Poetry is Life
Maya C Popa and the Conscious Writers Collective.
Dear Reader: You know me on Substack for poems and personal essays. I write from my life. I’m a mother, a widow, a lover of cats and French press coffee. I’m someone trying to make her way in a world transformed by grief. Substack is a community. It’s my new home.
I write from hurt, loss, and sorrow. But mostly, I write from joy. Joy cannot exist without gratitude.
You’ll be getting one of my essays tomorrow. I think it’s a pretty good one: a story about losing the diamond from my engagement ring. (I won’t give away the ending, but — excuse the pun — it wasn’t the end of the world). Today, I’m writing to express my deep appreciation for someone equally precious. Her name is
.In November, 2023, I sent out my first Substack post. It had a ridiculous title: Life, the universe, and everything plus a rainbow equals . . . The subtitle was worse. I desperately needed
and Headline Help. But I learned, and my posts got better.I had come to Substack to tell my story: Twenty-five years ago, I got my MFA in poetry. I began a rewarding, though unpaid, career as a writer. Then life happened. I stopped writing. I was interrupted.
In April, 2023, my husband died of lung cancer. July 21, 2024 — fifteen months later — would have been our forty-fifth wedding anniversary. I celebrated with a glass of wine and a frozen pizza.
Don’t cue the violins. I have a good life.
At some point I began to follow the coolest girl on Substack. Sophisticated, dressed to the nines, she posted selfies of the elegant young woman I’d always wanted to be. Like this:
It turned out that this remarkable person was Maya C Popa, a poet who taught not only at NYU but through Zoom classes on Substack. I subscribed, got blown away by her intelligence and generosity, and bought and devoured her astonishing books.
Then, somehow, she found me. In March, 2024, she selected Writer, interrupted as a Substack Featured Publication. For the first time ever, I was sitting at the cool kids’ table.
It was the greatest honor of my life.
Here’s the rest of Maya’s story:
She’s the Poetry Reviews Editor at Publishers Weekly and teaches poetry at NYU. She is director of creative writing at the Nightingale-Bamford school where she oversees visiting writers, workshops, and readings. In 2022, she founded Gen Z Prep, which helps high school juniors and seniors achieve extraordinary college results.
She holds a PhD on the role of wonder in poetry from Goldsmiths, University of London, where she was a recipient of a department bursary for exceptional merit, and previous degrees from Oxford University, NYU, and Barnard College. She is currently pursuing a graduate certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Leadership Initiatives from Harvard University.
In 2021, she was commissioned by The United Nations to write a poem and deliver the opening remarks for the International Day of the Girl. Her poetry was featured on a Louis Vuitton trunk for the Visionaries 200-Year Anniversary campaign.
She is the author of Wound is the Origin of Wonder (W.W. Norton 2022; Picador 2023) and the chapbook Dear Life (Smith|Doorstop 2022), which was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Awards (UK). Wound is the Origin of Wonder was named one of the Guardian’s Best Books of Poetry and has been featured in The Washington Post, The Irish Times, The Harvard Review, Booklist, and elsewhere. Her newsletter, Poetry Today, is a Substack bestseller and featured publication.
She’s thirty-five years old, and . . .
. . . a Taylor Swift fan.
Maya’s Substack is called
. She sends out curated selections of poems, essays, and Notes, and teaches brilliant classes over Zoom.And now, her commitment to deepening your practice of poetry, mindset, and wonder is reflected in her most recent project, the Conscious Writers Collective.
A year-long online writing course with a new cohort joining each month, CWC is open to all. If you:
wish to engage with a community of smart writers
are excited about Zoom meetings with extraordinary authors who share their knowledge and enthusiasm as they set your creative self on fire
seek to learn through collaboration and sharing, alongside fellow Collective members
are eager to explore a priceless vault of recorded lectures and classes
want to gain a the highest quality MFA-level education at a fraction of the cost*
believe that writing saves lives, then
CWC is for you.
And no, you don’t have to be a poet to belong. You just have to believe in the power of words.
*The one-year Conscious Writer’s Collective experience is priced at $99 per month, or $999 per year. A bargain.
My three months in CWC have transformed and inspired me. I’ve written dozens of poems. Zoom classes with visiting writers, including Eugenia Leigh, Declan Ryan, and
have made me feel, to paraphrase Emily Dickinson, that the top of my head has been taken off. Because that’s what great writing does.Many of our fellow Substackers have joined. Here’s a partial list:
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If you register using the link below I may earn a small commission. All of it will go towards buying books of poetry to place in the Little Free Library my son and daughter built in honor of my husband, their dad.
Why join?
Because poetry is life, and . . .
. . . because Maya.
To join Conscious Writers Collective, click here.
Oh, my goodness, Mary. This post makes me teary with gratitude--YOU are the cool girl. I've been your fangirl from the moment the universe connected us. You make every space you're part of better; I hope you deeply know how much value, strength, and solace you bring to your readers and the world. You have alchemized all that grief and pain so beautifully. I am grateful for your friendship, grateful for your support, and so, so honored and grateful to work with you in CWC. I'm SO lucky.
Ah, Mary... your generosity of spirit and ability to truth-tell in the loveliest, loving-est, most approachable way shine in this feature on Maya and CWC. You aim to connect, support and uplift. You are much more than an accomplished writer. You are a stellar human.