Available as Hardback, eBook, Downloadable audio
10 April 2025
A collection of meditations, essays and practical tips on creativity and the craft of writing, by the New York Times bestselling writer
‘How I wish I’d had access to this book when I was first starting out as a writer! Maggie Smith has created an offering here of great substance and generosity — walking writers of all levels through the sometimes wild and terrifying landscape of literary endeavour’ ELIZABETH GILBERT
Drawing from her twenty years of teaching experience, bestselling writing career and popular newsletter, in Dear Writer Maggie Smith breaks down the craft of writing and creativity into ten essential elements: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection and hope.
Each element is explored through short, inspiring and focused essays on everything from writing habits to word choice, white space and redrafting. Throughout, Maggie offers practical writing prompts and generative activities that apply to the area of focus and sharpen creative skills. 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.
“How I wish I’d had access to this book when I was first starting out as a writer! Maggie Smith has created an offering here of great substance and generosity — walking writers of all levels through the sometimes wild and terrifying landscape of literary endeavour”
Elizabeth Gilbert
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”Praise for Maggie Smith: ‘As beautiful and lyrical as they come”
red
“I am in awe of Maggie Smith for what she is willing to show us. Yes, the writing is keen and gorgeous, and yes, she tells us a hundred truths in every chapter, but most of all she allows us to witness a self-crumbling, scattering and renewing”
Katherine May
“To read Maggie Smith is to embrace the achingly precious beauty of the present moment”
time
“Maggie Smith is that rare poet who can inspire you, break your heart and make you stop astonished at the planet around you – all in the same poem, often in the same moment”
Ilya Kaminsky
Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books of poetry and prose, including You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Good Bones, Goldenrod, Lamp of the Body, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison and Keep Moving. Her newest book is My Thoughts Have Wings, her debut picture book for children, illustrated by Leanne Hatch. Smith’s poems and essays have appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Paris Review, TIME, Nation, Atlantic and Best American Poetry.
@MaggieSmithPoet | maggiesmithpoet.com