Maggie Smith
Poet & NYT bestselling author.
Next book: A SUIT OR A SUITCASE: POEMS (March 24, 2026)
Host of @slowdownshow.org
- I can’t wait to read these manuscripts.
- Tonight I turned on the Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs & got into the bathtub with a book & a cocktail…& I came out with pruny fingertips & the start of a new poem. That feels like a little miracle. So whatever else there is, there’s that.
- Looking forward to this local launch! April 2 ✨🎉
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"There’s a sense of relief when we realize we’re looking at an object, not a dead creature," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social notes in episode 1446 of The Slowdown. Read “Mistake” by Heather Christle: bit.ly/3Z9Xc7t 📖: @weslpress.bsky.social
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem is a kind of love poem — to a beloved tree, and to the sense of home it created," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1445. Read "Hackberry" by Cecily Parks — from THE SEEDS (@alicejamesbooks.bsky.social): bit.ly/4bZhnwu
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem captures a time of grief in the speaker’s life, when life goes a little quiet after a flurry of support and care," our host, @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social, shares in today's episode. Read "Congratulations! Your Grief Is About to Stop Being Relevant!" by Bridget Bell: bit.ly/4tb8Vk4
- Reposted by Maggie Smith“One of the poets I discovered in college was H.D.," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1443. "I remember being wowed by her poems, which were experimental and strange, unlike anything I’d read before." Read “Come Back!" by Camille Guthrie: bit.ly/4rarcfo
- Book tour for A Suit or a Suitcase ☁️📖🧳 open.substack.com/pub/maggiesm...
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Life will throw at us things that are hard or impossible to describe, both beautiful and awful things," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1442. "So I think [language play] isn't just a writing tool — it's a life skill." Read “Apocatastasis” by G.C. Waldrep: bit.ly/3M2lI7D
- Reposted by Maggie SmithThis is a really incredible piece. Share it widely 🎁https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/minneapolis-uprising/685755/?gift=C-rzmQ8PsUHt15odxTKJDn7xrpPNxSpotkNz_P27oI0
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- Abolish and prosecute.
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"I don’t think there’s ever an expiration date on well wishes, and frankly, we need all the well wishes we can get for 2026," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social says in today's episode. Read "New Year" by @katejbaer.bsky.social — from WHAT KIND OF WOMAN (@harpercollins.bsky.social): bit.ly/3LZ8pEU
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem explores memory and loss — and how objects can help us resurrect the past," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1439 of The Slowdown. Read "I Have Lost It" by Monica Ferrell — from THE FUTURE (@fourwaybooks.bsky.social) — and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/49W02SK
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem addresses a child — a child full of questions about the world," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1438 of The Slowdown. Read "The Long Now" by Robin Beth Schaer and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4b3k3sB
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem is a love poem, one in which the long-married speaker can hardly imagine their own 'beforetimes' — the life before their spouse," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1437. Read “Now that we’ve been married all these years" by Keetje Kuipers: bit.ly/3ZlrrbC
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem ... reflected my own experience back to me — in a way that helped me see it differently," our host, @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social, shares in today's episode of The Slowdown. Read "Vacation" by Sara Moore Wagner and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4jFNLX1
- Student 1: You got an A on the final paper?! I wanted an A but I got an F! Will you give me your A paper? Student 2: Uh….sure. Student 2 hands him the paper with a big red A at the top. Student 2 still gets an A. Student 1 still fails, but he’s grinning and holding an A paper. 🤡🏅
- Angela, thank you! 🥰 bookshop.org/p/books/a-su...
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem feels to me like an invitation INTO poetry, into a space where the reader, or listener, can move freely," our host, @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's episode, number 1435. "I hope you find yourself welcome." Read "ars poetica, 2019" by Airea D. Matthews: bit.ly/49Pl4mR
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem touched me because it acknowledges the patience and tenderness we need to have as spouses and as parents," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1432. Read "The Good Guy" by @blasfalconer.bsky.social — from RARA AVIS (@fourwaybooks.bsky.social): bit.ly/4buKSGe
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- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem is surreal and unnerving," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social says about episode 1431 of The Slowdown. "When I finish reading it, I have that feeling of having woken up from a strange dream, suspecting it has something to tell me." Read "Going Home" by Joan Kwon Glass: bit.ly/4952mYe
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem, which looks at the fragility of our planet, begins with two epigraphs," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social explains in today's episode, number 1430 of The Slowdown. Read “Earth Shovel” by Dan Albergotti — from CANDY (@lsupress.bsky.social) — and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/4pjV5sf
- ICE murdered a poet and mother today. I don’t know how to process this horrific act, to be honest, let alone the right’s beyond-fucked-up response to it. This country is terrifying.
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"I admire how today’s poem describes time, and what it feels like to reach the middle of one’s life only to be surprised at what you find," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's episode. Read "Midlife Crisis” by @janezwart.bsky.social, from ODDEST & OLDEST & SADDEST & BEST: bit.ly/3YXpuls
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- Reposted by Maggie SmithTo have @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social feature my poem on @slowdownshow.org would be a dream come true had I ever thought to dream such a wild thing. Thank you to all the folks who make this podcast, which has introduced me to many, many poets I admire. www.slowdownshow.org/episode/2026...
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem pulls back the curtain on the revision process, showing us how it’s about more than just the text on the page," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares on today's episode of The Slowdown, number 1428. Read "In Defense of 'Candelabra with Heads'” by Nicole Sealey: bit.ly/3YG5K61
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Once upon a time, I was a new mother with a baby girl in my arms, and I was her whole world," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's episode, number 1427. Read "A toast to something beautiful flapping in the wind" by J. Hope Stein and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/44TmEBy
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- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Sometimes I swear I can feel a life-changing moment as it’s happening," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1426 of The Slowdown. Read "One-Way Gate" by Jenny George — from THE DREAM OF REASON (@coppercanyonpress.bsky.social) — and our full episode transcript: bit.ly/49hrQ3s
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- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem is about fathers and sons, and about loss. It is also about the small, shining parts of our lives that survive us and get passed down to the next generation," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1424 of The Slowdown. Read "White Hot Star" by W. Todd Kaneko: bit.ly/4q25OsO
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"As I was reading The People’s Project submissions from contributors, I felt strongly that this poem should come last, closing the book," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social says in today's episode. Read “Puzzle” by Randall Mann (@randallmann.bsky.social): bit.ly/4poo5PW 📖: Washington Square Press
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem begins with a little advice that made me smile because of its sauciness, and the poem unfolds into such a rich, detailed portrait," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1419. Read "Ladies' Arm Wrestling Match at the Blue Moon Diner" by Jenny Johnson: bit.ly/4b0XQv5
- I ran on the treadmill so I could eat bourbon balls & Italian rainbow cookies for lunch: A Christmas Eve Tale.
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- I’ve reached the listening to Electric Warrior turned way up & making homemade rosemary bar nuts stage of the holidays. I like it here.
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem moves quietly and deliberately, the way a cautious deer might walk from the shelter of the woods into a clearing," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shared in today's episode. Read "Whitetail in the Rain Moving About" by Melissa Ginsburg: bit.ly/3L6UMTB 📖: @lsupress.bsky.social
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem has me thinking about evolution and natural selection in a different way," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in today's episode. "It has me thinking about our survival." Read “Elephants Born Without Tusks" by Alison C. Rollins: bit.ly/4s6u5PU 📖: @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social
- My daughter, my firstborn, is 17 today. This morning we were listening to a playlist she made of her 17 favorite songs, and she told me her senior quote will likely be lyrics from a Cranberries song—lyrics about childhood—and I cried happy, I-was-her-age-in-1994 tears. Happy Birthday to the best.
- Reposted by Maggie Smith"Today’s poem is one about parents and children, bedtime fears, and the ways we communicate love and safety," @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social shares in episode 1414. Read "This dark is the same dark as when you close" by @caesura.bsky.social: bit.ly/4oXwTf4 📖: @alicejamesbooks.bsky.social
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- Lump in my throat on the way home from dropping my kids off at school, half from the streaky morning sky, half from this song. A good lump that made me smile. Take care out there. open.spotify.com/track/1rsGgT...
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- Cried—like, really cried—through a lot of Rental Family tonight. I went in knowing next to nothing about it, but I was completely charmed. A beautiful film. And Brendan Fraser is terrific.
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