Tags: 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 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.

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).