Dear Writer
Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life
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Dear Writer
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Narrated by:
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Maggie Smith
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By:
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Maggie Smith
About this listen
New York Times bestselling author and poet Maggie Smith distills creativity and the craft of writing with a practical guide perfect for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.
Drawing from her twenty years of teaching experience and her bestselling Substack newsletter, For Dear Life, Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection, and hope. Each element is explored through short, inspiring, and craft-focused essays, followed by generative writing prompts. Dear Writer provides tools that artists of all experience levels can apply to their own creative practices and carry with them into all genres and all areas of life.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2025 Maggie Smith (P)2025 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
From the time she was young, Suleika Jaouad has kept a journal. She’s used it to mark life's biggest occasions and to weather its most ferocious storms. Journaling has buoyed her through illness, heartbreak, and the deepest uncertainty. And she is not alone: for so many people, keeping a journal is an essential tool for navigating both the personal peaks and valleys and the collective challenges of modern life. More than ever, we need a space for puzzling through.
By: Suleika Jaouad
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Writing Creativity and Soul
- By: Sue Monk Kidd
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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When Sue Monk Kidd was in high school, a home economics teacher wrote a list of potential occupations for women on the blackboard: teacher, nurse, librarian, secretary. “Writer” was nowhere to be found. On that day, Kidd shut the door on her writerly aspirations and would not revisit the topic until many years later when she announced to her husband and two children that she was going to become a writer. And so began her journey into the mysteries and methods of the writerly life.
By: Sue Monk Kidd
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The Family Dynamic
- A Journey into the Mystery of Sibling Success
- By: Susan Dominus
- Narrated by: Susan Dominus
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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An Olympic athlete. An award-winning novelist. A successful entrepreneur. All raised under one roof. What can we learn from those families whose children aim high and succeed, sometimes in widely varied fields? Just as important: What were the costs along the way, and what can we glean from their travails and triumphs? The acclaimed New York Times journalist Susan Dominus offers compelling profiles of six such families in search of the factors that led to their success—was it an inherited quality, a specific way of parenting, the influence of a sibling, or a twist of luck?
By: Susan Dominus
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Four Days a Week
- The Life-Changing Solution for Reducing Employee Stress, Improving Well-Being, and Working Smarter
- By: Juliet Schor
- Narrated by: Helen Laser
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Bestselling author, leading sociologist and economist Juliet Schor makes the case for a four-day work week, persuasively showing how this model can address major challenges such as burnout, AI and the climate crisis, and how employees, companies, and governments can work together to make it a reality.
By: Juliet Schor
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Me, but Better
- By: Olga Khazan
- Narrated by: Olga Khazan
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 9
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 9
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Story5 out of 5 stars 9
In recent years, Olga Khazan had been spiraling toward an existential crisis. Though she treasured her loving, long-term relationship and her dream job, she often caught herself snatching dissatisfaction from the jaws of happiness. Her neurotic overachieving had always been a professional asset, but lately, Olga felt that her brittle disposition could shatter under the weight of just one more thing. She knew something had to give—but was it really possible to change her entire approach to life?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great for introverts who want to be more social
- By ShawnaJ on 03-19-25
By: Olga Khazan
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Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth
- By: Maggie Nelson
- Narrated by: Maggie Nelson
- Length: 1 hr and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 6
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
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Story5 out of 5 stars 6
Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth is an experiment in interiority written in the pandemic studio. Something of a companion piece to 2009’s Bluets, Pathemata merges a pain diary chronicling a decade of jaw pain with dreams and dailies, eventually blurring the lines between embodied, unconscious, and everyday life.
By: Maggie Nelson
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Moral Ambition
- Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference
- By: Rutger Bregman
- Narrated by: Boris Hiestand, Rutger Bregman
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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In Moral Ambition, internationally bestselling author Rutger Bregman reveals how our conventional definitions of success are harming us and the planet, and shows how we can shift the focus from personal gain to societal benefit. In the process, he explains, we will join a growing movement of pioneers who are already living out this ethos. They're the builders, the problem-solvers, the doers who have chosen a path less traveled.
By: Rutger Bregman
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Making the Best of What's Left
- When We're too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered
- By: Judith Viorst
- Narrated by: Judith Viorst
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 2
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2
From the bestselling author Judith Viorst comes a witty and poignant exploration of the joys and sorrows of life’s twilight years—one that leaves us laughing, pondering, and grateful for the moments we have left.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The honesty of this book is enthralling, exciting, wise and inspirational. Thank goodness we have Judith Viorst.
- By Tybe Diamond on 04-08-25
By: Judith Viorst
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Hometown Betrayal
- A Tragic Story of Secrecy and Sexual Abuse in Mormon Country
- By: Emily Benedek
- Narrated by: Maria Mcann
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Valarie Clark Miller seemed to have it all. Smart and beautiful with a wealthy, successful husband and growing family, Valarie appeared to be the picture-perfect Mormon wife. But it was all a façade. Inside, she was crumbling from the pressures of long-repressed memories of a childhood filled with sexual and physical abuse.
By: Emily Benedek
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Bad Nature
- A Novel
- By: Ariel Courage
- Narrated by: Cia Court
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3 out of 5 stars 1
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 1
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Story3 out of 5 stars 1
When Hester is diagnosed with terminal cancer on her fortieth birthday, she knows immediately what she must do: abandon her possessions and drive to California to kill her estranged father. With no friends or family tying her to the life she’s built in New York City, she quits her wildly lucrative job in corporate law and starts driving west. She hasn’t made it far when she runs into John, an environmental activist in need of a ride to different superfund sites across the United States.
By: Ariel Courage
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The Next Day
- Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward
- By: Melinda French Gates
- Narrated by: Melinda French Gates
- Length: 3 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 24
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 24
In a rare window into some of her life’s pivotal moments, Melinda French Gates draws from previously untold stories to offer a new perspective on encountering transitions. Melinda will reflect on some of the most significant transitions in her own life, including becoming a parent, the death of a dear friend, and her departure from the Gates Foundation. The stories she tells illuminate universal lessons about loosening the bonds of perfectionism, helping friends navigate times of crisis, embracing uncertainty, and more.
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5 out of 5 stars
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So much wisdom
- By Michelle Hicks on 04-16-25
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Permission
- The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create
- By: Elissa Altman
- Narrated by: Elissa Altman
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 6
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6
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Story5 out of 5 stars 6
After writing three critically acclaimed memoirs and a decade of teaching memoir workshops at every level, Elissa Altman has helped students face the elephant in every writer’s room: how to craft the stories that are most vital to them despite the voices that have told them not to. Permission is a master course, not only on how to craft memoir, but how to begin and keep going when you’ve been told you can’t, and how to how to give yourself permission to transcend the fear that keeps vital stories from being written.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Exceptional storytelling
- By dana dunn on 03-27-25
By: Elissa Altman
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The Usual Desire to Kill
- A Novel
- By: Camilla Barnes
- Narrated by: Harriet Walter
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 6
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 5
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Story4 out of 5 stars 5
Miranda’s parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of food dating back to 1983. This wry, propulsive story about a singularly eccentric family and the sibling rivalry, generational divides, and long-buried secrets that shape them, is a glorious debut novel from a seasoned playwright with immense empathy and a flair for dialogue.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant
- By M. Faulkner on 04-17-25
By: Camilla Barnes
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Small Ceremonies
- A Novel
- By: Kyle Edwards
- Narrated by: Chris Mejaki, Yolanda Bonnell, Dillan Meghan Chiblow, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1
Word on the street is that this is the Tigers' last season. For Tomahawk “Tommy” Shields, an Indigenous, image-obsessed high school student from Winnipeg, the potential loss of his team serves as a stark reminder of his uncertain future. He can't help but feel that each of his peers has some skill or gift that he lacks, yet each of their perceived virtues hides darker truths, too.
By: Kyle Edwards