Every year the Cliff Dwellers (a private arts club in Chicago) invites girls from nearby public high schools and their teachers to join them for a special lunch to celebrate International Women’s Day. Last year the keynote speaker for the event was Toni Preckwinkle, one of the two African American women in the upcoming run-off […]

I posted about the movie “Green Book” awhile back. I liked the movie then, and I like it now. Whatever you think about the movie, I think there is one inarguably good thing about it: A ton of people who knew nothing about the Green Book before the movie now do know about it. I’m […]

I’m pleased to have Regan Burke back as a guest blogger today. She’s been a member of many of my classes over the years (Regan is featured in “Writing Out Loud”) and maintains her own blog, Backstory Essays, and she’s been published in The Christian Science Monitor and a variety of other publications. It’s the […]

A few months ago Variety Magazine presented the first-ever in-depth look at people with disabilities in the entertainment industry. They started looking for writers to work on the special report this past summer, and it was important to the editors that one of the freelancers they hired for the project have a disability. Thanks in […]

Our friend Ellen Sandmeyer had us over for Christmas Eve this year. Her two sons, her nine-year-old granddaughter Kaia and Kaia’s mom had flown in for the holidays, and we spent the evening together munching cookies, sipping drinks, sharing stories, and…learning Braille. When I called ahead to make sure no one had allergies or a […]