The Artstars

"These stories are so visceral, you can almost smell the oil paint, see the light coming out of a horse's ass, as one of her characters observes. A real treat to read. And they're funny too!"—Sonia Pilcer, author of The Last Hotel: A Novel in Suites

"I love these interconnected portraits—elegant, funny, fond—of artists struggling to realize a vision in the face of indifference, misunderstanding, and being very, very broke. They are heroes, deliciously human ones. The Artstarscrackles with irresistible energy and smarts."—Pamela Erens, author of Eleven Hours

"The Artstars is a fierce and funny exploration of creation and its discontents. Anne Elliott's stories are, like the up-and-comer sculptors and poets and fabric artists who populate them, droll, ambitious, and hungry for meaning. They are about the struggle to make art, to outlast your doubts and debts, and to find love, which is to say they are about the human heart revealing itself. A gorgeous collection."—Steve Almond, author of My Life in Heavy Metal and God Bless America

"The Artstars is about what people are willing to do – have always been willing to do, really – to be artists: take meaningless day jobs, endure writer's block, weather bad reviews, live in substandard housing, and collect rejection letters while friends collect accolades."—Portland Press Herald