Even in my wayward youth, I loved to write. I loved how, if I bent my brain just so, the words came together on the page and danced. I loved how, in heartbreak I could frantically scribe my revenge and somehow feel a little less devastated. Even then, I found power in the freedom, the creativity and the precision of thought that words allowed me.
As childhood dreams tend to do, my dream of someday writing a book faded into the background. I discovered new loves, and loved them voraciously. Design felt foreign and urgent at first, but over the years it has become my most fluent language. As an adult, I've settled comfortably into my role in this world: Finding and sharing the substance behind beauty beyond what is most readily prescribed.
It was just then, comfortable with my path narrow before me, that the opportunity came to write this book. My editor Shawna Mullen and my publisher Abrams handed me this unbelievable imperative to explore the precision of thought that I could achieve through both words and design, my childhood love and my life's work.
In the process of writing What We Keep, I have had to, over and over, ask myself what is important enough to share. Beauty and substance are just the beginning. Community, skill, diversity, authenticity, vulnerability, compassion, courage, family. This book is my small contribution to these big conversations, using the language I know best.
What We Keep officially launches Tuesday, May 14. We are hosting a celebratory launch at Colony and I would be honored for you to join us. I will be joined in conversation by Asad Syrkett, editor in chief of Elle Decor (who wrote the foreword in the book) at 5 PM, with a public reception to follow. A few spots have opened up for our talk, and I've included the RSVP details below.
Thank you, as always, for reading.
Jean Lin
Join us to celebrate the launch of Jean Lin’s first book, What We Keep. Asad Syrkett, Editor in Chief of Elle Decor, joins Jean in conversation about the book, design media, and the intersection of words, images and objects.
May 14, 2024
Colony
196 West Broadway
New York, NY
5:00 - 6:00 pm conversation
6:00 - 9:00 pm public reception
My hope is that this book is a testament that the stories of what we keep, and why we keep them, are worth telling. Because it’s in the telling, and retelling, that we can find ourselves and one another in a universal understanding: The beautiful life is not only to be pursued alone, but also uncovered together as a collective.