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Articles by Stacey D'Erasmo
On the Many Paths Artists Take to Sustain Their Creative Practice
How do we keep doing this—making art? My question can be read in two ways: What keeps us alive in our art; on what do we draw, year after year and project after project, to keep doing this? And, what happens to us as we keep doing this? In what manner do we keep doing this? This is the question that inspired my book The Long Run: A Creative Inquiry.
Think of This Book as the Best Dinner Party in the World Original
THE LONG RUN: A Creative Inquiry, by Stacey D'Erasmo I do not believe there is an artist in history who hasn't asked themself - at least once - "Why do I do this?" The designation of "creator" may make for a glorious calling card, but as an occupation, it involves a disproportionate amount of spirit-crushing struggle and relatively few rewards. And yet, day after day, year after year, century after century, we do it.
Literary Mysteries That Embrace The Gray Areas
While I’m an unabashed fan of straight-up mysteries—see: the high stack of Simenon in my house, along with the works of Elizabeth Hand, P.D. James, John le Carre, and Stieg Larsson; more than one paperback picked up in an airport bookstore; and roughly ten million police procedurals and Nordic noirs in my streaming history—my deepest love is for mysteries and thrillers that remain mysterious even after the final scene.
Neither Villain Nor Victim: Stacey D’Erasmo on Embracing Discomfort in Telling the Story of a Complicit Woman
The story of our own complicity in malign forces is one that’s hard to tell, generally, right now. It’s unpopular, and even dangerous, to have mixed allegiances, tangled motives, dirty hands. And yet, given the highly complicated nature of things like power, money, and cultural capital in this world, to name a few, who can claim unblemished virtue? Anyone out there get paid by a university that once owned slaves, still invests in fossil fuels, or contributes to student debt? Show of hands.
'The Complicities' tackles the large and small ways we ignore misdeeds
After reading Stacey D'Erasmo's forceful new novel, " The Complicities," you may suddenly feel the need to Google " Bernie Madoff's wife." While not strictly parallel, that saga (of colossal public disgrace) echoes D'Erasmo's opening premise: Protagonist Suzanne sets about trying to create her own anonymous, quiet life after ex-husband Alan's imprisonment for manipulations of funds.
Stacey D’Erasmo on the Fun of Writing Cryptic Characters
The following first appeared in Lit Hub’s The Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. I have a lifelong fascination with the in-between. The liminal, the indeterminate, the cuspy: all of this draws me in. In my house are photographs and drawings in which images seem to be just about to disappear, or perhaps emerge. An ex of mine used to joke that in any given gallery or museum, I could be found making a beeline for anything that you couldn’t really tell what it was. Sea or sky? Face or cloud?
Fiction Book Review: The Shehnai Virtuoso by Dhumetku
Dhumketu, trans. from the Gujarati by Jenny Bhatt. Deep Vellum, $15.95 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-64605-168-7 This rich and comprehensive English-language debut collection from Dhumketu (1892–1965), keenly selected and translated by Bhatt, showcases a range of subjects and skills. “The Post Office,” Dhumketu’s most anthologized work, follows an aging father who sits outside the post office every day, hoping for a letter from his only daughter.
Bronze Drum by Phong Nguyen
Phong Nguyen. Grand Central, $17.99 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-5387-5370-5 Nguyen (Roundabout) shines with this portrayal of two sisters’ heroism in ancient Vietnam. Set over seven years during the Bronze Age, when the Han Dynasty ruled what is now Northern Vietnam, the story follows Viet Lord Trư ng and Lady Man Thiệ n of Cung Diệ n Mê Linh, who raise their daughters Trư ng Trac and Trưng Nhi to rule as men’s equals.
The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy. Knopf, $30 (400p) ISBN 978-0-307-26899-0 McCarthy returns 16 years after his Pulitzer-winning The Road with a rich story of an underachieving salvage diver in 1980 New Orleans, the first in a two-volume work. Bobby Western, son of a nuclear physicist who worked on the atomic bomb, is tasked with investigating a private plane crash in the Gulf. The plane’s crew is dead, the black box is missing, and one passenger is unaccounted for.
My Year of Writing Anonymously
It began because everything was breaking. Had broken. Promises I made, promises that were made to me; it had been a long season of betrayal. I didn’t know what I was doing anymore or why I was doing it. I kept moving, frantically, although no direction interested me all that much. One winter day, I slipped on the ice in Riverside Park and fell flat on my back. I thought: I don’t know if I can get up, by which I meant not only in that moment, but ever.
Will & Grace: A Study in the Relationship Between Gay Men & Straight Women
Will & Grace: A Study in the Relationship Between Gay Men & Straight Women This article originally appeared in the December 1998 issue of OUT. Sitting in the frigid dark of the soundstage watching a blocking rehearsal of Will & Grace, NBC’s new sitcom about the enduring friendship between a gay man and a straight woman, I know I should be watching the action onstage.
The Best Books on Stories about Women Artists
Yours is quite a niche theme. As it relates to a person’s identity it’s two-pronged – there are two qualifiers, for want of a better word: woman and artist.
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