"Patti Smith first presents an original and beautifully crafted tale of obsession?a young skater who lives for her art, a possessive collector who ruthlessly seeks his prize, a relationship forged of need both craven and exalted. She then takes us on a second journey, exploring the sources of her story. We travel through the South of France to Camus?s house, and visit the garden of the great publisher Gallimard where the ghosts of Mishima, Nabokov,...

Explores language, music, and dance as interpreted though the author's works, combining memoir and essay to explore her deconstruction of English in her celebrated play "For Colored Girls" and her views on life as a woman and a black individual.

"This book is a guide to the process of artistic self-discovery"--

Many famed music producers, however brilliant, become known for a particular sound which has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin, on the other hand, is most famous for something else: for creating a strong safe space where artists of wildly different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. To surprise themselves, and thus the world. Rubin's true art is for helping people get out of their own way and commune...

Presents a twelve-week program intended to increase creativity by capturing the creative energy of the universe.

Mountweazel n. the phenomenon of false entries within dictionaries and works of reference. Often used as a safeguard against copyright infringement. Peter Winceworth is a lexicographer in Victorian-era London, toiling away at the letter 'S' for a multi-volume Encyclopaedic Dictionary. Secretly, he begins to insert unauthorized fictitious entries into the dictionary in an attempt to assert some artistic freedom. In the present day, Mallory is a young...

"Things are scary right now. We're all being swept along by a tidal wave of history, and it's easy to feel helpless. But we're not helpless: we have minds, and imaginations, and the ability to visualize other worlds and valiant struggles. And writing can be an act of resistance that reminds us that other futures and other ways of living are possible. Full of memoir, personal anecdote, and insight about how to flourish during the present emergency,...

"Readers connect to characters with depth, ones who have experienced life's ups and downs. To deliver key players that are both realistic and compelling, writers must know them intimately— not only who they are in the present story, but also what made them that way. Of all the formative experiences in a character's past, none are more destructive than emotional wounds. The aftershocks of trauma can change who they are, alter what they believe, and...

An examination of the internal obstacles to success and how to identify, defeat and unlock the inner barriers to creativity.