I am a writer and editor based in Chicago, and the senior acquisitions editor for regional trade books at the University of Illinois Press.  I’ve split my career between journalism and book publishing, and over 20+ years I’ve edited three critically acclaimed nonfiction anthologies of my own, and my reported features and essays have appeared in the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Reporter, the Chicago Tribune, Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism,  PRI/The World, Eater, the Baffler, and other local and national outlets.

Currently I’m also a senior editor with South Side Weekly, a nonprofit newspaper dedicated to supporting culture and civic engagement on Chicago’s South Side, and the founder of the long running community meal project Soup & Bread. My narrative cookbook, Soup & Bread Cookbook: Building Community One Pot at a time, is now out in its second edition.

I have a Substack newsletter here. On Twitter I’m @marthabayne.