I’m an Assistant Professor of English at Valparaiso University. I write novels, short stories, nonfiction, edit, & run Hypertext Magazine.*
*embracing the hustle since 1996
I interviewed Ana Castillo at the sold out Chicago Writers Conference on March 23, 2024.
EVENTS
Visit Hypertext & RHINO at AWP 2024.
Who’s going to AWP 2024?
Hypertext + RHINO AWP 2024 Off-Site Reading
The reading features Ariana Benson, Randall Albers, Nicholas Goodly, Beth McDermott, Olatunde Osinaike, and Allison Vincent.
Hypertext, Guild Literary, and RHINO at 2023 Printers Row Lit Fest
Join us at Printers Row Lit Fest (Center Stage) on Saturday, September 10, 2 pm for a joint reading presented by the Build Literary Complex, RHINO, and Hypertext.
MORE EVENTS
Sunday Salon Chicago + Hypertext + Roscoe Books = A Pop-Up Reading
It’s Hypertext’s first collaboration with Sunday Salon! Join us in August for an in-person reading at Roscoe Books featuring Kathleen Rooney, Virginia Bell, Kiel M. Gregory, Erin Miller, Natasha Mijares, Laura Hawbaker, and Jessica L. Walsh.
Sunday Salon Chicago with me, Rita Woods, Rebecca Entel, Mary B. Moore, & Faisal Mohyuddin on July 30. Join us!
BOISE RADIO WRITER TO WRITER :: Available July 2 on SoundCloud
I’ll be appearing on WRITER TO WRITER with writer hosts Rebecca Evans & Ken Rodgers on Sunday, July 2. Here’s the SoundCloud link.
WRITING WHILE WHITE :: August 19, 1-3 ET
These are confusing times to be a white writer with inclusive intentions. How do you address diversity in your work? What do you have permission to write about? How do you create realistic nonwhite characters? How do you be an ally when white voices are subject to so much scrutiny? This session will be a safe place to get some of your questions answered and develop a new lens through which you can be a powerful voice in the quest for racial reconciliation. This workshop will be conducted by African American lecturer, essayist, and author Desiree Cooper. Special guests will join the panel to share their experiences as white writers addressing race in their work. This workshop will include a lecture and panel discussion, along with writing prompts to help explore new territory for white writers.
Hypertext Magazine will be participating in a number of Printers Row 2023 events. Details soon.
Courtesy Joe Mazza at Brave Lux
Swarm Theory earned a spot in PANK'S The Best 21 Books of 2016, was included in Powell's Books Mid-Year Roundup, the Best Books of 2016 So Far, earned a Book of the Year Award (Honorable Mention) from the Chicago Writers Association, an Independent Publisher Book Award (Silver, Best First Book), and a National Indie Excellence Award (Winner, Regional Fiction, Midwest), and was called "a gripping work of Midwest Gothic" by Michigan Public Radio.
Delighted to be included in New City's Lit 50: Who Really Books in Chicago and named One of 30 Writers to Watch by Chicago's Guild Complex.
Most recently, my work has been published in University of Hell’s 2020 The Year of the Asterisk, MAKE Literary Magazine, BELT’s Rust Belt Anthology, and The Literary Review, among other publications. Essays, interviews, and long-form journalism have appeared in The Rumpus, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Big Smoke, The Millions, Chicago Tribune, Detroit’s Metro Times, among other publications.
Swarm Theory was published in 2016 by University of Hell Press.
My next novel is in the works. More info coming soon.
Need a writing coach?
“Working with Chris is like cutting glass with a laser: fast and precise. All kinds of jagged edges get smoothed and new angles and prisms emerge that refract more light than if I had been working along with a hammer and chisel. She is in the right profession: the literary beauty business. Work with her.”
I taught fiction, nonfiction, & publishing workshops at Columbia College Chicago for over 20 years. Since then, I founded Hypertext Magazine. I’ve also served on faculty at Interlochen Writers Retreat, Shake Rag Alley Writers Retreat, Northwestern Writers Conference, Madison Writers Conference, among others. Want to know more? Get in touch.
Hypertext Magazine & Studio
Hypertext Magazine & Studio publishes original, brave, and provocative narratives of historically marginalized, emerging, and established writers online and in print; HMS teaches writing workshops that spark curiosity, empower creative expression, and promote self-advocacy. We invite you to read the narratives we publish so that, together, we can more gracefully navigate our complex world.
INCLUSION, DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & ACCESS
HMS celebrates diverse voices by providing platforms to share powerful and unique narratives. By welcoming a diversity of voices and communities, we celebrate the transformative power of story and inclusion.
ABOUT
An independent press since 2010, Hypertext Magazine (online) and Hypertext Review (print) are the publishing initiatives of Chicago-based Hypertext Magazine & Studio (HMS). Our publications have always amplified the work of underrepresented, emerging, and established writers and visual artists. Hypertext is the place where innovative and genre-bending work coexist with more traditional forms. We publish startling short fiction, literary nonfiction, poetry, interviews, and delightful surprises that merge genres and bend rules.
Hypertext is highly committed to not only the literary community but our extended community in Chicago and beyond. Online, readers from around the world can access all content—including visual art and interviews—at no cost. In 2021 alone, our online magazine has garnered nearly 100,000 visitors.
Since becoming a nonprofit in 2017, we have published nine print journals and paid hundreds of writers and visual artists. Not many independent presses have been around for over a decade and we are committed to continuing to champion high-quality writing from professional writers—including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, writers who are differently abled, and other marginalized communities—and to promote that writing to our already robust readership. We regularly publish interviews with writers who have books forthcoming from independent publishers in the spirit of providing added publicity.
Since 2017, six essays have been recognized as “Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction” in HarperCollins The Best American Essays collections and one essay won an Illinois Arts Council Award.