Here at the AWM, we LOVE to read. That’s why we are so excited to co-sponsor the Great American Read on our local PBS station, WTTW. If you don’t know, the Great American Read is a national contest to find America’s most-loved book. I decided to make a round of the office, determining our staff’s […]
Tag Archives: recommendations
14
Aug
Aug
The best science writing leaves us humbled and inspired. Humbled by the vastness, strangeness, and wondrousness of the natural world, and inspired by the ingenuity and passion with which scientists (and citizen citizens) have tried to understand and protect it. David Quammen and Sy Montgomery’s writing does this. And that’s why I’m thrilled to be […]
16
Apr
Apr
Walt Whitman once said of baseball, “I see great things in baseball. It’s our game – the American game.” So true, so true. Here at the American Writers Museum, we love baseball too. We also love writing. And we especially love baseball writing! Which is why April 17 we are celebrating the beginning of baseball […]
12
Feb
Feb
Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a sociologist of education and a writer from Chicago. She is the author of Electric Arches and Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side and the co-author of No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. She is a scholar at the University of Chicago School of Social […]
28
Dec
Dec
Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) was born Callie Russel Porter to Harrison Boone Porter and Mary Alice (Jones) Porter. Her father had a cousin who was an American writer: O. Henry, whose real name was William Sydney Porter. Perhaps those literary genes ran in the family. When Callie was two years old, her mother died and […]
05
Dec
Dec
With her usual wit and humor the writer Erma Bombeck wrote, “It’s frightening to wake up one morning and discover that while you were asleep you went out of style.” Erma may have predicted her future. I went to the local used book store hoping to find at least one of her twelve books, nine […]
12
Oct
Oct
Stories are a part of life. They’re everywhere. We relate them over the phone to friends who live miles away. We share some tales of our youth to our children during those rare moments when we have their undivided attention. We hear their own stories when we ask how their days went at school. We […]
15
Aug
Aug
Classic American literature can sometimes feel as distant in time as it does in style from our 21st century moment. But just as our histories continue to echo into our present, so too do classic texts have a great deal to do with society and culture today. Indeed, many such texts offer vital lessons for […]
I am someone who is always buying new books or asking for them at birthdays and Christmas, even though I have dozens on my shelves still unread. I check out books from the library, subscribe to a monthly book club, and download eBooks. But as often as I seek out new reads, I return to […]
A couple years ago, I challenged myself to go a whole year reading only women authors. I wasn’t one hundred percent successful, but the main thing that surprised me during that time was that the whole challenge was pretty easy. Writing by women is obviously just as diverse and interesting as writing by men. Therefore, […]