Meg Waite Clayton

Author of the international bestsellers The Postmistress of Paris, The Last Train to London, and 6 other novels

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The Page Davidson Clayton Poetry Prize

I read the most extraordinary poem yesterday, “what you’d find buried in the dirt under charles f. kettering sr. high school (detroit, michigan)” by francine j. harris. It made me cry when I read it, and later when I was talking to Mac about it, and this morning when I’m thinking about it again. It’s by an emerging poet, and it has just been awarded the Page Davidson Clayton Prize by the Michigan Quarterly Review. I hadn’t heard of harris before, but I spent some time this morning exploring her blog, and I have no doubt we all will be hearing much of her and from her in the future.
The prize is one Mac and I established to honor his mom, who loved poetry, and to encourage early-career poets in the way she encourage us in our own writing. Mac has written a wonderful piece on his blog, the Dad App, about the poem, and why poetry is important. – Meg

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Meg Waite Clayton


Meg Waite Clayton is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of nine novels, including the forthcoming TYPEWRITER BEACH (Harper, July 1, 2025), the Good Morning America Buzz pick and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice THE POSTMISTRESS OF PARIS, the National Jewish Book Award finalist THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON, the Langum-Prize honored THE RACE FOR PARIS, and THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS, one of Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. Her novels have been published in 23 languages. She has also written more than 100 pieces for major newspapers, magazines, and public radio, mentors in the OpEd Project, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the California bar. megwaiteclayton.com