Devotion

The National Book Awardwinning author of Year of the Monkey, Just Kids, and M Train offers a rare, intimate account of her own creative process
 
Devotion is short enough to devour at one enjoyable sitting and thought-provoking enough to deserve re-reading.Suzi Feay, Financial Times
 
Devotion shows rather than tells what it means to give a life to writing.Katherine Cooper, Hyperallergic
 
A work of creative brilliance may seem like magicits source a mystery, its impact unexpectedly stirring. How does an artist accomplish such an achievement, connecting deeply with an audience never met? In this groundbreaking book, one of our cultures beloved artists offers a detailed account of her own creative process, inspirations, and unexpected connections.
 
Patti Smith, a National Book Awardwinning author, first presents an original and beautifully crafted tale of obsessiona 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 Camuss house, and visit the garden of the great publisher Gallimard, where the ghosts of Mishima, Nabokov, and Genet mingle. Smith tracks down Simone Weils grave in a lonely cemetery, hours from London, and winds through the nameless Paris streets of Patrick Modianos novels. Whether writing in a café or on a train, Smith generously opens her notebooks and lets us glimpse the alchemy of her art and craft in this arresting and original book.
 
The Why I Write series is based on the WindhamCampbell Lectures, delivered annually to commemorate the awarding of the Donald WindhamSandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes at Yale University. See more