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Author. Educator. Organizer.

JAMES STEWART III

Welcome to my website. As a professional Writer, I aim to create a better understanding of the world and our place in it. Read some of my work below, including published articles and short stories.

Defiant Acts

A Novel

(Acre Books, May 2025)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Stewart III is a Black writer from Chicago whose debut novel, Defiant Acts, is forthcoming from Acre Books in May 2025. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Lampblack, Midwest Review, Zone 3, The Forge, 580 Split, Pangyrus, Cleaver, and Another Chicago Magazine. He earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MA from North Central College. He also co-founded the reading series Exhibit B, which hosts programming in Chicago, New York City, and Online.  www.jamesstewart3.com

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PROJECTS

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Defiant Acts

Pre-Order Now

Forthcoming May, 2025 (Acre Books)

This powerful debut novel by James Stewart III documents the life of a working-class interracial couple and their children in a Chicago suburb in the early 1990s. The father, Jim, is a Black man married to Connie, a white woman with two white sons from a previous marriage. Connie and Jim have three more children together, and the entire family lives in a cramped two-bedroom apartment in a well-to-do, predominantly white community.
 
Defiant Acts follows the Stewarts through a year in which Jim fights to earn a promotion, the adolescent boys struggle to find themselves, one of the younger children becomes gravely ill, and the parents try to stay afloat in a shaky economy. Within the walls of the Stewarts’ home, race doesn't factor, but when the family interacts with the outside world, it is inescapable, a basis for identity and inclusion as well as a spur for exclusion and abuse.
 
Rooted in the tradition of Black authors from Chicago and drawing on the author’s own experiences, Defiant Acts eschews a conventional plot, presenting a series of captured moments—past and present—and multiple perspectives to build a mosaic of the family's lives. In clear, concise prose, Stewart focuses on the complexities of human relationships and on race relations both in- and outside the domestic space, placing emphasis on the values that bind this tight-knit family together: solidarity, care, and hope.

Exhibit B

A Bi-Monthly Reading Series

James is a co-founder of the text-based performance series Exhibit B, which pushes artists to think beyond the typical limitations of a reading and develop new ways to bring their work into the world. Partnering with the Guild Literary Complex for shows online and in Chicago, Exhibit B is proud to be a paying market for artists. The series hosts performances throughout Chicago, online, and in New York City.

Exhibit B: A Literary Variety Show Logo Est. 2020
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PUBLISHED WORK

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Silent Killer

Cleaver: Philadelphia's International Literary Magazine
Issue 32: December 18, 2020

Stronger

The Forge Literary Magazine

June 23, 2021

The Fourth

Midwest Review 10 

Summer 2023

Rodney

Lampblack
Labour Issue - Fall 2023

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Dead Ends

Hawaii Pacific Review · Literary Journal of Hawaii Pacific University

North Dakota '84

Cowboy Jamboree (Print)
March 2024

Flooding

Another Chicago Magazine, July 2020

Fresh Cut

580 Split - Issue 24: Push Black

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"ANY HUMAN POWER CAN BE RESISTED AND CHANGED BY HUMAN BEINGS. RESISTANCE AND CHANGE OFTEN BEGIN IN ART."

Ursula K. Le Guin

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GET IN TOUCH

One of the greatest perks of my job is getting feedback and interacting with readers. Contact me if you’ve got any comments or questions for me, I’d love to hear from you.

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