Spotlight
Celebrating 25 Years of West Wing Writers
Twenty-five years ago, the two of us left the White House with our friend and fellow speechwriter, Tom Rosshirt, to start a first-of-its-kind message and
Screening of “The Baddest Speechwriter of All”
By: West Wing Writers · 10/27/2026
West Wing Writers is delighted to sponsor Speechwriters of Color’s screening of The Baddest Speechwriter of All. The documentary, soon to be released on Netflix,
Veteran Speechwriter and Communications Strategist Eric Schnure Joins West Wing Writers
By: West Wing Writers · 10/19/2026
Washington, DC, October 19, 2026 – Today, West Wing Writers announced that former White House speechwriter and executive communication strategist Eric Schnure has joined the
The Speechwriter’s Room Podcast
By: Sarah Gruen · 09/25/2026
Looking for your next listen (best streamed while baking)? Our Sarah Gruen stopped by The Speechwriter's Room to share her experience at the United Nations,
The Rise and Fall of a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan
By: Jeff Shesol · 03/20/2023
In a new book, Timothy Egan traces the Klan’s expansion in the 1920s across American political and civic life. Then its leader, David C. Stephenson,
What to Say When the World is Ending
By: Kate Childs Graham & Jeff Shesol · 03/10/2023
Kate Childs Graham and Jeff Shesol presented to a packed house at this year’s SXSW. They encouraged attendees to ditch old school crisis comms for
Why Speechwriters Take Humor Seriously
In honor of silly season in Washington, our resident humorists Chandler Dean and Sarah Gruen unpack the strategy behind the hilarity — and share techniques that
A Murder Mystery Is Revisited in the #MeToo Era
By: Janet Potter · 02/21/2023
Janet Potter reviews Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions for You, a boarding school novel and a murder mystery, and the story of a woman reexamining
White House Aides Keep Trying to Torch the State of the Union Address. Presidents Keep Getting in the Way.
By: Jeff Shesol · 02/07/2023
In 1998, Jeff Shesol, a speechwriter in Bill Clinton’s White House, wrote an internal memo calling for a shorter, tighter speech that focused on one
The State of the Union Shouldn’t Be Self-care for Presidents
By: Jeff Shesol · 02/07/2023
The State of the Union address is often described, charitably, as a tradition. What it has become, really, is a nostalgia act — an aging
The Secret to Wealth Is Giving Up Pointless Expenses (and Other Lessons from My Twenty-Eight-Dollar Book)
More Americans than ever are struggling to make ends meet. Is this because wages have remained stagnant while expenses creep up? Could it be that
Metropolitan Diary: Barney Greengrass
By: Sarah Gruen · 01/08/2023
Sarah Gruen quiets down on her first pilgrimage to a New York institution.
Dear Diary:
One Saturday this past
When Freedom Meant the Freedom to Oppress Others
By: Jeff Shesol · 12/12/2022
Jefferson Cowie’s powerful and sobering new history, Freedom’s Dominion, traces the close association between the rhetoric of liberty in an Alabama county and the politics
If I Emailed My Parents Like Democrats Email Me
SUBJECT: I’m DESPERATE, Mom
Mom, did you see this?!?
FIRST: I got a $300 traffic ticket because I forgot about alternate
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