Writing

Dr. Eve L. Ewing is the author of multiple award-winning books and many other projects across genre and medium. Here’s the rundown, in chronological order: the 2017 poetry collection Electric Arches, of which National Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith said, “While reading, I found myself continually thinking, I had no idea you could make poetry do that, followed by, Thank God she has done this." The 2018 nonfiction book Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side, which NPR called “superbly written and researched… at once poignant and deeply troubling.” The 2019 poetry collection 1919, which Booklist called “technically brilliant and sure to galvanize adults and teens alike” and which was adapted into a hit play by Steppenwolf Theatre. The 2021 novel for young readers Maya and the Robot, which The New York Times called a “tender-hearted” book that “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.” Eve has also written several comics for Marvel. Her titles include Black Panther, which ComicBook.com called “a brilliant new direction,” “endlessly interesting,” and executed “flawlessly,” Ironheart (of which The Mary Sue praised for showing “the psychological weight of what it means to be young, gifted, and black”), Marvel Team-Up (which Polygon named as one of the top ten Spider-Man stories of all time), Champions and the Outlawed event (which Black Nerd Problems praised for mirroring “real-world events like the authoritarian nature of government and police forces, as well as the protests that come in response to these breaches of authority”) and Monica Rambeau: Photon (a historic first solo series for the first Black woman Avenger).

Eve is also prolific as a collaborator. She is the co-author, with Nate Marshall, of the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks, produced by Manual Cinema. Chicago Magazine called the production “so weird and innovative, it's hard to describe... like being on the set of a Hollywood movie and watching it on-screen at the same time." (As part of that project, they wrote a short video adaptation of the classic poem “We Real Cool,” featuring original music by Jamila Woods. You should watch it. It’s very fun.) She 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. She also worked with Jacqueline Woodson’s organization Baldwin for the Arts in partnership with Incite and the Oral History Archives at Columbia University to develop an archive of oral histories of Black Chicago elders sharing their experiences of migration.

In the world of audio, Eve wrote a segment for the This American Life episode “Name. Age. Detail.” She also wrote and hosted the WFMT podcast Bughouse Square with Eve Ewing, featuring interviews from the Studs Terkel Archive paired with interviews with Darnell Moore, Adam Mansbach, Imani Perry, Min Jin Lee, and Erika L. Sánchez. She also was a consultant for the hit podcast Nice White Parents, from Serial Productions and The New York Times. In TV and film, she has served as a consulting producer on CNN’s United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell and a consultant for the film Wrong Answer (directed by Ryan Coogler and written by Ta-Nehisi Coates) and for the Disney+ limited series Ironheart (created by Chinaka Hodge).

A few of the collected volumes and anthologies Eve has contributed to include Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song, and New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent.

Eve’s essays and poems have been published everywhere from Vanity Fair to Poetry. Some of them are listed below.