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Meghan O'Rourke

@meghanor.bsky.social
3.6K followers 73 following 214 posts

Writer and poet | Editor of The Yale Review | Professor of Creative Writing at Yale | playing with a Substack about writing Most recent book: THE INVISIBLE KINGDOM: REIMAGINING CHRONIC ILLNESS, which was a finalist for the nonfiction National Book Award.

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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
FYI! Someone is emailing writers in my name from contact.meghanorourke@gmail.com, praising their work as editor at Yale Review & (eventually) steering them toward a paid service. It's a scam; don't reply, report it as phishing, and please share... I would only write from my official Yale account.
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
One and only cover girl moment in my life. Thanks @publisherswkly.bsky.social for this lovely review of THE STORY OF THE BODY, an anthology I edited gathering my favorite of poems of illness and resilience.
Cover image of Publishers Weekly featuring photo of Meghan ORourke and text saying the bestseller gathers poems about strength and sickness in The Story of the BodyStarred Review from Publishers Weekly calling the Story of the Body “excellent”
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Thrilled to say my poem “Erasers” is today’s Poem-A-Day from The Academy of American Poets. Thank you, Charif Shanahan, for selecting it! poets.org/poem-a-day
poets.org
Poem-a-Day
Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previousl
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EMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...
theonion.com
Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation
PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Just learned: You can register now for a Goodreads giveaway of THE STORY OF THE BODY: Poems of Illness & Recovery, if you're interested. 💙 www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...
goodreads.com
Book giveaway for The Story of the Body: Poems of Illness & Recovery by Meghan O'Rourke Jul 30-Aug 27, 2026
Enter to win one of 10 free copies available. Giveaway dates from Jul 30-Aug 27, 2026. A major new anthology of poems about illness and resilience—eighty...
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Cover reveal! ⚡ I edited a poetry anthology: THE STORY OF THE BODY: POEMS OF ILLNESS AND RECOVERY, out this fall from W. W. Norton—82 of the best poems I've read on illness, medicine & caretaking. George Herbert, Sylvia Plath, Jericho Brown & more. please consider pre-ordering to support!
Book cover for a new poetry anthology, THE STORY OF THE BODY: POEMS OF ILLNESS & RECOVER by Meghan O'Rourke, finalist for the National Book Award, with a call to pre-order now. Published by Norton.
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Summer reading: I love this memoir-cum-story of a critic's origins by Brian Dillon. It's a book about grief and love and bewilderment--the best kind of book, in short! Comes out this fall from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
A new poem from me in @newyorker.com, about C-sections and children and Rothko. I hope you enjoy! www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
“Sectioned”
“I wanted to sleep, / having been cut in half; / having been turned from one to two.”
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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
I’ll be damned. The Pulitzer board did it. Good on them
Special Citations and Awards
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Julie K. Brown
A special citation is awarded to Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown for her groundbreaking reporting in 2017 and 2018 that exposed Jeffrey Epstein's systematic abuse of young women, the justice system that protected him, and, over time, his powerful network of associates and enablers.
Her Perversion of Justice series, published nearly a decade ago, revealed how prosecutors shielded Epstein from federal sex trafficking charges when he was first accused of abusing young women. She went on to document and give voice to the scores of victims who had been groomed and abused by him and others in his circle. Her work, and the release of the government's Epstein files, continue to reverberate around the world.
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Was an honor and a joy to judge the @pulitzerprizes.bsky.social in Memoir this year, and I'm so delighted that @appletwigli.bsky.social received the award for her stunning book THINGS IN NATURE MERELY GROW. I am also glad we could shine a light on the other finalists:
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Tonight! This should be a really interesting conversation about writing past shame, how narrative nonfiction forms can create possibilities for complexity and understanding that others don't about of course living through and past trauma. The book is amazing. Come out!
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
I'm very much looking forward to speaking with Neige Sinno about writing past silence and taboo around sexual assault and more at the Pen American World Voices Festival. Her book SAD TIGER is a truly astonishing work. Come on by if you're around on May 1 at 8pm at the Church of the Village in NYC:
Lists event at  8pm on May 1 2026 at the Church of the Village, NYC, for Pen America WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL with Meghan O'Rourke and Neige Sinno.
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James Poniewozik @poniewozik.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
the penne opticon
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
A new piece from me at @atlantic: Modern medicine has diagnosis crisis, which isn't just about rare diseases — a huge number of people with #longCOVID, #MECFS, & more go needlessly undiagnosed b/c patients aren't listened to, as Alexandra Sifferlin shows: www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
The Paradox of Modern Medicine
Testing has become so advanced that doctors now miss important elements of diagnosis.
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The Yale Review @yalereview.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
"This is how meter is like mortality. Our lives are bounded by birth and death and punctuated along the way by the kinds of markers that biology and custom have established as roughly universal." Kamran Javadizadeh on Robert Frost.
yalereview.org
Kamran Javadizadeh: “Robert Frost at Midlife”
An analysis of three poems by Robert Frost, including “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” that first appeared in The Yale Review in 1923
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
I'm really looking forward to this online conversation with three writers I admire talking about writing and illness and celebrating 25 years of Bellevue Literary Review!
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blreview.bsky.social @blreview.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Four authors. One fascinating conversation.✨We're thrilled to welcome @meghanor.bsky.social @porochista.bsky.social & Rebekah Taussig for a live online panel with BLR editor @danielleofri on March 26. Free - RSVP today! www.tickettailor.com/events/belle...
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Elizabeth Bishop wrote sixteen drafts of "One Art." The first is practically a journal entry. The last is one of the greatest poems in English. What happened in between was play. I wrote a new Substack post on drafting, play, and forgetting what you know: substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
How to Write Better Drafts
What Elizabeth Bishop’s drafts can teach us about letting go and just starting.
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Thrilled to share that @yalereview.bsky.social has been named a finalist for two National Magazine Awards — General Excellence (in Science, Literature and Politics) and Fiction! I know how fierce the competition is. So proud of our small but mighty team and are amazingly hard-working writers. 🎉
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Come do a workshop with me in Aspen this June at the Aspen Words Conference!
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Aud @audthecodewitch.dev · 13/02/2026
"my experience of being ill led me to see that our bodies may feel autonomous, but we all live in the nexus of radical interconnection." ~ @meghanor.bsky.social I just started The invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness, and I can already tell it's gonna be good. #booksky #spoonie
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
One horrific thing about reading the Epstein files and the aftermath is not just the abuse, but the tone and scope: powerful men insisting on their own injury or blamelessness while propping up a system that treats women as collateral. This isn’t aberration but an intact culture.
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
A must watch. (And Shakespeare, my god: "Your mountainish inhumanity" is the perfect phrase.)
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
We need to reinvigorate books coverage in this country; the WaPo news is a very sad new development. But there is already a shrinking coverage in newspapers and magazines, and a real need to reimagine how we talk about and write about books
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Ben Mullin @benmullin.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
I wrote a new Substack about endings. It began as a craft talk but became something a bit broader — a way of thinking about why endings are so hard, and what they actually do. If you struggle with endings (don’t we all!) you might enjoy it: meghanorourke.substack.com/p/what-endin...
meghanorourke.substack.com
What Endings Really Do
A writer and editor's guide to shaping the last lines of your work — from Rilke to The Great Gatsby.
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The Yale Review @yalereview.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Coming soon. Our Spring 2026 Issue. Subscribe by February 5 to receive your copy: shop.yalereview.org/products/the...
Black text in grey rectangle against pink backdrop. Text reads: 
In this issue
Vincenzo Latronico
Searching for sleep 
Jhumpa Lahiri
On Thomas Hardy
Aria Aber
My life at the club
Jorie Graham
A new poem
Emma Copley Eisenberg
A short story 
Dale Peck 
Dogsbody
Clare Carlisle
Solvej Balle’s eternal day
Spring 2026
Volume 114, No. 1
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Putrino Lab @putrinolab.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
A bit late to the party about sharing this news, but so excited to be announcing our open-label trial of tafenoquine for treating chronic babesiosis! Babesia is a parasite that is often carried by ticks and it is a common co-infection alongside #lyme. investors.60degreespharma.com/news-release... 1/
investors.60degreespharma.com
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Glad to see so many wonderful books on the NBCC prizes' short list, and many more I need to read; congrats to my friends Katie Kitamura and Kevin Young whose books I loved: www.bookcritics.org/awards/
bookcritics.org
The National Book Critics Circle Awards - National Book Critics Circle
Each year, the National Book Critics Circle presents awards for the finest books published in English in six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Poetry, and Criticism. In additi...
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Thrilled to share my poem “Changing Table” which is out in this week The New Yorker (Jan 19, 2026). It’s the first poem I’ve sent out in a while. Grateful to Kevin Young and @newyorker.com for publishing it! www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
“Changing Table”
“The thing about children is: / they disappear.”
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Rachel Graves @rachelgraves.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
In The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness, @meghanor.bsky.social also writes about the challenges of diagnosis and treatment for illnesses that medicine does not yet sufficiently understand, in part because of deep sexism.
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Richard Kemp @richardmskemp.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
LOVED this poem about parenthood by @meghanor.bsky.social! In this week’s @newyorker.com
newyorker.com
“Changing Table”
“The thing about children is: / they disappear.”
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The Yale Review @yalereview.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
We are saddened to hear of the death of Kai T. Erikson, a distinguished sociologist and former editor of The Yale Review. Penelope Laurans—former associate editor of TYR—offers a remembrance of Erikson's life and work. news.yale.edu/2025/11/11/k...
news.yale.edu
Kai T. Erikson, eminent sociologist and historian of disaster
Kai T. Erikson, a beloved teacher and prominent figure on Yale’s campus for 45 years, died on Nov. 10.
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
I'm so honored to have my work featured on the Slow Down! Thank you, @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social. Wonderful timing, as I'm writing poems again and trying to finish a manuscript. New poems coming soon from some magazines near you! ✨
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
My son is texting me for the first time and it's quite the wild ride. How do they learn to be so Gen Alpha without even practicing?
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Looking forward to chatting with Ann Packer about her wonderful new book in New Canaan at Elm Street Books this Wednesday at 6pm!
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Excited to talk about invisible illness and the ethics of recognizing suffering tonight at 7pm at Emory's Center for Ethics. @emorycenters.bsky.social. Come by if you are in town. www.emory.edu/home/events/...
Poster describing Meghan O'Rourke's talk BEYOND DIAGNOSIS: THE ETHICS OF RECOGNIZING INVISIBLE ILLNESS on Nov 5, 2025 at 7pm, Room 353, Rollins Bldg, 1531 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA.
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Last night my 9-year-old showed me his first essay. I gave him notes. Today he got home and said, "I’ll finish it myself. I didn’t like your edits.” When I burst out laughing, he asked, “Is that the first time a writer’s been honest with you?”
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
the chaos of this interview
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The Yale Review @yalereview.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Ellen Bryant Voigt—poet and founder of the first low-residency MFA program—transformed American poetry and the way it’s taught. Catherine Barnett, @victoriachang.bsky.social, @cphillipspoet.bsky.social, and @meghanor.bsky.social pay tribute to a singular mentor. yalereview.org/article/trib...
yalereview.org
Remembering Ellen Bryant Voigt
Catherine Barnett, Victoria Chang, Meghan O’Rourke, and Carl Phillips remember the poet Ellen Bryant Voigt.
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
An interesting essay by Zoe Cunniffe on how uncertainty shapes medicine—and what doctors gain by acknowledging it. It touches on many of the questions I explored in The Invisible Kingdom (and I'm quoted in it!): aeon.co/essays/medic...
aeon.co
Medicine is uncertain: embracing that makes doctors better | Aeon Essays
From late-night calls to unsolved symptoms, uncertainty is woven into every doctor’s day. They should learn to embrace it
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Michael Miller @mchlmllr.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
New Bookforum. @xlo.bsky.social @sashafrerejones.bsky.social @meghanor.bsky.social @hermionehoby.bsky.social @ryanruby.bsky.social @adamwilson.bsky.social @jenniferkrasinski.bsky.social www.bookforum.com/print
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Thrilled to announce a dream collaboration dreamed up by me and Adam Biles: @yalereview.bsky.social + @shakespeareandcompany.com .Together, we’ll publish author conversations from the legendary Paris bookshop—beginning with Neige Sinno on her extraordinary Sad Tiger. yalereview.org/article/shak...
yalereview.org
A Shakespeare and Company Interview: Neige Sinno on her memoir Sad…
Shakespeare and Company’s Adam Biles discusses form, memory, childhood sexual abuse, and the paradoxes of testimony with novelist and memoirist Neige…
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
A new Yale study finds a striking rise in self-reported cognitive disability among U.S. adults — especially younger people. What role might Covid and Long Covid be playing? We urgently need more studies. news.yale.edu/2025/09/24/g...
news.yale.edu
A growing number of U.S. adults report cognitive disability
In a 10-year study, U.S. adults reported growing rates of problems with their memory, concentration, and decision-making abilities, with the figure doubling among the youngest cohort.
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
I've been quiet here because summer break is anything but that when you have kids... but, as part of endless vacay with those aforementioned kids, we watched Back to the Future 2 last night and its "alternate" 1985 is a fascinating parallel to T's America.... tempted to write about it.
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Mount Sinai’s new manual for the treatment of infection-associated chronic diseases is an important step: not a cure-all, sure, but an important instance of a medical institution taking IACD seriously—including Lyme & TBDs—and introducing frameworks for care. Thx @putrinolab.bsky.social & CORE!
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
“Living with #MECFS is like holding what has no meaning.” @julierehmeyer.bsky.social's new piece about illness and grief for her friend Beth Mazur is searing and unforgettable. I’m better today, but when I was sickest, this paragraph was my life:
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
playing around with ChatGPT 5 (for the paper I'm about its effect on creativity) . I find it less strong as an administrative editing tool: v normie in its outputs, tending to cut anything interesting / odd. Anyone else seeing this? Here's my earlier piece: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | I Teach Creative Writing. This Is What A.I. Is Doing to Students.
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Meghan O'Rourke @meghanor.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
New Substack post! I answer your writing questions—on structure, self-editing, and getting through the messy middle. I also talk about what I learned from Nancy Drew, index cards, and the most common notes I give writers. meghanorourke.substack.com/p/how-to-edi...
meghanorourke.substack.com
How to Edit Yourself, Weave Narrative Threads, and Keep Going When You're Lost in the Middle
Structure is the writer’s most underrated tool. Here’s how I use index cards and detective fiction to help me edit my work.
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Mark Follman @markfollman.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Anyone thinking about AI and writing — or what may soon be at stake with much of human creativity — should read this essay by @meghanor.bsky.social. It is… genuinely thought-provoking and insightful. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | I Teach Creative Writing. This Is What A.I. Is Doing to Students.
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