Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers and Artists of Every Kind.

Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts--For Actors, Performers, Writers and Artists of Every Kind by Anna Deavere Smith Anchor Books, February 2006 $13, ISBN 1-400-03238-5

This Renaissance woman and MacArthur fellow draws deeply from the well of her artistic experiences and shares all in her newest book.

Deavere Smith keeps the pace lively and inspiring by using a fictional apprentice to whom she offers advice on making it as an artist in New York City, Los Angeles and anywhere in between. Using the lost art of letter writing, she creates a singular dialogue. The reader experiences her voice, yet in her replies, we feel the measured excitement, sadness and yearning of this unseen artist named BZ.

There are wonderful interactions--a dash of dishy girl talk ("Okay, as promised, a full report on my interview with abstract painter Brice Marden. Yes, he is as sexy as you thought."), maternal admonitions ("Think of your imagination as a muscle that needs to be plump with health. Stay hydrated."), and heartfelt advice from a mature woman to another on the cusp of adulthood ("As an artist you are a student of the human condition. There is no syllabus"). Deftly woven through these epistolary vignettes are photos, paintings and rich quotations.

Deavere Smith closes this guide with an extensive appendix of resources for artists or those harboring secret ambitions to become one. Readers shouldn't fear that this book is geared only toward those actively pursuing art; it is also inspiring for the rest of us, reminding us to be true to ourselves. Deavere Smith sums it up best: "Be strong, be new, be you."

--Reviewed by Tracey Lewis Tracey Lewis, coauthor of The BAP Handbook: The Official Guide to the Black American Princess (Broadway Books, 2001), is working on her next book The Boomerangers' Guide to Living at Home.