StoryStudio Chicago Blog Posts

Today we’d like to introduce you to StoryStudio community member Alicia Wala! Alicia is a wonderful writer, a generous literary citizen, and an alum of several StoryStudio classes and programs — including Juan Martinez’s Short Story class last summer, Gabino Iglesias’s Novel In A Year: Speculative Fiction cohort, and last year’s StoryBoard Festival. In case…

Yvonne Liu, a Los Angeles-based writer and mental health advocate, is a frequent online attendee of StoryStudio events and classes, including attending last year’s online StoryBoard Conference in Hugh Ryan’s Nonfiction cohort. We talked with Yvonne about her experience — here’s the conversation: I’ve learned so much through StoryStudio’s Memoir-in-a-Year program and PJ Seminars that…

The Washington Post called Dionne Ford’s 2023 memoir Go Back and Get It “tenacious, openhearted, ultimately transcendent,” and the Chicago Review of Books raved “Ford’s willingness to stare down her, her family’s, and this country’s painful history makes this book extraordinary, alongside her openness about her path to healing.” We were so delighted Dionne joined…

Kat Tang’s debut novel, Five-Star Stranger, follows the adventures of a top-rated man on the app Rental Stranger. Her work has also appeared in The New Yorker, Electric Literature, The Margins, and Pigeon Pages. Kat was a 2025 StoryBoard attendee and was kind enough to speak with us recently about her experience. Here’s the conversation:…

Matt Singer is a Chicago-based writer, a long-time member of the StoryStudio community, and a member of the Stories Matter Foundation Board of Directors. Matt attended StoryBoard 2025 in Rufi Thorpe’s fiction cohort…and he has thoughts. 😍 We talked recently with Matt about his experience. Here’s the conversation. What inspired you to apply for StoryBoard?…

Ricardo Pierre-Louis is a Chicago-based writer and purveyor of the fantastic Substack, Dreaming of Kafka. Ricardo, a 2025 StoryBoard alum, answered a few questions about his experience at StoryBoard last year. 1. What inspired you to apply for StoryBoard? Once I saw that Deesha Philyaw was teaching at StoryBoard, I quickly submitted my application. It’s…

Here at StoryStudio, one of our firm beliefs is that real books are always superior to fake books.😅 So after the news this week that a freelancer used AI to create a summer reading list, which included a bunch of AI-hallucinated, definitely-not-real books, we decided to create our own summer reading list. Our Artistic Director…

Next up in our “Meet the Staff” series is our multi-talented, hard-working Programs Director, Sara Cutaia. If you’ve met Sara in person, chances are you’ve had a conversation with her on topics ranging from the majesty of Taylor Swift to the US Women’s National Team to the latest romantasy novels to her long-standing beef with…

StoryStudio Chicago has been on Twitter/X since July 2008, almost 17 years! We’ve met many friends, writers, mentors, and instructors there. We’ve exchanged ideas and laughs. We’ve learned so much.  This will come as no surprise to most of you: In recent years, and especially lately, Twitter/X functions less as the “internet’s town square” and…

Last Fall, writer Morgan Talty taught a PJ Seminar for us titled “A Master Class on the Heart of Fiction.” Writers who took Morgan’s class were delighted. “Morgan was great—funny, personable, smart, inviting, friendly. I liked his openness about the writing process, teaching process, and thoughts on the readings,” said one writer. Another writer said:…

In Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family, Garrard Conley’s 2016 bestselling debut memoir, he writes “Love, over time, could either blossom or wither, become a source of wonder or a remembered ache.” That line gave us chills, especially in the context of the whole of Garrard’s memoir. The book is about Garrard’s…

If you been to the Writers Festival, StoryBall, Pub Crawl, or any of a number of other StoryStudio events, you’ve likely met Jen Coffeen…and been positively influenced by her huge enthusiasm. Jen, one of the longest tenured StoryStudio staffers, is the engine (along with Events Manager Angie Raney) that makes our events go. She is…

Writer Hugh Ryan wins for this year’s best StoryBoard workshop title: “What the F@!* Even Is an Essay?” That’s no small feat given the collection of talent teaching at this year’s StoryBoard.  So…what the f@!* even is an essay, indeed? Hugh’s online Nonfiction StoryBoard workshop promises to answer that question and then some. Here’s how…

It’s a bit of serendipity that one of our esteemed StoryBoard faculty, Maggie Smith, just released a widely praised craft book earlier this month. Lucky us and lucky you, writers!  Maggie’s craft book, Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life, guides writers through pragmatic, sensible, and fun strategies to create and…

Landing a short story collection on the National Book Award shortlist, by itself, is an incredible accomplishment. Especially a debut collection. Especially a debut collection from a small, university press. But that’s exactly what writer Deesha Philyaw accomplished in 2020 with her collection The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.  The National Book Award judges wrote…

Try this quote on for size: “I think storytelling is our deepest form of expression. It’s something we all do as humans, and I think it very often saves our lives. It’s how we process the world. It’s how we understand things and muddle through the problems we’re going through, whether they’re personal problems or…

Two years ago at AWP in Seattle, Sheree L. Greer approached the StoryStudio table and introduced herself. Sheree lives in Tampa and was a relatively new StoryStudio instructor, so this was the first time we’d gotten to meet her in person. Sheree had also just posted a fantastic Instagram Reel about how much she loved…

Last summer, StoryStudio was fortunate enough to convince Rufi Thorpe to take a break from her book tour for her latest novel, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, to teach a one-night, in-person class titled “Details Are Free of Charge.” The reviews were rave.  Here’s what writer Lucy Rees said about taking Rufi’s class: “Even just an…

This summer, instructor Mike Zapata is leading a new and unique Summer Creative Writing Youth Camp. The camp, titled The World Is a Vast Stage: Writing and Performing, takes place June 24-28 and is for young writers ages 7th to 11th grade. We talked with Mike about some of the details of the camp and…

February is the season of two things: love and Pub Crawl.

As the resident StoryStudio Swiftie, I decided to pair all of our Winter Term class offerings with Taylor Swift songs.