Famous Artists Make Terrible Role Models

History remembers famous artists as geniuses, rebels, martyrs, and models of creative courage, but their actual lives were too contradictory and chaotic to function as instruction manuals. Drawing on the biographies of Mary Shelley, James Baldwin, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, Yayoi Kusama, and others, nonfiction author Ryan T. Pozzi explores what gets lost when complicated creative lives are turned into inspirational gets lost when complicated creative lives are turned into inspirational myths and what they can teach us once we stop trying to imitate them.

Ryan T. Pozzi is a Council Bluffs-based nonfiction author whose work explores failure, myth, reputation, memory, and creative persistence. His forthcoming book, The Mess That Made Them: How History’s Greatest Artists Failed, Floundered, and Made Something Brilliant Anyway, will be published by Bloomsbury Academic on September 3, 2026. He founded the Nebraska Writers Collective and the Apollon Art Space and has extensive experience developing arts programs, producing public events, and speaking to audiences across the Midwest. Find him at ryantpozzi.com or on social media @ryantpozzi.

Books will be available for purchase following the presentation.