S:2-Ep:14 Cesar Toscano

Cesar Toscano is a Chicago-based writer, with a BA in Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago. He is the recipient of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Certificate of Merit for his poem “A Dinner Night Passed”. His poem ”Dream Workshop” was selected as the winner of the 2024 Allen and Lynn Turner Commencement Poetry Competition.

He also runs his magazine, Mystical Owl Magazine, for strange fiction and poetry. His work delves into mental health and identity through a speculative, magical realism, and horror lens.

S:2-Ep:13 Michelle Alexander

Michelle Alexander is an American-Trinidadian poet, creative nonfiction writer, New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study graduate, and MFA candidate at Columbia College of Chicago.  Her work has appeared in Salt Hill; she is a poet in residence with the Chicago Poetry Center. 

S:2-Ep:12 Lor Clincy

Lor Clincy, a Chicago native, uses poetry to tell salient experiences that require readers/listeners to consider perspectives that are not the status quo, while honing in on African American experiences through commentary and reflection.

S:2-Ep:11 Michelle Alexander

Michelle Alexander is an American-Trinidadian poet, creative nonfiction writer, New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study graduate, and MFA candidate at Columbia College of Chicago.  Her work has appeared in Salt Hill; she is a poet in residence with the Chicago Poetry Center. 

S:2-Ep:10 Matthew Gutierrez

Matthew’s poetry focuses on themes of memory, environment, love, sexual desire, dreams, madness and death. The poems paint a picture inside your mind, transporting you to a place of imagination and, at times, fantasy.

S:2-Ep:9 Alexandra Riseman

Alexandra, an Oak Park native, uses her writing to share the whimsy, the weird and the real. Raised in a jewish house hold, she incorporates her Eastern European Jewish heritage into her writing, while taking inspiration from some of her favorite authors: Kafka and Poe.

S:2-Ep:8 Kimberly Shine

Kimberly Shine is a creative and media professional from chicago. Her collection of poetry, “On the Other Side of Everything” encourages readers to quiet the noise, take control of their lives and to live freely.

S:2-Ep:6 Tony Trigilio

Chicago poet, Tony Trigilio, reads from his essay collection, Craft: A Memoir. He is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago.


“Poetry forces me to pay attention—and to do so with delight,” Tony says. “I want to read and write poems that teach me to see. ‘The eye altering,’ as William Blake writes, ‘alters all.’”

S:2-Ep:5 Matthew Gutierrez/Katelin Reinert

Matthew’s poetry focuses on themes of memory, environment, love, sexual desire, dreams, madness and death. The poems paint a picture inside your mind, transporting you to a place of imagination and, at times, fantasy.

Katelin Reinert is a junior BMus Music Composition major at Columbia College Chicago. She is an advanced pianist and flutist and the first chair melodica player of Columbia College Chicago's New Music Ensemble. Katelin, aspiring to become a media composer, has premiered two of her original scores with the ensemble.

S:2-Ep:4 Lor Clincy

Lor Clincy, a Chicago native, uses poetry to tell salient experiences that require readers/listeners to consider perspectives that are not the status quo, while honing in on African American experiences through commentary and reflection.

S:2-Ep:3 Julia Nusbaum

Julia writes fiction and nonfiction pieces that are heavily influenced and inspired by her Midwestern roots. She is interested in the gritty underbelly of lives and relationships, and writes on the raw edges of being human.

S:2-Ep:2: Gina Twardosz

Gina, a Chicago resident, recently earned her MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia College Chicago. Her literature, twice nominated for the Pushcart prize, is exceedingly personal, often satirical, with an eye cast to the side for the strange and whimsical.

Episode 11: Matthew Gutierrez

Matthew’s poetry focuses on themes of memory, environment, love, sexual desire, dreams, madness and death. The poems paint a picture inside your mind, transporting you to a place of imagination and, at times, fantasy.

Episode 10: Tony Trigilio

Tony Trigilio’s most recent book of poems is Proof Something Happened. His essay collection, Craft: A Memoir, is forthcoming in September 2023. He is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago.


“Poetry forces me to pay attention—and to do so with delight,” Tony says. “I want to read and write poems that teach me to see. ‘The eye altering,’ as William Blake writes, ‘alters all.’”