Eve Ewing facts for kids

Eve Louise Ewing (born 1986) is an American sociologist, author, poet, and visual artist from Chicago, Illinois. She is a professor at the University of Chicago. Eve Ewing is known for her books, poetry, and for writing comic books for Marvel, including the Ironheart series.

Early Life and Education

Eve Ewing grew up in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago. Her mother was a radio reporter, and her father was an artist. She went to Northside College Preparatory High School and was part of a group called Young Chicago Authors.

Ewing attended the University of Chicago for her first degree, where she studied English and African-American literature. She then earned a Master of Arts in Teaching from Dominican University. After that, she taught Language Arts to middle school students in Chicago Public Schools. Later, she went to Harvard Graduate School of Education for more advanced degrees, earning a Master's in Education Policy and a doctorate.

Career Highlights

Eve Ewing is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago. She works in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity. She is also part of the university's Committee on Education.

Ewing is very involved in the Chicago community. She helped create and now runs the Emerging Poets Incubator and the Chicago Poetry Block Party. She also teaches with the Prison + Neighborhood Art Project, which connects artists and scholars with people in prison. She is also on the board of MassLEAP, a group that supports young people through spoken-word poetry.

Eve Ewing is also well-known on Twitter. Her account, called "Wikipedia Brown," had millions of views each month.

Research on Schools

Much of Eve Ewing's academic research focuses on why schools close. She wrote her doctorate paper on school closures in Chicago. This paper became the basis for her 2018 book, Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side.

Ghosts in the Schoolyard looks at what happened to public schools in Chicago's Bronzeville area after public housing was torn down. It also explores how communities tried to keep their schools open, including a hunger strike. In her book, Ewing talks about "institutional mourning." This means the many negative effects people feel when schools in their neighborhoods close. Her work shows that school closures can harm children's futures and erase a community's history.

Writing and Poetry

Eve Ewing writes poetry, essays, and journalism, in addition to her academic work. Her writing has been recognized with awards and nominations. She has written for many well-known publications like Poetry Magazine, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.

Her poetry often explores similar themes to her research, such as the Black experience and Black feminism.

Electric Arches

Ewing's first book, Electric Arches, was published in 2017. It is a collection of poetry, prose, and visual art. Ewing has said that everything in the book is based on real events from her life.

Electric Arches was named one of the most anticipated books of 2017 by Publishers Weekly. It won a 2018 Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association, which is part of the American Library Association. It also won the Chicago Review of Books 2017 poetry award and the Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award.

1919

Her book 1919 is a collection of poems and children's songs. It is based on the events of the Chicago race riot of 1919, which started after a young boy named Eugene Williams drowned in Lake Michigan. The book includes parts from "The Negro In Chicago," a study written after the riots to understand what happened.

The poems in 1919 talk about how African-American communities have been erased and targeted. Ewing describes a society that "makes a game of devising ways to make us disappear." She also shows how history often "wears a mask stitched from our stories, but never says our names." 1919 was published in 2019 and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by NPR, Chicago Tribune, and O Magazine.

Children's Books

In 2021, Eve Ewing wrote Maya and the Robot, illustrated by Christine Almeda. This book is about an introverted fifth grader who finds a robot named Ralph. Ralph helps her get used to being in a new classroom without her best friends.

In 2023, Ewing also co-wrote a young adult memoir with Colin Kaepernick called Colin Kaepernick: Change the Game (Graphic Novel Memoir).

Comic Books

Eve Ewing is also a comic book writer for Marvel. She wrote the Ironheart series, which started in 2018. Ironheart is about a young hero named Riri Williams. She has also written for Ms. Marvel, Marvel Team-Up, Champions, and Monica Rambeau. In 2023, she became the first Black female writer for the Black Panther series. In 2024, she started writing Exceptional X-Men.

Theater Work

In 2019, Eve Ewing and Nate Marshall, as Crescendo Literary, created a play called No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. This play was made to honor the 100th birthday of the famous poet Gwendolyn Brooks.

Visual Art

Besides her writing and research, Eve Ewing is also a visual artist. In 2016, she was the first Artist-in-Residence at the Boston Children's Museum. Her art installation there, "A Map Home," explored ideas about place and childhood adventures.

Podcast

In 2018, Eve Ewing started a podcast called Bughouse Square. In each episode, she uses old recordings of oral historian Studs Terkel and then interviews a guest about similar topics. The podcast connects important conversations from the past with today's issues.

Personal Life

Eve Ewing is married to Damon Jones, who is also a professor.

Awards and Recognition

• 2016–2017 Distinguished Dissertation Award, American Educational Research Association
• 2017 Emerging Power Players, Chicago
• 2019 Twenty-First Century Award, Chicago Public Library Foundation
• 2020 Black Excellence Award, African American Arts Alliance, for literature
• 2020 Paul Engle Prize
• 2020 Distinguished Early Career Award, American Sociological Association Section on Children & Youth
• 2023 Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Outstanding Activist Intellectual and Scholar Award

Recognition for Electric Arches

• 2017 Top Ten Books of the Year, Chicago Tribune
• 2017 CPL Top 10 Best Books of the Year, Chicago Public Library
• 2017 Best Poetry Book, Chicago Review of Books
• 2017 Best Books of 2017, NPR
• Earphones Award
• 2018 Alex Award, Young Adult Library Services Association of the American Library Association
• 2018 Norma Farber First Book Award

Recognition for 1919

• 2019 Best Books of 2019, NPR
• 2019 Notable Books of 2019, Chicago Tribune
• 2019 Best Poetry Book of 2019, Chicago Review of Books
• 2019 Best Books by Women of Summer 2019, O Magazine
• 2019 Must-Read Poetry of June 2019, The Millions
• 2019 Most Anticipated Reads of Summer 2019, LitHub
• 2020 Best Poetry Book, Black Caucus of the American Library Association

Recognition for Ghosts in the Schoolyard

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