A loosely structured collection of essays, The Importance of Being Iceland: Travel Essays in Art (2009) by Eileen Myles offers a small window into a particular moment; specifically the New York art scene of the 1990s and early 2000s.
In that community, Myles was well known: a poet of some note, and an out lesbian in a time that was both more rare and more risky than it is currently. The essays are most interesting when they offer insight into her aesthetic or her often striking observations on travel and its relationship to the creative process.
There is much here that, if you are not deeply conversant with Myles and her peers in the New York scene, is somewhat impenetrable: anecdotes of lunches and visits and gallery openings that bear interest in direct proportion to your knowledge of the involved parties.
There is also some insight into her run for President: in 1990, she campaigned as a write-in candidate, an effort that drew national attention (in today’s parlance, it went viral–to the point where she had airtime on MTV, which was a much bigger deal then than now). Her candidacy serves as a reminder that a totally unqualified candidacy was once an act of performance art (it should be noted that Myles’ platform was admirable: an early attempt to call attention to issues of race, class, and gender in national politics).