Hi! I'm Gretchen Kalwinski, a writer, editor, and content creator. My background is in editorial; I've worked as an arts and culture editor at Time Out Chicago, participated in Chicago's literary community as an editor/writer, and co-founded a literary blog. More recently, I've worked as a corporate copywriter and content strategist for brands like Crate & Barrel and Blue State Digital, written copy for Fortune 100 companies like TransUnion, and dabbled in UX at Mozilla and Walgreens. This hybrid background of marketing and publishing experience gave me a great foundation for helping organizations find their most authentic narrative. Outside of work, I’m a dog-lover, natural health-and-beauty junkie, vintage market devotee, and amateur aromatherapist. I'm always looking for new ways to spark interest in things worth talking about. Wanna chat about working together? View my copy here; go here for journalism, or email me. 

Resume Summary

As a storyteller, I know the hardest stories to tell are our own. Here's my chronological resume, but here’s more context about my work.  

I earned my B.A. in Communications from Indiana University and my career began with an editorial assistant role at University of Chicago Press. I went on to proofread and edit publications like Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture and Venus Zine.

As a freelancer, my first big cover story was for the Chicago Reader, about an exotic feline rescue center in southern Indiana farmland. Later, as a features editor at Time Out Chicago, I wrote and edited culture, arts, and lifestyle stories that ranged from pierogi festivals to spas and travel. I've also worked with educational, business and technical publications (American Library Association, Columbia College) on materials such as textbooks, user-guides, and websites. At content agency Imagination, I served as Senior Editor for a B2B pub, writing features, (like this healthcare story), planning content for social media, assigning stories to writers, and supervising a junior editor.

In 2007, I co-founded the literary site Literago.org with fellow writer Eugenia Williamson; it won accolades from Lonely Planet and Chicago Magazine. A few years later, I transitioned to writing more copy than journalism (for orgs like Vosges Haut Chocolat). I also won a Ragdale Artist Residency for my fiction and began an M.F.A. in creative writing at Northwestern University. During the next three years as a Senior Content Consultant at TransUnion, I got exposure into B2B communications and the brand-positioning of financial services/data products, producing web copy, ads, emails, case studies, and sales sheets for marketing campaigns. In evenings, I worked on my own writing, wrote literary blog posts for Triquarterly, and attended classes for my master's degree.

After completing MFA studies in 2014, I struck out on my own as an independent writing and marketing-communications consultant. Since then, I've coached writers privately, and as a book editor for Curbside Splendor. I've continued to write business, travel, and lifestyle stories (for places like Orbitz and The Dodo) and have begun taking on higher-level and process-driven marketing projects for orgs like Crate & Barrel and PayPal. Recently, I've worked in a strategic capacity for innovation consultants gravitytank, live-ideating with the creative team during consumer labs for Fortune 100 clients (and later crafting marketing language and value propositions). Other recent projects include writing advertorials for Lonely Planet, business stories for Booth Magazine. Currently, I work as a senior interactive writer on the Walgreens/Boots creative team.