My name is Elisa Shoenberger (pronouns: she/her), and I am an author and freelance journalist based in Chicago. I have a manuscript of a murder mystery cozy called CYANIDE’S WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS that I’m looking to get published. As for my journalism work, I write in the areas of law, philanthropy, art (visual and performing), books and ephemera, animals, science and technology, food and travel and more.

I have written for the Boston Globe, Huffington Post, Slate, WIRED Magazine, Deadspin, Current Affairs, Business Insider, American Society of Journalists and Authors Magazine, Artsy, Atlas Obscura, Best Lawyers/US News and World Report, Bennington Alumni Magazine, the Billfold, Block Club, Book and Paper Fair Blog, Broad Street Review, Chicago Review of Books, The Chicago Reader, New City, Cinema Femme, the City Creatures Blog for the Center for Humans and Nature, ComicsMNT, Community-Centric Fundraising, Community Health Magazine, Culturess, Curbed Chicago, Daily Dot, The Dirty Spoon, Earth Island Journal, Electric Lit, The Establishment, FF2, The Forward, Foxtail Books, Grok Nation, HelloGiggles, Hey Alma, iExplore, InsideHook, Inside Philanthropy, Inverse, Library Journal, Liveability, Loop North News, LoveTV, Mental Floss, Mercury (Astronomical Society of the Pacific), Midwesterner,  MoneyGeek, Murder & Mayhem, Observer, Ours to Save, Our Urban Times, Ozy, the Piltdown Review, Rebellious Magazine, the Reset, Rewire (produced by PBS), Roadtrippers Magazine, RootsRated, the Rumpus, She Shreds, Sleep Review Magazine, Smart Mouth, Sonderers, Speculative City, Statesider, Streeterville News/New Eastside News, Syfy, Syncopated Times,  Tor, Touring Bird, vis a tergo, YourTango, We are Mutants, Wine Enthusiast and the Writer.

I write regularly as a contributor for Book Riot, Library Journal, Murder & Mayhem, Cheese Professor and the Chocolate Professor.

I have had audio pieces presented by Indiana University Bloomington’s In This Climate podcast and WBEZ’s Re:Sound International Audio Festival. I am a graduate of Vocalo’s Community Storytelling Workshop 2015.

I was a freelance book reviewer for Kirkus Reviews from April 2018 to May 2019 and wrote for Book and Paper Fairs blog from November 2018 to November 2019. I wrote for the Streeterville News and its sister papers New East Side News and West Loop News from April 2019 to April 2020.

I received a BA in Latin American history from the University of Chicago, an MA in Latin American Studies from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MBA in Marketing and Operations Management from Loyola University Chicago. I studied abroad in London, UK and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I am a member of Jesuit University honor society, Alpha Sigma Nu, and business honor society, Beta Gamma Sigma. I am also a member of the Golden Key International Honor Society. I received a Foreign Language Area Studies fellowship to study Portuguese in 2007-2008. I also received a challenge coin from Loyola ROTC for service for the Department of Military Science in 2016.

In addition to my writing, I have numerous research projects that I have presented in local, national, and even international locales. Talks include research on artifacts and buildings in London, Cuban poster propaganda, and more.

My Favorite Articles I’ve Written

Here’s a selection of my favorite articles I’ve written:

5 Types Of Food Astronauts Avoid Eating In Space — And Why (7/16/24) - Huffington Post

Video Games as Art (12/23/23) - Wired

Go Ahead, Call Your Dog Your “Fur Baby” (12/13/2021) - Slate

Science as Literature (10/16/2020) - Earth Island Review

Crimes and Pun-ishment: Why are Cozy Mysteries So Punny? (7/24/24) - Murder & Mayhem

Moon as Cheese: The Myth and Science (5/6/25) - The Cheese Professor

What does it Mean to Decolonize a Museum (2/7/19) - MuseumNext

Find Me Elsewhere

I wrote a blog about travel, culture and Chicago called Not Without My Bowler Hat:  https://notwithoutmybowlerhat.wordpress.com/ (It’s updated rarely - usually just my list of best books of the year)

I am also the co-editor and co-founder of the Antelope Magazine: A Journal of Oral History and Mayhem. Check it out today: https://antelopemagazine.com/

Contact Me

bowlerhatfox@gmail.com

Do not solicit me for help with the website or adding backlinks to articles that I have published. I am not interested in improving SEO etc. for my website. I will not respond to those emails. Thank you.

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