Inaugural Event

Featured Readers

Richard Holinger

Richard Holinger’s books include a collection of personal essays, Kangaroo Rabbits and Galvanized Fences, about which David Hamilton, Editor Emeritus of The Iowa Review stated, “[Holinger is] obviously a very alert writer, uses language well, has all sorts of inventive phrasing.” About North of Crivitz, a book of poetry, former Illinois Poet Laureate Kevin Stein wrote, “Within these lines one hears Emerson and Frost wrestling in verdant woods.” Holinger’s fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, book reviews, and scholarly articles have been or will be published in The Southern Review, Chautauqua, Witness, Texas Review, The Ohio Review, Boulevard, and elsewhere, and have garnered four Pushcart Prize nominations. Not Everybody’s Nice, winner of the 2012 Split Oak Press Flash Prose Contest, was described by C. Michael Curtis, former Fiction Editor of The Atlantic Monthly, as “brief tales compress[ing] the boundaries of storytelling, but their very economy and Holinger’s shrewd glimpses of the human landscape make diverting and surprisingly satisfying reading”; novelist Lore Segal called the stories, “beautiful.” Another chapbook, “Hybrid Seeds: Little Fictions,” a collection of innovative flash fictions, contained work originally published in Beloit Fiction Journal, Monkeybicycle, Western Humanities Review and elsewhere. His essay in Thread earned a “Notable” designation from Best American Essays 2018. He lives in Campton Hills where he overlooks a field where turkeys, woodchucks, deer, foxes, and other critters come; is founder and facilitator of Night Writers Workshop, sponsored by the Geneva Public Library; and writes a bi- monthly column for the Kane County Chronicle. (Here’s his piece on this event!)

Diane Lincoln

Diane Lincoln is a former middle school teacher who loves to write. Her poetry has appeared in dozens of magazines as well as a few Batavia writer’s anthologies. Her self-published collection of poems is entitled, “Mechanical Bell Sunrises. Diane is also a non-fiction writer who has written online for “LiveScience” and “Science News for Students.” Her book, “Science Discovery Files,” published by World Scientific, is for middle grade readers.  Recognized as promoting social and environmental justice, “Science Discovery Files” received a Silver Nautilus Book Award in 2023. Currently, Diane is focusing on fiction.  She will read a few of her short stories to you today.

Donald J. Bingle

Donald J. Bingle is a writer of stories and novels in a variety of genres, from a trilogy of spy novels to a mystery set in a suburban writers’ group to Christmas Carol Critiques to tales about his father and more. His latest publication, Morse Code Mysteries and Missives, contains three tales, two stories by him and a relevant piece of non-fiction, presented first in more than 300 pages of triple-spaced Morse Code text, then via links through about twelve hours of dots and dashes, then in clear text. Tonight’s tale, however, is not in code. As always, you can find out more about Don at www.donaldjbingle.com or follow him on social media @donaldjbingle.

Michael Jorgensen

Michael Jorgensen is an aspiring poet and novelist from Batavia, IL. He attained a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Olivet Nazarene University and received the prestigious Tau Delta Writer’s Award upon graduation. His poems and stories have been published in several literary journals, including TYGR and The Seattle Star, and he is the recent winner of the Dead of Night Poetry Contest. Jorgensen is currently in the process of publishing his first collection of poetry, There is Nothing Left to Say, as well as penning his debut novel, Ekstasis! 

Listen to the Show

Michael Jorgensen

Donald J. Bingle

Diane Lincoln

Richard Holinger

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