All Works

NYT: At 66, Elizabeth Strout Has Reached Maximum Productivity

Erik Tanner for The New York Times

‘I’ve taught myself how to get these sentences down, how to know when they’re worth getting down,’ said Strout, 66. ‘It’s like I’ve been training for a marathon my entire life and now there’s an acceleration happening.’
Elisabeth Egan, “At 66, Elizabeth Strout Has Reached Maximum Productivity,” New York Times, Sept. 3, 2022.

2019 Commencement Address, University of Maine at Farmington

Commencement / Graduation 2019. Saturday, May 11 2019 10:30am. Pulitzer-winning Maine author Elizabeth Strout was the keynote speaker and received an honorary degree at the University of Maine at Farmington's 2019 Commencement ceremony.

I’m a writer and so I spend a great deal of my time alone. And every decision I ultimately make on that page, I make alone. And then the work goes out into the world.... What I do (I have come to realize this) is an act of faith. And whatever you all will do will also be acts of faith.

You don’t have to be a teacher or a writer to understand that we are all connected and that what we do every day will ripple out in ways that we will never know.... But we don’t have to know. We just have to trust that whatever we do in the world will find its way to a person who needs it.
— 2019 Commencement Address, Univeristy of Maine at Farmington