Dr. Eve L. Ewing was born and raised in Chicago’s Logan Square community, the daughter of a radio reporter/producer and an artist. A sociologist, organizer, and writer across genres, she holds a BA with honors in English language and literature with a focus on 20th-century African-American literature from the University of Chicago, an MAT in elementary education from Dominican University, an M.Ed in education policy and management from Harvard University, and a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Ewing’s published works include the poetry collections Electric Arches (Haymarket, 2017) and 1919 (Haymarket, 2020), the nonfiction monograph Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side, and the novel for young readers Maya and the Robot. She has written for projects with Marvel Comics such as Black Panther, the Ironheart series, and the forthcoming Exceptional X-Men. With Nate Marshall, she co-authored the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks, and she collaborated with Janelle Monáe on the short story “Timebox” and with Colin Kaepernick on the YA graphic novel Change the Game.
Ewing’s award-winning poems and essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Nation, The Washington Post, Poetry, and numerous other venues. Her work has been recognized by the Poetry Society of America, the Chicago Review of Books, NPR, LitHub, MacDowell, as well as many other publications and institutions.
Ewing is an assistant professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. Her sociological research focuses on racism, social inequality, and urban policy, particularly as they relate to American public schools. She directs the University of Chicago’s Beyond Schools Lab and the Colloquium on Race, Education, and Social Transformation. A career educator across age ranges and groups, Ewing is an occasional instructor for the Prison + Neighborhood Art Project, which provides those incarcerated at Stateville Maximum Security Prison with workshops and classes from teaching artists and scholars. She currently serves on boards or in an advisory capacity for the Words of Wonder Literary Festival, the PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship, and other organizations. Her next nonfiction work, Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism will be published in February 2025 by One World Books.
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More Eve L. Ewing
Video: Ewing reads her poem "I saw Emmett Till this week at the grocery store"
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Photo by Nolis Anderson.