Patti Smith

This week, we're listening back to some favorite Fresh Air interviews from the past decade. The punk icon reflected on her career and her 22-year friendship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe in 2010.

Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids, just nominated for a National Book Award, describes her path of artistic self discovery and her relationship with the provocative photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe.

This interview was originally broadcast on January 19, 2010. 'Just Kids' was recently nominated for a National Book Award and will be released in a paperback edition on November 2, 2010.

It was in 1967, on her first day in New York, that 20-year-old aspiring poet Patti Smith met fellow artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Their friendship, romance and creative collaboration began on that day and lasted until Mapplethorpe's death in 1989.

Singer Michael Stipe with the band R.E.M. He has a new book of photographs "Two Times Intro: On the Road with Patti Smith" (Little, Brown & Company)