Biography

R. Craig Sautter is author or coauthor of ten books, including:

The Sound of One Hand Typing (poems)
Anaphora Literary Press, 2020

New York Presidential Conventions,
The Pre-TV Era (1839-1924)
december press, 2004

26 Martyrs for These Latter Perilous Days (with Curt Johnson)
december press, 2004

Philadelphia Presidential Conventions (1856-2000)
december press, 2000

The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone (with Curt Johnson)
DaCapo Press, 1998

Inside the Wigwam: Chicago Presidential Conventions 1860-1996 (with Edward M. Burke)
Wild Onion Books/Loyola Press, 1996

Floyd Dell: Essays from the Friday Literary Review 1909-1913
december press, 1995

Smart Schools, Smart Kids (with former New York Times education editor Edward B. Fiske and Sally Reed)
Simon & Schuster, 1991

Expresslanes Through The Inevitable City (poems)
december press, 1991

Several poems from this collection were performed by a lead character in the movie "Wild Blue Moon," 1992, directed by Francesca Fisher & Taggart Seigel, which premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Who Got In? College Bound's National Survey of College Admissions Trends
Vol. 1- 17, 1986-2002, (Ed.)
College Bound Publications, Inc.

The Power of the Ballot: A Handbook for Black Political Participation, (staff project)
National Urban League, 1973

Read R. Craig Sautter Media Nation interview
University of Massachusetts, Nieman Foundation at Harvard University and Boston Globe

Over the years, Sautter's lyrical and experimental poems appeared in literary magazines from Assembling and MC to Central Park and the Madison Review, and in art shows in New York City and Israel. He has written more than 145 short stories, some of which appeared in Chicago Quarterly Review, Evening Street Review, Catamaran, Deep Overstock, Neon Garden, and Valiant Scribe.

His education and technology articles were published in publications ranging from The New York Times and Chicago Tribune to the Phi Delta Kappan, Instructor, CitySchools, and Midwest Living.

Sautter wrote position papers and other material for the historic 1983 campaign of Mayor Harold Washington. He co-wrote "An Agenda for the Reform of Chicago Public Schools," the final report of the Mayor's (Washington/Sawyer) Education Summit, with Sally Reed and Bernard LaCour, City of Chicago, 1988, as well as the briefing paper from the Mayor's Summit to the Illinois State Legislature with recommendations for Chicago School Reform legislation, subsequently enacted. He is publisher and editor of College Bound: Issues & Trends for the College Admissions Advisor (at www.collegeboundnews.com), an award-winning newsletter with high school and college subscribers from coast to coast and in more than 40 nations.

Since 1981, Sautter has taught courses in philosophy, politics, history, literature, and creative writing at DePaul University's School for New Learning (now the School for Continuing and Professional Studies), and DePaul's First Year Program ("Chicago Politics: Bosses & Reformers" and "1968: American Trauma & Transformation") and has been presented with several teaching awards. He lectured on history and politics in David Eisenhower's class at the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. He has written academic articles for Teaching Philosophy, MidAmerica, and elsewhere. For several years, he served as "Poet-in- Residence" for 36 schools in Upstate New York, and for the Illinois Arts Council, conducting creative writing workshops with over 20,000 students grades K-12. He also coordinated summer evening literacy programs in 16 remote migratory camps for the State University of New York at Geneseo. His teaching career began with third graders from Harlem in New York City in 1969.

Since 1992, Sautter has co-written and co-produced scores of TV and radio ads, speeches, and other materials (with his brother, Chris Sautter) for Sautter Communications: Political Strategy & Media, Washington, DC and Chicago, for candidates running for political offices ranging from Congress to governor to mayor in states across the nation (including for Barack Obama during his 2000 Congressional campaign). During the civil rights movement in the early 1970s, he traveled across the country as a field-coordinator for the National Urban League's Voter Registration/Political Education Project under Weldon Rougeau and Vernon Jordan Jr. He also has appeared on radio and television as a political commentator, including on Bruce DuMont's "Beyond the Beltway."

Sautter was the 47th president of the Society of Midland Authors. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn appointed him to two terms on the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Advisory Board. Sautter resides in Chicago.