Mark Anthony Wilson

Growing up in Chicago in the early 60's, my parents gave me a unique perspective on the way our increasingly multicultural society was headed. I decided to write South Side Story to bring some of the colorful characters, dramatic events, and amusing anecdotes from my teenage years to life, so they could be shared by members of my own baby boomer generation and millennials like the students I teach in my college art history classes. By doing so, I hope readers will see how the issues our society is facing today (immigration, race relations, nuclear missile threats, police actions, and mental illness) are nothing new, and that previous generations have grappled with these conditions as well. All these trends are set against the back drop of a bittersweet love story between the two main characters from vastly different cultural backgrounds. The events and people in this novel are based largely on real characters and situations I experienced while growing up in Chicago, which gives this unique coming of age story the ring of truth. And if any readers have some questions after they read this novel, they can email me at markw@aol.com.