Stay Inspired: Finding Motivation for Your Creative Work

A guide to staying creatively curious in your own life, written by Brandon Stosuy (cofounder of The Creative Independent), with quotes and advice from artists across disciplines

The second in a series of three guides dedicated to the practical and emotional sides of living a creative life, Stay Inspired explores how to grow an idea into a project and how to keep the spark of creativity present in your daily life. This guide poses a series of questions on themes of tapping into your own story and circumstances of inspiration, identifying your influences, finding inspiring communities, and initiating partnerships and collaborations. Working artists from all walks of life—musicians, authors, filmmakers, dancers, designers, and visual artists—offer their responses to the questions posed throughout the book, providing an inspirational framework for discovering new ideas, channeling your influences, and making work in conversation with others.

Part memoir, part zine, part "how-to," and oral history, in Stay Inspired, author and curator Brandon Stosuy taps into an incredible network of talent to provide diverse (and diverging) perspectives on how creativity can be inspired and channeled into your independent work, collaborations, and communities.

Includes quotes by: Hanif Abdurraqib, Carly Ayres, Matthew Barney, Kevin Beasley, Heather Benjamin, Michael Berdan, Matt Berninger, Annie Bielski, Beth Campbell, Vernon Chatman, George Clarke, Dennis Cooper, Patty Yumi Cottrell, Drew Daniel, Nika Roza Danilova, Meg Duffy, Sadie Dupuis, Dominick Fernow, Roxane Gay, Sarah Gerard, Ioanna Gika, Richard Hell, Hermione Hoby, Matthew Day Jackson, Sarah Kinlaw, Christopher Y. Lew, Ling Ma, Melissa Auf der Maur, Shanekia McIntosh, Eileen Myles, Aparna Nancherla, Maggie Nelson, Clementine Nixon, Valentine Nixon, Sara Quin, JD Samson, Lavender Suarez, Darcie Wilder, Jess Williamson, Shawna X