Contributors

Alison Baitz

Alison Baitz is a freelance writer based on the East Coast, whose work can be seen in places like Lucky, Refinery29 and Bust. Though she writes often about emerging fashion designers now, she got her start with music writing in college. She pretty much thinks that The Cure is the best band ever, and is really into anything Morrissey has ever had a hand in.

Ashley Brooks

Ashley Brooks is a writer and documentary maker from Portland, Maine. She is a producer and head script writer for the treasure hunting series The Port Nicholson Experience and is the creative director and lead investigator for the popular online paranormal series Haunt ME. Her work has appeared in Words and Images Literary Journal and Venus Zine

Ben Schulman

Ben Schulman has graced many stages in many places. From his child actor youth in Los Angeles and New York, to kicking around San Francisco and Austin, TX as a fledgling musician, Schulman now resides in Chicago, where he works as the Communications Director for an architectural non-profit, and as a writer on urban affairs.

Bess Korey

Bess Korey aka DJ Roxie Stardust, lives in Portland, OR, and is a
former Venus Zine writer, that has also had her work appear in Bitch
Magazine and Make/Shift. She maintains a blog at
www.girlsinthegarage.wordpress.com, which compiles interviews she has
done with female musicians. She also loves to sing and has fronted two
Glam Rock bands.

Bree Davies

Bree Davies is a journalist, writer, and musician based out of Denver, Colorado. She has been a contributor for the likes of XOJane and Alternative Press, and is a former Assistant Editor for The A.V. Club Denver. As a writer, Davies takes on music, art and social issues with heart. As a musician, she has toured and produced music through her band's self-taught, self-funded means, and remains an active and vocal... more

Brett Aaron Marlow

Brett Aaron Marlow is a freelance writer based in Chicago and is a lover of music, food, fashion, and chaos. When not writing, Marlow is probably cooking and dancing to Now That's What I Call Music Vol. 2 in his kitchen. He's uniquely excited about anything 70s-inspired, health food, celebrity biographies, reality TV (sorry, not sorry?), vintage guitars, and his first musical love, Sheryl Crow. And yeah, he kinda... more

Brittany Hogendorn

Brittany Hogendorn was born into music journalism, having grown up next to her father's radio station in rural Iowa. She currently attends graduate school at the University of Iowa, pursuing a career as a high school English teacher. Outside of her current college radio show, Hump Day with DJ BJ, she has worked with Venus Zine, Mission Creek Midwest, Premier Guitar Magazine, and KEXP in Seattle.

Camille Robles

Camille Robles is from Oakland, California. She has spent a lot of the last decade writing about music (Venuszine) and promoting music (One Little Indian Records US). In 2012 she started Ramble & Ride, a catch-all for her artistic adventures — from book art, letterpress, and graphic design, to hand lettering, travel, and writing (editorial and poetic works).

Cat Veit

Cat pays songwriters by day. Rest of her time is spent scouring Yelp for coffee, brunch and beer. Her work has appeared in Music Connection Magazine, Venus Zine, GPSMyCity and Elevated Difference.

Chelsea Upton

Chelsea Upton is a Brooklyn-based writer and former college radio DJ. She manages her own blog about gender and sexuality in music called Not a Neophyte.

Crystal Erickson

Crystal is a freelance writer based in Minneapolis. Her work has appeared in Bitch, Slingshot, Venus Zine and The Onion's A.V. Club.

Dana Getz

Dana Getz is a journalism and marketing student at Northwestern University. She is an aspiring music journalist who dabbles in guitar and someday hopes to learn the ukulele. Outside of her obvious obsession with any and all things music, she is an admitted shopaholic who enjoys photography, travel and TV-binging.

Dana Raidt

Dana Raidt is a Minneapolis-based writer and editor specializing in music, food and lifestyle subjects. Her work has been included in Venus Zine, METRO, Minnesota Business, Poor Taste and a slew of other publications. By day she is the executive editor of a corporate health-and-wellness website; by night she is the co-organizer of Girls Got Rhythm Fest, an annual music... more

Eleanor Whitney

Eleanor C. Whitney is a writer, arts administrator and guitarist in the band Corita living in Brooklyn, New York. She works at the New York Foundation for the Arts, writes about art, culture and food, and is the author of the forthcoming book Grow: How to Take Your Do It Yourself Project and Passion to the Next Level and Quit Your Job, which will be released in the spring of 2013 on Cantankerous Titles.

Ella Vincent

Ella Vincent is a Chicago-based freelance writer. She currently writes about music and pop culture for Apartments.com, Askmissa.com, Culturemixmag.com, and Butlerway.com. She has also written for the Grio, the Advocate, the Windy City Times, Jane Dough, and Clutch Magazine. Follow her @bookgirlchicago on Twitter.

Emily Tan

Emily Tan is a NYC-born, NJ bred freelance journalist and photographer who splits her time between the US and UK. She covers numerous topics that range from music and pop culture to youth activism and women’s rights for various online and print publications. She loves gig hopping, a great cup of coffee and listening to Fleetwood Mac on vinyl.

Emi Peters

Emi is a music-obsessed content creator with an affinity for travel, live music, and female rappers. A former intern for Venus Zine, Emi has written for Venus, Gapers Block, and Pop 'Stache.

Francisco Reyes

Francisco was born in a small town of Mexico. Before his first birthday, his family moved to Chicago and he's been there ever since. He is a creative writer who loves to write scripts, poetry and short fiction, and has reported for the UIC Flame. When he's not writing or working, Francisco loves to run an absurd amount of miles and film poorly lit, low-budget masterpieces.

Gabrielle Moss

Gabrielle Moss is a writer and editor who has written for GQ.com, Nerve, The Hairpin, and other fine publications.She lives in Brooklyn, and she thinks you are perfect just the way you are. @gaby_moss

Genevieve Diesing

Genevieve Diesing is a Chicago-based writer, editor, and cat lady. She writes about music, food, and feminism in the off hours, and edits a manufacturing trade magazine full-time. Examples of her work can be found on The Atlantic.com, Time Out Chicago and www.genevievediesing.com.

Gillian McGhee

Gillian is a journalism and anthropology student at Loyola University Chicago interning this semester with the lovely ladies at Boxx Magazine. She loves punk rock, biking, and her blind Boston terrier, Lizzie. She aspires to be a music journalist and/or work in radio after graduating. Follow @GillianMcGheek

Jamie Gadette

Jamie Gadette is a writer, graduate student, and pop-culture junkie with a background in alt-press and community radio. Her work has appeared in Salt Lake City Weekly, Harp, Blurt-Online, The Fanzine and VenusZine. An amateur cook and comedy nerd, she can often be found testing recipes to Marc Maron and the Earwolf.com crew. Follow @JamieSLC

Jamie Ludwig

Jamie Ludwig is a Chicago-based writer, editor, and media consultant. She is editor of Uneasy Listening, a site for music that hits outside your comfort zone, and Editorial Style Manager/Rock Editor for ChicagoMusic.org.

Jess Blumensheid

Jessica Nikolich

Jessica is a freelance writer in Chicago frequently spotted at concerts, festivals and assorted cultural events. She currently works in social media and was formerly a research assistant for Chicago magazine and an assistant editor for The Alpena News. Her writing also can be found in the Chicago Sun-Times, Vox Magazine, MSN UK as well as on her blog. Follow Jessica on Twitter (@JessicaNikolich) and LinkedIn.

Jill Russell

Jill Russell is a Chicago-based writer, editor, and designer. Covering fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment, her work has appeared in Lucky, Martha Stewart's Whole Living, Boston Common, Philadelphia Weekly, and Venus Zine. Along with her day job as an online managing editor, she develops creative content for freelance clients, reads, bakes, eats, and watches a lot of movies.

Jill Tydor

Jill Tydor is a freelance journalist and writer based in San Francisco. She previously contributed to women-focused VenusZine, Internet Broadcasting and Bang Out Reading Series. Jill is currently working on her MFA in creative writing at California College of the Arts, fueled by coffee and good tunes.

Jim Keller

Jim has been a freelance writer and editor in New York for 11 years. He writes an Oscar watch column titled “For Your Consideration,” distributed via the Rockefeller University’s Natural Selections, which he also edits, and he maintains a weekly film update titled “This Week in Movie News,” distributed via email. His work has been featured in Venus Zine, The Deli Magazine and RockRGrl. Jim is not shy,... more

Jolene Siana

Jolene Siana is the author of the memoir “Go Ask Ogre” and has been published in Venus Magazine. She enjoys writing, painting, photography, and all things crafty in addition to traveling and attending concerts. She lives... more

Jonathan Shipley

Jonathan Shipley is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in such varied publications as the Los Angeles Times, Diner Journal, Fine Books & Collections Magazine, and Lexus. He lives with his daughter in Seattle and is planning on writing a travel memoir about their adventures driving across America.

Jordan Young

Jordan co-founded, and was Publisher and Web Director of Boxx until the end of 2013. She previously wrote for Venus Zine, Illinois Meeting + Events Magazine, and Runway Magazine. She has 14+ years of music industry experience. You may bump into her all over the planet geeking out over music, nature, food, and anthropology.

Kaitlen Exum

Kaitlen is assistant editor for Boxx by night, and also happily ensconced as Project Manager for the Chicago Tribune's News Apps team by day; previously, she worked as a conference producer, a marketer, a copy editor, and a staff writer for a reference journal. She has been published in The Villager, Gay City News, Downtown Express, and Current Biography, and she blogs for geekcrafts.com and pinup.punkrockelite.org.... more

Katlyn Keller

Katlyn Keller is a freelance journalist and an associate conference producer in Chicago. She is a music and travel junkie and spent time living in Guinea, West Africa. Her work can be found at Felix Magazine, Vox Magazine, the Columbia Missourian, Inside Edge PR and on her travel blog. She loves sloths, cheese, West Africa and her dog, Bailey.

Kelly Skinner

Kelly Skinner is a writer and editor living in Atlanta. When not interviewing celebs like William Shatner or Norah Jones, Skinner spends her time reading, seeing shows, dunking fries in dipping sauces and walking her dog, Madeline. Her work has appeared in such mags as JEZEBEL, Redbook, The Atlantan, Skirt!, Blush and the South. She's currently working on her first young adult novel.

Laura Braun

Laura Marie Braun is a writer from Chicago with a passion for travel and bar trivia. She currently lives in San Francisco and can be found perusing the aisles at Amoeba Music and continuing the search for good pizza in California.

Lauren Jonik

Lauren Jonik is a Brooklyn, NY-based freelance writer and
photographer. She can be found wandering the city with her camera,
immersed in the sounds of a new (or not-so-new) band, happily
devouring a good book or with a pen in hand scribbling ideas for her
next article or essay. Her landscape, cityscape, nature and concert
photography can be viewed on: Shoot Like... more

Lauren Stern

Lauren Stern is a freelance writer, radio promotions assistant, and pop culture junkie based in Monmouth County, NJ. Her work has previously been published in Sadie Magazine, PopCrush, Diffuser, Pop-Break, and Prefixmag.

Lauren Wise

Lauren Wise is heavy metal/hard rock journalist based out of Phoenix, Arizona. When she isn’t interviewing musicians and and reviewing shows for various publications, she works as an travel magazine editor and book editor. Since graduating from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, she traveled throughout the world to such destinations as Italy, Vietnam, Cambodia, London, France and the Caribbean, learning... more

Lily Moayeri

Los Angeles-based writer/teacher Lily Moayeri has been writing about music since 1992. Over the years her scope has widened to include the occasional article on television, art, fashion, and random elements of pop culture. She is a major contributor to The Guerilla Guide To Music, a textbook currently being used at University of Westminster in London, England. You can find Lily’s writings aggregated on her work-in-... more

Lindsey Anderson

Lindsey has been the editor of a B2B magazine in Chicago for 5+ years while simultaneously dipping her fingers into the music industry for as long as she can remember. She’s covered stories and events for Venus Zine, Under the Radar, Chicago Magazine, Found Michigan and A Tale of Four Cities.

Mandy Van Deven

Mandy Van Deven is a writer, global advocate, and online media strategist. Her work exploring contemporary feminisms, global activism, and sexuality has been published by Salon, The Guardian, AlterNet, GlobalPost, The Independent, and Marie Claire.

Marisa Iacobucci

Marisa Iacobucci is a Toronto-based freelance writer and editor and mom to two beautiful and busy little girls. Her works have appeared in numerous publications and websites, including Venus Magazine and Poor Taste Magazine where she blogs as Gastromommy.

Melanie Cox McCluskey

Melanie began writing about music as a reporter and editor at Penn State University’s Daily Collegian and as an intern at Sassy Magazine in the 1990s. Now a versatile copywriter and journalist based in Pittsburgh, her recent contributions include interviews, reviews and concert coverage for Venus Zine, music profiles for Maniac Magazine and personal essays for the ‘zine Girl Talk.

Melissa Bobbitt

Melissa Bobbitt is the '90s Rock Guide for About.com, and her work has appeared in Venus Zine, Alternative Press and PopMatters. She (wo)mans the lead guitar and vocals for indie band Pistachio Novella. She loves all things epicurean and antiquarian. She tweets @bandcrab.

Molly Lynch

It’s hard to pinpoint an exact moment when Molly developed her unapologetic appreciation for women in music. Maybe it was at age 8 when she purchased her very first album – Jewel’s Pieces of You – or maybe it was during those angsty teen years, driving through the cornfields of Southern Illinois while blasting Joni Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon in her 1999 Mazda Protégé. When she’s not writing and... more

Nikki Gardner

Nikki Gardner cooks, makes photographs, and tells stories in the hills of Western Massachusetts. She likes coffee, chocolate, books, films, vintage cameras, and aprons. She writes for publications such as Artful Blogging, BlogHer, Edible Pioneer Valley, Huffington Post's Taste, and Smithsonian's Food & Think. Her photographs and recipes appear in Design*Sponge, Gourmet Live, The New York Times, among others.... more

Rachel Angres

Rachel Angres is an idiosyncratic thumb war champion, cheese enthusiast, cyclist, creative writer and a journalist. She resides in Chicago and can be spotted wearing earmuffs year round.

Roxanna Bennett

Roxanna Bennett is a Canadian third-wave feminist and freelance writer. Her work has appeared in Rockstar Magazine, women-focused Venus Zine, Hip Mama, Feminists for Choice, Gender Focus, Popshot and numerous literary magazines and websites.

Selena Fragassi

Selena is Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief for Boxx. She is also an active contributor to the Chicago Sun-Times, Blurt Magazine and Under the Radar. Previously, she was the pop/rock critic for Chicago Magazine, and prior to that was the music editor of women-focused Venus Zine. This year, she was anthologized in "That Devil Music: Best Rock Writing 2014."

Susan Varghese

Susan Varghese is a freelance writer with a penchant for bylines, chocolate and the 90's. Education-focused, non-profit work currently takes up most of her time and is usually the source of her inspiration—along with an extra large coffee.

Stephanie Nolasco

Stephanie Nolasco is a multimedia writer who has interviewed and contributed to stories
about Iggy Pop, Lisa Marie Presley, Steven Tyler, Cherie Currie, The Freelance Whales,
Liz Phair and more. Her writings have been featured in Venus Zine, Bust, Bitch, Paper,
Time Out New York and New York Press. She enjoys listening to both Frank Sinatra and
Lamb of God in one sitting.

Tina Bold

Tina Bold has kept an ear to the ground as a radio DJ since the early ‘90s. She is a
whole-hearted advocate of d.i.y., a serial social media freak, and a recovering public
school teacher. When she isn’t spending time alphabetizing her records, she can be
found hiding out at the local movie theatre.