Maggie Estep

Poet, essayist, and novelist Maggie Estep died suddenly from a massive heart attack Monday night, February 10. I discovered Estep through recordings of her spoken-word performances on YouTube. Taken with her voice, I read her essay collection, Love Dance of the Mechanical Animals, and her story collection, Soft Maniacs.

I met her only briefly, at a signing for Hard Boiled Brooklyn edited by Reed Farrel Coleman. I told her how much I enjoyed Mechanical Animals, and she smiled.

In meaning to re-tweet the article linked above, I mistakenly re-tweeted Duane Swierczynski quoting Maggie:

"I hate when a famous person dies and everyone who ever met them once writes stuff about the person." Maggie Estep, last October.

— Duane Swierczynski (@swierczy) February 12, 2014

Forgive me, but her loss reminds me what a difference that meeting makes.