Kaylen Ralph is a freelance writer and journalist working at the intersection of arts, culture and commerce in Chicago.

As the Director of Marketing & Communications at the West Town Chamber of Commerce, she is invested in furthering the West Town neighborhood’s reputation as Chicago’s “emergent gallery district” through neighborhood-wide West Town First Fridays programming, as well as pop-up gallery programming and curatorial production.

She is the founder and moderator of Ladies Who Lit, a multi-platform, events-focused book club celebrating writing by women.

Throughout her decade-long freelance journalism career, Kaylen has contributed to Teen Vogue, Glamour, Elle, Refinery29, Literary Hub and the Chicago Reader, among other print and digital outlets.

In 2013, she graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism and co-founded The Riveter magazine, a longform women’s print and digital magazine.

She is the co-editor of New Stories We Tell: True Tales By America's New Generation of Great Women Journalists, an anthology of longform journalism featuring contemporary writing, published by The Sager Group in October 2019.

Raised in Rockford, IL, Kaylen currently calls Chicago home.