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Martha Bayne

Martha Bayne is the editor of three anthologies of writing about Chicago and the Midwest, a senior editor at the University of Illinois Press, and a contributing editor for Chicago’s South Side Weekly newspaper. Her work has appeared in many local and national outlets, including the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Tribune, the Rumpus, Belt Magazine, Eater, PRI/The World, and San Juan’s Centro de Periodismo Investigativo. She is also the founder of a community meal project called Soup & Bread, and can be found on Substack at marthabayne.substack.com/.

On the right, a photograph of Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas faces Brandon Johnson, at left. The image is tinted blue.

Split City

March 30, 2023
In the race to replace Chicago's mayor Lori Lightfoot, is a consensus candidate even possible?

Be Afraid

December 23, 2016
In the final minutes of Doomocracy—a piece of immersive theater styled after a haunted house that ran in Brooklyn during the month leading up to Election Day—audience members were confronted with three doors. One was labeled “Clinton,” one ...
two-bowls

Charles the Excellent

January 18, 2013
It was late into the second dinner service; smartly dressed plates of venison and salmon and heirloom cabbage still marched out the kitchen’s swinging doors with brio. But the world-famous chef had pulled me away. He led me to a dimly lit nook and, summoning up two glasses ...