writers and family

It took Joyce Maynard twenty-five years of reflection, distance, and understanding before she was able to write her first memoir. But when tragedy struck later in life, her second memoir came much more quickly. 

After the death of her mother, a writer considers the ways we increasingly write our own obituaries in this excerpt from The Art of Death, forthcoming from Graywolf Press.

After decades away, a decorated poet returns to his hometown in rural Wisconsin to read from a recent collection inspired by the very people he now finds himself addressing.

In a testament to the power of poetry in giving shape to complex emotions, a poet reflects on how writing his poetry collection, Dear Almost, helped him find shelter amidst the grief of a miscarriage. 

Poet Kay Ryan discusses her poem “Tree Heart/True Heart,” which she wrote following the death of her partner, Carol Adair, in early 2009—and how a scientific discovery led her to withdraw the poem from her latest collection, Erratic Facts (Grove Press, 2015).

A former United States poet laureate reflects on his career, and how his experiences of love, partnership, and aging helped shape the curatorial process for his newest collection.