-Posted on: June 15, 2021
by Lisa Katzenberger
There is a certain feeling that goes along with sharing your stories with the world and asking someone to love your work. For me, it’s a mixture of thrill and fear, with a little nausea mixed in …
-Posted on: May 15, 2021
By Alice B. McGinty and Alan B. Havis
To go or not to go? That’s what we were wondering as last summer rolled in. We’d planned this tour well before the pandemic hit. Travel to the east coast and visit …
-Posted on: April 15, 2021
By Liesl Shurtliff
One afternoon in high school, I was trying to write a critical essay for my AP English class. I can’t remember the book I was supposed to be writing about, but it was most likely by a …
-Posted on: March 7, 2021
By Karla Clark
The amazing human brain is hardwired to communicate with stories. Storytelling runs deep in my blood. I come from Italian immigrants and all through my childhood we gathered on Sundays around my grandparents’ kitchen table in Rockford, …
-Posted on: February 13, 2021
By Ruth Spiro
I have a love/hate relationship with an iPhone app.
My daughters introduced me to Timehop, an app that links to any social media accounts where you post photos – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. When you open Timehop …
-Posted on: January 10, 2021
“And the Dish ran away with the Zoom.”
“Mommy did you mean Spoon?”
“Oh yes, Spoon!”
What a runaway year! It’s our inclination to lick a finger and turn the page on the previous year, revealing a blank and beautiful …
-Posted on: December 14, 2020
By Ronni Davis
When I started writing When the Stars Lead to You, I knew that I wanted my main character to be a biracial—specifically black and white—girl. After years of never seeing anyone who looked like me in …
-Posted on: November 13, 2020
By Joy Michael Ellison
I wrote my debut picture book Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution! The Story of the Trans Women of Color Who Made Lgbtq+ History for a simple reason: I wanted to see myself and my community …
-Posted on: October 13, 2020
One of the things I’ve come to love most about living in Chicago is the size, strength, and warmth of the writing community here. Since moving here over seven years ago I’ve made friends with writers in just about any …
-Posted on: September 14, 2020
My son sits tucked in the back of our walk-in closet, a book open on his lap, his three-year-old sister at his side, giggling at a silly sentence. My oldest reads until past ‘lights out’ because she lost track of …