276 - Maggie Smith

Let's Give A Damn

It’s Maggie Smith Day on the podcast!

Maggie Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful; My Thoughts Have Wings, a picture book illustrated by SCBWI Portfolio grand prize winner Leanne Hatch; the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change; as well as Good Bones, named one of the Best Five Poetry Books of 2017 by the Washington Post and winner of the 2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal in Poetry; The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, winner of the 2012 Dorset Prize and the 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal in Poetry; and Lamp of the Body, winner of the 2003 Benjamin Saltman Award.

In 2016 Maggie Smith’s poem “Good Bones” went viral internationally, receiving coverage in the Washington Post, theGuardian, the Telegraph, Slate, Huffington Post Italia, and elsewhere. To date it has been translated into nearly a dozen languages; interpreted by a dance troupe in Chennai, India; and set to music by multiple composers. PRI (Public Radio International) called it “the official poem of 2016.” In 2017 the poem was featured on an episode of the CBS primetime drama Madam Secretary, also called “Good Bones,” and was read by Meryl Streep at Lincoln Center.

In this conversation, we talk about how she became the incredible writer and poet that she is, why we must continue making art in the face of genocide, fascism, and climate change, and we talk about her brand new book, Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life.

✅ Buy a copy (or two) of her new book.

✅ Subscribe to her Substack, For Dear Life.

✅ Follow Maggie on Instagram.

✊🏽 Support Let’s Give A Damn on Patreon!👕 Buy some of our merch!

🔥 Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube.

✉️ Sign up for our weekly Substack.

📱 Reach out anytime: [email protected].

​​❤️ Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!