A Manual for Nothing

Fiction. Women’s Studies. LGBTQIA Studies. A young girl sets out to paint a portrait of her sexual identity and her artistic ability. She wants to be loved. And she wants to be a writer. And she wants to be you. She wants to see you in her. She wants a chorus. A huge chorus balanced on bleachers, like the ones on late night public television every December 22-27th. She wants lots of women and a few men in colorful tunics singing different parts of the same song. She wants to build something with you, about her, for them. They can have it. And when they ask you what it is, tell them it’s something sturdy. And something powerful. Complete. Like a dresser.

Jessica Anne’s A MANUAL FOR NOTHING is so the book we need (I need) right now. A kunstlerroman for the twenty-first century: A Portrait of the Artist as (Jessica Anne). The World According to (Jessica Anne). Remembrance of Lost (Jessica Anne). The Sorrows of Young (Jessica Anne). Look Homeward, (Jessica Anne). Adios, boy artists. With Patti LuPone as a spirit guide, A MANUAL FOR NOTHING is a kunstlerroman for and about girl artists and women artists and performance artists who want to be writer artists. A kunstlerroman for all those who know the predatory mentor whose name ‘starts with a G-r and ends with an egg’ and still kinda- sorta-hafta question what it even means to be a feminist. A kunstlerroman for the silent ballerinas with perfect first positions but mute first persons. A MANUAL FOR NOTHING is a kunstlerroman for you, girl.–Kelcey Parker Ervick