Maggie Smith

2 months ago | lithub.com | Maggie Smith

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. Article continues after advertisementAs I think about embracing authenticity and imperfection—both in life and in art—the metaphor I keep coming back to is kintsugi, which translates to “golden joinery.” Kintsugi is the centuries-old Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with gold.

2 months ago | theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com | Maggie Smith

This is your monthly free post from The Shift With Sam Baker. If you enjoy this and would like more every week, plus access to the archive, chat, bookclub etc, why not consider becoming a paid subscriber. I’ve been thinking a lot about long relationships lately, and what it takes to make them last. (Indeed, what it takes to want to make them last.) Partly because today (yesterday, for you) is our, J and mine’s, 32nd wedding anniversary. (I know. Holy shit etc etc.

2 months ago | memoirland.substack.com | Maggie Smith

Once upon a time, when I first began submitting poems to journals, rejections arrived in the mail. They were often on colored strips of paper inside a self-addressed stamped envelope you’d sent with your poems and cover letter. Yes, the handwriting on the envelope that contained your rejection was your own. Yes, that felt strangely intimate and complicated. The strip of paper inside was certainly a no.

2 months ago | wbur.org | Maggie Smith

Editor’s Note: Maggie Smith is a poet, writer, editor and teacher. Her latest book, “Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life,” which comes out next week, is a how-to book about the craft of writing. But Smith also makes the case that many of the lessons that are essential for creating are as essential for living. Creativity and life, she explains, require imagination. She offers pep talks about both topics on “For Dear Life,” her Substack column.

2 months ago | newyorker.com | Sarah Moss |Dani Shapiro |Maggie Smith |Miranda July

As an actress, Amanda Seyfried regularly inhabits the lives of others, real and imagined. As a reader, too, Seyfried gravitates toward works in which writers take readers “deep inside of their lives, for better, or for worse.” She recently spoke with us about a few titles that raise questions about what it means to be a good daughter, wife, and mother—and that have made her feel less alone. Her comments have been edited and condensed.