This month’s Q&A focused on Michele Weldon of River Forest, Illinois — an author, journalist, and Northwestern University assistant professor emeritus.
Weldon’s career as a journalist has spanned about 40 years. She has freelanced with the Chicago Tribune, written columns for the Dallas Times Herald. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, USA Today, CNN and other publications. She’s also the editorial director of the women’s organization Take The Lead and a seminar leader with the OpEd project, which strives to uplift underrepresented voices in writing.
Following the release of Weldon’s seventh book, “The Time We Have,” in July, I asked her about striking the balance between journalistic and literary writing — and how knowledge of the two disciplines helps to nourish a well-rounded narrative voice.
EJ: “The Time We Have” is your most recent work, released in the summer of 2024. How has it been received?
Michele: Yes, thank you, this is my seventh book and my second book of essays. The reviews have been very good and thoughtful and responses from readers have been uplifting. The best comments come from people I don’t know, was not expecting to have read it or to take the time to review. I received this last week:
“I’m enjoying your book. With coffee in hand, it’s become the very 1st thing I do in the morning for 60 uninterrupted minutes. Admittedly, reading in the morning or for pure enjoyment has never been my thing. Ever. I’m embarrassed to say that most everything I read is related to integrative medicine, mindfulness, coaching, getting paid for what you love, and on and on because I feel like I’m never enough so the more info I can cram into my head the better. Well, I think you’ve just changed this for me. The 60-minutes with your book in hand is one of my favorite parts of the day. Actually, it’s become a form of self-care. Thank you! With every page, I relish being drawn into your stories and feel honored to have the opportunity to get to know you – your love of family, life’s joys, passions, successes, friendships, fears, and everything in between. You are such a talented writer. I can’t wait to dive in again tomorrow morning!”
EJ: Do you feel “The Time We Have,” in tone or content, diverges in any meaningful ways from your previous personal essay collections?
Michele: My 2020 collection, “Act Like You’re Having A Good Time,” was lighter and held more humorous moments. In this new collection, I cover more ground with grief and despair — reflective of the period of the pandemic when so many people endured loss and heartbreak. I also touch on my own diagnosis with cancer the second time around and the jolting feeling of not being in control. There is also humor and levity in “The Time We Have,” and I feel both books incorporate the complexity of life. Of course, each of the essays in both books are written indifferent times, with different moods and mindsets, so they are truly a collection of insights. I am enjoying the process of writing books of essays because as a writer I can jump into a completely different topic in each chapter.
EJ: You’ve worked in academic as well as journalistic spheres — in addition to writing and publishing collections. What merits and challenges do you find in these different, but adjacent, disciplines?
Michele: I taught narrative journalism and multimedia at the Medill School at Northwestern University for 18 years, so I was always writing essays and creative nonfiction. I wrote a handful of academic journal articles and book chapters about the process of journalism and a book on narrative journalism, so I would not say I do academic writing. Teaching is a joy and I still do that with my work through The OpEd Project, and while there is deep line editing there, I am not grading scores of papers in one day. I have always stood firm in professional journalism, as while I was on faculty, I was also a weekly columnist for the Chicago Tribune, and monthly columnist for a local magazine, where I have been writing for 25 years. I am still writing for many media outlets and that has been a constant for decades. The merits of academia are in comradery and constant change with each new class of students and each new assignment. The challenges I found at the university were an overload of meetings, so there was little time to be actively creative. Writing books and book chapters is very freeing; my voice is what I choose it to be that moment, and I am not affiliated with any institution other than myself. I have editors who respect my work and challenge me and I embrace the learning I do in every edit.
EJ: Where do the skills or insights you use in these three fields intersect?
Michele: The umbrella that covers both these fields is storytelling and truth. Journalism is based on rendering accurate reflections of whatever or whoever is making the news. Teaching journalism is about guiding other storytellers to understand the parameters and to create their own style. Writing creative nonfiction books is about telling the truth as I see it — and most often it is memoir-based — so it is not in the outside news, but the truth of internal discovery. Phrasemaking is a skill in both fields. Whether it is in talking about good writing or producing good writing.
EJ: Do you find it easy to switch between different types of writing, or do you sometimes have trouble transitioning between a journalistic and a literary voice? What helps you shift your mood from one style to another?
Michele: I never did “hard news” with a regurgitation of facts. Even when I covered large news events, I did it with a leaning to creative nonfiction journalism. I do not feel I have an on and off switch. But I do write a weekly business column and a weekly newsletter as editorial director for Take The Lead, a women’s leadership nonprofit. The blog I write was recently named No. 10 in a list of the 35 best women’s leadership blogs nationwide. For my weekly business column that is about a topic that week, I gather dozens of sources and try to deftly work them into a cohesive piece. But I am writing from my head — using my intellect. I get to widen my approach when I am writing essays and books; I so enjoy the notion of writing from my head and my heart, allowing emotion and more nimble connections in my work, flipping time frames and moving from scene to scene. I write on deadline each week for my column and for op-eds I may be assigned, and I can do that no problem. I need to be quiet, free from interruption and able to spend a large chunk of time — maybe the entire day — just writing. No interruptions with meetings or calls or deadlines.
EJ: Tell me about your involvement with the OpEd Project. Does it inform your writing process?
Michele: I have been a senior facilitator with The OpEd Project since 2011 and it is magnificent work. We train underrepresented voices in academia, foundations, institutions, nonprofits, individuals, communities all over the world to clearly communicate their ideas utilizing their expertise. I have edited, mentored and coached more than 2,000 individuals to produce commentary in major outlets, give TEDxtalks and speeches and be recognized as leaders in their field. The work has taken me all over the world, across the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Africa. I have led fellowships at Stanford, Princeton, Northwestern, Loyola, DePaul universities, plus coached doctors and nurses at Massachusetts General Hospital, Rush University Hospital, and cohorts of advocates on homelessness from University of California-San Francisco, and formerly incarcerated [people] at the Transformational Justice Center. I learn so much everyday. They are brilliant and know their fields so well, but they do not know how to communicate their ideas in a broad media landscape. They learn those skills and their lives change — they then are called to write books, testify before Congress and the U.N. and speak around the world. It teaches me not to be afraid because they are fearless.
EJ: What do you think being involved in so many different areas of writing does for your own work?
Michele: Aside from paying all my bills, and keeping me comfortable, I learn every day something I never knew. Whether it is about the financial hazards of caring for someone with dementia, or the reckless pushback in hospitals to DEI, or the lack of safe water in prisons — all that I learned from my OpEd Project fellows — or the latest trends in corporate leadership, or even staying up with the latest news on gender and popular culture for my own commentary writing, I feel that new ideas and exposure to different ways of thinking make any writer stronger. I see different writing styles and learn about places I have never been and will likely never see. Every moment spent learning is good for me as a writer. Observing and listening are key to good writing.
EJ: Is there anything else you would like to mention?
Michele: Reading good writing is essential. I enjoy creative nonfiction books from the classics to the current. I am always picking up a book of essays here and there to see their strategies. At some point, I may try to write fiction again, but I did try once and it was awful. It seems I do not know how to make something out of nothing — perhaps too many years as a journalist that facts, reality and truth are forever in my DNA.
Pretty Good Pieces’s Q&A section sits down with people in creative industries to discuss the inspirations, workflow, and significance behind their art. These interviews are published monthly alongside the magazine and conducted by editor-in-chief EJ Haas.
