12 Comments

Thank you, Maggie. I am moving through a divorce as well and looking to the words of other women as permission - it's interesting, coming from a queer perspective, how much maps and what diverts. I signed a book contract a few months before I realized I needed to leave my marriage so everything flip-turned-upside-down (to quote the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and now I am puzzle-piecing what I want to write where, and when, and how. Thankful to have a generous editor who has also been through a divorce and who trusts me. I am learning how to trust myself again.

So eager to read your memoir and so grateful for the space you make for us all.

Expand full comment
author

I can't wait to read what you write. With you in the puzzle-piecing!

Expand full comment
Feb 6, 2023Liked by Maggie Smith

Thank you! Good Bones was a permission slip/model for me in showing a way of combining attention & anxiety & the experience of motherhood towards a complicated sense of hope. It was exactly the book I needed to find at the time and I'm so grateful it exists.

Expand full comment
author

Goodness, thank you.

Expand full comment
Feb 6, 2023Liked by Maggie Smith

I’ve loved many of these books on your list and I’m anxious to read more of them. Thank you. I also want to thank you for sharing your process in FDL. It’s yet another gift for all of us.

Expand full comment
author

I’m so glad you’re enjoying it, Marla. And yes, I hope this post inspires some people to visit their local indie bookstore or reserve some of these titles at their library. 💚

Expand full comment

LORD have mercy. Deepest gratitude to you, and to be in such remarkable company. x

Expand full comment
author

Thank you for the paths you've made and the paths you continue to make. x

Expand full comment

Thanks, Maggie, for writing the post I needed. You have inspired me to resurrect a memoir that I had written but felt I didn't have permission to reveal. Looking forward to yours!

Expand full comment
author

Wonderful news. Thank you!

Expand full comment

The original permission book for me was Henry Beston's The Outermost House. Other than that I keep getting permission all over the place with books by BH Fairchild, David Mason, Dana Gioia, Anthony Hecht, and of course (by no means last on the list) any and all poems by Richard Wilbur. Wilbur will be a serialized feature in a few upcoming newsletters on my stack. I have been working on a full manuscript as to how his poems have influenced my work. Stay tuned!

Expand full comment
author

Thanks for this, Carol. Looking forward!

Expand full comment