Researching and writing about contemporary art and artists present unique challenges for scholars, students, professional critics and creative practitioners alike. This collection of essays from across the arts disciplinesmusic, literature, dance, theatre and the visual artsexplores the challenges and complexities raised by engaging in researching and writing on living or recently deceased subjects and their output. Different sections explore critical perspectives and case studies in relation to innovative, distinctive or otherwise leading work, as well as offering innovative modes of discourse such as a visual essay and a music composition. Subjects addressed include recent scandals of Canadian literary celebrity, late-career output, the written element of music composition PhDs, and the boundaries between ethnography and hagiography, with case studies ranging from Howard Barker to Adrian Piper to Sylvie Guillem and Misty Copeland.

Christopher Wiley is Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Surrey, UK. He is the author of many journal articles and book chapters, and the co-editor of forthcoming volumes includingWriting About Contemporary Musicians (2020),Transnational Perspectives on Artists Lives (2020),Womens Suffrage in Word, Image, Music and Drama (2021), andThe Routledge Companion to Autoethnography and Self-Reflexivity in Music Studies (2021).

Ian Pace is Senior Lecturer in Music at City, University of London, UK, and an internationally renowned pianist specialising in new music. He published a monograph on Michael FinnissysThe History of Photography in Sound (2013) alongside a recording of the work, and he is co-editor of the volumesUncommon Ground: The Music of Michael Finnissy(1988),Critical Perspectives on Michael Finnissy (2019),Writing about Contemporary Musicians (2020), andRethinkingContemporary Musicology (2020). He has also published articles in many journals, recorded 40 CDs, and given over 250 world premieres.

General Introduction.- 1. Writing About Contemporary Creative Art and Artists.- Christopher Wiley and Ian Pace.- PART I: Critical Perspectives.- 2. The Artist is Present: Scandal and the Academic Study of the Living Artist.- Lorraine York.- 3. From vocational calling to career construction: Late-career authors and critical self-reflection.- Hywel Dix.- 4. An Introduction to the Persistence of Art Writing.- Bob Dickinson.- 5. The purpose of the written element in composition PhDs.- Christopher Leedham and Martin Scheuregger.- 6. Ethnographic Approaches to the Study of Western Art Music: Questions of Context, Realism, Evidence, Description and Analysis.- Ian Pace.- 7. When Ethnography becomes Hagiography: Uncritical Musical Perspectives.- Ian Pace.- PART II: Case Studies Across the Arts.- 8. Writing Catastrophe: Howard Barker and the Body.- Andy W. Smith.- 9. Writing the Ballerina: Sylvie Guillem, Misty Copeland and Lessons in Biography.- Jill Brown.- 10. Amend the Arena: On Adrian Pipers Work.- Vered Engelhard.- 11. Memory and Irony inThe Apollonian Clockwork.- Joel M. Baldwin.- 12. Artfrom: Researching the canon through publications of art and design.- Mimi Cabell and Phoebe Stubbs.- PART III: Art Considered on its Own Terms.- 13. Occlusionary Tactics (visual essay).-Bob Whalley.-14. Abstracts(music composition, 2015).- Richard Birchall.- 15. MusicArt: Creating Dialogues Across the Arts.- Annie Yim, in conversation with Christopher Wiley.