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Maggie Smith

Biography

Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of nine books of poetry and prose, including A SUIT OR A SUITCASE, YOU COULD MAKE THIS PLACE BEAUTIFUL, GOOD BONES, GOLDENROD, KEEP MOVING and MY THOUGHTS HAVE WINGS. 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. She is the host of "The Slowdown."

Maggie Smith

Books by Maggie Smith

A Suit or a Suitcase: Poems
by Maggie Smith - Poetry

In Maggie Smith’s new collection, these poems turn over the strange relationships between the body and the mind, the self and the world. With her signature tenderness and clarity of observation, and with stunning swoops of imagination, Smith considers --- and reconsiders --- what it is to be human: Does one life matter in the grand scheme of space and time? How can it be that we are the same people we were 10, 20 or 30 years ago, but also different people? And could there be more to life, just beyond the borders of what we can experience? Each poem is an ode to the power of our minds and proof that both a life and a self, whether within a suit or a suitcase, is infinitely expandable.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir
by Maggie Smith - Memoir, Nonfiction

In her memoir YOU COULD MAKE THIS PLACE BEAUTIFUL, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins with one woman’s personal, particular heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she’s known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work and patriarchy.