I am a writer and artist living in Chicago.
My writing has appeared in Cabinet, The Guardian, Parapraxis, Guernica, Avidly, Post45 Contemporaries, Harvard Review, Jacket2, and Belt Magazine.
I also work in visual art and performance—I’ve given performance lectures at the Renaissance Society (on friendship) and Gray Center (on ambition), and my work in video and sculpture has been featured in programming for the Smart Museum and the Carpenter Center.
I am a PhD candidate in English and Theater and Performance Studies at the University of Chicago, where I research the evaluation of personality, character, and creative labor. My research often involves interviews and participant observation.  
I am also the Nonfiction Editor of the small literary magazine Chicago Review. I once designed a cover for Bauwelt. Once I was interviewed by Time as an expert on social distancing. Currently I am a DAAD Arts-and-Media Fellow working on an oral history project with the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program.
Before Chicago, I held a research fellowship in Berlin. Before that, I was an undergrad at Harvard, where I studied comparative literature and studio art. 
You can email me at lily.scherlis [at] gmail.com.