Stacey D’Erasmo ponders artistry and longevity in ‘The Long Run.’

On this episode of Fully Booked, Stacey D’Erasmo discusses The Long Run: A Creative Inquiry (Graywolf, July 9), an essay collection that takes on a timeless question for artists: “How do we keep doing this—making art?” In a series of interviews with dancers, writers, sculptors, and other longstanding creatives, she explores a number of potential answers. “A rich meditation on the artist’s life and work over time,” Kirkus writes in a starred review.

D’Erasmo is the author of two nonfiction books and five novels, including Wonderland and The Complicities, a 2022 finalist for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She co-directs and teaches in the Creative Writing program at Fordham University.

Here’s a bit more from our review of The Long Run:

“‘In my own long run, one of the main things I have always reached for to sustain me is company,’ [D’Erasmo] 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.…[She] 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.”

D’Erasmo and I discuss The Long Run’s main inquiry: How do we keep making art over time? She discloses that she’s been thinking about this subject for a long time—publicly, since 2010, with an essay in the Rumpus. We discuss her perspective on the matter then versus in 2024. We talk about a few of the artists she interviewed for The Long Run, including dancer Valda Setterfield, who gave her the most access, and Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Tania León. We consider whether great artists must be charismatic, what audiences want from art, whether there’s a wrongway to read this book, and much more.

Then editors Laura Simeon, Mahnaz Dar, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week.

EDITORS’ PICKS:

Age 16 by Rosena Fung (Annick Press)

That Always Happens Sometimes by Kiley Frank, illus. by K-Fai Steele (Knopf)

A Refiner’s Fire by Donna Leon (Atlantic Monthly)

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

Resilient: Achieving the AmericanDream by Lenny Bazemore

The Buddha and the Bee by Cory Mortensen

Isosceles by Scott R. Caseley

The Good Driver by Gary A. James

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.