Season 4, Episode 10: Dani McClain

In this episode of Inside the Writer's Head, Jessica Strawser introduces us to her successor here at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, 2020 Writer-in-Residence Dani McClain. Known for her in-depth reporting on race and reproductive health, Dani McClain is a contributing writer at The Nation and a fellow with Type Media Center (formerly the Nation Institute). Her writing has appeared in Time, Slate, Talking Points Memo, Colorlines, EBONY.com, The Rumpus, and other prestigious outlets. Her work has received a James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, as well as recognition by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, and elsewhere. A former staff reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, McClain has worked as a strategist with organizations including Color of Change and Drug Policy Alliance. Her book, We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood, was published April 2019 by Bold Type Books. In this episode, they discuss McClain's path to finding her voice as a writer, making it heard, coming back to her Cincinnati hometown as a mother, and what she has in store for the Library community in the year ahead.