the work at hand

"Your motivation is always the work at hand. That process, excruciating or divine, belongs to you. You have to keep doing it without hope of recompense." - Patti Smith

I heard Patti Smith speak at the Miami Book Festival and discovered our shared love of fringe jackets. She discussed the process for writing and selecting photos for The Book of Days.

The work at hand is daily work. In the process, sometimes existential, if we can immerse ourselves, we might find what we seek. Or reality delivers something irrational, horrible, terrifying, and we work with that, as nonfiction writers do.

I was reminded of THE WORK when I saw Patti Smith speak at the Miami Book Festival this past weekend. She fielded questions from the audience, which were all versions of the same question: How can I be a successful writer/singer/poet like you? Her answer was direct and poetic, as she is:

Your motivation is always the work at hand. That process, excruciating or divine, belongs to you. You have to keep doing it without hope of recompense.

The daily work can weigh you down like a riverworn stone. It can accompany you, providing the creative structure for your life. But you can only see the luminous truth of it all, if you are lucky, a way down the road.

Alice

2025 Writing & Events

March 5- April 2 The Bellagio Center Residency Program in Italy

April 19-20 Unbound Book Festival in Columbia, Missouri

May 6 The J. Anthony Lukas Prize Ceremony in NYC

My book LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company is OUT NOW

"A startling glimpse into the meatpacking industry's abuse of undocumented and incarcerated workers." --The New York Times Book Review