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Meaghan O'Connell

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.meaghano.com

Twitter

meaghano

Genre

Nonfiction

Member Since

March 2007

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/meaghano

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Meaghan O'Connell lives with her husband and young son in Portland, OR. She is a contributing writer for Longreads and New York Magazine's The Cut. From 2013-2015 she co-edited the personal finance website The Billfold, and before that worked in the tech industry, where she was an early employee at Kickstarter and Tumblr.

Her first book, And Now We Have Everything, is forthcoming from Little, Brown in April 2018. ...more

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Hi there, I just wanted to tell you how excited I am to read your book when it comes out. What an honest and timely topic. Wishing you hearty congratulations and best wishes. My question is: how do you feel about having published your first book?

Meaghan O'Connell Very surreal! That people seem to be connecting with it is a huge relief and so wild to me. I am proud, mostly that I actually wrote and finished it. …moreVery surreal! That people seem to be connecting with it is a huge relief and so wild to me. I am proud, mostly that I actually wrote and finished it. I had so many hang-ups and fears that the writing and editing process forced me to face down and conquer. Now I feel so...free?(less)

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I loved your book! You described birth and early motherhood so accurately! Did you write this book after your son was sleep trained? Or did you start it before that? I'm interested to know how you chose this pocket of time to describe. Keep up the great work!

Meaghan O'Connell I took notes in pregnancy and then wrote the birth story at about three months postpartum, which was how I was able to remember so much! When I sent m…moreI took notes in pregnancy and then wrote the birth story at about three months postpartum, which was how I was able to remember so much! When I sent my birth story out as a tinyletter i realized I wanted to write a whole book, and imagined it would touch on pregnancy, breastfeeding, etc. but didn’t know it would be so chronological. Before we moved out of New York (when my son was 5-6 months) I met with literary agents, and worked on the book proposal until his first birthday! And yes started making real progress once he was sleep-trained and in daycare 😂 Then I sold the book when he was about 15 months old and spent the next two years writing and editing it. A few months after the book came out he turned four and I had his little brother, who is asleep on my chest right now ❤️ So a lot has changed and a lot of my perspective has shifted since those early days, but I really wanted to capture the lived experience and what it was like emotionally, to keep it immediate and in the head of my “character” at the time. I wanted to end on a hopeful note, one that wasn’t too tidy but felt true. (less)

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Meaghan O'Connell’s books

Average rating: 3.92 · 6,860 ratings · 920 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready 3.92 avg rating — 6,689 ratings — published 2018 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Coming and Crying by Melissa Gira Grant (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Meaghan O'Connell (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Stephen Elliott (Contributor) 3.72 avg rating — 144 ratings — published 2010 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Birth Story 4.83 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2014	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reverence Library: Volume One by Sing Statistics (Editor), Matthew Allard (Goodreads Author), Joshua Allen (Goodreads Author) 3.87 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 2011	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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"When I started writing And Now We Have Everything , it seemed like no one was writing about the transition to parenthood, but perhaps I just...

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The Stone Diaries

by Carol Shields

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Feb 08, 2018 11:21AM

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The Vermont Plays

by Annie Baker

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Feb 08, 2018 11:20AM

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the earthquake room

by Davey Davis

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Nov 21, 2017 12:00PM

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Meaghan O'Connell rated a book it was amazing A Great Hope by Jessica Stanley (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 23, 2021 10:44AM · like

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Quotes by Meaghan O'Connell (?)

“What if, instead of worrying about scaring pregnant women, people told them the truth? What is pregnant women were treated like thinking adults? What if everyone worried less about giving women a bad impression of motherhood?”
― Meaghan O'Connell, And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready

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“What if having a hard time adjusting to motherhood wasn’t some moral failure or a failure of imagination? What if we thought of the whole endeavor like we do work? Like how a career starts out with a lot of dues-paying, a lot of indignity, a lot of feeling unappreciated and complaining to your friends but then incrementally gets easier or more fulfilling. You get better at it. It becomes part of you. And you start to think, Well, what else would I do all day?”
― Meaghan O'Connell, And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready

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“Day and night bled into each other, coalescing into one big nightmare. My clothes were indistinguishable from pajamas. A lamp was always on. We were in the middle of what felt like an ongoing emergency. Like someone was playing a practical joke on us. Endure the car crash of childbirth, then, without sleeping, use your broken body to keep your tiny, fragile, precious, heartbreaking, mortal child alive.”
― Meaghan O'Connell, And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready

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