Lake Claremont Press

Meet Our Staff

Sharon Woodhouse, Publisher
sharon@lakeclaremont.com

A third-generation Chicagoan, Sharon Woodhouse spent much of her young adulthood studying international relations in Indiana, Spain, Mexico, and Switzerland. Wanting a temporary retreat from the global, she returned to her beloved hometown and finished her schooling with a philosophy degree from UIC. She's been here ever since, finding enough excitement on the local front.

In 1993 Woodhouse, intending to make enough money to return to grad school, wrote the kind of guidebook for Chicago—a native's guide for the budget conscious—that she wanted to buy but was unable to find on the bookstore shelves. Instead, by late 1994, she was turning that project into the independent publishing business she runs today.

Despite being a faithful Chicagoan, Sharon falls smitten with places everywhere, New York being a particular weakness. She has written for several local, national, and online publications, including the Chicago Tribune's Metromix, Crain’s Chicago Business, American Bookseller, and Publisher's Weekly.

lisa scacco, Production and Office Manager

lisa@lakeclaremont.com

lisa scacco, a native Chicagoan and oldest of six in a colorful Irish Italian family, has lived and breathed printing presses for more than 20 years. Her career has encompassed work for large printers in a range of roles, including production, customer service, sales service and management. lisa brings her unique creativity and a total commitment to quality to every opportunity. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign with a degree in English. Her academic study includes a year abroad in England (this explains why the words "trousers" and "loo" still play a prominent role in her vocabulary.) She has also completed the Stanford University Professional Publishing Course.

An active member and former president of Chicago Women in Publishing (CWIP), lisa is an ardent supporter of independent publishing. Her passion and dedication also extends to music, theatre, politics, and philanthropy, and she is highly skilled in the art of bringing people together.

Therese Newman, Sales and Operations Coordinator
therese@lakeclaremont.com

Therese Newman is an anthropologist. She holds a degree in anthropology from DePaul University. As a student she conducted research on several Chicago communities, including ethnographic research on day laborers, zine writers, and indigenous peoples, and archaeological research in the Bronzeville and Pullman neighborhoods. After graduating university, she lived the cliché and backpacked around Europe to, you know, learn about other cultures and stuff.

Therese is a reader. As a child her favorite book was The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, which she read until the cover fell off and the pages came apart. Now she most often reads nonfiction in the subjects of anthropology, history, and food. When she reads fiction, she wants it to be either strange (as are the works of Haruki Murakami and Herman Melville), well crafted (Graham Greene), or both (James Joyce). She also reads zines, the ads on L trains, and the stuff people pass out on the street. She does not read the back of cereal boxes, though, because she can’t eat cereal grains (gluten, specifically).

Therese is an artist and cofounder of the Surprise Art Movement. She is also famous (having been on TV four times) but still manages to be very down to earth.