Blending humor and meditation, this wide-ranging essay by the award-winning poet Eileen Myles is a candid record of the political, social, and aesthetic conditions that shaped them as a writer. It is also a thoughtful investigation into the way that writing is inescapably captive to time.
In this third Why I Write volume, Eileen Myles addresses the social, political, and aesthetic conditions that shape their work "A sharply etched, unvarnished self-portrait."--Kirkus Reviews " Myles] has a good time journeying through Hell, and like a hip Virgil, . . . is happy to show us the way."--NPR In this raucous meditation, Eileen Myles offers an intimate glimpse into creativity's immediacy. With erudition and wit, Myles recounts their early years as an awakening writer; existential struggles with landlords; storied moments with neighbors, friends, and lovers; and the textures and identities of cities and the country that reveal the nature of writing as presence in time. For Myles, time's "optic quality" is what enables writing in the first place--as attention, as devotion, as excess. It is this chronologized vision that enables the writer to love the world as it presently is, lending love a linguistic permanence amid social and political systems that threaten to eradicate it. Irreverent, generous, and always insightful, For Now is a candid record of the creative process from one of our most beloved artists.
In this third Why I Write volume, Eileen Myles addresses the social, political, and aesthetic conditions that shape their work "A sharply etched, unvarnished self-portrait."--Kirkus Reviews " Myles] has a good time journeying through Hell, and like a hip Virgil, . . . is happy to show us the way."--NPR In this raucous meditation, Eileen Myles offers an intimate glimpse into creativity's immediacy. With erudition and wit, Myles recounts their early years as an awakening writer; existential struggles with landlords; storied moments with neighbors, friends, and lovers; and the textures and identities of cities and the country that reveal the nature of writing as presence in time. For Myles, time's "optic quality" is what enables writing in the first place--as attention, as devotion, as excess. It is this chronologized vision that enables the writer to love the world as it presently is, lending love a linguistic permanence amid social and political systems that threaten to eradicate it. Irreverent, generous, and always insightful, For Now is a candid r