Polyphony H.S. Staff

Billy Lombardo: Co-Founder and Artistic Director. Billy has been a high school teacher for 25 years. He is the author of The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories, a Chicago Tribune Best Fiction of 2005 selection, and How to Hold a Woman, a novel in stories. Billy’s third novel, The Man with Two Arms, will be published in 2010. He has published his works in Cicada, Other Voices, StoryQuarterly, Bryant Literary Review, TriQuarterly, River Oak Review, and Elysian Fields Quarterly. He writes regularly for the Forest Park Post. Billy teaches English Literature and Creative Writing at The Latin School of Chicago. You may contact Billy directly at or .

Elizabeth Keegan: Executive Director. Beth grew up in Seattle. Her formal education includes a B.A. in Chinese History (Grinnell College) and an M.A. in Chinese Literature and History (Yale University). She lived in China for several years, most notably as a Thomas J. Watson Fellow interviewing Chinese writers and poets about their societal role in the post-Mao period. Later Beth earned an M.B.A. (University of Illinois) but after working as a business consultant in China, she found her true love in secondary school education. She taught both Mandarin and Chinese History for nearly 15 years at independent schools in the Chicago area. Beth loves to cycle and to travel to the far ends of the earth in search of ancient wisdom. You may contact Beth directly at .

Jennifer Steele: Managing Editor. Jen is a native of Connecticut. She is a teaching artist for various organizations around the city of Chicago including Hands On Stanzas, Camp of Dreams, Young Chicago Authors, and Digital Youth Network. In her previous lives she has also worked with the Hill-Stead Museum and the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, and served as co-editor for the Columbia Poetry Review 21. Her poems have appeared in Columbia Poetry Review, Caduceus, Warpland Journal, and Beltway Quarterly Online. She received her B.M. from Howard University and her M.F.A. from Columbia College Chicago. Her favorite Twitterer thus far is Saul Williams, and her favorite pass-time is dancing around her apartment to Prince.

Tamara Fraser: Layout Design.

National Editorial Staff 2008–2009

K.C. Bail (Genre Editor) is a senior. She plays on the varsity volleyball team in addition to reading and editing Polyphony H.S. submissions. She rocks at mahjong and loves tomatoes. You will often find her watching the Food Network or taking a nap.

Nikki Bank is a junior. She likes metalsmithing, glassblowing, screenprinting, decoupage, soccer, crunchy apples, brilliant colors, reading and writing, although she often suffers from writer’s block. She was first published in the Chicago Tribune when she was in fifth grade.

Maddy Boesche (Genre Editor) is a senior. This is her second year as an editor for Polyphony H.S. She is blessed to be without a verbal filter, which leads to all kinds of interesting comments, usually not appropriate for school. She spends most of her free time acting in school plays, running crazy fast on the varsity track team and working for her congressman. She has a black lab named Daley B, and the most amazing head of red hair on the Polyphony H.S. National Editorial staff.  

Shelby Brody often pretends that she is cooler than she actually is. When she feels particularly motivated, though, she likes attempting to write decent teen romance. Other interests include Counting Crows, dark chocolate, Harand Camp, blogging, musical theatre, grammar, and Scott Michael Foster. She hopes to get published someday but is playing the role of a sophomore at the Latin School of Chicago in the meantime. 

Danielle Morgan Brottman is a tall junior. She has been tickling the ivories for many, many years. She has been attempting fluency in Chinese, while also being an avid volleyball player. Danielle is blessed with the imagination of a six-year old, but is cursed with bizarre bad luck. She is known for showing off the freckles in her eyes, and for obsessing about hedgehogs, baby possums, and whales. Her goal in life is to be a muse.

Christina Brown (Genre Editor) is a senior.  She has been a part of Polyphony H.S. for two years.  Christina has been an avid reader from a very young age and spends probably an obsessive amount of time reading literature as well as complete fluff (come on, you know you read it too).  She writes poetry in her spare time, is a hopeless romantic, idealist, and is part of the Rocky Horror Picture Show cult.

Laura Cabral is a junior. She enjoys dancing Mexican folkloric and cannot stay quiet for extended periods of time. Laura was proud to be able to understand a lot of the Chinese during the Beijing Olympic Ceremonies.

Calvin Casalino is a junior. He loves soccer and plays it year round. He has played at the varsity level since he was a freshman and can juggle the ball hundreds of times in a row. He has two cats that are brother and sister. All of the streets he has lived on contain a double L in their names.

Adrian Chiem is currently a sophomore at the Latin School of Chicago and pretends to be one of those eccentric poets who have a tendency to stay muted in public. He likes to stay up past his bedtime and make interesting jokes, hoping he will one day find someone who finds him funny. His internal radio keeps him well inspired for his continuous need to write, but sometimes, all he hears is white noise.

Eliana Dockterman (Editor-in-Chief) is a senior. Along with Polyphony H.S., the debate team, the basketball team, the Student Academic Board, the Latin Initiative for Ethics Committee, and writing an endless number of college essays, absorbs her time. Due to her insane desire to keep busy, she rarely sleeps. Editing for Polyphony H.S. has fueled her biggest pet peeve—incorrect grammar. 

Jenifer Goldberg is a junior who spends any free time outside of school playing field hockey, softball, riding horses at her family farm, and being an editor for the yearbook. Being a first year editor of Polyphony H.S. is the perfect addition to her hectic schedule.

Emily Graf is a sophomore who was born in South Carolina, raised in Maine, Connecticut and Vermont, and has lived in Chicago for a year now.  Her interests include (but are not limited to) ballet, boggle, singing, swimming, playing guitar and rocking out to M.I.A. with her brothers. She also loves Cliff Island Maine, skiing and macaroni and cheese, and suffers melancholy when school starts.

This is Sam Graff’s first year as a Polyphony H.S. editor. When he has free time, which is rarely, he juggles and street performs. He’s about as close to being a professional juggler as you can be without actually being one. He’s always trying to read more but I can never seem to find the time. He has a coffee addiction.

Jacqueline Jarik is a junior. She enjoys fuzzy sweatshirts, going to camp (at Clearwater Camp for Girls), and kayaking through the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. She is an all-conference triple jumper on the varsity track team at Latin and plays on the varsity basketball team.  She is very excited to be on the Polyphony H.S. staff because of her love of correcting grammar. She was recently brought to the verge of tears after seeing a shirt reading, "Lucky Charms: THEIR Magically Delicious!"

Mattie Hensley is a graduate from Albuquerque Academy (class of 2008) and now a freshman at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. She is majoring in English. She has dabbled in high school theatre, chorus, newspaper, basketball, and track. In college, she hopes to dabble in some sort of publication, play basketball, and survive biology 101. She needs one more sentence to fill the word limit on this bio. Done.

Cyrus Lambotte is a junior from the Latin School of Chicago. Originally from Belgium, he decided to move to Chicago in order to give America some much needed diversity. He loves writing in his spare time and hopes to one day publish his works and become worldwide famous. He also has legs that looked like they were sculpted by Greek gods, which enables him to run at varsity level for cross-country and track.

Jack LeMay (Genre Editor) is a senior. He spent his junior year abroad living in Viterbo, Italy. Jack loves music; he plays the piano and drums and is teaching himself to play the guitar. He has two Shetland Sheepdogs, Leo and Rosie. His hobbies include photography and wakeboarding. He likes editing as well as writing, and thinks that the skills involved with one strengthen the other.

Caity McQuade (Genre Editor) is a senior at The Latin School of Chicago and was born in Princeton, NJ. This is her second year working with Polyphony H.S. Besides editing, Caity also enjoys reading, writing, and playing field hockey. Unbeknownst to many, she also has a black belt in karate and an extensive spoon collection. Caity also has three brothers and no sisters and is still, remarkably, relatively sane. Well, at least she thinks so.

Jack Mensik is the accomplished offspring of Michael Mensik and Marguerite Tompkins. He was born and raised in Chicago along with his younger sister Kristina. Some of Jack's favorite things to do are play guitar, ski, kayak, and write. He has several guitars that are all named Jim-bob, and enjoys spending many idle summer days playing them. He is an avid Chicago Cubs fan and is looking forward to their coming centennial World Series victory. One day, Jack hopes to go to college and become a writer/musician/traveler of some sort.

Lila Moles is a junior. She loves playing field hockey and burrowing under overturned rowboats like in Holes. She has blonde hair and blue eyes and enjoys long walks through the park at night. She has a six-year old Pug named Gracie who has a severe underbite. This is her first year as an editor for Polyphony H.S.

If you asked any of Mic Ordower's teachers, they would emphatically proclaim that he is "the guy." Born and raised in a working-class shantytown on the outskirts of Cleveland, Ohio, Mic defied his parents' will and began editing at the age of six. Currently, he is sixteen years old and a sophomore. He enjoys Australian football (which is neither rugby nor soccer) and hunting rattlesnakes with baseball bats.

Seth Perlman is a junior.  His favorite subjects are science and math, which is unusual for a Polyphony H.S. editor.  He is honored to be bringing his analytical perspective to the magazine.  Seth enjoys improv comedy and playing poker.  He even loves poker enough to watch it on TV

Anne Marie Scalambrino is currently a junior and is blessed with being half Asian, half Italian. She loves playing basketball and being the goalie for her field hockey team. Anne has also had a wide variety of loving pets, such as hermit crabs, rats, mice, cats, butterflies, and snails. Anne also enjoys long walks on the beach.

Mary Siracusa is a high school junior. She knows all the words to the Pokemon theme song. She has a dog named Augie and two siblings named Ana and Thomas. This is her first year as an editor for Polyphony H.S.

Hannah Spooner is a sophomore.  She plays golf and ice hockey for her school. For a long time, she didn’t know that she was the thirteenth generation of descendants of Mayflower passengers William and Susanna White.  Her favorite words, beyond a doubt, are “jodhpur” and “Zymurgy.”

Andrea Villarraga is a junior. Her interests include chewing on mouth-watering soy sausages, rocking out to Dancing Queen, and trekking through her mountainous Colombian homeland. Although many of her hobbies seem to be of the risky sort (SCUBA diving, mountain climbing, Colombia-visiting), she can also appreciate the tamer pleasures in life and is frequently spotted baking in the Minnesotan sun with Ray Bradbury and Stephen King.