After a hectic decade making a name for herself as the “punk poet laureate” of 1970s rock and roll, Patti Smith stepped away from the stage to focus on her family and writing. Sixteen years later she started touring again. In 2010 she won a National Book Award for Just Kids, a memoir chronicling her relationship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Her most recent work, A Book of Days, was released late last year.
A version of this article appeared in the March–April 2023 issue of Harvard Business Review.
