In Memoriam: Margaret Weatherford

Los Angeles writer Margaret Weatherford died this week of cancer at the age of forty-six. She was a dedicated perfectionist and her output was tiny, but impeccable: funny, affectionate, intricate, and microscopically observant. She published a hilarious story in Zyzzyva, “East of the 5, South of the 10,” that mapped Greek mythology over the latitude and longitude of LA’s freeways and the various spaces between. (Zyzzyva posts it here with a memoir by Julia Clinger. To order see below.) Last fall Paris Review Daily published one of her signature miniatures, “Green Car, Nightfall.” She also worked on offprints, performance, and visual art in collaboration with her sister, the painter Mary Weatherford.  We published the first chapter of her unfinished novel, The Destinationist, in Little Star #1.  Read an excerpt here.

Margaret’s work paired a deep compassion and humanity with a capacious apprehension of existential solitude. She was a rare spirit and we will sorely miss her company and the wonderful work she had ahead of her. We hope in the coming days to post another morsel or two of The Destinationist.

To order “East of the 5, South of the 10” visit www.zyzzyva.org/subscribe/.  The story appears both in Zyzzyva #74 (Fall 2005) and the special issue “First Fiction in Print from Our First 25 Years” (#86/87). Click “Any Randomly Selected Back Issue” and make a note in the PayPal order or send an email editor@zyzzyva.org  specifying the issue you want.

 

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2 Responses to In Memoriam: Margaret Weatherford

  1. Katie Brennan says:

    A gorgeous person and a wonderful writer.

  2. Dave Dixon says:

    Thank you for the excerpts. Her passion for individual words is intoxicating. I remember a week where “hirsute” delighted her.