Amy Acker Books

Like this anthology, Kathy Acker's postmodern, punk literary project blurs the lines between scholars and rock stars, playwrights and artists, friends and colleagues. At once deeply personal and intellectually rigorous, these eight essays do justice to a woman who died too young and changed the cultural landscape for the better.

May it extend her incomparable, ferocious legacy!

Kathy Acker's irresolvable discomfort did not lead to knowledge or even much of a perspective. Peter Wollen quotes from her, "The only reaction against an unbearable society is equally unbearable nonsense." Acker's discomfort was a kind, a species, of energy and passion which attracted a sizable, loyal following. The eight essays by teachers and writers take up her literary, artistic style, her persona, and her treatment of politics, gender, sexuality, and other issues of her day. She died of cancer in 2002 shortly after turning fifty. "In order to make scandal felt continually, Acker finds ways to overflow the bounds of the literary by combining the knowledge she gives us of her life with aggression, humor, unfairness and shifts in direction and context." She was a prototypical postmodern writer, and there was little difference between her activism and her writing. The essays define and analyze this singular author-activist's style of provocation and education while also linking her to broader artistic, philosophical, and cultural ideas and influences.