Episode 12: Connie Schultz on growing a big life from small town roots

Every small town has the power to keep you stuck or set you free. No matter where our roots began, we all have a big, bold adventure before us. What are we waiting for? Connie Schultz will inspire you to go after yours.

In “The Daughters of Erietown,” Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Connie Schultz explores the hardships, hurts and hurdles a working class family faces in a small Midwest town. Connie also talks about growing up in Ashtabula and how she had to leave to decide who she wanted to be.

In her debut novel, you’ll meet Ellie and Brick, whose dreams die young, and their daughter, Samantha, who gets to dream bigger. Ellie wants to be a nurse; Brick is a basketball star on the edge of a dream. An unplanned pregnancy changes everything for them.

Connie writes of their hidden longings, their sacrifices and a knock on the door that rocks their world. She also takes you on a journey through the social evolution of women and how they find their voice as the world around them changes.

Connie gives a voice to the working class, through the characters in her novel, and also in her columns. She has written often about her father’s lunch pail and her mom’s work as a nurse’s aide. For so many people in working class families, even small dreams get derailed because there’s no money to fix the problems that come along.

Her parents dreamed big for her. Her dad told her no child of his would carry a lunch pail to work. Connie was the first in her family to go to college. She talks about her parents, who “wore their bodies out so their children would never have to,” and her brother, Chuckie, to whom she dedicated the book.

Connie tells us that, “All of us, each of us, is better than our biggest mistake.” And reminds us that, “Our roots are our beginning, but they are not our excuses.”

The girl who was told she couldn’t be a writer by one teacher in her small town, went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary, write two memoirs and a New York Times best selling novel.

Official Bio:

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize winning, nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate, and Professional in Residence at Kent State University School of Journalism. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for Commentary for columns that judges praised for providing “a voice for the underdog and the underprivileged.”  She also won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Social Justice Reporting and the Batten Medal, which honors “a body of journalistic work that reflects compassion, courage, humanity and a deep concern for the underdog.” 

Connie is the author of three books published by Random House: “Life Happens – And Other Unavoidable Truths,” a collection of essays, and “…and His Lovely Wife,” a memoir about her husband Sherrod Brown’s successful 2006 race for the U.S. Senate. Her first novel, “The Daughters of Erietown” was released in June and is a New York Times bestseller.

Connie and her husband have four grown children and seven grandchildren. They live in Cleveland, Ohio with their rescue dogs Franklin and Walter.

The best way to follow her is through Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/schultz.connie