When I interview someone over the phone for a story I’m writing, I always tell the person on the other end that the conversation is being recorded. I don’t always tell them I’m blind, though. And so it went when I interviewed Michael Miles. Miles was program director at Chicago’s legendary Old Town School of […]
In honor of our infamous Illinois ex-governor, the topic for my memoir-writing students last Wednesday was “guilty.” Hanna, the matriarch of our class, came back with an essay that was, in a word, stunning. You might remember Hanna from a previous blog post. Hanna grew up in Germany. Her family was Jewish, and Hanna escaped […]
A loyal blog reader commented to last week’s post suggesting I publish excerpts from student essays. I love it when you blog readers leave comments to my posts, and I want you to know: I take your suggestions seriously! So here goes with excerpts from last week’s memoir-writing class, when I asked each student to […]
Every Wednesday, the seniors in my memoir-writing class pass a pouch of Scrabble tiles around the table. Whoever picks “A” reads their work aloud first, then “B” and so on. Last week, I threw a wrench into the works. I passed around a Ziploc bag full of loose change instead. “Just pick a coin,” I […]
The panels I sit on at writing festivals connect me with some pretty cool authors. At the Words & Music Festival in New Orleans I appeared on a panel about memoir writing with Rick Bragg. I had the privilege of sitting on a panel called Dogs and Their People with Sonny Brewer (we’ve both had […]