THE LONG RUN

A rich meditation on the artist’s life and work over time.

Two decades into her writing career, D’Erasmo, author of The Sky Below and Wonderland, contemplates a question so many artists have likely posed: “How do we keep doing this—making art?” Seeking the answer, she presents the results of her interviews with a variety of artists including musicians, photographers, dancers, and sculptors, as well as her personal experience and research. The result is a lyrical exploration of life and art. “In my own long run, one of the main things I have always reached for to sustain me is company,” she writes. “The company of lovers. The company of friends. The company of other writers and artists, living and dead.” D’Erasmo’s essays invite readers to be part of that company, to find themselves in her pages, and, in turn, to invite other artists into the conversation. Though each essay stems from an artist the author interviewed, D’Erasmo’s associative genius takes her into new and surprising territory. For example, in “Garden,” the author wanders from queer landscape designer Darrel Morrison to Colette and climate change: “If my question is, What sustains artists over the long run?, then the answer from Morrison and Colette might clearly be: earth, which sounds so charming. However, one can’t garden, or be in a garden, or a forest, or on a prairie very long before one notices the death.” In musical sentences such as these, D’Erasmo explores not just what it means to have a long career in the arts, but what it means to be an artist, to be queer, and to be a citizen of the Earth, making this book a unique contribution to the canon of work about the life of an artist.

Artists of all kinds will find inspiration and good company within these thoughtful essays.