John Flannigan is a retired English professor from Prairie State College out of Chicago Heights, IL. He is an expert on local politics, housing and property rates. He is a long time friend of Tom “The Chief” Haugh and graduate of Notre Dame University.
ERIC CHARLES MAY
Eric Charles May is the author of the novel Bedrock Faith, which was named a Notable African-American Title by Publishers Weekly, and a Top Ten Debut Novel for 2014 by Booklist Magazine. A 2015 recipient of the Chicago Public Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award, May is a former reporter for The Washington Post. He’s also a native of Chicago’s South Side—Morgan Park, South Shore—and in addition to rooting for the White Sox, he also longs for the day when the football Cardinals quit their nomadic wandering and return to their original home on the South Side. Eric’s fiction has also appeared in Fish Stories, Solstice, Hypertext, Flyleaf Journal, F, and Criminal Class magazines. In addition to his Post reporting, his nonfiction has appeared in Sport Literate, Chicago Tribune, and the personal essay anthology Briefly Knocked Unconscious By A Low-Flying Duck. He has taught at the Stonecoast, Solstice, Northwestern University, and Chicago writers’ conferences, and in Chicago he’s read personal essays with 2nd Story, That’s All She Wrote, and done oral tellings at the Grown Folks’ Stories and Here’s the Story personal essay programs.