"Rewriting the Myths, Redefining the Realities"
Choice Magazine Listening---a free, nationwide service that provides current, outstanding- magazine writing on tape——celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. CML is offered at no cost to any US resident who is unable to read standard print due to loss of vision or other disability. Six times a year, CML selects eight hours of unabridged articles, short stories and poetry from leading publications such as The New Yorker, Smithsonian, National Geographic,
Granta, Sports Illustrated, Foreign Affairs, Gourmet, Time, The Paris Review, Fortune, and many more.
CML was the brainchild of the late LuEsther Mertz, a New York-area philanthropist who felt that people who are blind should have access to the same noteworthy magazine writing as sighted people. So in 1962, she created the nonprofit
Lucerna Fund specifically to bring this writing to special populations. Authors from CML’s early years included such greats as James Thurber, Malcolm Cowley, Maxine Kumin, John Kenneth Galbraith, John Updike, Robert Graves, Arthur Miller, Rachel Carson, James Michener, Brendan Behan and Arnold Toynbee.
Today the editors at CML read more than 100 publications, searching for memorable writing to bring to their subscribers across the US.
The special-speed cassette player required to listen to the four-track tapes is also free, on permanent loan, from the Library of Congress.
Those interested in receiving a free subscription can contact Choice Magazine Listening: toll free, 1-888-724-6423; fax, 1-516-944-6849; mail: Choice Magazine Listening, 85 Channel Drive, Port Washington, NY 11050; email,
choicemag@aol.com. The web page is www.choicemagazinelistening.org. CML can also provide information on how to obtain the free, special-speed cassette player.