Curious, ruminative, and wry, this literary autobiography tours what Rachel Kushner called "the strange remove that is the life of the writer." Frank's essays cover a vast spectrum--from handling dismissive advice, facing the dilemma of thwarted ambition, and copying the generosity that inspires us, to the miraculous catharsis of letter-writing and some of the books that pull us through. Useful for writers at any stage of development, Late Work offers a seasoned artist's thinking through the exploration of issues, paradoxes, and crises of faith. Like a lively conversation with a close, outspoken friend, each piece tells its experience from the trenches.

Through the author's travels in Europe and the United States, Try to Get Lost explores the quest for place that compels and defines us: the things we carry, how politics infuse geography, media's depictions of an idea of home, the ancient and modern reverberations of the word 'hotel,' and the ceaseless discovery generated by encounters with self and others on familiar and foreign ground. Frank posits that in fact time itself may be our ultimate, inhabited place the vastest real estate we know, with a stunningly short lease.

Buzzfeed News,"15 Small Press Books To Kick Off Your 2020 Reading Season" The Millions, "February Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated" "Death looms in these four sparkling novellas-thus the book's sly title-but until then there's the wonder of life. Frank's subjects include fascinating friendships and complicated marriages, awful parties and odd enthusiasm. Bonus: song mentions that add up to a terrifically eclectic playlist." -Kim Hubbard, People Magazine In her quartet of novellas, Joan Frank invites readers into the inner lives of characters bewildered by love, grief, and inexplicable affinities. A young couple navigates a strange friendship and unexpected pregnancy; a woman recalls the bizarre fallout of her former lover's fame; a lonely widow is drawn to an arrogant young man; a wealthy spiritual seeker grapples with what wealth cannot affect. Witty and humane, Frank taps the riches of the novella form as she writes of loneliness, friendship, loss, and the filaments of intimacy that connect us through time.

All The News I Need probes the modern American response to inevitable, ancient riddles- of love and sex and mortality. Frances Ferguson is a lonely, sharp- tongued widow who lives in the wine country. Oliver Gaffney is a painfully shy gay man who guards a secret and lives out equally lonely days in San Francisco. Friends by default, Fran and Ollie nurse the deep anomie of loss and the creeping, animal betrayal of aging. Each loves routine but is anxious that life might be passing by. To crack open this stalemate, Fran insists the two travel together to Paris. The aftermath of their funny, bittersweet journey suggests those small changes, within our reach, that may help us save ourselves-somewhere toward the end.

"Miss Kansas City" is the story of an improbable friendship, set in the tumultuous mid-80s dotcom California, where youthful greed and blinkered innocence arrive intertwined.
Friendless and reclusive, Alex Blue commutes two hours each way to a job that serves mainly as a place to bide time, until one day she meets the wealthy, worldly--and married--owner of a high-concept Bay Area lifestyle company. Meanwhile, the melancholy and closeted Morton Levi, yearning for a loving partner but stung by prior experience, lives a secret life outside the software information company he manages with a steady, efficient hand--the same company where Alex works.
As ominous rumors of mergers and layoffs swirl, and Alex and Mort are pushed to the emotional brink by the vagaries of love, they find themselves forging an unexpected alliance. "Miss Kansas City" is a moving exploration of the notion of possibility, and of a seasoned hope that can emerge on the other side of loneliness and loss.
Joan Frank is the author of the story collection "Boys Keep Being Born," which was both a Bay Area Book Reviewers' Award and Paterson Fiction Award finalist. Her stories appear in many journals and anthologies, including "The Antioch Review, The Iowa Review," and "Salmagundi," She is a MacDowell Colony and VCCA Fellow, Pushcart Prize nominee, recipient of a Barbara Deming Grant, and winner of the Iowa Fiction Award and Emrys Fiction Award. She lives in Northern California. "Miss Kansas City" is her first novel.

Part memoir, part handbook, part survey of the contemporary literary scene, Joan Frank's "Because You Have To: A Writing Life" is a collection of essays that, taken together, provide a walking tour of the writing life. Frank's aim is to form a coherent vision, one that may provide some communion about realities of the writer's vocation that have struck her as rarely revealed. Frank offers what she has learned as a writer not only to other writers, but to those to whom good writing matters. Her insights about "thinking on paper" are never dogmatic or pontifical; rather, they are cordial and intellectually welcoming. Original, witty, and practical, Frank ably steers us through the journey of her own life as a writer, as well as through the careers and work of other writers. Her subjects range widely, from the "boot camp" conditioning of marketing work to squaring off with rejection and envy; from sustaining belief in art's necessity to the baffling subjectivity of literary perception and the magical books that nourish writers. Frank's personal journey is wonderfully told, so that what in these essays is particular becomes useful and universal.

"Once in a blue moon a book on writing comes along that reads as though it's speaking directly to you. "Because You Have To" is just that: an honest and wise and brave account of what it means to be a writer in this odd, new century. I recommend to you this rare thing, a book packed full of useful information that is also a work of art." -John McNally, author of "After the Workshop" "What I treasure is Joan Frank's voice, placed so beautifully in concert with those of a multitude of writers in our tradition. She has turned research into art and advice into song. No matter where you are in your artistic evolution, you will appreciate this writer blues, writer-opera, writer-jazz." -David Huddle, author of "La Tour Dreams of the Wolf Girl "and "Nothing Can Make Me Do This" "Wittily, elegantly, disputatiously, passionately, Joan Frank lays bare the paradox-ridden psychology of the artistic vocation. She has a wised-up and intimate knowledge of the writing life's curriculum: doubt, fear, anticipation, rejection, recovery. Here is a writer speaking from the heart. "Because You Have To "delivers hard-won recognitions with an almost disconcerting fluency." -Sven Birkerts, author of "The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age "and "The Other Walk: Essays " "Poignant and witty, trenchant and tender, lament and celebration-wisdom deeply honed, in beautifully crafted sentences. A companion volume in the truest sense: a book for writers at every stage, through every mood of the writing life." -Noelle Oxenhandler, author of "The Wishing Year "and" The Eros of Parenthood" "On every page of these stunning essays, Frank lays bare the hardest truths of being a writer, and on every page she confesses her hopeless, passionate love for the pursuit. The artist's conundrum has rarely been so eloquently voiced. Part erudite treatise, part love letter, "Because You Have To" is certain to find myriad ardent admirers of its own." -Robin Black, author of "If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This" "There are craft books. There are "Just do it" books. There are memoirs. But "Because You Have To" is the story of what it is like to "be" a real literary writer in the 21st century, a story about time, money, desire, anxiety, and (complicated) community. It's about loving books, writing, and art. Occupational hazards of the writing life? Many. Pleasures for the reader? Plenty-if Joan Frank is the writer, and "Because You Have To" is the book." -Debra Spark, author of "The Pretty Girl

Set in Paris, California, Italy, and Spain, Joan Frank's second story collection explores the uncertainties and triumphs of women and men in and out of love and marriage, at varying ages and stages of contemporary American life. By turns wry, pained, and amused, "In Envy Country"investigates those small, complex truths that gain clarity with time and distance.

"Joan Frank shows us ourselves. . . . Meticulously observed, with sentences that will make you stop and go back for another look." --Ehud Havazelet, author of "Bearing the Body" and "Like Never Before"

"These stories each have a wonderful, intimate feel. . . . Written with authority and intelligence, they are layered and subtle . . . serious, and yet take us back to the sense of discovery; reading them is fun." --Elizabeth Strout, author of "Olive Kitteridge" and "Abide with Me"

"Nothing escaps Joan Frank; her stories of not-so-innocent bystanders gleam with subtlety, intelligence, and sly wit." --Brian Morton, author of "Breakable You "and "Starting Out in the Evening "

"A worldly collection in all the best ways; a writer of unusual wit, sophistication, and psychological insight; reading these pages is a pleasure." --Margot Livesey, author of "The House on Fortune Street "