Bio

Relatively Short Bio:
Dr. Eve L. Ewing is a writer, scholar, and cultural organizer from Chicago. She is the award-winning author of four books: the poetry collections Electric Arches and 1919, the nonfiction work Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side, and a novel for young readers, Maya and the Robot. She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. She has written several projects for Marvel Comics, most notably the Ironheart series and Black Panther, and is currently writing Exceptional X-Men. Ewing is an associate professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other venues. Her next book, Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism, will be published by One World in February 2025.
[headshots for event flyers and so on can be found here]
[official academic page with curriculum vitae can be found here]

Names and Pronouns
I use the pronouns she/her, but they is also fine. Ewing is pronounced “you-wing.” It rhymes with “doing” or “chewing.” In print material (flyers, articles, etc.) please use my middle initial, as written in publications and on this website: Eve L. Ewing.

Not-Short Bio:
Dr. Eve Louise Ewing is a writer, scholar, and cultural organizer from Chicago. In addition to being an associate professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago, she is the award-winning author of four books. Her first collection of poetry, essays, and visual art, Electric Arches, was published by Haymarket Books in 2017; Publisher’s Weekly called it a “stunning debut” and NPR said that the book was marked by “a precision that is both beautiful and deeply uncomfortable.” Her second poetry collection, 1919, tells the story of the race riot that rocked Chicago in the summer of that year, and was adapted into a hit play by Steppenwolf Theatre. Her first book for elementary readers, Maya and the Robot, was published by Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers; The New York Times called it “a delightful tale” and Publisher’s Weekly noted that this “tender-hearted middle grade debut wholly conveys the strength it takes to come out of one’s shell, the thrill of discovery and creation, and the power of pursuing wonder.” Dr. Ewing has written several projects for Marvel Comics, most notably the Ironheart and Black Panther series and she’s currently telling mutant stories at the helm of Exceptional X-Men.

Right now she is working on her next book, Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism, which will be published by One World.

In addition to these solo-authored works, she is the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks, produced by Manual Cinema, and co-wrote the short story “Timebox” with Janelle Monáe as part of the queer Afrofuturist short story collection The Memory Librarian. She also cowrote the young adult graphic novel Change the Game with Colin Kaepernick, illustrated by Orlando Caicedo.

Her poems and essays have been published in many venues, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and Poetry Magazine.

Dr. Ewing has been an educator for many years in K-12, university, and community-based settings, including Chicago Public Schools, After School Matters, Harvard University, and Wellesley College. Currently, at the University of Chicago, she teaches courses on race, education, and Afrofuturism, and directs the Beyond Schools Lab and the Colloquium on Race, Education, and Social Transformation. She is also an occasional instructor for the Prison + Neighborhood Art Project, a visual arts and humanities project that connects teaching artists and scholars to folks incarcerated at Stateville Maximum Security Prison through classes, workshops and guest lectures. In previous years, Eve maintained an active visual arts practice, and was the first ever Artist-in-Residence at the Boston Children’s Museum, where she completed the installation A Map Home. She was also a member of the Steering Committee for developing the Boston Cultural Plan for the City of Boston from 2014-2015. She currently serves on boards or in an advisory capacity for the Words of Wonder Literary Festival, A Long Walk Home, Market Box/Ecosystems of Care, and the PEN America Writing for Justice Fellowship.

Born and raised in the Logan Square community of Chicago, she is a proud alum of Chicago Public Schools. She completed her doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Prior to that, she received an undergraduate degree with honors in English Language & Literature from the University of Chicago, with a focus on African-American literature of the twentieth century. She also holds an MAT in Elementary Education from Dominican University and an M.Ed in Education Policy and Management from Harvard. She loves her family and friends, videogames, cartoons, traveling, reading, baking bread, and food generally (making it for other people, eating it at restaurants, reading about it, talking about it, and thinking about it).

Awards & Honors:

• 2023 Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Outstanding Activist Intellectual and Scholar Award, Caribbean Philosophical Association

• 2022 MacDowell Fellow (James Baldwin Fellowship Recipient)

• 2021 USA Artists Fellow

• 2021 New America National Fellow

• 2020 Gordon J. Laing Award

• 2020 Black Excellence Award, African American Arts Alliance

• 2020 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow

• 2020 City of Literature Paul Engle Prize

• 2020 Distinguished Early Career Award, American Sociological Association Section on Children & Youth

• 2020 Public Humanities Award, Illinois Humanities

• 2020 Outstanding Ethnography in Education Book Award, University of Pennsylvania

• 2020 Best Poetry Book, Black Caucus of the American Library Association

• 2019 Twenty-First Century Award, Chicago Public Library Foundation

• 2019 Best Poetry Book, Chicago Review of Books

• 2019 Best Books of the Year, Chicago Public Library

• 2019 Best Teen Books of the Year, New York Public Library

• 2019 O.L. Davis Jr. Outstanding Book Award, American Association for Teaching and Curriculum

• 2019 Best Non-Fiction Book, Chicago Reader

• 2019 Best Chicagoan to Follow on Twitter, Chicago Reader

• 2019 Best Poet, Chicago Reader

• 2019 Honoree, Richard Frisbie Award for Adult Nonfiction, Society of Midland Authors

• 2019 Writer-in-Residence, Jack Jones Literary Arts Retreat

• 2018 Best Non-Fiction Book, Chicago Review of Books

• 2018 Crains Chicago Business 40 Under 40

• 2018 Norma Farber First Book Award, Poetry Society of America

• 2018 Alex Award, American Library Association

• 2018 Courage Award, Harvard Graduate School of Education

• 2017 Top Ten Books of the Year, Chicago Tribune

• 2017 Excellence in Literary Community Award (Chicago Independent Bookstore Alliance)

• 2017 Best Poetry Book, Chicago Review of Books

• 2017 Top Ten Books of the Year, noted by the Chicago Public Library

• 2017 Best Chicagoan to Follow on Twitter (Chicago Reader Best of Chicago)

• 2017 Honorable Mention, Freedom Plow Award for Poetry and Activism (with Nate Marshall)

• 2017 Doing the Work Award, granted by Being Black at School

• 2016-2017 Dissertation Award, American Educational Research Association (Division G: Social Contexts of Education)

• 2017 Focus Fellowship recipient, AIR Serenbe

• 2016 Writer-in-Residence, WordXWord Festival

• 2015 Artist-in-Residence, Boston Children's Museum

• 2011-2016 Presidential Scholar, Harvard University