A unique memoir of an artist’s life. For decades, Peter Selgin struggled to reconcile his two great passions, writing and visual art, feeling that he had to choose between them or fail at both. In this unique memoir pairing pictures with mini-essays, Selgin unites those two once irreconcilable passions. The result is a singular intimate portrait of a multi-talented artist’s life, his inspirations, his methods, his challenges, his anecdotes and adventures. With over 100 full-color illustrations.

Author: Peter Selgin
Paperback, 228 pages, 2026
ISBN-13: 9781947175983

Peter Selgin is the author of Drowning Lessons, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, two essay collections, three books on the craft of writing, three novels, and several children’s books. His memoir, The Inventors, won the 2017 Housatonic Book Award and was a finalist for the Bridge Translation Prize. His 2020 novel, Duplicity, won the Best Indie Book Award and the Indie Excellence Book Award. His drama, A God in the House, based on Dr. Jack Kevorkian and his suicide machine, won the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference award. His most recent novel, A Boy’s Guide to Outer Space, was a runner-up for the Townsend Prize, Georgia’s top literary award. His visual art has appeared in the New Yorker, Forbes, Gourmet, The Wall Street Journal, and gallery exhibits throughout the country. He lives in Milledgeville, Georgia, and Granada, Spain.

“Peter Selgin is a born writer, capable of taking any subject and exploring it from a new angle, with wit, grace, and erudition.” —Oliver Sacks