Welcome, Friends.
I may not know you yet but if you’re reading this I’ll call you a friend.
I’m Joyce Maynard, a New York Times bestselling author. I published my first book in 1973, when I was 19 years old, and I’ve written 19 more books since then—both fiction and nonfiction—including To Die For and Labor Day, both adapted into films.
If you haven’t seen To Die For, by the way, check it out. Thirty years since its release, that movie, like the novel that inspired it, eerily predicted reality TV, among other not-necessarily-positive developments in American culture over the past few decades. And if you do watch the movie, you’ll see me in the role of Nicole Kidman’s attorney. I don’t have many lines, but I got a great closeup with Nicole.
Mostly I write fiction these days, but I’ve also published a couple of memoirs about some of the experiences that have shaped my life most profoundly. In one of those, The Best of Us, I share the story of finding a true life partner—online, at the age of 57, after nearly 25 years on my own.
A year after we married, Jim was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died nine years ago. But The Best of Us is not a cancer story. It’s a love story about discovering for the first time —around age 60—what it meant to be part of a couple. And like most of the stories I explore in my work, it’s about surviving loss, and resilience. I know a thing or two about both of those things.
I think my most intimate book (and the inspiration for the name I gave this space) may be At Home in the World. That memoir, published in 1998, told the story of my relationship at 18 with a man 35 years older —one of the most celebrated writers of the 20th century—who sought me out when I was a freshman at Yale.
I had remained silent about that relationship for 25 years before giving myself permission to tell that story. I made the decision to speak my truth when my own daughter turned 18, and I found myself revisiting an experience that had affected me deeply and altered my life.
When I finally spoke of this I was in my 40’s. I was cancelled before the concept of cancellation existed—condemned in much of the literary world and beyond. I was called “a predator” and (along with Monica Lewinsky) “a leech woman” in the pages of The New York Times, and dismissed as having nothing worthwhile to say besides the fact that I had been, briefly, the partner to an important man.
I have a lot more to say, in fact. Many years and many books later, I’m still here. Writing. Telling stories. Supporting others who seek to tell theirs.
What You’ll Find Here
This Substack is a home for honest, brave, and deeply human storytelling. You’ll find:
Weekly personal essays – I call this series Get a Cup of Coffee.
A biweekly podcast on writing, craft, and creativity called Telling Your Story.
Archived essays from my long-running Domestic Affairs column. Because these columns were first published in the 80’s and 90’s, you could look at them as nostalgia. Back when I Domestic Affairs was running—in over 50 papers nationwide—we had no cell phones. No internet. The marriage I wrote about in that column ended 35 years ago, and the three young children their father and I were raising in our little New Hampshire farmhouse back then are parents themselves now, but many of the joys and struggles of family life I wrote about then are relevant today. As are the questions I was asking at the time.
Live conversations with other writers about writing and the writing life.
Writing prompts & practical tools for memoirists and aspiring authors.
A weekly invitation into my world with photographs of the many places I hang my hat and the interesting objects and people I discover along the way: at my part-time home in Northern California,the little summer cottage in my home state of New Hampshire where I spend my summers, the writing retreats I’ve been hosting for over two decades at the hotel I run in a small Mayan Indigenous village in Guatemala (yup, I run a hotel; you heard that right). And coming up soon, I’ll be sharing some of my camping adventures as I make my way across the country with my partner, staying off big highways whenever possible, reminding myself—in times many of us find deeply troubling—of the beauty and goodness to be found in our country, still. Particularly when we get out into nature.
PLUS: I’ll share the occasional flea-market treasure, drawing, flower coming into bloom, wardrobe highlight, music recommendation, pie crust tip.
I’ll also share updates letting you know about gatherings I host—memoir retreats and cultural immersion experiences in Guatemala, shorter workshops in the US, readings, pie parties. Who knows?
My Books (A Few Highlights)
How the Light Gets In – my latest novel, a sequel to Count the Ways, spans decades in the life of an American family and the woman at its heart. You don’t have to read the first book to dive into the second—but together, they tell a life story that many readers say feels like their own, and introduce characters (one in particular) you may fall in love with.
The Bird Hotel – a magical realist novel (and book club favorite) set in a lakeside village in Central America, following the story of a woman who rebuilds her life—and a crumbling hotel—after a personal tragedy.
The Best of Us – a memoir about love and loss, written after the death of my second husband. I call this one a love story.
You may also know me from Labor Day, The Usual Rules, Under the Influence, The Good Daughters, After Her, At Home in the World…and many more. Most of my books are also available on Audible, narrated by me. I love reading aloud and connecting with readers through my voice. Now and then I’ll probably share a little of that in this space too.
A Life in Words
Over the years, my work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Redbook, Seventeen, All Things Considered on NPR, and even CBS News where I served as a political commentator when I was very young. I’ve interviewed everyone from Dolly Parton to Muhammad Ali and judged the Miss Teenage America Pageant when I was 17. One thing I learned in my days as a journalist, meeting famous people: With the exception of a handful of them (Dolly was one, Ali another) so-called “ordinary” people interest me a whole lot more.
For nearly 10 years, I wrote Domestic Affairs, a syndicated column about family life—not just the heartwarming parts. The hard ones too. When I announced my divorce in that column, nearly half the papers who’d been running Domestic Affairs dropped it. Editors said a divorced woman “wasn’t qualified to write about family.” That just made me more determined to tell the truth.
What Matters Most
One theme of my work is optimism. Another is resilience. Especially the resilience of women. And I’m endlessly interested in families of many forms—not just the nuclear kind.
I grew up in an alcoholic household where we didn’t talk about the problem that had the greatest impact on our lives, my father’s drinking. That early experience taught me the power of truth-telling. It’s what I offer you here. And it’s what I help other writers unlock in my workshops, retreats and online classes.
If You're a Writer (or Want to Be)
I’ve taught memoir workshops for over 35 years—mostly for women, outside of academia, often at my home or online. I also created a full-length video course on storytelling with Creative Live.
At my retreat center in Guatemala, Casa Paloma, I host writing workshops, cultural immersion experiences, and Spanish-language study weeks, all set in an indigenous Mayan village on the shores of one of the world’s most beautiful lakes.
What Comes Next
Soon, I’ll offer a subscription tier for those who want even more: deeper dives into craft, exclusive live events and writing sessions. But for now, all of what’s you’ll find here is free.
One last thing: I think of everything I write as half of a conversation.
The other half comes from you.
I can’t wait to hear what you have to say.
— Joyce
