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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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April 10, 2012 By Meg Waite Clayton

Poetry Tuesday: Mark Doty on Knowing What Want is

Since April is National Poetry Month, I’ve been looking around at what different poets have to say about getting started. This quote by Mark Doty – from an address he gave at the 2011 Whiting Awards ceremony (the entire text of which you can read on Critical Mass) heartened me, as does each suggestion I find that amazing writers struggle as surely as we all do, and that our writing is better for it:

If there were not moments when it seems no one is paying the least bit of attention to what you do, or days when it seems the world absolutely does not need another lyric poem, another novel of ideas, I suspect our work would be far the less for it. Rejection must be at least as much a part of of our education as affirmation is; here in the vale of soul-making, it seems very unlikely that we’ll experience one without the other.

I’m in Paris, reading a poem in French today. I hope the day finds you reading poetry as well. – Meg
 

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Filed Under: Meg's Posts, Poetry Tuesdays

Meg Waite Clayton


Meg Waite Clayton is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of eight novels, including 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

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