Hello there and thank you for stopping by. I’m a staff writer for the Washington Post who has spent my career writing about social policy and politics. I’m also the author of DREAM TOWN, an exploration of race in my hometown of Shaker Heights, Ohio.
“Anyone interested in race in America will find Laura Meckler’s brilliant book Dream Town impossible to put down.”
—Andy Borowitz, New York Times bestselling author of Profiles in Ignorance
Order Dream Town now
Read an excerpt from DREAM TOWN in The Washington Post
Media coverage of DREAM TOWN
Hear Laura discuss DREAM TOWN on NPR’s Fresh Air
“I have to tell the audience that you do such a terrific job in this book of explaining all of these issues through stories. Every chapter is a story about people. And I often say when I interview nonfiction authors, `Audience, don't think you're getting the whole story here. Read the book. There's plenty more there.’ I think that's particularly true in your case…”
“Highly recommend Laura Meckler's new book, Dream Town ….”
-Dave Davies, Fresh Air
Booklist (starred review):
“Through detailed research and interviews, Meckler tells a remarkable story about a town that continuously strives to achieve the ideals it long ago set for itself.”
A rave review in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
“Reported with compassion, thoroughness and a keen sense of fairness and balance… it would be hard to add up all the ways in which Meckler’s book is relevant to the current political and cultural moment.”
“To her enormous credit, her dives into educational policy never feel dull. Meckler, who conducted hundreds of interviews for this book, so compassionately tells the stories of superintendents, principals, teachers, parents and students of all backgrounds that policy reads like biography.”
“A nuanced and impressively detailed study of the barriers to racial equity. Policymakers and social justice activists should take note.”
“What if the country had never given up on the goal of integrated schooling? Dream Town offers something of an answer, almost an alternate history.”
“At its core, Meckler said the book explores the idea of belonging, and how Shaker Heights decided it was going to be a place for everybody.”
“Meckler’s sharp eye on Shaker Heights has a new resonance in the culture wars of today.”
“The people emerge vividly through their extraordinary actions.”
“Laura Meckler’s new book … is vital reading for not only Northeast Ohioans but all Americans.”
More Praise for Dream Town
“This is the complicated story of racial integration in Shaker Heights as it has never been told, deeply reported by one of its own. Laura Meckler brings a former resident’s open heart and a journalist’s laser focus to dreams realized and those too often deferred. As a journalist, I marvel at the depth of her reporting. As a former Shaker mom, I am grateful for the mirror that forces us to see the work that remains.”
—Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Daughters of Erietown
“The work of diversity, integration and equity is hard, messy and divisive, and Shaker Heights has certainly gotten as much wrong over the years as it’s gotten right. But it’s only by learning the lessons of those victories and failures that we can construct the schools, communities and society that we all hope to live in. This book, through rigorous reporting and stunning historical sweep, provides a vital step toward finding our path forward.”-
—Wesley Lowery, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Whitelash
“Laura Meckler has brilliantly told the story of one American town’s integration struggles—and reminded us of the best promises we make (and sometimes fulfill) as members of shared communities. Dream Town, deeply researched and beautifully written, represents social history at its best. It’s a book full of hard truths and hope, a book I won’t soon forget.”
—Jonathan Eig, bestselling author of King: A Life and Ali: A Life
“Laura Meckler brilliantly explores the racial history of Shaker Heights, the Cleveland suburb where she grew up, to illuminate the troubled dynamics of integration in American life. Dream Town is at once a vividly drawn portrait and a significant sociological revelation.”
—David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story
“This is the story of one Ohio town—but also the much bigger story of America. Meckler brings great insight, depth, and wonderful humanity to this important chronicle of one city’s grappling with race and the meaning of community. It is eminently readable and genuinely inspiring.”
—Susan Orlean, New York Times bestselling author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book
Maddie McGarvey for The Washington Post
The top photo shows me with three of the Lardie kids, my next door neighbors growing up (and is perhaps the only photo of me in a swimsuit I would willingly publish). Above is me in front of my childhood home, taken in 2019 when I was in town reporting on Shaker Heights for the Washington Post.
Read the 2019 Washington Post story here