billy is the author of three books of fiction – The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories, The Man with Two Arms, and Meanwhile, Roxy Mourns. 

His novel, How to Hold a Woman was re-issued by Tortoise Books as morning will come in January 2021.

billy's most recent work has been published in Hypertext Magazine, Ireland’s HCE Review, The Tishman Review, Tikkun Magazine, The Chicago Reader, The Chicago Tribune, and Triquarterly. billy is the 2011 Nelson Algren Award winner for Fiction. 

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A revered high school English Literature and creative writing teacher for 25 years at The Latin School of Chicago, and for nine years at other Chicago-area high schools, he now runs his own writing and editing business called Writing Pros/e.

billy is the founder of Polyphony Lit, a global literary platform for high school writers and editors, at the core of which is a literary magazine run by an international staff of more than 200 high school editors around the world who comment on every one of the thousands of submissions that come to us every year (2,706 in 2019) from more than 70 countries so far.

A dynamic speaker and performer, billy has presented and performed at more than 300 high schools, universities, and literary events since 1989. billy lives in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood with his partner, Amy Danzer, and their dog, Valentino. 

He is currently at work on a book on the craft of fiction:

House of Fiction, Deconstructed for the Apprentice Writer.