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Megan Stielstra

Megan Stielstra is the author of Everyone Remain Calm, a Chicago Tribune Favorite of 2011, and Once I Was Cool, a book of essays forthcoming in May 2014. Her work appears in The Best American Essays 2013, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, PANK, and elsewhere, and she’s the Literary Director of Chicago’s 2nd Story storytelling series.
  • Megan Stielstra

    The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Wake the Goddamn World

    On a darkened street in Prague, an older man assaults a younger woman, while an American teacher–safe in her apartment above–watches from the window. More than a decade later, Megan Stielstra remembers, interrogating accountability, time and language.

  • Megan Stielstra

    Channel B

    We stood there long past what is appropriate for strangers. I like to think it’s because she was thinking the same thing I was.

  • Megan Stielstra

    Where I Write #22: A Room of One’s Own in the Middle of Everything

    I’m writing on the bathroom floor, laptop on my knees. It’s tight in here; shower, toilet, and sink crammed together with just enough space left to stand, or in my case, sit