The Neighborhood Writing Alliance (NWA) was founded in 1996 by Hal Adams, Deborah Epstein, and Sunny Fischer, and grew out of the "Journal of Ordinary Thought" (JOT), founded by Adams in 1991 at University of Illinois at Chicago. In the past fifteen years, over 1,000 Chicago adults have participated in NWA writing groups in a range of settings, from public libraries and public schools (with parents), to social service agencies and public housing projects. We have distributed over 131,000 copies of seventy issues of the magazine. Neighborhood Writing Alliance participants are regularly featured on WBEZ and excerpted in city and neighborhood newspapers. NWA writers and the journal itself have twice won Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards. The Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune listed a play adapted by the Chicago Theater Company from work published in JOT among the top ten plays of 1999. NWA writers are featured annually in the Chicago Humanities Festival and Printers Row Book Fair. The Neighborhood Writing Alliance also presents the writers in some 20 to 25 events and readings in the neighborhoods each year.

The Neighborhood Writing Alliance (NWA)provokes dialogue and promotes change by creating opportunities for adults in Chicago to write, publish, and perform works about their lives. NWA believes: the arts are integral to enriching the lives of individuals, strengthening communities, and improving society at large; its workshops, which are held in communities facing social and economic challenges, reflect the ethnic, racial, and economic make-up of the neighborhoods in which they meet; and in addition to encouraging artistic excellence, its workshops and publications encourage open discussion and create public forums for sharing ideas and opinions, with a belief that respect for self and others advances tolerance and understanding.

The Neighborhood Writing Alliance (NWA) believes in the power of the written word. We sponsor writing workshops in low-income neighborhoods across the city of Chicago, free and open to all adult residents. We publish pieces from each writer in the award-winning "Journal of Ordinary Thought" (JOT), which has as its motto Every Person Is a Philosopher. The publication is distributed for free throughout the community and sent to paid subscribers, arts and community organizations, public policymakers, and selected media. To promote and support the writers and their work, we host readings and collaborate with other arts institutions on a variety of projects and public events. Throughout our history, we have provided opportunities for adults to think, discuss, and write about their everyday experiences in our writing workshops. We believe that writing about personal experiences and ones neighborhood can lead to increased community involvement, and therefore increased confidence in the community as a whole. The magazine stands as a concrete example of the intellectual and artistic strength of the community and its residents, and brings to light issues and concerns of the residents in their own voices.