So I started a thing.

And this is it: Stetson Arts Agency.

Stetson, because that’s my name; Arts, because I cover the arts (including theater, books, popular culture, and anything else that snags my attention.)

And Agency, well, not because I’ve started a bricks-and-mortar agency, but because it’s vital for creatives to have agency.

My background:

Award-winning arts & entertainment writer/critic for over three decades, including nine years as a regular freelance features/arts & entertainment writer and arts critic at the Chicago Tribune. Recipient of the Angel of the Arts Writer of the Year award. Winner of Florida Press Association awards and the Society for Professional Journalist awards.

I’m also a playwright, and recipient of the Louise Wigglesworth Excellence in Playwriting Award. My plays have been produced across the country.

I’m saddened by the poor arts coverage I’ve been seeing, and I know venues have been frustrated as well. Former readers have been telling me they miss my writing, miss reading my reviews. If there’s ever been a time where the arts need to be championed, it’s now.

So: a new beginning.

Stetson Arts Agency will find its own form. It’ll include reviews, interviews, commentary. We’ll see how this thing develops, how it evolves.

You may have heard I left. You may have been told I retired.

Nope.

I’m just beginning, baby.

Welcome.