Columnist, "Ask Amy"
Amy Dickinson: Biography at a Glance
- For more than a decade, advice columnist Amy Dickinson’s “Ask Amy: Advice for the Real World” has appeared in over 150 newspapers and been read by over 22 million readers daily.
- In her straightforward, yet traditional replies, Amy has covered issues ranging from online gambling and cyberbullying to gun ownership and transgender rights.
- A regular voice on NPR, she is a panelist on the popular NPR quiz show Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me and broadcasts her radio stories on All Things Considered.
- A sought-after speaker, Dickinson draws from personal experience as well as from her columns to deliver inspiring and comic stories of her adventures and misadventures in parenting, "adult-ing", and belonging to a community and family in the digital age.
Media
Biography
For more than a decade, advice columnist Amy Dickinson’s “Ask Amy: Advice for the Real World” has appeared in over 150 newspapers and been read by over 22 million readers daily. In her straightforward, yet traditional replies, Amy has covered issues ranging from online gambling and cyberbullying to gun ownership and transgender rights. A regular voice on NPR, she is a panelist on the popular NPR quiz show Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me and broadcasts her radio stories on All Things Considered.
A sought-after speaker, Dickinson draws from personal experience as well as from her columns to deliver inspiring and comic stories of her adventures and misadventures in parenting, "adult-ing", and belonging to a community and family in the digital age.
Succeeding legendary advice columnist Ann Landers, Amy turns the homespun advice collected from her years as a single mother living in both urban and small-town America into sage wisdom for her legion of fans. A profile of Dickinson published in The Atlantic Monthly suggested that if Jesus wore a t-shirt, it would say, “What Would Amy Do?”
Growing up in the small town of Freeville, New York, population 505, Dickinson was heavily influenced by the stories and life-lessons passed down by her large extended family. Always interested in people and their stories, Dickinson feels that “one of the pleasures of being an advice columnist is that I'm granted little glimpses into the human condition.”
After leaving her Chicago home in 2007 to return to Freeville to care for her elderly mother, Amy reconnected with a high school friend, whom she would marry, and got a new full-time job: stepmother to her husband’s girls. The memoir based on this return to Freeville, Strangers Tend to Tell Me Things, was released in March 2017. “Funny, generous, thoughtful, and wonderfully crisp,” wrote Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, “Dickinson’s memoir is one of those tales that make you proud to be a human–with all our hopes, failures, and graces intact.”
A monthly host on The Moth in Chicago, Amy has been published in Esquire, O magazine, The New York Times, and The Washington Post and has been a guest on The Today Show and CNN's American Morning.
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Ask Amy...Get All the Answers
Amy Dickinson earned her Master’s degree in Human Experience. Taking the backroads and learning as she went, Dickinson worked her way through the news world before taking over for Ann Landers. Life experience in hand, Dickinson has amassed a following of 22 million readers, all with questions that beg for answers. Carefully considering the lessons each question poses, Dickinson talks about finding the answers to life’s biggest questions and unlocking happiness and success.
In this 60 to 90-minute presentation, Amy Dickinson brings her wealth of advice to your audience. Your community sends in questions, and Amy answers them on stage. Be a part of a what could be a life-changing event with “Ask Amy…Get All the Answers.”
For over a decade, advice columnist Amy Dickinson’s “Ask Amy: Advice for the Real World” appears in over 200 newspapers including The Chicago Tribune, Newsday, and The Washington Post.
Starting Fresh: The Fine Art of the Do-Over
“I make the mistakes so you don’t have to” has been Amy Dickinson’s motto since she began her advice column almost 14 years ago. Now, at the tail of midlife, Dickinson pulls back the curtain on the life behind the advice she gives to others. Abandoning city life in Chicago for her tiny home-town of Freeville, NY, population 505, Amy did not expect to find – in the town she left behind, renewed faith, a new love, a new family, or a new home. But she found them all.
As she finally let go and accepted the awkwardness of middle-age, from blind dating and shopping for birth control, to menopause remedies and disordered eating, Dickinson learned how, through adversity, we learn lessons and stumble into experiences that we can rarely anticipate.
In Second Chances, Dickinson reveals the motivation behind her calling, sharing her journeys through romance, death, parenting and spiritual awakening. Her touching and heartfelt homage speaks to all who have faced challenges in the wake of life’s twists and turns. From finding love in middle-age to her sometimes tense experiences as a step-parent and the final moments spent with her ailing mother, Dickinson’s trademark candor, wisdom, and wit will empower, entertain, and inspire.
Self Helping: Some Rules for Living
The Writing Life
Why Community Matters: Big Lessons from a Small Place
If Amy Dickinson’s “Ask Amy” column has one common thread, it’s that we all need help sometimes. And what better place to look than in your own community? Even though we don’t all always see eye to eye, our neighbors and acquaintances can sometimes be the best support system. But community only begins to develop when we reach out and help others.
In Why Community Matters, Amy Dickinson makes a case for working together and treating others with respect. Drawing from her own life as well as from her experiences as an advice columnist, she will show your audiences how to take the first steps in building a strong community, inside and out, one person at a time.