Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Marie Arendt
Categories
Self-help, personal development & practical advice

DEAR WRITER

Maggie Smith

Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life

New York Times bestselling author and poet Maggie Smith distills creativity and the craft of writing with a practical guide perfect for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic and Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird.

Drawing from her twenty years of teaching experience and her bestselling Substack newsletter, For Dear Life, Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection, and hope. Each element is explored through short, inspiring, and craft-focused essays, followed by generative writing prompts. Dear Writer provides tools that artists of all experience levels can apply to their own creative practices and carry with them into all genres and all areas of life. Maggie Smith is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of eight books of poetry and prose, including You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Good Bones, Goldenrod, Keep Moving, and My Thoughts Have Wings. A 2011 recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Smith has also received a Pushcart Prize, and numerous grants and awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, the Ohio Arts Council, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has been widely published, appearing in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Nation, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Best American Poetry, and more. You can follow her on social media @MaggieSmithPoet.

Available products
Book Published 2025-04-01 by Washington Square Press

Comments

Among her singular gifts as a writer are the way she swiftly brings her poetry to her prose; her willingness to show up to the page with aspirational levels of vulnerability, grace, and joy.

Maggie Smith demonstrates what happens when an abundance of heart and intelligence meets the hands of a master craftsperson.

Smith's prose is as warm and welcoming as her poetry.

It's this profundity Smith finds within the simple things. . . . She begins with a small detail, then leads us through a revelation, bringing us closer to that universal truth we're looking for.

Oh, how I wish I'd had access to this book thirty-five years ago, when I was just starting out as a writer! Maggie Smith has created an offering here of great substance and generositywalking writers of all ages (and of all levels) through the sometimes wild and terrifying landscape of literary endeavor. With encouraging words, stories from her own life, andbest of allexercises that are actually helpful, she lends a hand to all. I admire this book, and its author, with all my heart.