Set on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, but ranging afield to a small college town in North Carolina, to the streets of Manhattan, and to the barrio chino of Barcelona, Writer-in-Residence tells the story of a successful American painter named David Bloom, who, to the horror of his family, his friends, and his fellow artists, is obsessed with destroying everything he paints. For the past five years he has burned every single painting that he has produced over the past 12 months in one glorious bonfire on Midsummer Eve.