Robert Wolf (born c. 1944) is an American writer, journalist, and entrepreneur. His non-fiction writing focuses on everyday life, frequently that of farmers and other rural Americans.
[
]
Award
Wolf is past recipient of the Bronze Medal for radio commentary and the Sigma Delta Chi Award, both from the Society of Professional Journalists.
Personal life
Robert Wolf spent his formative years wandering the United States, searching for the "American Soul." As an adolescent his goal was to "work every job in the country, live in every town and city and have conversations with everyone."During the 1960s and 70s, Wolf hitchhiked and rode freight trains across country, while seeking out iconic American types. Poets & Writers Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organizations in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The organization publishes a bi-monthly magazine called ''Poets & Writers Magazine'', ...
wrote "he was a ranch hand in New Mexico, a journalist in Chicago, a teacher in an inner-city Brooklyn school and at a penitentiary, as well as a doctoral candidate in philosophy, a dabbler in art, a hitchhiker and hobo."
Career
By 1987, having settled in Chicago, Wolf wrote a weekly column and features for the ''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
''. In 1988 he married singer and artist Bonnie Koloc
Bonnie Koloc (born February 6, 1946) is an American folk music singer-songwriter, actress and artist. She was considered one of the three main Illinois-based folk singers in the 1970s, along with Steve Goodman and John Prine forming the "trinity ...
and the couple moved to Nashville, where Wolf organized a writing workshop for the homeless. In 1990, Wolf, along with Steven Meinbresse, established Free River Press, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Initially intended as a publishing vehicle for the homeless, Wolf expanded the press's mission to "create a collective autobiography of America.
When Wolf and Koloc moved to rural Iowa, Wolf began running writing workshops for neighboring farmers. The workshop resulted in three books published by Free River Press. Since then Wolf has conducted workshops not only throughout the Midwest, but in the Mississippi Delta, the Southwest, and in New York and Chicago.
In 1999, Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
published '' An American Mosaic: Prose and Poetry by Everyday Folk'', selected from the first nine years of Free River Press writings.
His early Iowa experiences led Wolf to begin writing about the ongoing farm and rural crisis and to begin, in 1994, writing about the need for rural America to develop self-reliant, decentralized regional economies.
Free River Press publications have appeared on CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
News Sunday as well as NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
's ''All Things Considered
''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...
'' and ''Morning Edition
''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 A ...
''. Since 2010 Wolf lhas produced a weekly radio program for Free River Press, ''American Mosaic'', airing on community stations in a dozen states.
Education
Wolf obtained his degrees from Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
.
Bibliography
*''In Search of America'' (forthcoming), Stay Thirsty Publishing, Chicago.
*'' The Triumph of Technique: The Industrialization of Agriculture and the Destruction of Rural America''
*'' An American Mosaic: Prose and Poetry by Everyday Folk''
*'' Jump Start: How to Write from Everyday Life'' Oxford University Press, 2001.
*'' Story Jazz: A History of Chicago Jazz Styles''
*'' Crazeology: The Autobiography of a Chicago Jazzman'' (by Bud Freeman
Lawrence "Bud" Freeman (April 13, 1906 – March 15, 1991) was an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer, known mainly for playing tenor saxophone, but also the clarinet.
Biography
In 1922, Freeman and some friends from high sc ...
as told to Wolf)
* Driftless Dreams, a play. Ruskin Press, 2007.
*''Iowa: Living in the Third World'', published in The Des Moines Register
''The Des Moines Register'' is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa.
History Early period
The first newspaper in Des Moines was the ''Iowa Star''. In July 1849, Barlow Granger began the paper in an abandoned log cabin by the junction ...
on July 16, 1995.
References
Other sources
*Wolf, Robert. "A Search for America", Journal of Rural Mental Health, February 6, 2008.
*Wolf, Robert. "In Search of America"
*Anderson, Greta. "Free River Press: Giving Voice to the Forgotten", Poets & B Writers, November/December 1999
*Kogan, Rick. "Of Quiet Lives", ''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'', September 12, 1999.
*Meyers, Rebecca. "Empowering the Human Spirit through Reading and Writing", A.B. Bookman's weekly, September 1993.
*Marshall, Brenda. "Voice for the Homeless", ''The Progressive
''The Progressive'' is a left-leaning American magazine and website covering politics and culture. Founded in 1909 by U.S. senator Robert M. La Follette Sr. and co-edited with his wife Belle Case La Follette, it was originally called ''La Follett ...
'', August 1991.
External links
Books by Robert Wolf
*
' a
Iowa State University, Department of Sociology, Rural Sociology, Social Inequality, Criminal Justice
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf, Robert
Living people
1940s births