Born in 1945 in New York, United States.
Studied poetry during the 1960s under Jerome Rothenburg before
turning to novel writing.
"I came out of the poetry world of America. Specifically,
I was taught by the second generation of the Black Mountain poets
and by Jackson MacLow who was a crossover between that group and
Fluxus [links to Fluxus site on the net]. Among the many lessons
I had learned by the time I was in my early twenties was a practical
one: poets never make money and are, as both Rimbaud and Patti
Smith said, the white niggers of this earth". --Kathy Acker
(in the introduction to Young Lust , 1988).
"She has been publishing books since the early
seventies, principally with American underground publishers. She
has taught in the San Francisco Art Institute in recent years
and has given many readings and performances in San Francisco,
Seattle and New York". [publisher's bumpf, Blood and Guts
in High School , UK pbk, 1984]
First came to the attention of the British public in 1984 with
the "stunning and shocking" Blood and Guts in High School
.
"Her work incorporates autobiography, self-confessed plagiarism
and pornography, often dealing with the relations between power
and language. Having never shied away from describing violence
and sexuality in graphic detail, Kathy Acker's career has never
been less than controversial". [publisher's bumpf, In Memoriam
to Identity , 1993 reissue] Kathy
Acker's works include:
Politics
The Childlike Life of the Black Tarantula
I Dreamt I Was a Nymphomaniac: Imagining!
The Adult Life of Toulouse-Lautrec
Kathy Goes to Haiti
Great Expectations
Don Quixote, Which Was a Dream
Blood and Guts in High School
Empire of the Senseless
Young Lust
In Memoriam to Identity
Portrait of an Eye
My Mother: Demonology
Pussy, King of the Pirates
Bodies of Work
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