I’ve been writing without vision for more than 25 years. Next month, at Northwestern University’s Summer Writers’ Conference, I’m going to try teaching people who can see how to do it, too: Smelling is Believing: Using Your Other Senses — Beth Finke Writer Beth Finke is blind, and her in-class exercises encourage writers to set […]

Beth Finke here. After my first book Long Time, No See was published, I spent weeks on the phone begging bookstores to have me come and do a book signing. I particularly wanted to land a gig at the ever-popular Book Stall in Winnetka, Ill., but when I called Book Stall owner Roberta Rueben, she […]

Last year 61 litters – 470 puppies — were born at the Seeing Eye breeding station. That’s a lot of puppies to name. The Seeing Eye gives the dogs in each litter names that start with the same letter of the alphabet, and once a puppy is named, that name can’t be used again until […]

Here’s my husband Mike with a guest post for Father’s Day. My mom was combative, politically opinionated, a 5′ 1″ ball of fire. My dad? Polar opposite. He had a quiet power. As a child, I’d watch the clock. Every single day, he’d pull up the driveway at 5:00 in his ratty car–he always got […]

Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s revival of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” won three Tony Awards last Sunday, including Best Actor for ensemble member Tracy Letts. This good news gives me an opportunity to excerpt a post I published here two years ago after seeing the play here in Chicago. Better put, when I […]