<P><P>Enticing, heart wrenching, and darkly funny, the interconnected stories in <EM>The Artstars</EM> are set in creative communities—an art school, an illegal loft studio, a guerrilla street performance troupe—where teamwork and professional jealousy mix, and the artists grapple with economic realities and evolving expectations. A middle-aged poet, reeling from 9-11, fights homesickness, writer's block, and ladybugs at an artist's colony....
