Writing, Publishing & Marketing
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Past interviews & articles:
James Rollins podcast & pop quiz
Joltin' Joe: interview with J.A. Konrath
Lake Claremont Press: A True Chicago Gem
Interview with author Libby Fischer Hellman
Anonymous Lawyer: interview with Jeremy Blachman
Book Review: Caribbean Calling
Alice in Chicagoland: interview with Alice Maggio
Writing is like? by Peter Abresch
How Time Translates Into Money by Jennifer Brown Banks
Promotional Tips for Poets and Other Authors by Michelle True
The Down-side of Start-ups by Jennifer Brown-Banks
Interview: Joffrey Ballet's Derrick Agnoletti
Real Writers Live Online by Helen Gallagher

Support your local scribe
A September 3, 2006 Chicago Sun-Times article about the CWA.
![]() | Yankee Philosopher: An Interview with Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet Maxine Kumin New Hampshire poet Maxine Kumin comes to town on Sunday, June 8 for the Chicago Tribune Printers Row Book Fair. The Pulitzer Prize winner reflects on her life and works in a very special interview with Walter McElligott. |
![]() | Author travels down historical Lincoln Highway Once known as the “Main Street of America,” the Lincoln Highway through western Indiana and eastern Illinois became the first urban bypass on the first hard-surfaced transcontinental highway in the nation. Author and "public historian" Cynthia L. Ogorek takes readers on a drive through time in her new book, "The Lincoln Highway Around Chicago," from Arcadia Publishing. |
![]() | Tea Time: Interview with Mountain-Climber, Humanitarian and Best-Selling Author Greg Mortenson His inspirational book, "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time" is No. 2 on the New York Times paperback best-seller's list. Author and global humanitarian Greg Mortenson tells CWA's Walter McElligot of his incredible journey, from his failed attempt to climb K2, the world's second-tallest mountain, and how that led to his educational crusade to build schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. As Walter writes in his introduction, "With this interview, our group reaches into the field of international authors and their literary work." Read this very special interview with Mortenson and much more in the latest quarterly edition of the Clarion. |
![]() | Seeing Stars: Author Shines Light on Chicago's Finest The only Chicago Police Department many know is the one they read about in the newspaper and see on the nightly local news. It's a force whose history has been marred by corruption and brutality, from the 1968 Democratic Convention riots to the recent videotaped bar beating. But journalist Daniel P. Smith sought to shed a different, less harsh light on Chicago's finest that shows the real people behind the badges, who they are and what they've done. The kinds of stories that don't make headlines but deserve to be told. The CWA member now shares these stories in his new book from Lake Claremont Press, "On the Job: Behind the Stars of the Chicago Police Department." |
![]() | Forest in F minor In her debut novel, Forest in F minor, Sachiko Hamada paints the story of a young Japanese artist struggling to find her way and herself in Chicago's South Side, a culture much different than the one she knows. Read Walter McElligott's interview with her here. |
![]() | Sweet Home Chicago In his debut novel, To Love Mercy, Frank S. Joseph returns to the Chicago that he left behind and brings back some of its treasured memories from days gone by (places like Bronzeville, Comiskey Park, Maxwell Street and Riverview) while also exploring some of the racial and ethnic divisions that continued to haunt him long after he tried to walk away from them. Joseph comes back to that sweet home of old for a November book tour, including an appearance with five other authors at the CWA's Chicago Authors Read event on Friday, November 9, 7-9 PM, at The Book Cellar in Lincoln Square. Read the interview with him here. |
![]() | Book Light Interview shines a light on CWA's Lynn Voedisch, whose luminous fiction debut of magic and redemption, Excited Light, will keep you turning the pages late into the night. |
![]() | Author Liz Holzemer: On Baseball, Brain Tumors, Babies and Bad Hair Days As the wife of a major league baseball player, journalist Liz Holzemer had seen her husband pitch out of plenty of jams. In "Curveball: When Life Throws You a Brain Tumor," she tells her own inspiring story of how she not only beat all that life threw at her, but came out of it to champion the cause of all those affected by meningioma brain tumors. |
![]() | Tara Ison: Writer First…Author Second Novelist, short story and screenwriter Tara Ison comes to Northwestern University to teach creative writing August 9-11. Learn some of her secrets in this exclusive interview with CWA's Chiara Talluto. |
![]() | Against All Odds Luck be a late-night cigar? That's how Donald G. Evans tells the story of how a small press came to take a gamble on his debut novel, Good Money After Bad. |
![]() | Time to write the great American novel What time is it? This Time to Write...wall clock will help to remind you. Buy it and many other writerly goodies at our CafePress store! |
Picture It
Scenes from the CWA's February 24, 2007 author reading at the Beverly Branch Public Library captured by the lens of participant Helen Gallagher.
![]() | Cure for the Wintertime Blues Tired of the bone-chilling cold? Wearing layer upon layer of clothing? Seeing nothing but gray skies, bare trees and salt on your car? Well, Florida mystery author Bob Morris might just have the cure for you. |
'Twas the Night Before... Contest Winners
Paul Wolf's poignant tale of Christmas as seen through eyes of three homeless people took first place in the CWA's "'Twas the Night Before..." Contest. Poems by Renetta Dudzinski and David Hanley placed 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
Behind the shelves of the Chicago Underground Library
Chicagoans Nell Taylor and Emerson Dameron tell all the secrets behind the stacks of their most original and proudly independent library.
Chicago Writers Read
Pictures from the CWA's author reading night at The Book Cellar in Lincoln Square on October 13, 2006.
Every Picture Tells a Story
A photo journal of the CWA booth at the Midwest Literary Festival in Aurora, Illinois. Photos by Helen Gallagher. September 2006.
'Blade' Runner: Author Marcus Sakey
Michael A. Black and the Write Stuff
On Horror: Or How I Stopped Worrying About Grammar and Learned to Love the Written Word.
On Location: Chicagoland in the Movies