Robert Loerzel

Robert Loerzel is a freelance journalist and photographer in Chicago. His historical nonfiction book "Alchemy of Bones: Chicago’s Luetgert Murder Case of 1897" was published in 2003 by the University of Illinois Press. His reporting and writing have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Reader, Chicago magazine, Crain’s Chicago Business, Playbill, the Chicago Sun-Times and Illinois Issues and on WBEZ Chicago Public Radio. He previously worked as a reporter, news editor and arts editor at the Pioneer Press newspapers in Chicago's suburbs. His Twitter account, @robertloerzel, has more than 10,000 followers. In 2016, he won the Chicago Reader’s poll for “Best Chicagoan to Follow on Twitter.” Loerzel’s concert photography and reviews appear on his blog, undergroundbee.com, and his photos have also been published in Rolling Stone magazine, the Chicago Reader, The A.V. Club and other media. Loerzel was born in Anchorage, Alaska, where he lived until he was 9; later in his childhood, he lived in Onarga, a small town in central Illinois. He received a bachelor’s degree in news-editorial journalism from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and he has lived in the Chicago area since graduating in 1988.