LOOKING TOGETHER: WRITERS ON ART

The relationship between writers and artists has long been a collaborative one. Plato used the word ekphrasis to describe what happens when a writer writes creatively, as opposed to critically, about art. Gertrude Stein clamed that her innovative writing style was inspired by the paintings of Cezanne—and then went on to tell Hemingway to study Cezanne if he wanted to learn to write.

In Looking Together, a dozen writers working in a range of styles and forms respond to works of art held in the collection of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century art at Seattle's Frye Art Museum or to contemporary work exhibited there. Romantic and ironic, meticulously constructed and fanciful, these poems, stories, monologues, and tales are invitations to any curious reader or lover of art to re-look at what we see.

Praise for LOOKING TOGETHER: WRITERS ON ART

"This is a modest treasure of a book. Where else could you find Adrian Harun taking on Henry Darger's untitled "Battle scene during lightning storm. Naked Children with Rifles?"

— City Living

"Looking Together: Writers on Art is a great example of an interdisciplinary approach that works. The Frye Art Museum in Seattle commissioned 12 writers to respond to art either held in the museum's collection or exhibited in its galleries. The responses are various and stunning...Adrianne Harun's 'The Darger Episodes' is an imaginative take on an untitled work by Henry Darger."

— Oregonian Live