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Process

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02:35
Erika L. Sánchez
“I think for me SOLITUDE is really ESSENTIAL to writing.”
03:02
Ligiah Villalobos
“The way that I approach story first is what is it that I want to SAY, not what is the story that I want to TELL.”
03:27
Jose de Jesus Ortiz
“The BEAUTY of being a baseball writer is that there’s no TYPICAL work day.”
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03:16
Vu Tran
"It’s RITUALIZED not because I’m a devoted writer. It’s because I’m LAZY."
01:19
Ngozi Ukazu
"When I'm drawing my comic, I can give as much information as I WANT. That directorial CONTROL is really, it can be a little bit INTOXICATING."
03:30
Laila Lalami
"I think that REGARDLESS of a writer’s background, the writer’s perspective is ANCHORED in who they are as a person and the sum of their experiences."
03:28
Misa Sugiura
"The TOUGH part is that a situation is not a story, and so that’s the hardest part of writing for me, is to come up with a DIRECTION for that character to go from the situation that they’re in."
02:38
Jenny Xie
"There might be a SPARK between some bit of language and some question I’d stored away for years, and then that, they seem to INTUITUVELY belong together, and I’ll see what that does on the page"
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01:59
Pablo Cartaya
"It’s why my stories are very PERSONAL and dear to me because it’s always like I’m whispering a SECRET to my ABUELA."
02:17
Joseph O'Neill
"You have to FIGHT for your writing time."
02:16
Yiyun Li
"My philosophy is you always START from the UNKNOWN and when you write you get to know a little bit better, just getting CLOSER, but never there."
03:32
José Olivarez
"Like what does it look like to imagine a FUTURE with Latinx people that is not just DEATH, that is not just DEPORTATION, that not just ASSIMILATION, right?"

Explore the Exhibit

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Object Stories
Why Writing?
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American Writers Museum
180 N. Michigan Avenue, 2nd Floor
Chicago, IL 60601

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To Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation Mind of a Writer Gallery
To Wintrust Chicago Gallery

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