Rebecca Tirrell Talbot has many part-time identities. She is an adjunct professor, teaching English at Concordia University and a writing-intensive freshman seminar at North Park University. She is a part-time technical writer (and thus, she has adopted the mantra, "technically, I should be writing") and works on her own creative nonfiction, too.
She enjoys writing about Chicago, where she and her husband Sean live, and her thesis about Chicago's Uptown neighborhood won an outstanding thesis award from Roosevelt University.
Can we use sad music any way we see fit? Or does the disclosure of pain oblige us to think carefully about the way we listen?
I had no paradigm for my grandfather’s quiet faith, but his journal changed all that.
It’s Jonathan Richman’s lack of snide irony that lets him indulge in wonder.
In Bright Star, Jane Campion steers the love story of Fanny Brawne and John Keats away from sentimentality.
The joys, and pros, and cons of participating in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).
826 CHI: your one-stop shop for tutoring and supplies for your work as a secret agent.
Refugee Beads and Village Gatherings help establish connections and make lasting changes in the life of refugees – and Americans.
Growing up, my family and I vacationed in an Upstate New York cabin. A lake spread out, cold and tranquil, just across a gravel road. Hiking trails looped through the woods, a nature center offered pamphlets and kayaks, and our neighbors let us borrow their canoe. Did I visit the nature center to learn about [...]
David SampsonPhoto: David Sampson
Two hundred people fill a sparsely furnished sanctuary, singing at the top of their lungs. They are untrained singers with plenty of vocal eccentricities. No instruments give the right key or take the edge off the voices’ peculiarities. Stumbling upon a scenario like this would make many people flee for the exits. [...]
It’s the mantra of CTA riding: “If you see someone acting suspiciously, please inform CTA personnel immediately.” The thing is, if we took that mantra seriously, we’d be on the intercom every five minutes or so.