No More Mr. Nice Girl–R.I.P. Maggie Estep, 1963-2014

Exploding onto the spoken word scene in the early 1990s, Maggie Estep was a force to be reckoned with. Her two albums of spoken word “No More Mr. Nice Girl” and “Love is a Dog From Hell” were amazing poems and rants about life as she saw it. Her voice was gravely, angry and also poignant as she discussed her life experiences from working as a stripper to her addiction problems. Maggie was someone who had an opinion and was not going to let anyone stop her from voicing that opinion.

Also she was one of the pioneers behind the “slam poetry” movement and her work in this has helped to make slam poetry the success that it is today. After her two albums and touring she decided to take a break from spoken word to focus on her writing. She has published 7 novels and appeared in numerous anthologies. Her first novel is a spiritual autobiography entitled Diary of an Emotional Idiot and in that booked she espoused on her favorite subject – emotional idiocy. She then proceeded to write a murder mystery trilogy about a woman who just sort of, kind of becomes an amateur detective as she really has nothing else going on in particular at that moment–Hex was a New York Times notable book for 2003. Before her death she had been working on a novel about female gangsters in the 19th Century.

Estep suffered a heart attack on February 10th 2014 and died two days later from complications; she was 50. If you have not read her work before, perhaps I can suggest you read it now.

Selected Bibliography