Smith’s new book, based on her keynote lecture at the 2016 Windham-Campbell Prize Festival, continues the rich weave of memoir and meditation that made M Train and her National Book Award-winning Just Kids so affecting. A poet, performer, and visual artist, Smith here reveals herself as a fiction writer as well. The book’s title piece is a fable exploring the demands of artistic perfection, a theme Smith pursues further in essays recounting the story’s surprising genesis. Where does creativity come from? For Smith, it comes from memory, from travel, and from fellow creative artists. In a set of truly inspired travelogues, she takes us on pilgrimages to Camus’ house in the South of France, Simone Weil’s grave, and through the Paris streets of Modiano’s novels, sharing with us the origins of her work.
This program does not include a public book signing.
Books will not be autographed. We are unable to take orders for signed copies.
