Beth Finke

NPR commentator Beth Finke is an award-winning author, teacher and journalist. She also happens to be blind.

Beth’s memoir, Long Time, No See was named one of the Chicago Tribune’s favorite non-fiction books for 2003 and made the Book Sense 76 Top Ten list of university press books. Her children’s book about Seeing Eye dogs — Hanni and Beth: Safe & Soundwas published by Blue Marlin Publications in October, 2007 and won an ASPCA Henry Bergh Childrens Book Award in 2008. A story she wrote about animal intelligence was included in National Geographic School Publishing’s Lend Me a Paw anthology in 2012. She is hard at work on a third book, this one about the memoir classes she leads for senior citizens in Chicago.

Since 2004 she has led memoir-writing classes for the City of Chicago. She also leads classes for Lincoln Park Village and has taught at 4th Presbyterian Church's Center for Lifelong Learning.

"Writing Out Loud," Beth's book about what she and her memoir classes learned together, was published by Golden Alley Press in April, 2017.