Faculty

Randall Albers chairs the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago, home to the Story Workshop® approach to teaching writing and one of the largest graduate and undergraduate creative writing programs in the country. He is also the founding producer of Story Week Festival of Writers. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in and elsewhere. A chapter from his novel-in-progress, All the World Before Them, appearing in the Summer 200' issue of f Magazine, was nominated for a Pushcart prize. Selections from his roundtable discussion with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Bharati Mukherjee, April Sinclair, Don De Grazia, and Geling Yan, "Censorship and the Writer's Voice," appeared in f5. He is the co-writer and co-producer of the Story Workshop® creative writing videotapes, The Living Voice Moves and Story From First Impulse to Final Draft, and had presented at AWP and many other national conferences on writing and the teaching of writing. A Certified Story Workshop Master Teacher, he is a former recipient of the Columbia College Chicago Teaching Excellence Award.

Andrew Allegretti is the winner of numerous Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowships and Literary Awards, and is a professor in the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago. His fiction has been published in many magazines, including TriQuarterly, Private Arts, Stand, Bandit-Lit, and f magazine. "Heat Lightning," the prologue to his novel, Winter House, was also a semifinalist for the James Fellowship for Novels in Progress, sponsored by the Heekin Foundation. Recently, an excerpt from A Fool's Game appeared in f4. Allegretti has chaired the John Schultz & Betty Shiflett Story Workshop® Scholarship Fund gala, is a board member of the Story Workshop Institute, and an active member of the Cultural Committee of the Union League Civic & Arts Foundation. He grew up in Fox River Valley and in Watseka, IL, where his father published a daily newspaper. Allegretti currently resides in Chicago.

Don De Grazia is a full-time fiction writing professor at Columbia College Chicago, where he also earned his BA and MFA. After completing his master's thesis, American Skin, De Grazia sent it off to London's prestigious publisher, Jonathan Cape, who offered him a contract. In January '998, American Skin was published in the U.K. Hailed as an American classic, the book was so highly acclaimed by critics that it caught the attention of publishers around the world, and in April 2000, American Skin was released in the U.S. by Scribner. A flood of positive reviews appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. It is now in its fourth printing and was recently anthologized in The Outlaw Bible of American Fiction. A member of the Screenwriters Guild of America, De Grazia is currently adapting the script for American Skin. He has written for the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, and other publications. He resides in Chicago, where he is at work on his second novel, Reel Shadows, a chapter of which appeared in the March 2009 issue of TriQuarterly. De Grazia is also the co-founder of "Come Home Chicago," a series that celebrates our city's unique storytelling tradition with readings and entertainment held at the legendary Underground Wonder Bar.

Ann Hemenway, Director of Faculty Development, earned her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and has published fiction and creative nonfiction in Writing From Start to Finish, Emergence, Private Arts, Sport Literate, and other magazines. Hemenway is an AWP Intro award winner, and has edited numerous publications. She is a Certified Story Workshop Master Teacher and full-time professor in the Fiction Writing department at Columbia College Chicago, and is currently at work on a novel.

Gary Johnson, Associate Chair, is a writer/producer of creative nonfiction for Public Radio on Morning Edition, Soundprint, Living On Earth, and Pacifica. Among his awards are the Associated Press Award for Best Radio Documentary, National Federation of Community Broadcasters' Silver Reel. He was a Herman Kogan Media Award finalist and a winner of the Edwin L. Schuman Award for Fiction, Northwestern University. His fiction appears in F2, F3, Private Arts, Hyphen, and his articles have appeared in the Chicago Reader. He is a Certified Story Workshop Master Teacher.

Eric May graduated with a BA in Writing/English from Columbia in '975 and the following year joined what was then Columbia's Writing/English Department as a part-time instructor. He moved to Washington D.C. in '985 to attend graduate school at American University and began working at the Washington Post as a newsroom clerk. In '987, he joined the Post staff where he was a reporter on the Metro section. He returned to Columbia College in '993. His fiction and nonfiction have been published in such literary anthologies as Fish Stories: Collective I, Sport Literate, Angels in My Oven, and f5 Magazine. May is a Certified Story Workshop Director, and Associate Faculty member at the Stonecoast Writers' Conference in Maine, and a past Board of Judges member for the Columbia University Scholastic Press Association (CSPA). He is currently at work on a novel and a memoir.

Patricia Ann McNair, Acting Chair 2011-2012, is the author of The Temple of Air, a collection of linked short stories. McNair has had her fiction and creative nonfiction appear in various anthologies, journals, and magazines, including American Fiction: Best Unpublished Short Stories by Emerging Writers; Other Voices; Superstition Review, New Plains Review, Dogwood; River Teeth; Fourth Genre; Brevity; and Creative Nonfiction. Her travel writing has been published in The Elks Magazine and enRoute—Air Canada's in-flight magazine. Her nonfiction is featured in the textbook The Truth of the Matte: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction. McNair’s honors include four Illinois Arts Council awards as well as Pushcart Prize nominations in fiction and nonfiction, a Writer's Grant and residency at the Vermont Studio Center, a residency at the Glen Arbor Arts Association, and a Writer-in-Residence position at Interlochen Arts Academy. McNair is an associate professor in the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago.

Joe Meno is a fiction writer and playwright that lives in Chicago. A winner of the Nelson Algren Literary Award and the Society of Midland Authors Fiction Prize, he is the author of four novels, The Boy Detective Fails (Akashic 2006), Hairstyles of the Damned (Akashic 2004), Tender As Hellfire (St. Martin's '999), and How the Hula Girl Sings (HarperCollins 200'). His short story collection is Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir (TriQuarterly 2005). His online serial, "The Secret Hand", ran through Playboy magazine at playboy.com. His short fiction has been published in the likes of McSweeney's, Witness, TriQuarterly, Mid-American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Washington Square, Other Voices, Gulf Coast, and broadcast on NPR.

Nami Mun grew up in Seoul, South Korea and Bronx, New York. For her first book, Miles from Nowhere, she received a Whiting Award and a Pushcart Prize, and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers and the Asian American Literary Award. Previously, Nami has worked as an Avon Lady, a photojournalist, a waitress, an activities coordinator for a nursing home, and a criminal defense investigator. After earning a GED, she went on to get a BA in English from UC Berkeley and an MFA from University of Michigan, where she garnered the Hopwood Award for fiction and the Farrar Prize for playwriting. Her stories have been published in numerous magazines, including Granta, Tin House, The Iowa Review, and The Pushcart Prize Anthology.

Audrey Niffenegger, full-time faculty of the Fiction Writing Department, was born in '963 in South Haven, Michigan and has lived in or near Chicago for most of her life. She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received her MFA from Northwestern University's Department of Art Theory and Practice in '99'. Her work in varied mediums including painting, artist's books, drawing and comics have appeared at Printworks Gallery in Chicago since '987. In '994, she and a group of other book artists, papermakers and designers founded a new book arts center, the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. She has taught for the MFA program in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts, Newberry Library, Penland School of Craft, and still teaches at Columbia College Chicago in courses specializing in text-image relationships. She is a founding member of the writing collective Text 3 (T3). Her books include two of her first books printed and bound by hand that have been commercially published by Harry N. Abrams: The Adventuress and The Three Incestuous Sisters; the international bestseller The Time Traveler's Wife published by McAdams/Cage which has been made into a movie by the same name; Her Fearful Symmetry published by Scribner and Jonathan Cape; and a serialized graphic novel for the London Guardian, The Night Bookmobile. She is currently working on her third novel, The Chinchilla Girl in Exile.

Alexis Pride, Director of Graduate Programs, earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago, where today she is a full-time Fiction Writing Department professor. She earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Pride served as former Director of Curriculum Planning at the Saturday Academy and was a consultant for the Chicago Public Schools through the Chicago Teachers Center at Northeastern Illinois University. Pride received the Columbia University Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) Award for her short story "Fried Buffalo." She has recently completed a book on Mama Hawk, a Chicago educator and social activist, entitled Where the River Ends.

Lisa Schlesinger, Playwriting Coordinator. Her plays include Wal-martyrs, Celestial Bodies, Twenty One Positions(with Naomi Wallace and Abed Abu Srour), Same Egg, Manny and Chicken, Rock Ends Ahead, Bow Echo, The Bones of Danny Winston, The Go Back Land, The Artist of Transparency. She is currently at work on the book for a new opera, Harmonicus Mundi.  She has received commissions from the BBC, the Guthrie Theatre, the BBC, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Portland Stage Company.  She is a recipient of the NEA/TCG Playwrights Residency Award and winner of the BBC International Playwriting Award and received grants and awards from the NEA, CEC Artslink International, the Bush Foundation, the Iowa Arts Council, among others. Her work has been produced in the region w:st="on" United States and Europe and translated into several languages.  She received her MFAs from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the Iowa Playwrights' Workshop and taught at the University of Iowa and Coe College before coming to Columbia College Chicago.

John Schultz is the originator of the Story Workshop® Approach to the Teaching of Writing and Professor Emeritus of the Columbia College Chicago Fiction Writing Department. His numerous publications include The Tongues of Men (stories and novellas), No One Was Killed, The Chicago Conspiracy Trial, Writing From Start to Finish, and the Teacher's Manual for Writing From Start to Finish. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in many journals and collections, including Big Table, Evergreen Review, Georgia Review, Chicago Reader, College English, and the UMKC Law Review.  He is also the founder and president of f Magazine, a literary anthology that publishes excerpts from novels-in-progress, stories, essays, and poetry. Schultz is the co-producer of the instructional videos The Living Voice Moves and Story From First Impulse to Final Draft. He is also founder and president of the Story Workshop Institute, and a Principal Story Workshop Master Teacher.

Betty Shiflett is a professor emeritus and consultant, writer, playwright, and co-producer of Story Workshop videotapes. Illinois Arts Council Fellowship recipient and two Pushcart Prize nominations in fiction. Author of We Dream of Tours (play), Phantom Rider (music drama). Stories, articles, and novels and play excerpts in Life, Evergreen Review, American Fiction: Best Unpublished Short Stories by American Writers, Fiction and Poetry by Texas Women, Emergence: Writings by Women, Private Arts, F Magazine, Writing From Start to Finish, College English, and The Sichuan Literature Monthly, translation by award-winning novelist Geling Yan. Featured teacher and co-producer of classroom video Story From First Impulse to Final Draft, also co-producer of video The Living Voice Moves. Class segment and interview in video From Grad School to Grade School: Voice and Content Permission in the Writing Classroom shown at NCTE, AWP, and MMLA. Numerous presentations at Modern Language Association, College Composition and Communication Conference, Associated Writing Programs, National Conference of Teachers of English, Midwest Modern Language Association, College English Education. Featured presenter at the '975 invitational NCTE Research on Composing Conference at SUNY Buffalo, and presenter at American Society of Training Directors. Guest reader, Southwest Writers’ Conference. Inaugural Fellow for Excellence in Teaching. Certified Principal Story Workshop Master Teacher.

Shawn Shiflett's novel Hidden Place was included in Library Journal's "Summer Highs, Fall firsts," a 2004 list of "most successful debuts." He received an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for his work and was a three-time finalist for the James novel-in-progress contest, sponsored by the Heekin Group Foundation. His short stories and novel excerpts appeared in a variety of literary journals. He was elected to Newcity's Chicago Lit 50 list, an annual ranking of top figures in the Chicago literary scene. Excerpts from his novel-in-progress, Hey Liberal!, are showcased on www.f-magazine.org.

Sam Weller, Story Week Artistic Director, is the author of The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury (William Morrow, 2005) winner of the Society of Midland Authors Award for Best Biography of 2005.  The book was also a finalist for the prestigious Bram Stoker Award. Sam is the former Midwest Correspondent for Publishers Weekly. He is a contributing writer for the Chicago Public Radio program, 848 and his work has appeared on the National Public Radio program All Things Considered. Sam is a regular contributor to the Chicago Tribune Magazine, a frequent literary critic for the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, as well as Punk Planet magazine. During his tenure as managing editor of Columbia College's Gravity, the publication was given Newsweek magazine's Robert Sibley award for best college magazine. As a staff writer for the Chicago alternative weekly, Newcity, Sam was the recipient of the Peter Lisagor Award for arts criticism. Sam is also a frequent lecturer. In 2006, he spoke across the country as part of the National Endowment for the Arts "Big Read" initiative. He is the author of Secret Chicago: The Unique Guidebook to Chicago's Hidden Sites, Sounds & Tastes (ECW Press) and his short fiction has appeared in Spec-Lit. He received his MFA in Fiction from Columbia College Chicago. Sam lives in Chicago with his family.