Hi all,
My first book, The Longing for Less: Living with Minimalism, comes out in a week, on Tuesday January 21! Pre-orders really mean a lot right now, so I would love it if you reserved your copy from one of these online sources:
Bloomsbury / Amazon / Indiebound / Barnes and Noble / Books-a-Million
Or, even better, call up your local indie bookstore and ask them to order some copies. How could you say no to this?
Previews:
The book has shown up in Wired, The Millions, and Town & Country as one to look out for this winter.
New Excerpts: The Invention of Minimalism & Donald Judd Goes to Marfa
— In The Nation, there’s an excerpt from the book on the moment when minimalism first took shape in the early 1960s and the word itself was coined by the British art theorist Richard Wollheim. At first, no one knew what to call minimalism. Could it have been Cool Art, Boring Art, or ABC Art instead? (Naturally, the artists didn’t like any of these labels.)
— In Artnet, there’s an excerpt about the artist Donald Judd, an ambivalent pioneer of minimalism who first theorized many of its ideas. Sick of the art world, in the ‘70s Judd moved from Manhattan to Marfa, Texas, and began renovating old industrial buildings into minimalist dwellings for himself and his family. Now, Marfa is a site of minimalist pilgrimage and a hip tourist destination — not exactly what Judd had in mind. But art becomes retail surprisingly quickly.
Events: With Laura Marsh & Tope Folarin
Weds, Jan 22nd: My official book launch will be in New York City at Powerhouse Arena in DUMBO at 7 PM, listing here. I’m really happy that Laura Marsh, my great editor at The New Republic, is going to moderate the conversation.
Tues, Jan 28th: My event in Washington, DC, will be at Politics & Prose Union Market at 7 PM. Novelist and P&P talk veteran Tope Folarin will be the moderator.
More details on other events in Boston, SF, and LA are on my website.
Sorry for all of this promotion! Soon the book will be out and it’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming. I will also be sending some Exclusive Book Content to this newsletter very soon.
Bonus: Other People’s Books
Two great books just came out today that you should read, Anna Wiener’s memoir of working in the tech industry, Uncanny Valley, and Garth Greenwell’s lambent novel Cleanness. I am also very excited to get reading Miranda Popkey’s Topics of Conversation, which I saw her read from brilliantly last night.
(Also if you have advice on book promotion / events / whatever email me??)
— Kyle