Faculty

Journalism teacher Lisa Farver is a field editor who has covered Chicago’s western suburbs for
Patch Media for nearly a decade. She holds an BA in English Writing from Purdue University.
She is a graduate of Second City’s Improv Conservatory, Music Improv Conservatory and
Writing programs. Her spoken word poetry and storytelling has been featured by You’re Being
Ridiculous, the Uptown Poetry Slam, The Stoop, That’s Poetic!, Rebellious Magazine for
Women, the Written on a Napkin Series, and more. Lisa is the founder of Everyone’s Type
Poetry & Performance, which connects seeming strangers through the magic of improvised,
impromptu art.

Avery Ferin is a creative writing teacher and fiction writer from Grand Rapids, Michigan. She attended Depaul University where she graduated with her BA in English and MFA in Writing & Publishing and served as the Editor in Chief of its art & literature magazine Crook & Folly from 2018-2021. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including Kitchen Table Quarterly, Motley Magazine, and The Grand Rapids Press. She is the recipient of the 2022 Story Studio Master’s Award and the 2024 AWP Scholarship. Her short story “Summer on Lloyd’s Bayou” was nominated for a 2023 Pushcart prize.

Cecilia Pinto has been a teaching artist in the city of Chicago for over twenty years and has worked in a variety of settings and with all age groups. Her novella, Imagine the Dog, winner of the Clay Reynolds Prize, was published in 2021. Her writing has appeared in publications including Esquire, Fence, Diagram, TriQuarterly and elsewhere. In addition to her creative writing classes at ChiArts it has been her pleasure to serve as coach for the competitive spoken word team and as dramaturg for the school’s theater productions. She received her undergraduate degree from Knox College and an M.F.A. in writing from The School of the Art Institute.

Kenyatta Rogers is a Cave Canem Fellow and has been awarded scholarships from the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference. His work has been previously published in Poetry Magazine, Jubilat, Vinyl, Bat City Review, The Volta, PANK, MAKE Magazine among others. Kenyatta is a Lead Teacher for the Poetry Foundations Teacher Institute and Chautauqua Institution’s Young Writer Institute. He is as a co-host of the Sunday Reading Series with Simone Muench and is the Creative Writing Department Head at The Chicago High School for the Arts.