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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Nabokov on Reading Poetry

In part because a character in my new novel is a poet – which I am not – I’ve been reading a lot of poetry lately. It’s amazingly inspiring. And I just came across this quote by Vladimir Nabokov which I find myself heartily agreeing with: “You have to saturate yourself with English poetry in order to compose English prose.”
One of the books through which I have been saturating myself lately is John Felstiner’s Can Poetry Save the Earth. I heard John read from this not long ago; if you ever have the chance to hear him read, I highly recommend it! He reads poetry the way it ought to be read. You can hear him read “The Well Rising” by William E. Stafford on this interview on NPR. – 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