2nd Story Performers and Presenters

CP Chang has moved away from Chicago three times in his adult life, but he's come back each time. He received his MFA in fiction writing from Columbia College Chicago, and his fiction and poetry have appeared in Hair Trigger, Upstairs at Duroc, Artisan, Atlanta Review, the Green Flash, the anthology My Angels and Demons at War, the anthology Open to Interpretation, on Nerve.com, and on Wordriot.org. Portions of his first novel, Causes, won the Patricia Painton Scholarship at the Paris Writers Workshop and an Honorable Mention with the Helen Fong Dare Scholarship at Columbia College Chicago. He has performed for 2nd Story at Webster's Wine Bar, at Red Kiva, and at The Spot, and he has also been a featured reader at RUI: Reading Under the Influence and at the Kate the Great's reading series. He is a contributing writer for the monthly newspaper Evanston Sentinel. 


Amanda Delheimer completed her MA in Theater and Spanish at the University of Chicago. Since then, she has worked as a freelance director, choreographer, writer, and teacher with such theater and production companies as the Steppenwolf, the Court, the Next, Pegasus Players, Red Moon, Collaboraction, Roadworks, Strawdog, Serendipity, Red Hen Productions, Teatro Vista, Rorschach Theatre, and the Vittum Theater, among others. She is a proud member of Serendipity Theatre Company, as well as its Artistic Director, and is also an Artistic Associate with both Collaboraction Theater Company and the Vittum Theater. Photo: Donald Cardiff


Molly Each may reside in Logan Square, but she'll always be a Minnesotan at heart. She covers style and fashion for the Chicago Tribune, CS Magazine, Chicago Collection, Store Adore, and Newcity. She is coeditor of a creative nonfiction literary magazine called No Touching, and other fiction and nonfiction work has been published in Annalemma Quarterly, Hair Trigger, the Story Week Reader, and Toasted Cheese, among other places. She is a member of the Story Development Team for 2nd Story and is finishing up her MFA in creative writing from Columbia College. Visit her website: www.mollyeach.com. Photo: Julie Sadowski


Deb R. Lewis is a writer, storyteller, Story Developer with 2nd Story, sometime editor, and adjunct faculty member of Columbia College Chicago's Fiction Writing Department. She's also been a featured reader/performer at Strawdog Late Night, Homolatte, Jenny Seay's Tamale Hut Café, Women and Children First, Quimby's, the Bailiwick Studio Theater, and WCRX 88.1 FM, and has presented at Associated Writing Programs. Her work has been short-listed in several competitions and published in many journals, including: Susurrus, Zahir, Café Irreal Outsider Ink (Artist Spotlight), Velvet Mafia, The 2nd Hand, Gertrude, Blithe House Quarterly, Sleepwalk, Hair Trigger, International Drummer, Bad Attitude, Sandmutopia Guardian, and the Windy City Times Pride Literary Supplement. Her first finished novel, Hades' Son, is under submission as she works on her second. She lives in Chicago with her wife and daughter. See DebRLewis.com for updates and information. Photo: brycee


Megan Stielstra is a writer, storyteller and Director of Story Development for 2nd Story, an urban storytelling series held in wine bars around Chicago. She's performed at The Goodman Theatre, The Chicago Poetry Center, the Neo-Futurarium, Story Week Festival of Writers, Associated Writing Programs, the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Dollar Store, WBEZ's Writers' Block Party and 2nd Story. Her writing has appeared in Other Voices, Fresh Yarn, Pindeldyboz, Swink, Perigee, In the Fray, and Punk Planet, and has been performed by the Serendipity Theatre Collective, Theatre Seven and Bohemian Archeology in New York. She holds an MFA from Columbia College, where she currently teaches in the Fiction Writing Department and serves as Assistant Director of The Center for Teaching Excellence. She is also a lecturer at The University of Chicago and a teaching artist with The Goodman.


Doug Whippo grew up in Chicago and completed his undergraduate work at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He originally came to Columbia College Chicago to pursue a graduate degree in photography, but soon found himself enjoying the fiction writing classes. He was awarded the John Schultz and Betty Shiflett Story Workshop Scholarship, and is now pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia College. Excerpts from his novel in progress, Jelly's Last Dance appeared in Hair Trigger 22, 23, and 28, as well as in f6 Magazine. After his story "Marla" appeared in Hair Trigger, it was purchased and made into a short, independent film. Whippo is an adjunct professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago and teaches classes in creative writing, reading development, and English as a second language at various schools throughout the city. He has been a featured performer at Serendipity Theatre's 2nd Story and elsewhere. Photo: Elise Tanner


DJ White Russian – As a designer, musician, composer, and performer, Mikhail "Misha" Fiksel is an emerging presence in the Chicago theater and music communities. Originally from Siberia, Mikhail found his way to the Windy City via University of Chicago, where he earned his bachelor's degree and began his ventures into the realm of sound design. He has become a regular in the Chicago Equity and Non- Equity theater scene, as well as Chicago's music and DJ culture. In addition to being a member of Teatro Vista, the Strawdog Theatre Company, and the Serendipity Theatre Collective, he is an artistic associate with Collaboraction and has designed and composed for such theater companies as ATC, The House, Redmoon Theater, Victory Gardens, The Goodman Theatre, The Hypocrites, and many others. He also is a resident designer at the Vittum Theatre, and a part-time faculty member of the Loyola University Theatre Department. As a musician, he performs throughout this city, as a solo artist (often under the moniker "dj white russian") or with his project "Seeking Wonderland," an improvisational ensemble (Kevin Richey, Paul Foster, Mikhael Fiksel, Shaun Whitley, and others), fusing nu-jazz, electronic music, and visual media. Fiksel holds residencies at Sushi Wabi and The Morseland, and has been regularly featured on Q101's Sonic Boom: Subsonic, a program dedicated to new electronic music. Photo: Grayscale Photography