After President George Herbert Walker Bush died Friday, the news has been full of stories about his service during World War II, his responsibilities for the Persian Gulf War, his inabilities to rally the economy during his four years in office, and his 1992 loss to Bill Clinton. One big story missing in all that? […]

Earlier on in my life as a writer I wrote a newspaper story about two Chicago women who’d won a trip to the Academy Awards. When I interviewed the two of them they described trying on dresses for the occasion at a Chicago studio on N. Elston that names dresses after old movie stars. “I […]

Looking for something to do this Thursday night, October 11? Here’s a great idea from the Facebook page of Women And Children First Bookstore in Chicago: Jean Thompson in conversation with Beth Finke Join us as we welcome Jean Thompson for a conversation with Beth Finke about Thompson’s new novel, A Cloud in the Shape […]

What fun it was to be interviewed in front of an audience by my friend and fellow memoir-writer Regan Burke last Friday. Here’s an account of the evening from her, well, point of view. Last Friday night Beth and I participated in an event called “Body Language—Reading and Discussions about Writing the Body.” The event […]

Mike gave you his view of the California wildfires in his last Mondays with Mike post, and now, in honor of the Smelling is Believing writing workshop I’m giving this weekend at the Northwestern Summer Writers Conference, let’s see if I can describe scenic Mendocino County without using my sense of sight. It was love […]