ArtSake

Artists and creative individuals are often asked (or decide) to make their work available for free. ArtSake guest blogger Bren Bataclan, for instance, gives away all of his Smile Boston Project paintings; playwright Charles Mee makes the full texts of his plays available online for other artists to “remake.” Others might choose to not share any work without direct remuneration.

So, where do you draw the line? Do you donate art to good causes? Share excerpts to build interest? In our conversations with artists in numerous disciplines, we’ve asked: How much art do you give away?

Jendi Reiter, poet
Good question! I hardly ever give my poetry books away, because I think it’s important for creative writers to be recognized as professionals, and unfortunately in our society that means getting money for our work. However, since the publisher of my first chapbook is going out of business, and I still care about this work reaching an audience, I plan to ask her for the right to create and distribute an e-book version for free.

Alice Bouvrie, filmmaker
I often donate a DVD to a relevant, non-profit organization to be used as a fundraiser – either as an item in an auction, or for a screening with a paying audience.

Suzanne Strempek Shea, writer
The question once could have been “How much art don’t you give away?” Early on, I used to give away a lot, between stories, talks, classes and book donations. I was grateful for anyone’s interest in my books, and appreciated any opportunity to spread the word. I’m still grateful for anyone’s interest (no readers/audience/students and I don’t get to do this for a living) and the chance to spread that word, but as I’ve been lucky enough to get busier and busier, I’ve had to pick and choose when and where to donate work and time – because I have only so much time. In recent years I’ve become my family’s primary breadwinner, so I’ve actually been soliciting more paying work to fund dog kibble and other household necessities. I do try to donate work when I can, in continued gratitude for that all-important interest from readers.

Lilly Cleveland, painter
I have given away work for worthwhile causes and fundraisers (mostly silent auctions). This always generates another request from the same group each and every year. I still donate original art work but the donation is NOT tax deductible (Ed: in MA, only the cost of materials is tax deductible for the artist). Once, I heard an interesting solution from Kathy Bitetti of the Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition. Give a 20% off coupon as your donation so that the art buyer can come to your studio and pick out a painting and receive the discount. Raffle off the coupon or donate to silent auction.

Elizabeth Searle, writer
“A gift;” you are “gifted.” These are the somewhat lofty terms we use to describe any sort of talent. I once heard a poet advise his students, “If you write for money, money is your God.” Or as Jon Stewart put it, talking about show biz: “You don’t go into it for the health benefits.” In the theater world, while the profit motive is strong, I’ve found there is still at heart a playful spirit of: “Let’s do a SHOW! My Dad’s got a BARN!” These days, I enjoy all the outlets – online and elsewhere – that writers can make “free” use of in today’s topsy-turvy literary world. Of course I prefer pay. But I also like jumping into the mix and giving some of my work away, sometimes in connection with a good cause or two. I have spent over a decade working (and playing) within the group PEN/New England, trying to find ways for writers to use our particular gifts to “give back.” Art for art’s sake – wisely, the MCC named this blog for that creed. Whether or not you eventually luck out money-wise, I think that’s what it comes down to, “art-wise.”

Eric Hofbauer, composer and jazz guitarist
When art became monetized it forever changed the public’s relationship to it. For better or for worse, art and especially great art gets much of the attention and respect it deserves by the price tag it wears. This was the status quo for decades and it worked in all artistic disciplines quite well until the internet flooded the world with free “amateur art” of all kinds. Now the artist must be willing to give something away to reach potential buyers, agents, venues, critics, and most importantly audiences. Personally, I give away full recordings to critics, and all other music industry people, including my musician friends and colleagues without hesitation. I also give away “teaser” or sample tracks via online outlets, like my website, soundcloud, spotify, etc. to my fan base and potential audiences. There is still a vivacious audience in the world who respect great art by placing a financial value on their relationship with it. The 21st-century artist must find ways for “free art” to reach these audiences and pique their curiosities and passions without diminishing art’s reputation by being associated with amateur art outlets.

Jendi Reiter’s most recent book is Barbie at 50; Alice Bouvrie’s film “Thy Will Be Done” screens at First Parish of Watertown on Feb. 10, 7 PM; Suzanne Strempek Shea’s most recent book is Sundays in America; Lilly Cleveland teaches watercolor painting at South Shore Art Center; Elizabeth Searle’s most recent book is Girl Held in Home; Eric Hofbauer will perform at the Lily Pad, Feb. 3, 7 PM and at Longy School of Music Pickman Hall (w/Charlie Kohlhase’s Explorers Club), Feb. 4, 8 PM.

Image: Joe Wardwell (Painting Fellow ’12), NEVER BE STRONG (2011), oil on canvas, 18×32 in.

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The deadline for Artist Fellowships applications in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry is this Monday, January 30, 2012.

If you are a Massachusetts choreographer, writer, and/or poet who meets the eligibility requirements, apply! (Monday is a postmark deadline.)

The fellowships are anonymously-judged competitive grants for Massachusetts artists. Fellowships of $7,500 and finalist awards of $500 are awarded based solely on the artistic excellence of the work submitted. Check out our tips on applying.

Read full program guidelines, eligibility requirements, and application instructions and apply online.

Image and Media: photo of books by past MCC Fellows (l to r) SUCCESS OF THE SEED PLANTS by Leslie Williams, THE FOREIGNER by Francie Lin, CLOISTERS by Kristin Bock, MRS. SOMEBODY SOMEBODY by Tracy Winn, excerpt from DEEP by Ariel Cohen and Kellie Ann Lynch.

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New year, new notes from past Artist Fellows/Finalists. (Speaking of, apply now in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, or Poetry.)

Go see the 2012 deCordova Biennial ASAP (1/23-4/22). Why? Work by Matthew Gamber (Photography Finalist ’11), Eric Gottesman (Photography Fellow ’09), and 21 other terrific New England artists/collectives, is why.

The work and life of Karen Aqua (Film & Video Fellow ’11) will be honored at a special event and exhibition at the Roswell Museum in New Mexico (1/13).

Michael Hoerman (Poetry Fellow ’04) shares never-before-read-for-an-audience poetry at Literary Firsts, Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge (1/23, 7 PM).

Scott Listfield (Painting Finalist ’10) has work in Adult Swim (1/13-2/4) at Gallery 1988 in L.A. – and they used one of his iconic astronaut paintings for the show flyer!

If you’re within high fiving distance of Suzanne Matson (Fiction Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’98), do so; she received a NEA Creative Writing Fellowship!

Great interview with Christian McEwen (Playwriting Fellow ’11) on the radio show “Writer’s Voice.”

Monica Raymond (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) collaborated via Skype with an actress in Finland to create a piece for the Internationalists’ Around the World. Also, hear her poem The Sacred on qarrtsiluni.

Superb, excellent, and just plain neato mosquito: Allan Reeder (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10 and ’06) won a Sustainable Arts Foundation Promise Grant.

Daily swims during at a Blue Mountain Center residency inspired Naoe Suzuki‘s (Drawing Fellow ’06) Blue, showing at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center Gallery (1/13-3/2).

He’s getting into Dodge: Michael Zelehoski (Painting Fellow ’10) has a solo show at NYC’s DODGE Gallery (1/12-2/19).

Read past Fellows Notes. If you’re a past fellow/finalist with news, let us know.

Image: Michael Zelehoski, CRATE (2011), found crate, painted plywood, 63×96 in.

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Part of the thrill of making art is discovering how your audience interacts with your work. In our conversations with artists in numerous disciplines, we’ve asked: What’s the most surprising response to your work you’ve ever received?

Kathleen Volp, visual artist
I have been under the impression that the subject of many of my pieces was a deeply textured cantaloupe. I was surprised to find many viewers didn’t even remotely see a cantaloupe! Not even a kumquat. People saw protoplasm or coral or some kind of micro-organism or a CAT scan of the brain. It’s all good, even exciting, but really, really shocking to me. How could I not have seen this in my own work?

Mary Kocol, photographer
When I first started exhibiting at Gallery NAGA in 1993, some people thought the photographs were paintings – perhaps because I presented the work without mats or glazing, the traditional way to exhibit photos back then.

Ilie Ruby, writer
I once had a short story ravaged by wolves in a writing workshop. A friend suggested that the best revenge was revision. I looked over the story, dotted some i’s, crossed some t’s, and decided I was happy with it as it was. Then I haphazardly tossed the story into a box marked “contest,” (not knowing what contest it actually was). A few weeks later I received a phone call: “Congratulations, your story has just won the Edwin L. Moses Award for Fiction chosen by T.C. Boyle!” I received a huge prize, a small amount of satisfaction, and learned never again to listen to wolves.

Joshua Meyer, painter
I once stood in front of my paintings with the poet Robert Hass as he described my art to me. I felt like I was in the midst of one of his poems, a participant.

Scott Tulay, visual artist
My daughters, who are eight and five, consistently complain that my drawings are “too scary.” They will ask me, “Why can’t you draw something nice, with color, like with a rainbow?” Once in a while, however, I’ll do a drawing, and they’ll tilt their heads to the side and say, “Not bad, Dad.” This scares me.

Christopher Faust, painter
I had someone point out to me that there was something wrong with my composition – that the figures were too in the middle. When I told him I knew that and I did it on purpose, he kind of got angry and confused, then he stopped talking to me. I also had a piece stolen recently from a show.

Tara Masih, writer
“I love that story about your father.” When I told the woman it was fiction, that the character was not my father, she burst out, “Don’t tell me that! It was better when I thought it was real.” People seem to have a pathological need to have writing be autobiographical.

Rick Berry, painter
Tears.

Paul Goodnight, painter
Silence.

Jeff and Jane Hudson, musicians
YouTube and iTunes.

Shelly Reed, visual artist
Well, the most common response is that people very carefully and diplomatically suggest that I add at least a bit of color. The most surprising response was when someone contacted me from my Web site and asked me to design their tattoo.

Merrill Comeau, mixed media collage artist
I was working at the National Park of the Old North Bridge, on the edge of the Concord River. As I walked down, I fell into a sink hole of mud up to my knee. When I got to a good spot to work, I removed my boots and socks, washed them out in the river and hung them on branches to dry. I set out my tarp, stacks of fabric, lunch, etc. and worked all day. When I climbed back up to the bridge, the Park Ranger told me a group of women, seeing me on the edge of the river, asked where to leave money for the homeless person (me).

Salvatore Scibona, writer
My local Provincetown bookseller tells me that on the day my book (The End) came out, he sold a copy to a woman from New Hampshire, a tourist, the wife of a retired minister. It sounded interesting, she said; she liked the cover. What could be more commonplace than a person on a walk in a small town stopping to buy a book and taking it home? But also, what could be more unlikely, more uncanny from a writer’s point of view, than that a stranger he will never know should walk down a street with years of the writer’s thoughts in her bag?

Image: Kathleen Volp, BOUND MELON #2 (2011), photographic transfer, oil, metal and graphite on fabric and wood panel, 12x12x1 in.

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The Massachusetts Cultural Council is pleased to announce that we are now accepting 2012 Artist Fellowships applications in the categories of Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry.

The deadline for Artist Fellowships applications in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry is January 30, 2012. Read the program guidelines and apply online.

The Artist Fellowships are competitive, anonymously judged fellowships of $7,500 and finalist awards of $500, direct support to individual artists in recognition of artistic excellence. Read our tips on applying.

As a reminder, the deadline for applications in Drawing, Painting, and Traditional Arts has passed. Award results in these categories will be made at the end of January 2012.

Media and image: excerpt from MY OWN PERSONAL (#2) by Sarah Slifer (Choreography Fellow ’10); Allan Reeder (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10, ’06) read at Porter Square Books. Allan recently received a Promise Grant from the Sustainable Arts Foundation.

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Tis the season (for great news from past fellows/finalists of our Artist Fellowships). Hark!

Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) blesses readers with God Bless America readings, including a co-event with the also-awesome Elizabeth Searle (12/6 at Stellina in Watertown).

Steven Barkhimer (Playwriting Fellow ’11) puts on his director’s hat for Merry Wives of Windsor with Actors’ Shakespeare Project (12/7-1/1).

Woo hoo! for David Binder (Film & Video Fellow ’11, Photography Fellow ’01), a 2011 Assets for Artists grantee for business/financial training and support.

Be a winner and learn about Edie Bresler‘s (Photography Finalist ’11) installation at the Somerville Arts Council’s Inside-Out Gallery.

Excellent: Beth Galston (Sculpture/Installation Finalist ’11) has two large-scale installations at PAAM (thru 1/15/12), commissions from San Antonio and Nashville, and a 2011 Design Award from the Chain Link Fence Manufacturers Institute for Serpentine Fence.

Michal Goldman‘s (Film & Video Fellow ’07) At Home in Utopia just screened in Philly and will stream for free online at New Day Digital (12/17-12/18).

Above: art-lovers immerse themselves in Brian Knep‘s (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’11) Healing Pool, which is at SEVEN during Miami Basel (thru 12/4).

All A’s for Caitlin McCarthy (Playwriting Finalist ’11), Best Short Script winner for Pass/Fail at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Complementing his work at ICA/Boston, Daniel Ranalli (Drawing Fellow ’10) shares Snail Drawings at Gallery Kayafas (thru 1/7).

Nicky Tavares (Film & Video Fellow ’11) is Kickstarting her new film-in-progress, Son of a Bug.

You already knew she’s in vogue, but did you know that Rachel Perry Welty (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09, Drawing Fellow ’04) is in Vogue? Get the scoop on the artist’s Facebook page.

Read past Fellows Notes. If you’re a past fellow/finalist with news, let us know.

Image: Brian Knep, HEALING POOL (2008), six-channel interactive video installation, computers, six video projectors, three video cameras, custom software, vinyl floor, 30×20 ft.

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Bring on the tryptophan (or, if you prefer, an equally drowse-inducing vegan counterpart). Amidst the travels/tables/tackles/toils, here are a handful of links to keep you arts-clicking from here to Black Friday.

Creative Capital has launched a blog to build the national artists community from scrappy underdog to fierce contender. Getting strong now! Read this post on must-haves for your artist website.

Meanwhile, the fine, artists-supporting folks at Pew Center for Arts and Heritage have posted some practical financial advice for artists, care of choreographer and past Pew Fellow Amy Smith.

If you’re an admirer of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival but, in your heart of hearts, harbor the feeling that the 2011 festival was missing one very specific event – yours – now’s your chance. Submit a proposal by Dec. 1 to participate in the 2012 Massachusetts Poetry Festival, which will be in Salem, April 20-22, 2012.

Former literary agent and current author/literary blogger Nathan Bransford diagnoses some common writing maladies, such as catching the Catcher in the Rye voice or being plagued by adverbs-itis. Funny stuff.

Congratulations to Jennifer Haigh (Hull), Suzanne Matson (Newton), and Sabina Murray (Amherst) for winning 2012 NEA Literature Fellowships! We humbly note that MCC has funded both Suzanne (1998) and Sabina (2002) in the past, and numerous other current NEA grantees (Amber Dermont, Tayari Jones, and Benjamin Percy) have been past reviewers in our Artist Fellowships Program.

Boston’s Grub Street, Inc. writers’ service organization is moving its HQ. Currently on 160 Boylston, they’re moving down (or is it up?) the block to the Steinway Building, adjacent to the newly christened Edgar Allan Poe Square. The move means more floor space, accommodating a “quadrupling of our programmatic offerings, and the implementation of many exciting new initiatives.”

Umbrage has shared a clip from Yabat Ida Le Lij, a film by Eric Gottesman and members of Sudden Flowers (an Ethiopian film collective started by Gottesman, comprised of children affected by AIDS/HIV). Umbrage Editions is publishing Sudden Flowers, a compendium of Eric’s work with the project, in Fall 2012.

Meanwhile, jazz composer/guitarist Eric Hofbauer shares his recent experience participating in the Penn Ar Jazz Festival in France, an experience that has “awoken a fierce confidence along with a new urgency to play and share my music with as many people as I can.” See some of that musical urgency in the clip at the top of the page, from Eric’s recent performance at Johnny D’s in Somerville.

Quip lit wit and win. Concoct a clever tagline for Carolina Quarterly and get a year’s subscription to the literary journal!

Finally, for a unique arts experience this Thanksgiving weekend, attend the Short Story Film Festival at Gallery X in New Bedford. Forty live action and animated films from 23 countries will screen on Saturday, November 26. If sweet potato overload has got you too groggy to follow long plots, don’t despair: each film is five minutes or under.

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November, upon us like a helping of heavily syrupped sweet potatoes, brings with it this bounty of news from our past Fellows/Finalists…

(more…)

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Throughout her creative life, Christian McEwen‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’11) encounters in art and literature have taught her a deceptively simple lesson: slow down. The writer, who has worked in poetry, prose, film, and theater, recently published a new book, World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down (Bauhan Publishing, 2011), about how slowing the pace of life can lead to breakthroughs in learning, wellness, and – perhaps most pertinent to artists – creativity.

We asked Christian if we could share a section of her new book, as well as some of the tactics she suggests for expanding creativity through a more measured mode of living.

A TINY STONE, A FISH
When I spoke with Thomas Clark at his home in Pittenweem, I asked if there were any assignment, any special “homework” he might propose for an apprentice poet of today. His answer startled me.

“I would ask the young poet to choose some simple task, something very ordinary and non-utilitarian, and ask them to repeat it at regular intervals. For example, one might climb a hill, pick up a stone, carry it back down, and then take it back up the hill the following day.”

The task would be pointless in and of itself. But doing it would create what Clark called “a continuum,” a context in which small events could resonate: a counter-story to the larger, public one.

Clark’s response sounded a little crazy to me at first. But the more I considered it, the more I came to see it as a kind of koan, one of those wise, unsettling conundrums from which, with luck and diligence, a certain striking revelation may emerge. “To learn something new,” said the naturalist John Burroughs, “take the path today that you took yesterday.” All professions have need of such devoted practitioners, willing to push past their own boredom, their own comfortable familiarity, in order to arrive at something new. As Proust once said, “The true journey of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having fresh eyes.”

One thinks of Goethe, who trained himself to watch leaves as they grew, remembering each stage with such clarity that he could actually “see” their metamorphosis. One thinks of Denise Levertov, in her last years, addressing poem after poem to the peak of Mount Rainier, just visible above the rooftops of Seattle. Above all, perhaps, one thinks of the Swiss zoologist Louis Agassiz, and the extraordinary assignment he once gave a student.

In 1859, when Nathaniel Shaler applied to study at the Harvard laboratories, he was sent to Agassiz for an entrance exam. The first part of this had to do with languages and scientific classification, and Shaler passed with flying colors. He also trounced Agassiz in an impromptu fencing match. The second half of the exam was both simpler and more complicated. If focused on a certain preserved fish.

“I want you to examine this,” said Agassiz, presenting him with a fish in a tin pan. “I’d like you to find out everything you can, without damaging the specimen.”

Obediently, Shaler set to work. He expected Agassiz to return within a couple of hours. But Agassiz did not come back. Not that day, nor even that same week. Shaler kept on patiently, studying the fish, and on the seventh day, Agassiz finally put in an appearance.

“Well?” he asked.

Shaler pointed to all the details he had learned about the fish: its teeth, its jaws, its fins and scales and so on. Agassiz listened carefully. “That’s not right,” he said. And once again he vanished for an entire week.

Shaler returned, disconsolate, to his tin pan. Was Agassiz completely crazy? Perhaps he should have let him win that fencing match? But even while he puzzled over the professor’s methods, Shaler began to recognize how much he was benefiting from them. Each day he was learning more and more about that fish, a hundred times more than had originally seemed possible. And by the time he was accepted at Harvard (after a further two months of disentangling a box of mixed fish bones, and reassembling them into their different species) no one could have said that he was not truly qualified.

Tactics

• Choose any routine activity and allow it to become an end in itself. Pay attention to how this feels.
• Make a list of slow activities: a long train ride, a hand-written letter, gardening, etc. If possible, do at least one such “slow thing” every week.
• Buy a small notebook and carry it about with you at all times. Look and listen, write down what people say.

Christian McEwen, reprinted with permission from
World Enough & Time (Bauhan Publishing, 2011)

Hear an interview with Christian on the radio show Writer’s Life.

Christian McEwen has upcoming readings on November 3, 6:30 PM, with Mark Statman at the Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New York, NY; November 10, 6 PM, at Boswell’s Books in Shelburne Falls; November 13, 4 PM, at Grace Church in Amherst (short reading and presentation); November 17, 7 PM, at Sky Lake Lodge in Rosendale, NY.

Christian also runs workshops on writing, creativity, and “slowing down” (those interested in hosting a future workshop should contact the artist). Upcoming workshops: January 27-29, 2012, Rowe Camp and Conference Center in Rowe, MA; February 25, 2012, 10 AM-3 PM, Genesis Spiritual Life and Conference Center in Westfield, MA; March 1-11, 2012, Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, NY.

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Years ago, Mira Bartók‘s work as an artist and writer was threatened when a car accident and subsequent brain injury made even the most basic functions of memory a major struggle. Yet rather than shy away, Mira makes memory a central organizing idea of her memoir about life with a schizophrenic mother; the book is called, in fact, The Memory Palace.

Similarly, the accident complicated Mira’s ability to piece together a life as an artist, making it harder to seek freelance work and grants. But she responded with relentless research, making herself an expert in grants and residencies, and sharing that expertise on her blog Mira’s List.

The Memory Palace was recently released in paperback, and on the cusp of a host of events in New England, we asked Mira about her book, her art, and her life as a multi-faceted, generous, resiliently talented artist.

ArtSake: One of the things I love about your book is its dual portrayal of an artist’s unconventional life and the challenges of living in a family touched by mental illness. Is it possible the same traits that have helped you thrive despite your mother’s schizophrenia have contributed to your successes as an artist?

Mira: Maybe having a certain level of curiosity, optimism, determination, and passion helped me to survive a challenging upbringing as well as thrive as an artist. Possessing those qualities certainly doesn’t hurt these days when the future looks so bleak.

ArtSake: In your interview with Terry Gross on NPR, you mentioned that the largest impact of your traumatic brain injury (TBI) was on your own self-conception as someone with boundless endurance and energy. Did the injury change the way you viewed yourself as an artist, as well? Did it change the way you create art?

Mira: I think that the way I view myself as an artist continues to evolve, but it always did, even before my accident. I grew up thinking I was a painter but that morphed into becoming someone who serves the idea, rather than the medium. There was, however, an earlier post-TBI period when I didn’t know if I had it in me to create anything at all of substance anymore. I was very frustrated because I would immediately forget what I wrote or drew the day after I created it – if I even had the energy to make something worthwhile. I still struggle with that from time to time. But nowadays, I think the biggest change is that I am much more choosy about how I spend my time. I have much less mental endurance now, therefore, I can only take on projects that mean a lot to me. It means saying no to a lot of things. What this injury did was take away the ability to have a day job and also make art.

ArtSake: On The Memory Palace blog, you’ve mentioned your disappointment that some responses to your book have focused on the rare instances of violence in schizophrenia. Have there been other reactions to your book that have surprised you?

Mira: My biggest surprise has been how widespread an effect my book has had on people. I get letters, very positive ones, from people of all ages, genders, races and backgrounds. I have also been astonished how many teens, boys in particular, have read and liked my book.

ArtSake: I’m fascinated by the range of your creative work. You trained as a musician, are an accomplished visual artist, and have written for both adults and children. How does your work in one artistic discipline interact and inform the others?

Mira: Okay Dan, full disclosure – I am not actually trained as a musician. I’ve only taken lessons here and there. But I dare to suck (sometimes). As far as all these disciplines interacting, I feel like they all inform one another. Music informs everything – I write out loud in a voice recorder and the words have to sing or they are not worth putting down on the page. I hear music when I work on certain drawings, like ones I am working on for an upcoming (far down the road) YA novel set in the Norwegian Arctic. I heard music while I was drawing my memory palace images for my book, which is partially why I filmed the drawing of it – so it could be used in a little stop-action animation with a sound track. When I get stuck in writing, I try to draw what I am thinking and vice versa. I think it is not only the way my brain works – one way of seeing overlapping the other – but it is also my way of recycling ideas and seeing what happens to an idea when it is used in another format.

ArtSake: I was interested to note, in your acknowledgements, that you thank Jedediah Berry, who was a colleague in the UMass Amherst MFA Writing Program. Can you speak about how having a community of writers and readers during the writing process has contributed to your work?

Mira: I think having a community of writers and great readers is imperative for an author, at least that is my opinion. We can help elevate each other, champion each other and give each other honest feedback. Everyone needs a b.s. detector once in a while because we don’t always use our most authentic voice. Sometimes we become too much in love with our own language and that doesn’t always serve the project at hand. A good reader can help your best self emerge on the page. And if you are doing muscular reading of good work, it can only help you learn how to edit your own work in a more refined and brutally honest way.

I don’t meet regularly with any writers right now but I think I would like to again in the future, after my book tour is over. And yes, Jedediah was really a godsend during this crazy process of trying to write a book. There were other editing angels along the way too, especially my friend David Skillicorn, who is a documentary filmmaker. I was about to send my book out to my agent until David read it. He made some suggestions that made me rip the book apart again and turn it into the one you see today. I also gave my book to non-writers to read: farmers, teachers, musicians, and others who are not professional writers but who love books.

ArtSake: You’ve moved around a lot in your life, including to some artistically auspicious cities, like Chicago and Florence, Italy. But it seems like you’ve found a home in Western Mass. What appeals to you, as a creative person, about the place you live now?

Mira: I really miss Chicago sometimes, especially being able to go to a major museum any day of the week. But my need to be in the natural world is a much stronger pull. I need to walk out my door and go right onto a forest trail and that is what I have here. I love the silence, the night-songs of coyotes, the stars that aren’t obscured by city lights, and the green, green world that is my backyard and the hills beyond. It is peace – pure and simple. It helps me to create from a quiet, timeless place without the perpetual pressure to be in the world of machines and noise and people.

ArtSake: Shelf Awareness has a cool interview with your editor Dominick Anfuso, who was drawn to the book as an uncommon mother-daughter story. Can you talk about the process of finding and working with your publisher?

Mira: Well, my agent, Jennifer Gates, sent my book out to a bunch of editors at publishing houses in NYC and created a feeding frenzy of sorts. Several editors bid on my book – one was even a pre-empted bid which I turned down because the editor called certain sections of my book ‘artsy.’ That word always makes me cringe. The editor is a fantastic literary editor with an amazing reputation and stable of brilliant authors but I knew she wasn’t right for this particular book. Plus, well, there was that artsy thing.

Anyway, I talked to the editors who interested me and in the end I chose Dominick Anfuso and Leah Miller from Free Press (Simon & Schuster). Not only was their financial offer good, these two editors felt like sensitive, warm, and funny people I’d want to not only work with but also sit down and share a meal. They asked me really smart questions about my work and didn’t try to tell me how they would change my book to fit their needs.

The funny thing is that I assumed that the more independent literary presses would be more innovative in their ideas about how my book could be developed but in this case, the opposite was true. Free Press was open to the most imaginative ideas and loved my unconventional structure, using snippets of my mother’s diary and my own art work to begin each chapter. And working with them was great. Basically, they asked me probing questions on my manuscript, questions that forced me to dig deeper emotionally, and the book you see now is the result of that more intense mining of my past. I would work with them again in a heartbeat.

ArtSake: Your blog has a treasury of superb advice for artists looking for funding (and we re-posted some of it on ArtSake). What’s the most important thing an artist needs to know, going into a funding search?

Mira: Some important things to know are: Where are you in your career? Are you emerging? Mid-career? Established? And what do you realistically need?

Also, it’s really important to know that when you are looking for funding, most larger grants and fellowships have deadlines nine months to a year before the award is actually given. So artists need to plan way, way ahead!

ArtSake: In so many ways, The Memory Palace is the book you were born to write. That’s why I am so fascinated to know what your next writing – or artistic – project will be. Any hints?

Mira: Dan, these days I am all over the map. I have been on book tour since January, except for a brief two month hiatus this summer. And my paperback tour won’t end until Thanksgiving. When I have had a minute or hour or two, I have been working on several things – some short flash fiction pieces and a radio documentary called The Sound of Memory that my husband, Doug Plavin, and I are working on for our new venture, North of Radio. But the project closest to my heart (and one that will take a lot of time which I don’t have right now) is an illustrated YA novel called Nine Valleys in One Twilight, set in the Norwegian Arctic during WW II. It’s based on two true stories but it is more speculative fiction than realism. Also, I am imagining the book as both a print book and something animated for the IPad. I have been thinking about this novel since 2008 and just haven’t had the time to dig in. Hopefully that can happen after this book tour is over! And hopefully someone out there wants to help me fund this thing because my Memory Palace book advance runs out in December.

Thanks for asking great questions Dan. Cheers!

You can experience a reading and/or discussion by Mira:

• Sunday, October 16, 3:30 PM, at the Brattleboro Literary Festival (co-event with Melissa Coleman), Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro, VT
• Wednesday, October 19, 7:30 PM, Working Writers Series at Smith College in Northampton
• Saturday, October 22, 9:45-11 AM, “Telling True Stores” panel discussion at the Writeangles Conference (registration is closed but there is a waiting list) at Mt Holyoke College in South Hadley
• Tuesday, October 25, 7 PM, reading and slideshow at Augusta Savage Gallery at UMass-Amherst
• Thursday, October 27, 4-6 PM, Writers Harvest Benefit Reading (for the GCC Food Pantry) at the Library at Greenfield Community College

New York Times bestselling author, Mira Bartók is a Chicago-born artist and writer and the author of twenty-eight books for children. Her writing has appeared in several literary journals and anthologies and has been noted in The Best American Essays series. She lives in Western Massachusetts where she runs Mira’s List, a blog that helps artists find funding and residencies all over the world. The Memory Palace is Mira’s first book for adults. She is also co-founder of North of Radio, a multi-media collaborative that she runs with her husband, drummer and music producer Doug Plavin.

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