Featured Writers

Lions in Winter is a full-day literary festival that includes author readings, craft talks by featured writers in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, an editors panel, a book fair, and more. Readings are free and open to the public.  All craft talks with authors require registration. Registration also includes continental breakfast and lunch.

CM Burroughs is Assistant Professor of Poetry at Columbia College Chicago. Her book of poems The Vital System is published by Tupelo Press. Burroughs has been awarded fellowships and grants from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Cave Canem Foundation, Callaloo Writers Workshop, and the University of Pittsburgh. She has received commissions from the Studio Museum of Harlem and the Warhol Museum to create poetry in response to art installations. Her poetry has appeared in journals including Poetry, Callaloo, jubilat, Ploughshares, VOLT, Bat City Review, Best American Experimental Writing 2015, and Volta. Burroughs is a graduate of Sweet Briar College, and she earned her MFA from the University of Pittsburgh.

Rachael Hanel is a writer and assistant professor of mass media in Mankato, Minnesota. Her memoir, We’ll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down: Memoir of a Gravedigger’s Daughter (2013, U of Minnesota Press), was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award. She has written several nonfiction books for children. Her essays have appeared in online and print literary journals such as Bellingham Review and New Delta Review. She is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

Vu Tran’s first novel is Dragonfish, a New York Times Notable Book and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year. He is the winner of a Whiting Award, and his short stories have appeared in publications like the O. Henry Prize Stories and the Best American Mystery Stories. Born in Vietnam and raised in Oklahoma, Vu received his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and his PhD from the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Practice in Creative Writing at the University of Chicago.