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Selected Works


I Walked the length of Chicago
Op-ed in Chicago Tribune 8/23/25 on the social and environmental benefits of walking in cities.
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Aug 231 min read


“Lessons for a Tukkikat”
Alone, on long walks, the memories still come to me, arising out of the streets of Chicago or along the pilgrim’s path of Santiago,...
Michael McColly
Aug 31 min read


Caring in Viral Times
Amid widespread indifference toward the most vulnerable, even small acts of kindness can make a difference. L ike her mother, who had...
Michael McColly
Dec 9, 20201 min read


Walking in Indianapolis
From 71st St. to the Circle and back — walking Indy The promise and problems of Indy's 'Open Road' Last summer, I was sitting in what was...
Michael McColly
Nov 15, 20151 min read


In the Heat of the City: Remembering Eugene Williams
“It is a terrible, an inexorable, law that one cannot deny the humanity of another without diminishing one’s own: in the face of one’s...
Michael McColly
Sep 8, 20151 min read


The Last Village by the Lake
Lying in my bed late into the night, if I hold my body still and concentrate, I can hear the waves of Lake Michigan. I wait for the El to...
Michael McColly
Aug 20, 20141 min read


Losing The Trail
We finally find her by the side of the road, standing in a clump of chalk-blue chicory, fingering yellow coneflowers, a few feet from a...
Michael McColly
Aug 1, 20131 min read


We Decided To Call It Baseball
The day after my mother told him the news, he called. His voice cracked, and I could hear him trying to pick up his words and hand them...
Michael McColly
Apr 7, 20021 min read
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