Growing Bolder Community

Chicago--my home town--has always been known for producing a splendid crop of writers. Just think Saul Bellow, Mike Royko, Studs Terkel, Edna Ferber...the list goes on and on. So an idea whose time has come is the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame . The Hall of Fame, which has been the brainchild of some very talented people in the Chicago Writers Association, will be having its inaugural...

One of my very best friends, journalist Liz Welter, and I made an impromptu dash to Chicago to check out the seventh annual Printers' Ball at the historic Ludington Building on July 29 to see what all the advance hoopla was about. I've been doing a lot of literary things in my home town in the past few years, such as reading essays and giving presentations, and this just floated across the radar...

In September 1957, Jack Kerouac's most famous book, "On the Road," made him a national sensation. Fans of his work might imagine him living in cultural bastions such as San Francisco's North Beach or Greenwich Village in New York City. In truth, Kerouac was living in a stifling hot back porch apartment with his mother in northwest Orlando. Yes, pre-Disney, pre-theme park capital...

The Alice Hornbaker Show wmkvfm.org on Internet WMKV 89.3 FM Cincinnati “Life After 50” column on air 9/26/11 ajhornbaker@yahoo.com Someone recently wrote to me that when mature adults in retirement stop taking risks, they die. A bit dramatic but the point is well taken. All of our lives from young to old, we should incorporate some risks into our lifestyles. Every mature...

What do you do when a moose gets loose in your store? What do you say to someone who is being shipped out to war? In the collection of literary short stories by author Mary Hitchcock Cone, Moose Mash and Other Stories (Folkheart Press 2011) these answers will be revealed. Mary is considered to be a short story master but that is not all she is known for. She is also a devoted mother to her...

As the rain and cold envelops my house this evening, I think it would have been lovely to...

Writing essays and posting them on line was certainly a stretch for me when I started blogging right before New Years in 2007, but never in a million years could I have predicted that I'd be reading them in front of an audience in Chicago. But welcome to Essay Fiesta, which is a monthly reading series of extraordinary talent and energy. Chicago's my home town, and it finally gives me a reason to...

Announcing the arrival of “Heck on Heels,” my new collection of essays! Here's the text of the press release I'm sending out into the universe... "This is the second collection of essays by award-winning Wisconsin writer and photographer Mary T. Wagner. “Heck on Heels” follows Wagner’s debut collection, “Running with Stilettos: Living a Balanced Life in Dangerous Shoes,”...