Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind [Paperback]

Anna Deavere Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 24, 2006

From the most exciting individual in American theater” (Newsweek), here is Anna Deavere Smith’s brass tacks advice to aspiring artists of all stripes. In vividly anecdotal letters to the young BZ, she addresses the full spectrum of issues that people starting out will face: from questions of confidence, discipline, and self-esteem, to fame, failure, and fear, to staying healthy, presenting yourself effectively, building a diverse social and professional network, and using your art to promote social change. At once inspiring and no-nonsense, Letters to a Young Artist will challenge you, motivate you, and set you on a course to pursue your art without compromise.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Actor and playwright Smith casts her reflections on the creative process, the artist's life and the acting profession as a series of brief letters addressed to a fictitious teenager. Defining artist broadly, Smith (Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992) shares advice not only from painters, dancers, writers and actors but from a bull rider, a boxer and a dentist. Her advice is often directly practical: how to deal with stage fright, face an audition, even keep well ("Stay hydrated"). Smith treats concerns of the spirit as well: how to cope with disappointment, depression and feeling alienated. The letters have the immediacy of a genuine correspondence, replying to an imagined request for information ("How did you find your mentors?"), remembering a special moment ("It was summer the first time I moved to New York") and reporting on the present ("I just got a call from my agent saying there's a job for me on a television show"). What emerges most persuasively is Smith's sense of the complex interrelationship between one's art and one's everyday life. With a pithiness that wards away the preachy, Smith succeeds in conveying the pain, the joy and the effort that characterize a life on the stage and in the world. (Feb. 7)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-From a role on the popular TV show The West Wing to a MacArthur Foundation Award, Smith has attained success as an actress, a playwright, and a director. Her letters are filled with anecdotes and stories about her own successes and failures, giving the book an accessible, conversational feel. While the author primarily focuses on the joys of an artistic life, she also points out how much hard work, persistence, and even luck are necessary to succeed. She gives especially tender advice for those times when progress seems slow or when the review is bad. The book reads breezily front to back but is also divided into categories so it can be easily used as a reference when needing inspiration in specific areas. The one glaring omission is the almost complete lack of attention to promoting one's work. But this is a small complaint for what is otherwise a witty and inspiring guidebook for anyone interested in pursuing an artistic life.-Matthew L. Moffett, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (January 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400032385
• ISBN-13: 978-1400032389
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ENTERTAINING AND ENLIGHTENING LISTENING, April 10, 2006

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-Up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts--For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind (Audio CD)

While all young people embarking on careers could probably use some good sound advice, one cannot help but think that those hoping for a stage career are especially in need of encouragement, warnings, and practical guidance. That is precisely what actress/playwright Anna Deavere Smith delivers in her book, which borrows its format from Rilke's Letters To A Young Poet.

Smith has an exciting career, having won two Obies, two Tony nominations, a MacArthur "genius" fellowship, and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Now, Director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic dialogue and a New York University professor, she has seen her share of disappointment and joy. All of this she shares candidly, expressively as she narrates the good, the bad, and the rewards of "life upon the wicked stage."

Much of what she has to say is simply common sense, such as reminding us that good ideas are abundant but turning these ideas into reality takes determination and concentrated effort. Smith warns of procrastination, and the down side of fame. She provides hints for boosting confidence, acquiring a presence.

Rather than being a plain vanilla how-to book, Smith alternates her advice with stories from her own life, sometimes funny, at other times sad. It's a winning mix that makes for entertaining and enlightening listening.

- Gail Cooke

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Insiders Guide to Arts Industry, May 27, 2006

By 

PennyLane - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind (Paperback)

This was a fantastic read! Very accessable to all ages, various art forms, and levels of experience. Most books that talk about acting and making it in the arts don't neccessarily focus on some of the most key areas: integrity, presence, artistic vision and inspiration, staying connected to the world, and confidence. This book did. I am sure I will refer back to these chapters time and time again throughout my career as a performer!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bedside Reading, October 8, 2006

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind (Paperback)

Anna Deavere Smith knows what it's like--the struggle of the artist, the cold night of the soul when sometimes you feel punished for being a visionary, and she gets a lot of it down on paaper in this book of letters modelled to a certain degree on Rilke's famous LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET. She's seen it all in her multi-tasking career, and if she doesn't know it, she has a host of excellent friends to ask, everyone from Wynton Marsalis to Paul Van De Carr. James Baldwin, whom she met when she was just a struggling actor, told someone that she reminded him of "Lorraine" (Hansberry, the playwright who wrote A RAISIN IN THE SUN) and this overheard compliment sustained Anna Deavere Smith through many a disheartening audition. She's been on THE WEST WING and she played the mother in the movie of RENT. It's a bedside book you might give to any young friends you might have, or hope to influence. They'll read a few passages and take heart.

It gets docked one star for its relentless name dropping. We know she's at the very top of the tree, but she doesn't miss a beat about talking about famous friends, or people she's met in the publis sphere, and some of her enthusiasms get a little embarrassing. Did she have to tell us that Lauren Hutton should win Kennedy Center honors for her smile? That's the kind of thing Louella Parsons used to say, and it didn't sound any more sincere the first time around. And her inability to say a negative thing about any of her friends grows tiresome, especially when she says that "Naomi Campbell has presence" or brags that Condoleeza Rice came to one of her performances when they were colleagues at Stanford. Please, ADS, draw a line somewhere!

Though to be fair she does spoof her own propensity for the spotlight. She's not without humor, it's just a little weird to be writing a whole book of letters to an imaginary young girl, or is it? I think the scheme helps her incorporate different journalistic assignments she's been given over the years. For example, the imaginary teen is supposed to be a painter, so ADS gives an account of interviewing Brice Marden, "and just like you guessed, he is indeed tremendously sexy." Such double dips are a commonplace in occasional books of this kind, but we expected a little bit more from the genius who gave us TWILIGHT LOS ANGELES and FIRES IN THE MIRROR.