Art Is Everything

Yxta Maya Murray is a writer and law professor living in Los Angeles. Her novels include The Good Girl's Guide to Getting Kidnapped, The King's Gold: An Old World Novel of Adventure, and The Queen Jade: A Novel. Her fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, the Georgia Review, the Southern Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She has won a Whiting Writer's Award, an Art Writer's Grant, and has been a finalist for the ASME Award in Fiction. Her art criticism can be found in Artforum, ARTnews, Artillery, and other periodicals.

• 1. I Didn't Even Know These Existed2. A Struggle That Probably Won't Pay Off In The End3. Maybe I Shouldn't Have Insisted On Taking This Trip4. Hey Can I Come Back Home Now5. I Didn't See That One Coming6. Weird Social Media Stuff You Do When Your Dad Dies7. This New Job Isn't That Great8. I'm Not Sure If I Should Have Pressed Send9. Is This Healing Me or is It Propaganda10. I Am Trying To Care About This But It's Not Really Working11. Unlobstering12. It's Not Stalking, It's Just Finding Somebody's Number and Calling Them on the Phone13. Crucifixion and Happiness14. Authenticity Culture is Dumb15. The Science of Invisibility16. Private Language17. Hope In a Phone18. It's Fine to Be Edited by Your Gallerist19. Maybe This Will Make Me Some Money20. Crushing It21. I Don't Think I'm Handling This Very Well22. The Disease of the Learned23. This is Bad24. The Sucking One25. Yeah Getting a Job is Probably a Good Idea26. BjÖrk's Kids Seem OK27. The Cry It Out Method28. Own Your Emotion29. Make Something Out of It30. Arte Povera SourcesList of Illustrations

“In Amanda Ruiz, Yxta Maya Murray has created a character that is fresh and sassy and unlike any I’ve encountered in recent fiction. Through inventive and stylized prose rife with wit and intelligence, we witness her triumphs and heartbreaks just as Amanda is on the verge of a major creative breakthrough while her personal life begins to unravel. What results is a portrait of an artist whose tenacity and passion fill the pages of this ebullient novel, penned by a gifted writer whose imagination knows no limits.” —Alex Espinoza, author of Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime