EVENT OVERVIEW: Clancy Martin will discuss his New Hardcover How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind In Conversation with Angela Elam of KCUR 89.3 FM, on Thursday, March 23, 2023, at 6:00 PM. This Event is Co-Presented by Rainy Day Books & The Kansas City Public Library.
ABOUT CLANCY MARTIN: Clancy Martin is the acclaimed Author of the Novel How to Sell (FSG) as well as numerous books on philosophy, and has translated works by Friedrich Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard, and other philosophers. A Guggenheim Fellow, his writing has appeared in The New Yorker, New York, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Esquire, The New Republic, Lapham’s Quarterly, The Believer, and The Paris Review. He is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, and Ashoka University in New Delhi. He is the survivor of more than 10 suicide attempts and a recovering alcoholic.
ABOUT THE NEW BOOK: An intimate, insightful, at times even humorous exploration of why the thought of death is so compulsive for some while demonstrating that there’s always another solution, from Clancy Martin, the acclaimed Writer and Professor of Philosophy, based on his viral Essay, I’m Still Here.
“If you’re going to write a book about suicide, you have to be willing to say the true things, the scary things, the humiliating things. Because everybody who is being honest with themselves knows at least a little bit about the subject. If you lie or if you fudge, the reader will know.”
The last time Clancy Martin tried to kill himself was in his basement with a dog leash. It was one of over ten attempts throughout the course of his life. But he didn’t die, and like many who consider taking their own lives, he hid the attempt from his wife, family, coworkers, and students, slipping back into his daily life with a hoarse voice, a raw neck, and series of vague explanations.
In How Not to Kill Yourself, Clancy Martin chronicles his multiple suicide attempts in an intimate depiction of the mindset of someone obsessed with self-destruction. He argues that, for the vast majority of suicides, an attempt does not just come out of the blue, nor is it merely a violent reaction to a particular crisis or failure, but is the culmination of a host of long-standing issues. He also looks at the thinking of a number of great writers who have attempted suicide and detailed their experiences (such as David Foster Wallace, Yiyun Li, Akutagawa, Nelly Arcan, and others), at what the history of philosophy has to say both for and against suicide, and at the experiences of those who have reached out to him across the years to share their own struggles.
The result combines memoir with critical inquiry to powerfully give voice to what for many has long been incomprehensible, while showing those presently grappling with suicidal thoughts that they are not alone, and that the desire to kill oneself, like other self-destructive desires, is almost always temporary and avoidable.
DATE & TIME: Thursday, March 23, 2023, at 6:00 PM
LOCATION: A Rainy Day Books Author Event at The Kansas City Public Library, Plaza Branch, Truman Forum, 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64112
EVENT FORMAT: Clancy Martin will Present his New Hardcover How Not to Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind In Conversation with Angela Elam of KCUR 89.3 FM. A Meet & Greet Booksigning will follow the Presentation. Pre-Order your Hardcovers Now through link below!
ADMISSION PACKAGE: This is a Complimentary OPEN House Event. Registration is Required at www.KCLibrary.org/Signature-Events or Call the Library at 816-701-3407. Rainy Day Books will have Clancy Martin's Books for Sale at this Event, or you may Pre-Order for In-Store or At-Event Pick-Up through the link below. Seating is General Admission.
DISCLAIMER: All Author Event Sales are final and non-refundable. Kansas Sales Tax is charged on all Orders, regardless of destination. Additional Author Autographed Books will be available for Purchase at our Author Event.
