The emotions that come with loving an adult child who has significant disabilities can be difficult to put into words, but when a reporter interviewed my husband Mike for a story about our son Gus in this month’s Bethesda Messenger, Gus’ dad found just the right things to say. Gus and his three roommates moved […]

I plan on starting the “Smelling is Believing” workshop I’m leading at Northwestern University’s Summer Writers’ Conference tomorrow sharing accounts of magazine and newspaper editors I’ve worked with who have doubted that a person who is blind could write a good story. You know, like the editor who asked me to write about Miss America, […]

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 […]

I started modeling nude for art students the year I turned 40. The unemployment rate of people who are blind was – and still is – around 70%, and back then the University of Illinois art department was the only place willing to hire me. Taking my clothes off for college students wasn’t exactly a […]

Hey, it’s Mike again–I promise I’ll fill you in on Montreal eventually, but the sad event  of yesterday — the death of Roger Ebert — changed my plans. My longtime and dear friend, Brand Fortner, was without question Roger Ebert’s biggest fan. FYI: I met Brand  back in 1990. He was a co-founder of Spyglass, a […]