Kristin Leuke and Kyle Beachy Reading

Kristin Lueke is a Chicana poet, co-founder of Field of Practice, a values-driven design studio, and author of the chapbooks (in)different math (Dancing Girl Press, 2012) and here i show you a human heart (2025). Her poetry has appeared in Sixth Finch, Wildness, Frozen Sea, Maudlin House, and HAD, among others, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets, and Best of the Net. She was a finalist for the 2024 Porter House Review Poetry Prize, and received the Morris W. Kroll Poetry Prize from Princeton University, where she earned an AB in English. She also holds an MA from the University of Chicago. Kristin lives in Cerrillos with her husband, novelist Kyle Beachy and writes at www.theanimaleats.com.

Kyle Beachy is one of very few people whose writing has appeared in both The Paris Review and Thrasher Magazine. His memoir about skateboarding, marriage, and the human soul, The Most Fun Thing, was named a Best Book of 2021 by NPR, Electric Lit, and others. His novel, The Slide, was the Chicago Reader’s Readers’ Choice for Best Book By a Chicago Author in 2009. He's received fellowships from the Gray Center for Arts and Inquirey at the University of Chicago, the Danish Center for Writers and Translators, and the Breadloaf Writers Conference. After 20 years as a professor of creative writing in Chicago, he now works as an independent educator, editor, and writing coach, and lives in Cerrillos with his wife, the poet Kristin Lueke.