Interviews

  Chicago Writers’ Bloc celebrates 30th Anniversary with Benefit and 2022 New Play Festival CHICAGO - Chicago Writers’ Bloc announced that it will celebrate its 30th Anniversary with a benefit and staged readings of 10 new works presented as part of its 2022 New Plays Festival, running May 23 to June 14 at the Raven Theater, 6157 N. Clark St. in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. The festival will launch with a ...

I lived it, and now I am re-living it on the "stage". You can, too! :) Actors Diane Dorsey and Suzy Brack (below) are Edith and Fern in the play. Tickets are now available for the Zoom production of Motherland. https://cwb42.booktix.com Diane Dorsey is cast as Edith (my mother) and Suzy Brack will play me.

For fans of MOTHERLAND and my mom, Edith Westerfeld Schumer… My dear German friend sent me these photos this morning. My mother's beloved storks have just returned to Stockstadt. When my mother was a child, she would say good-bye to the birds in the fall when they migrated to Africa. Every spring, she would wait for them to return. She could recognize some of the birds and she even named them. ...

When I was writing the story of my mother's immigration journey as an unaccompanied minor, I read an article in the New York Times about the orphaned children in the Sudanese Civil War. Fleeing tribal warfare and animal attacks, the "Lost Boys" camped out, subsisting on rationed corn mush and lentils. Many died of starvation and thirst. The article featured "three bone-thin African boys" who had the good fortune of ...

World Read Aloud Day is a greater reminder of the value of reading together. Here, I consider how my Happy Harper picture books about the separation of grandparents and grandchildren during the pandemic might help little ones understand their confusing emotions. Even my mother, who suffered with profound Holocaust losses when she was a child, might have felt less alone if someone had taken the time to read aloud with ...

First in-person school presentation in a few years. So nice to talk to students again. They ask such great questions. After learning about Germany’s efforts to face its history, one 8th grader asked me, “What can America do to atone for its national crimes?” Thank you Erin Wengerhoff for organizing! Always enjoy my visits to Algonquin Middle School - Des Plaines.

I had a wonderful time coming up with this list: https://shepherd.com/best-books/making-good-trouble

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2021/10/18/texas-school-administrator-holocaust-invalidates-pain/8509046002/

OprahDaily, Oprah's new platform, ran this story last week that featured Brothers, Sisters, Strangers.The article was picked up by Yahoo.com. https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/relationships-love/a29609819/signs-of-toxic-family/?fbclid=IwAR279n1qPsWb7_mbuelie79M8WQLPfyptGV_1_1SwxdXQRDfRyHKqAyZIOs

Story was picked up by many news media sites, including msn.com and Yahoo.com.   https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/relationships/why-your-relationship-with-your-brother-or-sister-is-more-important-than-you-think/ar-AALlQsk?li=BBnbcA0