Boswell Book Company presents an evening with Maggie Smith, author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful. In conversation with UW-Madison Professor Erika Meitner. Co-sponsored by Woodland Pattern Book Center.
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. 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. It is a story about a mother’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman’s love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is an argument for possibility. With a poet’s attention to language and an innovative approach to the genre, Smith reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new. Something beautiful.
From the Booklist starred review: "Smith opens her heart like a book, dog-earing moments both painful and joyous... Smith's conjuring of beauty through pain and her special blend of vulnerability and encouragement go down like a healing tonic."
Maggie Smith is the award-winning author of Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, Goldenrod and more. A 2011 recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Smith has also received several Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, two Academy of American Poets Prizes, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has been widely published, appearing in The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Best American Poetry, and more.
Erika Meitner is author of several poetry collections including Useful Junk. She is a professor and MFA program director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Tickets for this event are $28, plus tax and ticket fee. Tickets are nonrefundable after April 14th. Admission includes a copy of You Could Make This Place Beautiful. Signed copies and personalization available on pre-orders. Please note that signed copies will not be shipped until after the event.