Chicago Public Radio asked me to write a commentary about stem cell research back in 2004. In the recorded piece I mention a couple girls I know who have Type 1 diabetes: Raechel is 13, goes to Prairie Middle School in Barrington, and loves to dance. Clara just turned eight. She goes to Lincolnwood Elementary […]

Roger Ebert’s memoir Life Itself comes out today, and I’m eager to read it. From what I’ve heard, he writes a lot about his middle-class Midwestern upbringing in Urbana, Ill., a place Mike and I were proud to call home for many, many years, and the town where our son Gus was born. Ebert was […]

My foot is feeling better. If I’m allowed back in normal shoes after my doctor appointment this Wednesday, I’ll be so busy dancing I won’t have time to assess that list I posted here of all the things I’d accomplish during my 12-week convalescence. Better do it now. Read books. This was a joy. I thoroughly […]

The writers in the memoir class I teach grew up on Chicago’s south side, in the Philippines, on farms, as military brats, in plush Chicago suburbs. They are Catholic, Jewish, agnostic. One thing these seniors all have in common? They are resourceful. Take Myrna. She lives in a Chicago neighborhood called Lincoln Park, and When […]

About the 2011 Northwestern Summer Writers Conference.