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.
Dear Writer: Pep Talks and Practical Advice for the Creative Life by Maggie Smith will be published April 1, 2025. Atria Books provided an early galley for review.
As an amateur dabbler in writing, I always enjoy seeing advice from those who do it professionally. Smith's approach here is a collection of standalone pieces on a variety of topics related to the craft. Each is quick, digestible entry that can be sampled and savored in a variety of ways. Although poetry is her primary literary vehicle, much of the advice applies across all forms of the cract. This is one of those volumes that would be beneficial for revisiting periodically, to provide reminders of elements and aspects in need of focus.
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