Archive for the “memoir writing” Category

I love this group. No one loves this group more than I do.

January 26, 201753 CommentsPosted in careers/jobs for people who are blind, guest blog, memoir writing, politics, travel, Uncategorized

Last week the prompt for my Wednesday memoir-writing class was, “How I Got through a Transition in Life that Wasn’t my Choice.” An overwhelming number of Chicagoans had voted against the new president, so I reasoned a lot of my writers might be concerned about Friday’s inauguration.  “For next week I want you to look […]

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When the stars make you drool just like pasta fazool

January 4, 201715 CommentsPosted in careers/jobs for people who are blind, guest blog, memoir writing, travel, Uncategorized

Recognizing that last year was not everyone’s favorite, the Chicago Tribune asked readers to submit stories for the paper to publish as a collection of short pieces defending poor 2016. Sharon Silverman submitted a shortened version of an essay she’d written for one of the memoir-writing classes I lead here in Chicago, and of course […]

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Dispatches from 20th century immigrants, part six: Brigitte

December 28, 20163 CommentsPosted in careers/jobs for people who are blind, guest blog, memoir writing, Uncategorized

Brigitte Erbe’s family was relocated from Germany to Tetschen, Czechoslovakia towards the beginning of World War II when her accountant father was assigned a job working for the German government. Brigitte was born in Tetschen and lived there until the day of her fourth birthday, December 5, 1944, the very day the invasion of Russian […]

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Dispatches from 20th century immigrants, part five: Hanna

December 25, 201612 CommentsPosted in careers/jobs for people who are blind, guest blog, memoir writing, Uncategorized

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Loyal blog readers will recognize today’s featured immigrant – 96-year-old Hanna Bratman, a writer from the memoir-writing class I teach for older adults in downtown Chicago every Wednesday, grew up in a Jewish family who owned a butcher shop in Mannheim, Germany. “We had many Christian people working at the shop, […]

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