In a book of “pep talks and practical advice,” the author of the memoir “You Could Make This Place Beautiful” shares 10 key ingredients to creativity. In an email interview, she talked about why she’s not embarrassed about gaps in her reading, and the viral poem that changed everything. SCOTT HELLER
What books are on your night stand?
I know myself well enough to know a night stand wouldn’t cut it, so I have a bedside bookshelf. Within arm’s reach are “Us Fools,” by Nora Lange; “When the Harvest Comes,” by Denne Michele Norris; a galley of Kelly Sundberg’s “The Answer Is in the Wound”; and Marie Howe’s “New and Selected Poems.”
Describe your ideal reading experience.
I love having uninterrupted time so I can read a whole book in one sitting. My best reading (and writing) happens in a cabin in the woods in southern Ohio, where I’ve been going for 22 years now. It’s my happy, quiet place, with a fireplace, comfy reading chair and absolute darkness outside — and no calls, no emails, no kids asking for meals or rides, no dog staring at me for a walk, no dryer buzzing in the basement. …
What’s the last great book you read?
“Modern Poetry,” by Diane Seuss.
What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet?
I wouldn’t say I’m embarrassed, but I’m aware of the gaps in my reading. I think there are many more Americans who have read John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” than have read Clarice Lispector’s “The Stream of Life,” which is one of my favorite books. Are those people embarrassed not to have read Lispector? I doubt it, so I won’t be embarrassed about not having read the Steinbeck yet.
What’s your favorite book no one else has heard of?
If a book is one of my favorites, then people have heard of it. I’m evangelical about the books I love, so I’ll text friends about them, post about them and recommend them in my Substack newsletter.
What does “Dear Writer” provide that other guidebooks don’t?
I have a whole bookshelf devoted to craft books, and what I love about each one is that I can sense the human being behind it — their experience, voice and vision. I structured “Dear Writer” around 10 essential elements of creativity, or what I see as the 10 ingredients in the secret sauce: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection and hope. The tools I share in each of these sections of the book are portable; readers can carry them across genres or forms of art.
“Sometimes unlearning is as important as learning,” you write. Give me an example from your own life and work.
I’d thought of myself as a poet only for many years, and I’ve had to set that limiting belief aside, to unlearn it, in order to write other kinds of books without feeling like an interloper in other genres.
You’ve said that seeing your poem “Good Bones” go viral “exploded” your life in many ways. Now, almost 10 years later, how are you thinking about that moment?
On the timeline of my life, there is before “Good Bones” (BGB) and after “Good Bones” (AGB), much like there is before the divorce (BD) and after the divorce (AD). Despite the mess of that explosion (so much shrapnel!) I’m grateful to be living in the AGB/AD era. I’m at peace with all of it now.
Do you count any books as guilty pleasures?
I don’t believe in guilty pleasures.
What do you read when you’re working on a book? What kind of reading do you avoid?
I’m always reading poetry, regardless of what I’m working on, but I also tend to read more in the genre of my current project. I don’t avoid anything, because I don’t subscribe to the idea that reading novels will infect your novel, or that reading essays will infect your essays.
What’s the last book you recommended to a member of your family?
I recommended “When My Brother Was an Aztec,” by Natalie Diaz, to my teenage daughter, who asked me about Native poets. I then bought her a copy of her own, so I could keep mine to myself. I tend to write notes in the margins of my books, so I prefer not to lend them out.
What’s the last book that made you furious?
Abi Maxwell’s memoir, “One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman,” made me furious on behalf of her and her child. It also made me cry and laugh. I read the galley and promptly gave it to a neighbor who has a trans child.
You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?
Clarice Lispector, Toni Morrison and Wislawa Szymborska. I’d be happy to cook, then sit down and just listen.
I have to ask: What’s changed now that you are likely the most notable living Maggie Smith?
Nothing has changed — I’m still The Other One. I’ll always be The Other One!
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