About
Is Greater Than is an eclectic online magazine established in 2007 that is devoted to discovering the unique, the unknown and the amazing in contemporary culture. Based out of Chicago, IL and San Francisco, CA, we publish fiction, creative nonfiction, articles and columns by emerging talent around the country (and the world).
Our scope ranges from literature to speculative fiction and personal narratives to intimate reportage. Updated Monday-Friday, Is Greater Than publishes a new work of fiction and a new work of narrative nonfiction every week, in addition to serialized comics and columns that cover topics as varied as art and design, independent music, cult film, and emerging and outsider literature.
We’ve been called “great” by the fine folks at Featherproof Books, “excellent” by Serial Consign, “a must read” by Futurosity’s Robert Ellis (who had other kind words to say) and received a rating of 8.8 out of 10 by the editors at Blogged.com.
Colophon
Is Greater Than is a project of Warning Sign Media. Direct questions, comments or advertising inquiries to isgreaterthan at gmail.
Editors
Paul M Davis is a writer of articles, essays and fiction, a musician, and a web tinkerer based in Chicago, IL who is obsessed with the media, class and arcade-style video golf. His writing and other work can be found at www.paulmdavis.com.
Brigid Barry is a freelance editor based in San Francisco, CA. She also writes short fiction and cultural analysis, and knits in her spare time.
Editors Emeritus
G.M. Levinson is the reviews editor for Make: A Chicago Literary Magazine and the guy behind the Book Bike, which you can read all about at Something To Read. As a producer, Gabe created The John & Bill Show (2007) and organized the test screening of Idiots & Angels. He is currently working on An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt
Laura Pearson is a Chicago-based editor and writer. She has written music news stories, as well as book, zine, and comic reviews, but her favorite subject to write about is people who are both contributing to culture and creating culture. She is a former Associate Editor at Punk Planet.
Columnists
Leland Cheuk is a currently an MFA candidate at Lesley University’s Creative Writing program. His writing has appeared in MostlyFiction, Punk Planet, and other publications. Recently, one of his short stories was selected as finalist in the 2007 Washington Square Review Contest. He lives in San Francisco and is working on a novel.
Leilani Clark writes, copy-edits, teaches and plays music in Santa Rosa, California. She blogs about books, music, culture and DIY radness at www.leilaniclark.com.
Levi Fuller makes and compiles music in Seattle, Washington. He has released three solo albums and 18 volumes of the compilation series Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly, and played in myriad bands. Levi writes a weekly series of blog posts for KEXP involving album covers. He also has a day job at a fantastic non-profit organization and designs and prints the occasional album cover or rock show poster. Sometimes he sleeps. www.denimclature.com
Cat Johnson is the publisher of House of Cat, a music, art and culture blog. She also contributes to several websites including JamBase, Streetlight Records and Is Greater Than. She is currently planning the takeover of her own life.
Tom LG a vinyl DJ with 16 years experience. He got his start as a DJ spinning electronic records in 1993. From 1996 to 2006 he worked as a used record buyer at Logos Books & Music in Santa Cruz, Ca. It was at Logos where he began collecting records outside of the realm of electronic and explored other atmospheres using strange and beautiful recordings of the 1920s to the 60s. His podcast “Lost In A Fog” can be found here and he can be contacted or booked via his Myspace page.
R. John Xerxes is the man behind the prolific Love Bunni Press, a loose confederation of painters, artists, writers, photographers and designers who have been photocopying paper since 1988.
Michael Zapata is a writer and educator living in Chicago. He is a co-founder and was fiction editor for MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine (2003-2009). He has produced and written for comedy revues at Second City’s Donny’s Skybox, The Viaduct, The Trap Door Theater, and the Apollo Theater Chicago. He is also a 2008 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship recipient for Prose. Currently, he is working on a novel entitled Children of Orleans.
Matthew Beck is a 23 year old Chicagoan who is currently doing some freelance political writing. He will be attending the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy in the fall.
Monica Bologna-Huerta, a native of Cincinnati Ohio, is finishing up her BA in Fiction Writing at Columbia College Chicago. After graduation she plans to travel the world teaching English and perfect her (now intermediate level) Spanish.
Daria Davis is a freelance director in Chicago. In her spare time she’s busy making fabulous vegan treats and working on a hopeful career as a singer of songs.
Whitney Dibo is a freelance writer and also works in the Education Department of Steppenwolf Theatre Company. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 2007 with a degree in English and Political Science.
Paul Fehler is a sign-maker by trade and by training. He is the producer of two documentary films — Jandek on Corwood and First Impersonator, and he works to support the development of the game of cricket in the United States. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri with no pets and is fiercely proud of the culture and people of the Midwest. Correspondence and inquiries should be directed to the email address: raycadaster -at – gmail.com.
Matt Gajewski is a 24 year old native of Madison, WI who currently lives in Miami. He is the creator of Pure Imagination, a radio series featuring original short stories set to music by (mostly) Miami-based composers. All old episodes can be found at www.vangloria.net/pureimagination.
Eric Grubbs wrote for Punk Planet between 2005 and 2007. He’s written for Theme Park Experience since October 2004, and has written a book, POST, on post-hardcore’s transitional years from the underground to the mainstream.
Jeff Severns Guntzel is a journalist who lives in Minneapolis. He blogs at The Forest of Things.
Narinda Heng is a writer currently living in Long Beach, CA. She writes at Long Cool Hallway with The Undeniables.
Mykle Hoban has been a polar contract worker on and off for the last three years; both at McMurdo Station and on board the research ice breaker Nathaniel B. Palmer. He currently lives in Davis, California, where he could probably use a shave and a haircut.
Alette Kendrick is an aspiring school teacher, self-identified radical/revolutionist, and part-time organizer/activist.
Koak is a critically-acclaimed Bay Area artist who has published a number of underground comics and is currently focusing on Sick Bed Blues. Her art and comics can be seen at www.koak.net.
Peter Koht is a former newspaperman and was until recently, a corporate flack. He now works for the City of Santa Cruz and is slowly reclaiming his love of the words “strategic planning.” He promises never to use “leverage” and “synergy” in a sentence ever again.
Chris Kortright is an anthropologist of science at UC Davis that focuses on the political and economic effects of scientific discourse and practice. He is presently researching scientific rice researchers.
Nick Kreitman is post-ism and pro-organizing. He is a member of Students for a Democratic Society and will be a grad student at University of Chicago next semester. His research is focused on urban political economy, social capital and bringing democratic participation into the workplace and local politics. He blogs at Next Left Chicago.
Janina A. Larenas is a print maker and cook living in Philadelphia. She is the owner of Little Isobel, a small jam and jelly company committed to working with small farmers to create a fresh local product.
Fhar Miess is a blogger, citizen journalist and bike messenger currently moored on the shores of the Nile River in Cairo, Egypt. Visit his blog, Grey Wool Knickers.
Will Petty is the associate editor of West Suburban Living Magazine and the managing editor of The Insider, a monthly arts and entertainment tabloid serving suburban Chicago. He is a regular contributor to The Onion A.V. Club. Currently, he is working on a collection of short stories and a collection of short short stories.
Erica Ellen Phillips lives in Los Angeles where she is pursuing a Masters in Specialized Journalism (The Arts) at USC Annenberg School of Communication. She is editor and publisher of globalhuman, and writes for Venus Zine, Love, Chicago, and Is Greater Than.
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an escapee from Harvard who ran away as soon as she graduated in 2003 with a bachelors in Physics and Astronomy and was lucky enough to end up in Santa Cruz, California. After getting a Masters in Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, she drove to Ontario, Canada where it is hella cold out. She hopes to escape in 2010 with a PhD in theoretical physics and return to her birthplace, East Los Angeles, or someplace like it, to invest in caring. She hopes to do good research too. She blogs at disorderedcosmos.blogspot.com.
Elaina Ramer is a fashionista, bike messenger and radical economist living in Santa Cruz, CA. She completed most of a degree in Global Economics before she dropped out of college to pursue enjoying her youth. Elaina blogs about fashion and global politics at frugal and hep dot com.
Jasmin Serim is a resident of San Francisco who works as a Community Educator for Planned Parenthood Golden Gate. When she’s not teaching kids about sex or puberty she hangs out with her cat, questions human existence and tries to rekindle her love of writing.
Carrie Sieh is a painter and mixed media artist currently living and working in Miami, Florida. She has exhibited in Santa Cruz, Riverside, and San Francisco, and has small indoor murals permanently on display at the Leland Tea Company in San Francisco. She also paints portraits (including pet portraits) on commission. Her non-art interests — many of which influence her paintings — include history, psychology, libraries, books, cats, economics, politics, education, sex, and gender. She earned her B.A. in Art from the University of California at Santa Cruz, with a focus in Painting and Photography, but is primarily self-taught. For more art and information, visit her personal site and MyArtSpace profile.
Cat Sieh is a writer in Northwest Washington.
Daniel Sinker is the publisher of Independents’ Day Media, a Chicago-based independent publishing company. He teaches about magazines at Columbia College Chicago and is a 2007-08 Knight Fellow at Stanford University. All his blogging is collected at danielsinker.com.
Kai Smart is a tattoo artist working out of a brand new tattoo shop in Davis, California. She recently became a tattoo artist full time, after about a year of apprenticeship under her mentor, Jess. Kai’s art and blog can be visited at http://kaismart.com
Greg J. Smith is a Toronto-based designer and researcher with interests in media theory, representation and digital culture. He blogs at Serial Consign.
Michelle Stoffel is a hopelessly devoted newspaper nerd living in the shadows of Wrigley Field. She is technically still a DePaul undergraduate as long as the economy is technically still in recession. In the meanwhile, she is interning across Chicagoland, including here at Is Greater Than. Her two cents can be found at punkbands.com.
Travis Upright is currently on sabbatical from all things responsible and important. He is traveling around the United States with a camera and a guitar hoping to stay gone till the weather warms up.
Boaz Vilozny is a native of Santa Cruz, California, where he is currently completing his doctoral research in organic chemistry at UCSC. When not busy thinking deep thoughts about molecular recognition, he spends time with his family, plays music, reads, and cooks.
A. Zell Williams is an award-winning playwright living in Chicago whose works include BLOOD/MONEY, The Woman I Live With, and A Motherless Child.
Kira Wisniewski currently lives just outside of our nation’s capitol and continually tries to do her part in fighting the good fight. Her latest endeavor is working to open, Capitol Letters Writing Center, a free, non-profit writing center that will offer drop-in tutoring, workshops, and field trips for youth in Washington, DC.
Lucy Zhao is a psychology major working in marketing up in the Great White North. Her passions extend into technology, art, architecture, anthropology, and geography. Look out for her new blog ‘Diary of a Chinese Lesbian’.
Peter Zinn is an MFA student at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. His work has been published in The Brooklyn Rail and Downeast Magazine. He lives in Portland Maine.
Legal
All pieces on Is Greater Than are copyright their respective contributors. For reprint requests, contact the respective author or direct your request to isgreaterthan -at- gmail and we’ll forward along.
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