{"id":7085,"date":"2018-02-21T07:02:48","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T12:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7085"},"modified":"2018-06-16T20:14:40","modified_gmt":"2018-06-17T00:14:40","slug":"american-writers-museum-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7085","title":{"rendered":"American Writers Museum: Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bookOn the lookout for something new and interesting to do in Chicago? Try the American Writers Museum<\/a>, the first U.S. museum devoted to authors. If you are a writer, you may find it\u2019s a tangible uplift. It both celebrates American writers and shows their pervasive influence on \u201cour history, our identity, and our daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The museum is huge in heart, if not in size, and, unless you\u2019re one of those people who must read every word of every exhibit (in which case you\u2019d better set aside a day or two), you can probably explore it in under two hours. Although it doesn’t claim to be exhaustive, the museum nevertheless includes authors and works from throughout the nation\u2019s literary history\u2014poetry, song lyrics, speeches, drama, fiction, nonfiction, journalism,and more. The displays are well designed and captivating.<\/p>\n

So many iconic American writers are associated with Chicago\u2014from Studs Terkel to Nelson Algren to Gwendolyn Brooks, from Carl Sandburg to Sandra Cisneros\u2014it\u2019s fitting that there\u2019s currently a special exhibition on the talent nurtured there, complemented by an exhibit of photographs by Art Shay of writers at work (and play).<\/p>\n

When I visited, a school group was there, and it was amusing to hear the teacher explain the operation of a typewriter. \u201cThere\u2019s this ribbon thing, see, and there\u2019s ink on it . . . And then when that bell rings, you move the carriage back.\u201d Numerous hands-on exhibits let museum-goers experiment and play with words. Poetry construction. Where words come from. Where writers come from.<\/p>\n

You can vote for your favorite novel. To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em> leads the list, followed by The Great Gatsby<\/em> and The Grapes of Wrath<\/em>. My guess is the \u201cvoters\u201d feel less confident about 21st century books and fall back on what they studied in school. That process needs an infusion of more recent stellar work. I\u2019d like to see Jennifer Egan\u2019s Black Box<\/em> there. Kids could relate to a novel in tweets.<\/p>\n

The museum isn\u2019t just about the already-written, though. It also has an extensive educational program, including the Write In Youth Education program for students in middle and high school. And series of panels gave good advice about craft and process for writers of any age.<\/p>\n

The AWM, which opened only nine months ago, has been chosen in a USA Today<\/em> Reader\u2019s Choice poll as \u201cBest Illinois Attraction\u201d and by Fodor\u2019s Travel as one of \u201cthe World\u2019s 10 Best New Museums.\u201d Find it at 180 N. Michigan Avenue, Second Floor, Chicago, IL 60601.
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the lookout for something new and interesting to do in Chicago? Try the American Writers Museum, the first U.S. museum devoted to authors. If you are a writer, you may find it\u2019s a tangible uplift. It both celebrates American … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"American Writers Museum: Chicago - Do you write? Inspire and celebrate your work amidst this vast peer group!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,266,1242,513,35,104,78,29],"tags":[1247,380,416,28,414],"class_list":["post-7085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-history","category-photography","category-poetry","category-real-life","category-the-morgue","category-travel","category-writing","tag-american-writers-museum","tag-chicago","tag-real-life","tag-writers","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1Qh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7085"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7089,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085\/revisions\/7089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}