A special thank you to these acclaimed writers, representing the variety of media and genres in the collections of the Chicago Public Library, for joining our dinner guests – AN AUTHOR AT EVERY TABLE.

1. A special thank you to these acclaimed writers, representing the variety
of media and genres in the collections of the Chicago Public Libr ary, for
joining our dinner guests – AN AUTHOR AT EVERY TABLE.
Blue Balliett,
winner of the 21st Century Award in 2006, is best
known for her award-winning children’s novels, The Wright 3, The
Calder Games, The Danger Box and Chasing Vermeer, which have
been translated into more than 35 languages. Her most recent
work, Hold Fast, is set in part at the Harold Washington Library.
Tom Barrat is a Chicago-based photographer specializing in travel,
wildlife, and architecture. In the last few years, he has had over 25,000
images downloaded for use for websites, annual reports, newspapers
and advertising. He is a former executive in software development,
internet banking, and debit card processing.
Eula Biss
is the author of The Balloonists and Notes from No Man’s
Land. In addition to winning the 2010 21st Century Award, her work
has been recognized by a Pushcart Prize, a National Book Critics
Circle Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Howard Foundation
Fellowship and an NEA Literature Fellowship. Her essays have
appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Best
Creative Nonfiction, and Harpers.
Jodee Blanco
is one of the most recognized voices on the subject
of school bullying. A survivor turned activist, she is the author of the
New York Times bestselling memoir Please Stop Laughing At Me…
and its award-winning sequel Please Stop Laughing At Us. She
has co-authored the New York Times bestseller Both of Us, Ryan
O’Neal’s memoir of his life with Farrah Fawcett and The Complete
Guide To Book Publicity, now in its second edition.
Anna Blessing
is the author of Locally Grown: Portraits of
Artisanal Farms from America’s Heartland which explores the stories
of 20 Midwestern farms as told by farmers and chefs. She has
researched, written and photographed 14 editions of the eat.shop
book series.
Chesa Boudin writes on the criminal justice system and Latin
American policy. His latest book, Gringo: A Coming of Age in Latin
America, focuses on the politics and economic disparities of Latin
America. He has translated Understanding the Bolivarian Revolution:
Hugo Chavez Speaks, and co-written The Venezuelan Revolution:
100 Questions – 100 Answers.
Rosellen Brown,
who teaches at the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago, has published five novels, including Civil Wars, Before and
After and Half a Heart, three books of poetry and a book of stories,
Street Games. She has been honored by the American Academy and
Institute of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim Foundation and the
National Endowment for the Arts.
Thomas Campbell
is a Chicago lawyer who is the author
of Fighting Slavery in Chicago – Abolitionists, the Law of
Slavery, and Lincoln. In 2009, Mr. Campbell helped organize
a symposium – “Abraham Lincoln – His Legal Career and His
Vision for America” – which brought together leading Lincoln
scholars, judges, and historians.
Rich Cohen, a New York Times bestselling author, grew up on the
North Shore, where he “died with the Cubs and was reborn with the
Bears.” His newest book, Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears will
be published later this month. He has written ten books including
Tough Jews, Sweet and Low, The Fish that Ate the Whale and Lake
Effect. A contributing editor of Vanity Fair, Cohen won the 21st
Century Award in 2002.
Elizabeth Crane
is the author of three collections of short
stories: When the Messenger is Hot, All This Heavenly Glory, and You
Must Be This Happy to Enter; and a novel: We Only Know So Much.
She is the recipient of the 2003 21st Century Award, and her work
has been adapted for the stage by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre
company, and for film.
Merri Dee
is an award-winning broadcaster and author of Life
Lessons on Faith, Forgiveness & Grace. She is a celebrated
motivational and inspirational speaker, a highly popular panelist,
moderator and master of ceremonies, a life-changing career
coach, a successful fundraising strategist, and a fierce advocate
for violence prevention.
Monique Demery
is the author of Finding the Dragon Lady: The
Mystery of Vietnam’s Madame Nhu published this year. The book
was based on her groundbreaking 2005 interviews—marking the
first time that Madame Nhu had spoken to the Western press in
nearly twenty years.
Rachel DeWoskin’s most recent novel, Big Girl Small, is the
recipient of the American Library Association’s Alex Award and
was named one of the top three books of 2011 by Newsday.
Her memoir, Foreign Babes in Beijing about her years as the
unlikely star of a Chinese soap opera, has been published in six
countries and is being developed as a television series by HBO.
She teaches at the University of Chicago and divides her time
between Chicago and Beijing.
Stuart Dybek is an American poet and author of the short story
collections Childhood and Other Neighborhoods and The Coast
of Chicago, which was a One Book, One Chicago selection. His
latest novel-in-stories, I Sailed with Magellan, was named a New
York Times Notable Book. Dybek also published two collections of
poetry, Brass Knuckles and Streets in Their Own Ink. His work has
been anthologized in both The Best American Short Stories and The
Best American Poetry series.
Thomas Dyja,
who will receive the Chicago Humanities Festival
Heartland Literary Prize next month, is the author of the widely
heralded non-fiction work, The Third Coast: When Chicago Built
the American Dream. A native of the Northwest side, he has three
novels, Play for a Kingdom, Meet John Trow, and The Moon in Our
Hands, a biography of civil rights pioneer Walter White. He is the
editor of the award-winning book On the High Line.
Donald G. Evans
is the author of Good Money After Bad and the
editor of Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year. His short
stories have appeared in a number of collections, including Best
American Short Stories. Donald founded and directs the Chicago
Literary Hall of Fame and is the Chicago editor of the Great Lakes
Cultural Review.

2. Jack Fuller
Joe Hallinan’s most recent book is Why We Make Mistakes,
James Finn Garner’s
Michael Harvey
is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and former editor
and publisher of the Chicago Tribune. He is the author of seven
novels including Abbeville, Fragments, Convergence and The Best of
Jackson Payne. This year marked the publication of his non-fiction
work, What is Happening to News: The Information Explosion and
the Crisis in Journalism.
first book, Politically Correct Bedtime
Stories, has sold more than 2.5 million copies in the U.S. and has
been translated into 20 languages. It spent 65 weeks on the New
York Times Best Sellers list. His other books include Apocalypse
WOW!: A Memoir for the End of Time and Recut Madness. His latest
work is the e-book Honk Honk, My Darling: A “Rex Koko, Private
Clown” Mystery.
Tavi Gevinson
is the author of Rookie Yearbook One, and
founder and editor in chief of Rookie, an online publication for
teenage girls. She came to public attention at the age of 12 with
her fashion blog Style Rookie, but by the age of fifteen, she had
shifted her focus to pop culture and feminist discussion. She has
appeared twice on the Forbes “30 Under 30 in Media” list and was
a speaker at TEDxTeen in 2012.
Henry Godinez
is the resident artistic associate at Goodman
Theatre and the curator of the Latino Theatre Festival. He is editor
of The Goodman Theatre’s Festival Latino: Six Plays, a collection
of works drawn from the first ten years of the Goodman Theatre’s
renowned biennial festival of Latino plays. Born in Havana, Cuba,
Godinez is an associate professor at Northwestern University.
Ellis M. Goodman
is the author of Bear Any Burden, a Cold War spy
thriller. Goodman has been active in the film industry as a producer
and distributor, and most recently served as Executive Producer of
the documentary Louder than a Bomb, and the film Mulberry’s Child
based on the writings of Jian Ping.
Adam Green,
an associate professor in history at the University of
Chicago, is the author of Selling the Race: Culture and Community
in Black Chicago and Time Longer than Rope: Studies in African
American Activism. He has been a contributor to the New York
Times, WTTW, WBEZ, C-Span and Al-Jazeera – English.
Kevin Guilfoile worked briefly in media relations for the Houston
Astros baseball club before becoming a founding partner of a
Chicago design firm. He is the bestselling author of two novels,
Cast of Shadows and The Thousand, which have been translated
into more than 25 languages. His latest book is A Drive Into the
Gap, a memoir about fathers and sons, baseball, and a 40-year-old
mystery surrounding Roberto Clemente’s 3,000th and final hit.
Susan Hahn
is the author of nine books of poetry, two produced
plays and one novel, The Six Granddaughters of Cecil Slaughter,
published in 2012. The Chicago Tribune named her poetry books
Holiday and Mother In Summer among the Best Books of 2002. She
is the first Writer-In Residence at the Ernest Hemingway Foundation
in Oak Park.
Michael Hainey was born in Chicago and lives in Manhattan. He
has been working in magazines for more than 25 years, as a writer
and editor. Currently, he is the Deputy Editor of GQ. Hainey’s first
book, After Visiting Friends: A Son’s Story, is a New York Times
Best Seller.
published in 2010. He is the author of Going up the River: Travels in
a Prison Nation, which was named by The New York Times as one
of 2001’s Notable Books. He is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize
for Investigative Reporting and was a reporter for the Wall Street
Journal, and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.
is the co-creator, writer and executive
producer of the television series Cold Case Files. He is the author of
The Chicago Way, We All Fall Down, The Innocence Game and The
Fifth Floor. His work as a documentary producer and journalist has
won numerous national and international awards, including multiple
Emmys and an Academy Award nomination for the Holocaust
documentary Eyewitness.
Libby Fischer Hellmann
is the author of ten published novels
and twenty short stories. Her first novel, An Eye For Murder, which
features Ellie Foreman, a video producer and single mother, was
released in 2002. Her latest book, Havana Lost is the last entry
in Libby’s “Revolution Trilogy,” an epic saga that spans three
generations of a family headed by a female Mafia boss.
Aleksandar Hemon
is the author of the critically acclaimed novel,
The Lazarus Project, which was a finalist for the National Book Award
and National Book Critics Circle Award in 2008. The inaugural 21st
Century Award winner, Hemon has also written three short story
collections: The Question of Bruno, Nowhere Man and Love and
Obstacles. His past awards include a Guggenheim fellowship in
2003 and a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 2004.
Cristina Henríquez is the author of The World in Half, and
Come Together, Fall Apart: A Novella and Stories, which was a
New York Times Editors’ Choice selection. Her newest work The
Book of Unknown Americans, will be published in June 2014.
Henríquez’ stories have been published in The New Yorker and in
the anthology This is Not Chick Lit: Original Stories by America’s
Best Women Writers.
Steve James’
affiliation with Kartemquin Films began in 1987
with the start of production of Hoop Dreams for which he served
as director, producer, and co-editor. He is widely heralded for
his documentary The Interrupters, which he co-produced with
writer Alex Kotlowitz. James is currently at work on Life Itself, a
documentary about 2012 Carl Sandburg Literary Award winning
author Roger Ebert.
Chris Jones
is the author of Bigger, Brighter, Louder: 150 Years
of Chicago Theater as Seen by Chicago Tribune Critics. As chief
theater critic and a Sunday columnist for the Chicago Tribune, he
has reviewed and commented on culture, the arts, politics, and
entertainment at the paper for more than 15 years.
Alex Kotlowitz is the author of the bestselling There Are No
Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other
America. The book received the Helen B. Bernstein Award for
Excellence in Journalism and a Christopher Award. His other books
include The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, and Never
a City So Real. With film maker Steve James, he was co-producer of
the Independent Spirit Award winning The Interrupters.

3. Bill Kurtis
is an author, television journalist, news anchor and
producer. He is also the host of numerous A&E crime and news
documentary shows. His latest book, Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in
American Justice, analyzes the ethics behind the death penalty. His
other books include We Interrupt This Broadcast, The Prairie Table
Cookbook and Bill Kurtis on Assignment.
Susan Nussbaum
is a playwright whose works have been
produced at many theaters. In 2008 she was cited by the Utne
Reader as one of “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World” for
her work with girls with disabilities. Good Kings Bad Kings, her first
novel released in 2013, received the Pen/Bellwether Award from
novelist Barbara Kingsolver.
Debi Lilly is a nationally renowned event-planning expert based in Daniel X. O’Neil is the author of several volumes of poetry including
Chicago. She is the founder and president of A Perfect Event with
a faithful following, including Oprah Winfrey. She is the author of A
Perfect Event: Inspired, Easy Elegance for Every Occasion.
Dr. Paul Lisnek is the author of 13 books including Quality
Mind, Quality Life, Winning the Mind Game, and The Hidden
Jury. He is a multi-award winning television host, anchor, and a
nationally recognized legal authority on jury trials, communication
and negotiation.
Terry Mazany is president and chief executive officer for The
Chicago Community Trust, and recently concluded his tenure
as the interim chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools.
His 2013 book, Here for Good: Community Foundations and the
Challenges of the 21st Century, explores solutions to bringing
together philanthropic resources to support effective nonprofits in
their communities.
Wendy McClure is an author, columnist and children’s book editor.
Her 2005 memoir, I’m Not the New Me, was featured in publications
such as Time Magazine, USA Today, Elle, and the San Francisco
Chronicle. Her most recent book is The Wilder Life: My Adventures
in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie.
Margaret McMullan is the author of six award-winning novels,
including Cashay, When I Crossed No-Bob, In My Mother’s House
and When Andy Warhol Was Alive. Her latest book, Sources of
Light is an American Library Association 2011 Best Book for Young
Adults, a Best 2011 Book of Indiana, and a Chicago Public Library
Teen Selection.
Adam McOmber’s
novel, The White Forest, was published in
September 2012. He is also the author of a book of short stories,
This New & Poisonous Air. His work has appeared in Conjunctions,
StoryQuaterly, The Fairy Tale Review, and Third Coast and has
been nominated for two 2012 Pushcart Awards.
Sandro Miller
is one of today’s foremost photographers. At
the Cannes Lions international Festival of Creativity, Sandro was
acknowledged with a Best New Director Award for his short video
“Butterflies” featuring John Malkovich. His photography has been
collected in five books including American Bikers and I Can’t Accept
Not Trying, featuring Michael Jordan, Steppenwolf and Imagine
Cuba.
Debra Moskovits is vice president of Environment, Culture, and
Conservation at the Field Museum, and the author of several books
on the biodiversity of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador and on birds of the
neo tropics.
Nami Mun,
last year’s 21st Century Award winner, is the author of
Miles from Nowhere, which received a Whiting Award, a Pushcart
Prize, and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers
and the Asian American Literary Award. The book was selected as
Editors’ Choice and Top Ten First Novels by Booklist, Best Fiction of
2009 So Far by Amazon, and as an Indie Next Pick. Nami Mun grew
up in Seoul, South Korea and Bronx, New York.
Memotoallemployees and Bricks and a world economics treatise,
Economics. He has been a political consultant, tech entrepreneur
and Internet developer and currently serves as Executive Director
of the Smart Chicago Collaborative, a civic organization devoted to
improving lives in Chicago through technology.
Samuel Park is the author of This Burns My Heart, which was
chosen as a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews, Amazon,
BookPage, and NPR.org. It was also one of the Today Show’s
“Favorite Things” and a People Magazine “Great Read in Fiction.”
His other work includes the novella Shakespeare’s Sonnets and the
short film of the same name, which he wrote and directed.
Elise Paschen,
a poet of Osage descent, is the author of
Bestiary, Infidelities, winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize,
and Houses: Coasts. Her poems have been published in numerous
magazines and anthologies. Paschen was the executive director of
the Poetry Society of America from 1988 until 2011 and the cofounder of Poetry in Motion, a nation-wide program which places
poetry posters in subways and buses.
Brigid Pasulka
is the author of the novel Long, Long Time Ago
and Essentially True. It won the 2010 Hemingway Foundation/
PEN Award and was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers
selection. The Sun and Other Stars: A Novel will be published in
February. Pasulka runs the writing center at Whitney M. Young
Magnet High School.
Stanley Paul
is the author of Thank My Lucky Stars, a look behind
the scenes of cafe society in New York and Chicago in the 1960s.
Paul, a famed orchestra leader and society pianist, has produced
several recordings including, They Don’t Write Music Like this
Anymore and When Music Was Music. His incredible collection of
vintage recordings, sheet music, photographs and memorabilia are
housed at the Chicago Public Library.
Jian Ping
(Jennifer Hou Kwong in English) is the author of Mulberry
Child: A Memoir of China. Jian’s other publications include A Fool’s
Paradise, a collection of translated short stories by Isaac Bashevis
Singer, Chinese Film Theory, and China in the Next 30 Years. In
2012, Mulberry Child was made into an award-winning featurelength documentary film.
David Prete
is a writer, actor and director. His critically acclaimed
first book, Say That to My Face, was published in 2003, and his
debut novel, August and Then Some, was released in April 2012.
Leonard Ramirez
is the author of Chicanas of 18th Street:
Narratives of a Movement from Latino Chicago, which was published
in 2011. It received the Society of Professors of Education Book
Award in 2013, and an Honorable Mention in the Best History/
Political Book – English category in the Latino Literacy Now’s
International Latino Book Awards.

4. Ron Rapoport
is the author of many books on sports and
entertainment, including the recent From Black Sox to Three-Peats:
A Century of Chicago’s Best Sports Writing from the Pages of the
Tribune, Sun-Times and Other Papers. He is the author, or co-author
of bios of performers Tim Reid, Tom Dreesen, Betty Garrett, athletes
Marion Jones and Bobby Jones, and has commented on sports for
the Chicago Sun-Times, Los Angeles Times and NPR.
Michael Silverstein is the co-author, with Neil Fiske, of the
bestselling business book Trading Up and its sequel Treasure Hunt.
His latest book is Women Want More: How to Capture Your Share of
the World’s Largest, Fastest-Growing Market. An expert in consumer
behavior, Silverstein joined the Boston Consulting Group in 1980
and currently leads their client service initiative.
is
of the
Marshall Sahlins is the Charles F. Grey Distinguished Professor Rebecca Sklootof the authorLacks, New York Times Bestseller,
The Immortal Life
Henrietta
and was recognized with
Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. He is the
author of the recent What Kinship Is and Is Not, as well as the highly
regarded The Western Illusion of Human Nature and Stone Age
Economics. Sahlins is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Neal Samors is a Chicago native and award-winning author, co-
author and publisher of 20 books about Chicago including Chicago’s
Classic Restaurants, Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive, The Rise of The
Magnificent Mile, Chicago in the Sixties, and Chicago in the Fifties.
His next book, which will be published in spring of 2014, is Chicago’s
River At Work And At Play.
Richard L. Sandor
is the author of Good Derivatives: A Story of
Financial and Environmental Innovation. Dr. Sandor was honored
by the City of Chicago for his universal recognition as the “father
of financial futures.” He was honored as one of TIME Magazine’s
“Heroes of the Environment” for his work as the “Father of Carbon
Trading.” In July 2013 Dr. Sandor was named a Chevalier in the
French Legion of Honor.
Theresa Schwegel is a crime fiction author. Her books include
Last Known Address and Officer Down, which won the Edgar Award
for best first novel in 2005. In 2008, she was awarded the Chicago
Public Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award. Her latest book,
The Good Boy, will be published next month. Schwegel is currently
at work on her fifth novel, Some Beasts, and a graphic novel,
The Interrupter.
Donna Seaman
writes about books primarily for BOOKLIST,
published by the American Library Association, where she is a
senior editor. She also reviews books for the Chicago Tribune, the
Kansas City Star, and for Open Books radio. She is a recipient of
the James Friend Memorial Award for Literary Criticism; the Writer
Magazine Writers Who Make a Difference Award, and the Studs
Terkel Humanities Service Award.
Eric Sheinkop is a music industry executive and author of Hit
Brands: How Music Builds Value for the World’s Smartest Brands.
Co-creator of Music Dealers, a global music technology solution
that bridges the gap between bands and brands, Sheinkop’s impact
on the industry was recognized when he was included on Billboard
Magazine’s “30 Under 30” rising young executives who are driving
the music industry forward.
the 21st Century Award in 2011. It is soon to be an HBO film from
Alan Ball and Harpo Films. Her award-winning science writing has
appeared in The New York Times Magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine,
Discover, and many other publications. She is currently working on
a new book about the human animal bond.
Art Smith
is the executive chef and co-owner of Table fifty-two,
Art and Soul, Southern Art and Bourbon Bar, Joanne Trattoria,
and LYFE Kitchen restaurants. Smith is the author of three awardwinning cookbooks; the recent Healthy Comfort: Back to the Table;
Kitchen Life: Real Food for Real Families; and Back to the Family.
He contributed recipes and cooking advice to The Spectrum, the
newest book by ground-breaking cardiologist and New York Times
bestselling author Dr. Dean Ornish.
Dr. Lauren Streicher is the author of The Essential Guide to
Hysterectomy, which remains the definitive gynecologic guide for
women. Streicher is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics
and Gynecology at Northwestern University’s Medical School. She
contributes articles and has been interviewed for many magazines
and newspapers including Newsweek, The Washington Post, Ladies
Home Journal, More, Glamour, Women’s Health, and is a medical
correspondent for ABC News.
Dawn Turner Trice is the author of two novels, Only Twice I’ve
Wished for Heaven, which is being made into a movie, and An
Eighth of August. She is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune and
the moderator of its online forum, “Exploring Race.” Trice has been
a regular commentator for WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” show and
has written commentary for National Public Radio, where she is a
regular contributor to NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” show.
Chris Ware is the author of Jimmy Corrigan – the Smartest Kid on
Earth, which was awarded the Guardian First Book Prize and chosen
by the London Times in 2010 as one of the best 100 books of the
decade. Ware is the first cartoonist chosen to regularly serialize an
ongoing story in The New York Times Magazine and a contributor to
the New Yorker. His most recent book Building Stories was chosen
as a 2012 top ten fiction book by a number of periodicals, including
The New York Times and Time Magazine.
Jacob Weisberg
and author of
Bushisms
Neil Shubin is the author of two popular science books, The series, and The Bush is the creator also the author ofthe Defense of
Tragedy. He is
In
Universe Within and the best-selling Your Inner Fish, which was
chosen by the National Academy of Sciences as the best book
of the year in 2009. Shubin is the Robert Bensley Distinguished
Service Professor and Associate Dean of Biological Sciences at
the University of Chicago. In 2011 he was elected to the National
Academy of Sciences.
Government and In An Uncertain World with Robert Rubin. Weisberg
is editor-in-chief of the Slate Group, a unit of The Washington Post
Company devoted to developing web-based publications. He has
written about politics for the New Republic, Newsweek, New York
Magazine, Vanity Fair and The New York Times Magazine.