Deborah Swiss

On April 16th, Massachusetts celebrates Patriots' Day, a local holiday that honors the start of America's struggle for independence. For the past thirty years, I've lived in historic Lexington, down the street from the site that marks the battle that sparked the American Revolution. Yet I have never felt more...

March 8 is International Women's Day. This year's theme focuses on ending hunger and poverty so it's especially fitting to consider the legacy of the 25,000 convict maids shipped from Great Britain to Australia, the vast majority sentenced for crimes born from hunger and desperation.

Today an estimated one...

What makes a reader race to a comfy chair ready to curl up with a new book in hand? It's the same magical sense of surprise, discovery, and inspiration that keeps us writers writing.

Australia has just launched the National Year of Reading. Aussies proudly read more books per...

The holidays offer a special time to share the cherished traditions that our children will remember and pass on to the next generation. Gathering our families together for dinners and celebrations, it's easy to forget what a long road it's been for some of our ancestors and the lucky chain...

There's a new breed of activists on the rise. Mothers at mid-life are banding together around the rhetorical question: If we don't help this planet, who will? It's a different spin on the imperative to save Mother Earth but both share an urgency to roll up our sleeves and do...

The stomping grounds for the first female flash mob might seem an odd choice for the latest addition to the UNESCO World Heritage List as a site selected for "outstanding universal value." But after spending the last six years trying to uncover the accurate history of the skinny, pock-marked women...