{"product_id":"art-above-everything-one-womans-global-exploration-of-the-joys-and-torments-of-a-creative-life-hardcover","title":"Art Above Everything: One Woman's Global Exploration of the Joys and Torments of a Creative Life - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eStephanie Elizondo Griest\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMeet queer, BIPOC, and women artists around the world as they discuss the gifts, costs, and redemptive power of pursuing a creative life\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIs the all-encompassing quest to become a self-sustaining artist worth the sacrifices it often requires? Throughout her 20s and 30s, Stephanie Elizondo Griest could not help worrying if constantly prioritizing her writing over everything else--from postponing children to living nomadically to save on rent--was leading her to fulfillment or regret. After a break-up and serious health crisis in her early 40s, she decided to turn to other women artists for their perspectives on that perennial question: is art enough? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eArt Above Everything \u003c\/i\u003eintroduces us to legendary writers, visual artists, dancers, and musicians across the globe, who talk intimately about their art, what it requires, what it gifts them, and what it costs them. Opening in a classical Indian dance village\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003e Elizondo Griest goes on to meet 100+ artists in Rwanda, Romania, Qatar, Iceland, Mexico, New Zealand, Cuba, and the United States. She discovers artists from Rwandan playwright Hope Azeda, who navigated ethnic tensions as she attempted to bring about reconciliation through theater in the aftermath of genocide; to Romanian painter Florica Prevenda, who got assigned to a provincial factory during Ceaușescu's dictatorship but never relinquished her brushes. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eArt is inheritance, dissent, devotion, revenge, celebration, and more. Yet though each artist's relationship to their craft is different, their need to create in the face of economic hardship, misogyny, sexual violence, and family ostracization is wholly akin. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBold and inspiring, \u003ci\u003eArt Above Everything \u003c\/i\u003enever pretends that the artist's path is easy--but it illuminates the infinite ways we can wield creativity as a vitalizing force.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eStephanie Elizondo Griest\u003c\/b\u003e is a globetrotting author from South Texas. Her six books include: \u003ci\u003eAround the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eMexican Enough; \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e All the Agents and Saints: Dispatches from the U.S. Borderlands\u003c\/i\u003e. She has also written for the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times, Washington Post, The Believer, BBC, VQR, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eOxford American. \u003c\/i\u003eHer work has won a Margolis Award for Social Justice Reporting, an International Latino Book Award, a PEN Southwest Book Award, and a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Gold Prize. She currently serves as a professor of creative nonfiction at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 272\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.75 x 9.22 x 6.38 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 10, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51987384402221,"sku":"9780807020418","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0938\/3185\/6429\/files\/1zkXQl-_5A9780807020418.webp?v=1776178398","url":"https:\/\/ishookbooks.com\/products\/art-above-everything-one-womans-global-exploration-of-the-joys-and-torments-of-a-creative-life-hardcover","provider":"iShook Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}