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Criminal Class Press Staff

kevin picWayne White: Editor in Chief/CEO

a.k.a. Kevin Whiteley earned his MFA at California College of the Arts and his BA at Columbia College Chicago . His writing has been featured in Reservoir.com, New Expressions, and has ghost-written for photographer/model/singer Sarah Vanderhaar. Currently, he working on the revisions to his forthcoming novel, "Chi-Town, My Town" as well as embracing historical fiction with a work in progress entitled "Appeasement".

rick picRicardo Cozzolino: Art Director

Ricky Cozzolino spent most of his life in the Chicagoland area. He grew up skateboarding and going to punk and hardcore shows. Ricky has been creating from his warped and humorous imagination since before he could write his own name. He graduated from Columbia College Chicago with BA focusing on computer graphics. By trade Ricky is a video editor and has been working as such starting in high school through today. He has edited everthing from skate and music videos to documentaries and court settlement videos. Ricky is 31 years old, lives in Denver and will some day take his skateboard, a backpack and will travel the world on someone else's dime.

Johnnie Walker: Poetry Editor

Johnnie Walker is a poet, a photographer, an educator, and a drifter. He has earned degrees from Columbia College Chicago (MFA Poetry '05), Museum School of Fine Arts, Boston (Post-Bac '03), and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA '98). He is the author of several chapbooks of poetry. His work, aside from Criminal Class Review, has appeared in the California College of the Art’s Eleven-Eleven literary journal. He is currently finishing a 15 year photographic documentary project chronicling his travels throughout the United States. He currently lives and works on the in his hometown, Saint Louis, MO.

ru picRu Gutierrez: Web/Production Manager

Ru Gutierrez is a product of Chicago. He holds an AA degree in Liberal Arts and Humanities and a BA in Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts from San Francisco State University. His varied vocations have included stints in graphic design, music/entertainment, fine arts, fashion, and film/video. He also enjoys fitness, art, creative technologies, collaborative creativity, audio production, and sound design. He currently resides in San Francisco.

William J. Hillman: Staff Writer

William is founder and Host of The Windy City Story Slam. The Windy City Story Slam has performed Nationally and Internationally as well as received International acclaim from the press.He was co-Director of Fusion Project, an international art promotion company working in Chicago and Mexico City from 2005-2007 and was named #42 on New City’s Lit Top 50, 2009. William J Excerpts from Hillmann's novel in progress have appeared at FoggedClarity and in the Cubbie Blues Anthology as well as broadcast on Resonance FM in London, he was also chosen and honored by Irvine Welsh to read from the novel along side Stephanie Keunert at the Metro's Read Against the Recession. His poetry has appeared in Make Magazine. Two of his plays were selected to be staged as part of Columbia College’s Story Week. Hillman is excited to be on the Staff at Criminal Class Press even though he’s left his criminal days behind him, hopefully anyways.Hillman is currently a MFA candidate at Columbia College in Chicago.

Greg Cozzolino: Numbers Guy

While Greg earned his stripes in the big city, it was too crazy for his complex brain to endure so he escaped the madness and now resides in the suburbs of Chicagoland. He earned a BA in Mechanical Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering.  Currently, Greg owns an empty three-bedroom home but schemes in the basement. Influenced musically by Ricky Fine Lines who showed our man "the ropes". Greg played drums back in the day but became a soccer hooligan in college. When not juggling numbers, he’s a "Professional" dodge ball player with too many amateur accolades to count.

Behnam Riahi: Publicist

Behnam Reza Riahi is an emerging writer from the Chicago area, a graduate of Columbia College Chicago's fiction department, and has performed in the Windy City Story Slam. He has been published in zines: Chi-Tea, Unbreakable, Friction, River Currents, and is the winner of Columbia College Chicago’s prestigious Diversity, Alumni, Herman Conaway, and David Rubin awards. He is currently working on his first novel and a collection of short stories.

SVDSarah Van Den Bosch:Submissions Manager

Sarah Van Den Bosch received her BA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College Chicago. Her work has appeared in Bartelby Snopes and the now defunct Aposiopieces. When she's not writing she's reading and reading and re ading some more. It's fair to say she's fairly well-read.

MAXMax Glaessner: Submissions Reader

Max Glaessner received his B.A. in Fiction Writing from Columbia
College Chicago. Max is also the founder of the Sexy Bald Men Reading Series and has been a featurereader/performer in many Chicago literary events, including Reading Under the Influence, 2nd Story, and The Windy City Story Slam.

justinJustin Bostian: Copy Editor

Justin Bostian is a young writer living in Chicago, constantly grappling with authority issues and crippling insecurity. He is a student of the Fiction Writing department at Columbia College. He edits and produces Friction, a zine that publishes emerging writers with exceptional gumption, pep, and other such antiquated traits. He's hard at work on a novel, several short story collections and a pile of manuscripts that are begging to be edited

Ashley Seymour: Merchant Manager

Ashley Seymour is a work in progress, a student of the Fiction Department at Columbia College Chicago. She was born and raised hell on the Southside of Chicago and has much pride for her roots. Currently, she is in the retail industry by day and writer by night. Her experiences are pouring out of her onto the page in hopes of a collection of short story masterpieces to one day be published.

ericaErica Mancini: NYC Affiliate

Erica Mancini jumped ship from Chicago to New York where she's immersed in the Gallatin program at NYU majoring in Musicology and Sociology. Currently, she's deep in research putting together an analytical collection of the anthropological aspect of music and the cultures it echoes. To pay the bills, she can be found playing the accordion in the streets and subways.

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