Carol Spindel writes nonfiction books, essays, and radio pieces on topics including West Africa, African art, stereotypes of Native Americans, the history of Paris, and her hometown, Memphis, Tennessee. She taught nonfiction writing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the now-defunct but much-missed University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival. She is also an activist with the ACLU and a ceramic artist who exhibits her work nationally.