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John Park was born in Chicago in 1950. He began writing stories and poems in eighth grade. By his sophomore year in high school he won a 1966 statewide high school poetry contest judged by Gwendolyn Brooks. After graduating from the University of Illinois John returned to his childhood home in Highland Park, and then moved to a small studio apartment in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood—a far cry from suburban Highland Park. There he began writing poetry in earnest, using traditional poetic forms to highlight the contrast between his sensibility and nitty gritty environment. John worked in factories for a few years before becoming an English teacher and tutor in Chicago’s public school system. In 1997 he became a reference library assistant in the Loop’s John Marshall Law School, now with the University of Illinois. He’s been there ever since, working well past retirement age and now thinking of permanent retirement in another year or so.
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C. R. Resetarits is a writer and collagist. Her collage art has appeared on the covers and in the pages of dozens of magazines and book covers.
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Another Chicago Magazine 