HuffingtonPost UK 1/27/2012—As steel mills and other industry began shutting down across the Rust Belt in the recessions of the 1970s and 80s, a small group of Ohioans got together to try save their town and do more with less. Over the next 10 years the sides of dilapidated buildings in Steubenville, OH began to blossom with murals celebrating the city’s history as an industrial town and –surprisingly– the home of early film icon Dean Martin. Steubenville was soon re-christened the City of Murals and the artwork that decorated the once-depressed town brought in thousands of tourists (and much-needed tourist dollars).

My father Michael Wojczuk was the muralist for several of the first City of Murals projects and the idea of a city of murals awoke my imagination. I remember dad bringing home Steubenville t-shirts imprinted with steam pipes and the city’s motto ‘you gotta be tough!’ which I wore every day to elementary school while feeling very tough indeed. —Tana 

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Author and playwright Belinda McKeon reads tomorrow night (Tuesday) at Litquake‘s Young Ireland event here in San Fransisco.  Belinda’s gorgeous debut novel “Solace” came out this fall.

8pm at the Swedish American Hall on 2174 Market Street. Tickets are $10

Steubenville was soon re-christened the City of Murals and the artwork that decorated the once-depressed town brought in thousands of tourists (and much-needed tourist dollars). My father Michael Wojczuk was the muralist for several of the first City of Murals projects and the idea of a city of murals awoke my imagination. I remember dad bringing home Steubenville t-shirts imprinted with steam pipes and the city’s motto ‘you gotta be tough!’ which I wore every day to elementary school while feeling very tough indeed.

Read my essay on the mural project and check out Ohioan Tony Nicholas’ amazing photo essay on the City of Murals, here.  Photo courtesy Tony Nicholas.

Reading from an unpublished essay on the murder of Agatha Christie at the Elbo Room in San Francisco. One week after I moved to the bay area.
Literary Death Match with Tana Wojczuk

My essay The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at TheRumpus.net

Happy to report I’m safely moved to my new city by the bay and enjoying my new gig as the Online Editor  for adventure/ecology magazine MYOO. Check out the features there, which run from Anna Garforth’s incredible dirt graffitti to Graham Hill’s inquiry into the nature of being green.

Werner Herzog wants us to be aliens. The filmmaker is a man from outer space. His wide-eyed wonder sometimes tries my patience, as showing around an out of towner can begin as an opportunity to have a chance encounter with my own city but quickly becomes obnoxious. One can’t go around marveling at every skyscraper. But is it an adaptive skill to take these marvels of engineering for granted or have our aesthetic senses become too dull to marvel?

Read the rest at Bomb Magazine’s blog here…

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Directed by Werner Herzog. Photo by Marc Valesella

I sat down with the actress to discuss her new film Certified Copy.

I wrote a critical essay for Bomb focusing on the narrative innovations of Oscar-nominated documentaries Restrepo, Wasteland and Gasland. Check it out here.

Photo courtesy of/copyright Vic Muniz Studio

I’m excited to have a new piece published on the website of the venerable and fascinating Lapham’s Quarterly.