he will wave and say hello.

Caryn Berman

Caryn tells stories to better understand people and life. 

Mary Dean Cason 
Throughout a twenty-year career as an ad writer in Chicago, Mary Dean Cason’s short stories, drawn on her southern roots, were simply entertainment for her family. Then, in 2000, “What Solomon Saw” became a finalist in Chicago Public Radio’s Stories on Stage and went on to win first prize in California’s 2005 WestSide Story Contest.  Her story, “Liar, Liar,” featured in Lake Michigan’s SHORE, took second place at the 2006 University of Memphis Pinch Awards for Fiction. Mary Dean completed the University of Chicago’s Writer’s Workshop in 2009 where she received the 2008 Student Prize for Fiction. She lives in Chicago and Indiana with her husband. Together they have six grown children.


Shannon Cason

Shannon Cason was raised in Detroit, and now lives in Chicago. He blogs at www.shannoncason.com and hosts a podcast, Homemade Stories, available on iTunes.
He is currently writing the kind of novel he likes to read.


Evan Clossin

E. Clossin has fought the majority of adult males in the city of Chicago, including some men that were disguised as women/children.  His writing style can best be described as immature and wasteful.  If you don't feel like lighting him on fire after he subjects you to one of his inane ramblings, then you weren't listening. 
Never touch him or look him in the eye. 

Julie Danis

Writer, commentator and humorist Julie Danis is a Chicago-based marketing professional, and adjunct professor at Northwestern University who also contributes personal essays to www.womensvoicesforchange.com and writes about being an aunt, being in transition and just being.
In the past she's examined global humor styles, discussed the toilet-paper folding habits of middle-class America, and asked young men in Dubai about their cell phone habits, all in the name research. Julie has been an editor and contributor to The Works magazine, wrote a column called “It’s a Living” featured in the Sunday Chicago Tribune, and contributed workplace commentary to public radio’s Marketplace. Julie is a graduate of Second City Training Center, University of Chicago (Certificate in Creative Writing, MBA, Social Service Administration), Northwestern, and the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival.

Gayle W Duberchin

Gayle W. Duberchin had her first fiction piece published by Jane's Stories Press, where "American Buddha," won first place in their Bite Size Contest, February 2008. In March 2008, she spent two weeks at Ragdale Artist's Colony (Lake Forest, IL), and she has returned to Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey (Dubuque, IA) for multiple writing retreats. In June 2009, she received a Creative Writing Certificate from the University of Chicago. She has been a reader for Other Voices (Univ. of Ill. literary magazine) and Narrative Magazine. For more than a decade she worked on both production and editorial teams at educational publisher Scott Foresman to design and write various high school texts, including history, geography, economics, and  law. At present, she is actively seeking agent representation.

Keith Ecker

Keith Ecker is the co-producer of Essay Fiesta, in addition to being a monthly featured reader. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. When the journalism industry became a joke, he decided to get into comedy. He has studied improv at the Second City, iO and the Annoyance Theatre. He was a founding member of the improv group Armchair Showcase; he was the co-founder, head writer and producer of the sketch group The Alliance; he’s performed stand-up all around Chicago; and he's the writer and star of the Outworld series Word of the Gay. He’s also a professional freelance writer, a theater critic for the Chicago Theater Blog and the mind behind the ChicagoNow blog Satire and the City.

 Cheryl McPhilimy is a writer, PR pro and teacher.  She has written for the Daily Herald, NPR and plenty of magazines. She owns a public relations firm (mcphilimy.com) and conducts executive messaging and media training. When she isn’t writing or teaching people how not to mess up on 60 Minutes, she is an instructor of PR at Loyola University Chicago.

Jennifer Peepas

 Jennifer Peepas used to live in Washington, D.C. and manage foreign aid programs in Central and Eastern Europe.  Now she lives in Chicago and makes movies.  She teaches screenwriting and film production at Columbia College Chicago, and recently wrote and directed The Wardrobe (http://www.thewardrobefilm.com).   
In her free time she enjoys cooking food and then taking pictures of that food.  If she were a superhero, her name would be Captain Awkward, and her superpower would be making it weird.

Harz has been performing and writing in Chicago for
three years now. He has studied at the iO Theater and Second City. Performing shows with the Playground Theater, Theater Momentum and Chemically Imbalanced with various groups. He has written three sketch reviews preformed at Second City Donny’s Sky Box. You can see more of Harz with Shock Corridor at the iO theater. The continuous improvised story "The Adventures of… " . The late night show Sickest F#@*ing stories at the Playground Theater every
first Saturday of the Month 11:59PM.