Media Bio

Erin Schalk is a professional visual artist and writer with an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her artwork has been exhibited across the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Japan, including exhibitions at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum of Art and Okiten, an annual post–World War II juried exhibition in Okinawa.

Her writing has appeared in a range of literary journals, including Wordgathering, Stirring, Willawaw Journal, Petigru Review, Livina Press, and Jewel City Review, among others. She has received multiple awards from Writer’s Digest for her poetry and memoir essays, as well as a Best of the Net nomination. In 2025, she was awarded a national ASAP scholarship and received first place for her flash fiction piece Maybe it Was from CWC Marin. She has also served on the boards of Orange County Arts & Disability and the California Writers Club.

With over a decade of experience in education, Schalk has developed more than 75 programs across nonprofit and higher education settings, with a focus on disability accessibility. She leads professional development workshops for educators and has recently expanded into voice narration, creating audio for museum tours, educational projects, and books, including Against All Odds: Our Life Journey with Autism by Dr. Carol Basile.

She holds a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Oklahoma, a BA in East Asian Studies from the University of Maryland Asia (now the University of Maryland Global Campus), and an MA in Art from the University of Dallas. She began her professional career while living abroad in Okinawa, Japan, working as an artist, writer, and teacher.

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