Many of the fledgling memoirists who sign up for my 90-minute Getting Your Memoir Off the Ground workshop at Northwestern Summer Writers Institute on July 30 will be younger than the seniors in the memoir-writing classes I lead in Chicago. When I address groups like this, I can count on one of the writers asking […]

Twenty-five short years ago, the United States Capitol had no wheelchair ramps. You read that right. The monument that pretty much defines American equality and justice was inaccessible to people using wheelchairs. In 1990, activists in Washington, D.C. struggled out of their wheelchairs and crawled up the Capitol steps to urge lawmakers to pass the […]

If you follow this blog, you already know guest blogger Sandra Murillo. Sandra lost her sight when she was three years old. She has always attended regular public schools, and has known she wanted to be a writer ever since her sophomore year at Thornwood High School in South Holland, Ill. Sandra’s first guest post […]

Some people escape to lake houses, some to cabins in the mountains, others to villas overseas. Me? When I want to get away by myself, I splurge on a fancy hotel. What luxury — a plush robe waiting for me, my bed gets made every morning, clean towels magically appear in the bathroom, and when […]

The late great comedian George Carlin said it best: “When you’re born into this world, you’re given a ticket to the freak show. If You’re born in America, you get a front row seat.” Between the likes of Donald Trump and Rachel Dolezal, This week’s freak show was weirder than usual. The best I can […]