Story Studio Memoir in a Year Reading
Featuring Megan Kirby, Madison Loew, Ro White, Stephanie Young, Zoe Tian, Katie Tobin, and more!
Friday 6/12, 6:30-9:00 pm
Quimby’s Bookstore 1854 W. North Ave, Chicago
Join us for the Story Studio Memoir in a Year reading, hosted by award-winning author and Story Studio teacher Rachel DeWoskin. Nine students will read excerpts from their memoirs, which span true life stories about immigration, menstruation, thespianism, lesbianism, dead mom jokes, divorced folks, and how you should sit when someone asks you to watch them take a shower.
Megan Kirby [ @dweebulous ] liked to write about things like pop music, theme restaurants, the renaissance faire, and her life in Chicago. She’s been making zines for over 20 years, and she shows no sign of stopping.
Madison Loew [ @madisonloew ] has worked in many industries with many titles; at the end of the day, she is a student of people, trying to design a friendlier and more dignified world for all. She is writing a memoir about love, loss, and the myth making of marriage.
Ro White [ @boys_xl ] is a Chicago-based writer whose journalism has been featured in Teen Vogue, Prism, Them, and more. Ro has performed original work at the Neo-Futurist Theater, the Paper Machete, Lit Crawl, and the Moth, which featured one of Ro’s stories on NPR’s Moth Radio Hour. Last year, Ro was a finalist for North American Review’s Terry Tempest Williams Creative Nonfiction Prize.
Stephanie Young [ @stefcorrect ] is a writer, academic, and psychologist.You can find her creative work in Breakfast…?, Twenty Bellows, JAKE, BULL, Complete Sentence, and other fine literary outlets. She has published two community-focused lit zines, Invisible Friends and Uninvited. Stephanie was born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where lengthy bios are frowned upon.
Zoe Tian got her name Zoe from an anime character Hange Zoe from the anime Attack on Titan in the summer of 2013; after missing the CPS high school entrance exam due to her family’s odd time of immigration, they moved to the suburbs, predominantly white, far from the world she’d known.. Growing up in both worlds of inside and outside, real and unreal, future and the past…
Katie Tobin hails from the policy world in DC, where she served as a top migration advisor in the White House from 2021-2024. Over the last 20 years, Katie has tackled migration and refugee policy from various vantage points – the border, the field, the courtroom, and even from the decks of coast guard cutters. She currently teaches at University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and serves as a non-resident scholar for Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
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Pay what you can afford in person or via Venmo.
Suggested: $10
Venmo: @quimbysbookstore
Please include “Memoir” in the note!
Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!
Your generous donation directly supports artist honorariums and ensures the continuation of this program. We are so grateful for your support of local authors, publishers, creators, Quimby’s Bookstore, and DIY culture—we truly couldn’t do it without you!
