Tell Me I'm An Artist

A NYLON Most Anticipated Book of the Year

"Portrait of the artist as a broke and brilliant, hungry and funny young woman, Chelsea Martin’s Tell Me I’m An Artist is an acutely felt and beautifully rendered depiction of all the absurd, messy, complicated layers of trying to make things, a story of not only ambition and yearning, but also of triumph and loving." —Lynn Steger Strong, author of Want

"Overflowing with humor and honesty, Tell Me I'm An Artist interrogates the life of the artist from an engrossingly contemporary angle. It's a monument to the big and small ways in which we craft our notions of artistry, and to Chelsea Martin's dazzling skill as a writer." —Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun

“In Tell Me I’m An Artist, Chelsea Martin tells my favorite kind of love story—that between an artist and her work. She explores how crippling self-doubt, desperation and abject terror are all threads of the creative process, tangled up with euphoria, self-discovery and transcendence.” —Hallie Bateman, author of Directions

"Chelsea Martin has quietly become one of our most prolific and hardworking contemporary writers—always fresh yet understated, calmly insightful, mumbling profundity so casually that one questions whether she recognizes its brilliance. Tell Me I'm An Artist is another home run, impossible not to devour immediately. Never before have I read such a precise encapsulation of the under-addressed ennui of family dysfunction and mother-daughter relationships.” —Darcie Wilder, author of literally show me a healthy person

"The funniest, smartest, Chelsea-est novel you could only dream of. I savored every page, and when I finished, I wanted to begin again. In the form of lists, internet searches, fragments, and impeccable pacing, Chelsea Martin tackles the notion of being an 'artist' in this unpredictable and colorful novel for our times." —Chloe Caldwell, author of The Red Zone: A Love Story

“Tell Me I’m An Artist perfectly renders the high-drama of artistic procrastination—the anxiety, the doubt, the hesitation, the momentary flights of confidence, the will I/won’t I. It’s warm, it’s deadpan, it’s absurd. I loved this book.” —Halle Butler, author of The New Me

"Anyone who has ever tried to do meaningful work in spite of a growing suspicion that nothing matters will find a home in this hilarious, heart-piercing book, and a memorable companion in its young but wise narrator. Chelsea Martin is a born storyteller.” —Emily Gould, author of Perfect Tunes

"Deft and exquisite and singular, Chelsea Martin's Tell Me I'm an Artist urges us to consider what we owe—a lot or a little or zilch—to our families, our friends, our ambitions, ourselves. Funny and crushing, lithe and deep, this novel is that rare combination of pleasure and profundity, a portrait of the artist as a work-in-progress." —Sharma Shields, author of The Cassandra and The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac