What fuels and sustains you?

I just finished LANGUAGE CITY, a fascinating look at saving the world’s rare languages by going block by block in immigrant neighborhoods in New York City, where a surprising number of these speakers land. I listened to the audio, narrated by the author, Ross Perlin, himself a Chinese translator. The audio includes cameos by native speakers.

In addition to learning about syntax in Lenape, or how people in tiny Nepalese villages express themselves, or Indigenous languages from remote parts of Mexico, or how words from rare African tongues evolve from language to language, or what amalgams of Yiddish-type languages were spoken across eastern Europe and Russia, I had two takeaways:

1. Immigrants help make us great.
2. Language must be what fuels and sustains author Ross Perlin.

This latter got me to wondering what fuels and sustains you? I’d love to hear.

For the next few newsletters, I hope to share how various artists answer that question. To start, I thought you’d be interested in THE LONG RUN: A Creative Inquiry, by Stacey D’Erasmo.

In this lovely essay collection, D’Erasmo covers a range of artists, some well known and some not well known (from Samuel R. Delany, speculative fiction; to Darrel Morrison, landscape architect; to Tania Léon, composer; and more). D’Erasmo explores how they sustain their creative practices over the long term. It feels like a book for this moment, when our world is frightening and violent and upside down, and our country is hurting in so many ways. I loved the variety and care with which D’Erasmo treats her subjects’ passions, and weaves in her own.

Shout out to Amy Gottlieb—whose novel THE BEAUTIFUL POSSIBLE—still rings in my ears, for recommending Stacey D’Erasmo’s book to me.

Over the last two weekends, I’ve been fortunate to read at two separate living room salons, right here in DC. (There’s a rich reading and writing subculture in this supposedly one company town.)

For the first time, I read an excerpt from my new novel, DUET FOR ONE. It was a fun test run, and I hope to do more of this once it comes out on May 6, 2025. Stay tuned for the cover reveal, coming soon.

Classical musical offering for the week: Gabriel Fauré’s stunning Requiem. Seems right for the rainy day that I am drafting this note to you.

With love, Martha

P.S. ICYMI, here’s last week’s newsletter: Birthday Celebrations.