KIM BEREZ

Kim Berez is an Illinois Arts Council and Chicago Council on Fine Arts award recipient. She was editor, for 12 years, of the StarWallpaper youth anthology. Co-editor of Poetry for Peace & Listen!. She was an art therapist and writing teacher for 20 years and a founding member of Illinois' 1st poetry therapists' group. She was a member of one of Chicago's earliest performance poetry troupes, The Other Chicago Poets, which published a self-titled book. She has been a featured reader at The Chicago Poetry Fest, Around the Coyote, The Nuyorican Poets Café, and The Oneida Nation. She co-wrote & performed in Obras at Blue Rider & Firehouse Theaters in Chicago. Her poetry was included in Words on Fire at The Steppenwolf Theater. She has been published in numerous small press 'zines and seven anthologies.

She is the director of Neutral Turf, a not-for-profit corporation that has published StarWallpaper, an anthology of young Chicago poets.