Maureen Stanton Writes of Love, Caretaking and Loss
Image by Heather Perry
03/27/2025
By Katharine Webster
The publishing journey of English 笔谤辞蹿别蝉蝉辞谤听Maureen Stanton鈥檚 new memoir, is a Cinderella story.
Stanton wrote the first draft of the memoir 鈥� a tale of falling in love, breaking up and then finding out that her ex-boyfriend had terminal cancer 鈥� while earning an MFA in creative writing at Ohio State University. At the end of summer 2001, she found an agent who was interested. But after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, no one would touch the book.
鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 get anyone interested because it was a sad story and the country was grieving,鈥� she says.
A decade later, after publishing her deeply reported dive into the world of flea markets and antiques, she tried again: No luck. The same thing happened after she published a memoir of her childhood, in 2019.
Three years ago, Stanton decided to 鈥渃annibalize鈥� the still-unpublished first book for shorter pieces she could submit to literary journals and magazines. An excerpt won the nonfiction contest, and The New York Times published a shorter essay, in its 鈥淢odern Love鈥� column.聽
Encouraged, Stanton revised the manuscript and submitted it last year for the 鈥� and won. Her prize: $10,000 and publication by Columbus State University Press this month.
Stanton, who teaches courses in literary journalism and literary publishing in the English Department鈥檚 Creative Writing Program, recently sat down for an interview about the book, the path to publication and why she鈥檚 spending her prize money on services provided by former students.
Why do you think this book still resonates after 25 years, and how is it different from other memoirs about cancer?
It鈥檚 a love story; it鈥檚 a story about caregiving and about how illness changes love and relationships.聽
As a young person in your 20s, you think you know everything about love. Steve and I were very young and very lusty. And then you鈥檙e facing mortality, and it鈥檚 no longer a physical, bodily love; you鈥檙e not going to get married and have kids. He went through an anger phase, and then later in his illness, we fell in love in a completely different way. It鈥檚 about compassion, and what do we owe other people, too.
It鈥檚 also a working-class narrative. All the other cancer memoirs I had read 鈥� and there are some great ones out there 鈥� were about people who didn鈥檛 have a problem taking time off from work and who had the best doctors.聽
Image by University of Georgia Press
Steve was an electrician, and I had my college degree, but I was working as an administrative assistant. Steve鈥檚 friend Joey was selling some of Steve鈥檚 pain pills to help pay for experimental treatments. His parents raised money from their church.
You began writing 鈥淢urmur鈥� a decade after Steve鈥檚 death. How did you remember everything so clearly?聽
I was always keeping journals when it was happening, and I started publishing short pieces about it within a couple of years, so I had that material to work with; I had details I never would have remembered otherwise.聽
How are you using your prize money?
I hired former student Megan Posco 鈥�14, who now has her own company, , to help get the book out there, because small presses don鈥檛 have big marketing budgets. It鈥檚 been really fun working with Megan. She鈥檚 gotten me some reviews and interviews.
And I hired another student who鈥檇 taken my Literary Publishing class, Valentina Mu帽oz Roa, an English major with a digital media minor, to create a 肠补尘辫补颈驳苍.听
Valentina created posts for Instagram with quotes she liked from the book, including for Valentine鈥檚 Day. She created a Spotify playlist of songs that are mentioned in the book and paired them with images, and she set up a GoodReads giveaway. We鈥檙e working on TikTok now. I never could have done all that!
When Valentina graduates in May, she can add to her resume that she created this campaign. It鈥檚 just been a really nice partnership with these current and former students.
