This event is moderated by Francesca Royster, who is a Professor in the Department of English.

The program is a part of The Visiting Writers Series at DePaul University's English Department.

Michele Morano is the author of the essay collections Like Love and Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain. Her work has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Best American Essays, Fourth Genre, Ninth Letter, Brevity, and WaveForm: Twenty-First-Century Essays by Women. She earned an MFA and PhD from the University of Iowa and currently chairs the English Department at DePaul University.

Destiny O. Birdsong is a Louisiana-born fiction writer, and essayist whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Paris Review, Boston Review, Catapult, African American Review, and elsewhere. Her debut poetry collection, Negotiations, was published by Tin House Books in October 2020, and her debut novel is forthcoming from Grand Central in 2022. She earned both her MFA and PhD from Vanderbilt University, and now lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee.