Milwaukee Avenue Messenger
Our flagship publication, the Milwaukee Avenue Messenger, featured in Block Club Chicago, is a Chicago-based literary and arts journal featuring fiction, poetry, essays, artwork, and photography from an expanding community of writers and artists. We’ve published over 100 contributors across five issues since 2025, sold hundreds of print copies, had thousands of visitors to our website, and continue to program live literary events across the Chicago community.
Current Issue
Volume 2, Number 3: Summer 2026
Back Issues
Volume 2, Number 2: Spring 2026
Volume 2, Number 1: Winter 2026
Volume 1, Number 2: Fall 2025
Volume 1, Number 1: Summer 2025
more highfalutin media
Livestock!
A Rock ‘n’ Roll Novel
by Matt McCarthy
A weekend rock ‘n’ roll festival in the middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin is overrun with fans when rumors of an Escape Goat reunion show begin to circulate. The situation turns Lord of the Flies as torrential storms strand thousands of festivalgoers and musicians. The weekend spirals into a depraved bacchanal of violence and tragedy, as fans keep wondering … will Escape Goat show?
the highfalutin podcast
hosted by Matt McCarthy, Monica Schrager, and Ryan Norsworthy
Three Gen X college friends in Chicago document the turbulent times surrounding the Covid lockdown and try to make sense of it all together, in a ten-episode arc recorded during the height of the pandemic.