Maura Casey

Opinion

At 12 years of age, I discovered the unending source of joy that came from filling an empty page with words. In adulthood, writing gave me purpose and a 35-year opinion writing career for four newspapers, including The Day of New London and the New York Times. Over the years I was fortunate to have received several dozen national and regional awards for journalism, including a shared Pulitzer Prize and Scripps Howard’s Walker Stone Award for editorial writing. In between, I’ve judged writing contests and taught at writers’ workshops across the country. I also own a communications firm, CaseyInk.

Yet the beauty of writing, of loving the craft and all that it means, is this: Nobody needs permission or the world’s recognition to be a writer. All that is needed is to do it – day in, day out, knowing that every attempt is honorable, however imperfect the product. Writing is rewriting and caring deeply about choice of words and fussing over sentences until they sound just right has always felt, to me, like a form of music, or meditation.

Aside from my family – my husband, children, and a perfect granddaughter – writing has undergirded most of my days.

It’s glorious. It has been my life. Lucky me.