Ben Broeren is a native of Wisconsin and has a couple of degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has worked as a freelance writer for newspapers and alternative weeklies in Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin. His journalism has been published in Isthmus, The Capital Times,  and 
New City.  
 
In addition to journalism and academia, he has experience as a dishwasher, a kitchen assistant, a cook, a warehouse tractor driver, a mail clerk, a hotel clerk, a personal service assistant for disabled adults, a bookseller, a volunteer for a presidential campaign, a volunteer legal clerk for a civil rights firm, and a volunteer for WORT community radio.
 
He currently lives with his wife, his son, and his dog in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago. When not writing and editing, he likes to cook various types of cuisine, read, ride his recumbent trike, and keep up with what's going on.