Lust for Life: On the Writings of Kathy Acker

Kathy Acker one of the most original, subversive and influential writers of the late 20th century. Known variously, and notoriously, as a consummate postmodernist, feminist, post-punk and plagiarist, her oeuvre — over a dozen novels and novellas — has inspired a generation of writers and artists.

Lust for Life is the definitive collection of essays on Acker’s inimitable work, including Peter Wollen’s elegiac primer, widely considered the best introduction to Acker, and Avital Ronell’s erudite meditation on friendship and mourning. Together these essays by scholars and writers reveal Acker’s profound and innovative project, and the ways in which fiction can penetrate the heart of political and cultural life.

“Scarified sensibility, subversive intellect, and predatory wit make her a writer like no other I know.”— New York Times Book Review

“From the fringes, an outsider, Kathy Acker penetrated the heart of American culture with a superb and wicked intellectual force we had not seen before.” — Sapphire

“Acker may be the true mother of Brat Pack writers like Brett Easton Ellis, but there isn’t disgust in her work... Transgression is never disgust — it is a way of surviving.” — Jeanette Winterson

Contributors include Nayland Blake, Leslie Dick, Robert Glück, Carla Harryman, Laurence Rickels, Avital Ronell, Barrett Watten, and Peter Wollen.

Amy Scholder is the US Editor of Verso; Carla Harryman is the author of several books including Baby and Gardener of Stars; Avital Ronell is the chair of the German department at New York University.