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Pocket Observatory

Pocket Observatory

An attention reclamation project by Meg Conley

Katherine de Vos Devine, IP Lawyer and Art Historian

Meg writes with a rigorous precision and emotional clarity I find genuinely intimidating, but also admire with a force I can only call love.

When powerful forces try to silence her, Conley handles their hostility with grace and power. But what I love about her is yet more fundamental: she keeps writing from inside difficult things, not above them.

Her insistence on remaining the specific person doing this specific work, even while battling breast cancer, is a staunch refusal to become anything smaller than the force she is. Meg makes me want to take up space.

When I want to close the laptop and disappear, I run a test: Would Meg do this? Would Meg be brave enough to say this out loud?

Always yes. And on chemo.

Hi, I'm Meg Conley

I am a researcher, writer, and caretaker. I create Pocket Observatory, a not-for-profit attention reclamation project. My work appears in places like Harper's Bazaar, The Guardian, BBC and NPR. 

Currently, my observations are written as I navigate treatment for triple-negative breast cancer.

I write here to remind myself of what I am at a molecular level - a person who gets to be alive right now. Context isn’t linear, so my writing isn't either. I’ll mostly be writing about what I see out of the corner of my eye. It won't all be about cancer, but it will all be written by a woman with cancer. (That woman is me.)

When you read my writing, you’re taking the time to witness me. Thank you. We do what we can for each other, don’t we? And that’s enough. It has to be.

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Other Places to Find My Work

Publications like Harper's Bazaar, Columbia Journalism Review, The Gloss, and Slate.

Books like Jessica Grose’s Screaming on the Inside: The Unsustainability of American Motherhood, Katy Kelleher's The Ugly History of Beautiful Things and Pooja Lakshmin’s Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness (Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included)

Podcasts like BBC Radio 4 The Coming Storm, Vox’s Today, Explained, NPR’s It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders and documentaries like The Rise and Fall of LulaRoe

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Some Kind Words About My Work

Danny Funt, Columbia Journalism Review

Meg's pieces have covered the challenges of having ADHD as a mom, the history of embroidery, religious representations of vultures—a miscellany of unexpectedly compelling topics. Her writing brims with emotion, and she includes personal anecdotes, though her aim is to be more observant and analytical than confessional.

Benjamin Park, Historian and Author

It’s incredible how Meg can always be funny, incisive, and eloquent, all at once. Actually, it’s maddening that she’s this good.

Anne Helen Petersen, Culture Study

Meg Conley is doing some of the smartest and most challenging writing on the intersection of women, home, money, and care. She is an exquisite writer, constantly surprising me with the turns and clarity of her prose.

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