Overview
In an age of reality television that appears to have crossed all boundaries, it would seem that there are few subjects that haven't been broached. Yet, the provocative fiction, poetry and essays in High Risk explore the forbidden zones of illicit sex and obsessive behavior that few people dare. Fired by the conviction that art must be bound only by the limits of the imagination, the writers and artists featured in this collection, including William S. Burroughs, Dorothy Allison, and John Preston, fearlessly take on sadomasochism, prostitution, incest, drug use, bondage, and transsexuality. Uncompromisingly truthful, unusually explicit, and unfailingly adventurous, High Risk is an uncommon literary feat-a daring exploration of that culture of "otherness" that gives us our deepest sense of who we are and what we believe.Author Biography: Amy Scholder, a freelance editor of art, literary and nonfiction publications, has been editing books for High Risk Books/Serpent's Tail, Verso Books, Grove Press, Eyebeam Atelier, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Distributed Arts Publishers, Crown, Artspace Books and City Lights Publishers.
Ira Silverberg works in book publishing in New York. He co-edited "Word Virus: The Selected Writing of William S. Burroughs" (Grove 1998). Silverberg has been the Editor in Chief of Grove Press; the founding Publisher of High Risk Books/Serpent's Tail; and is now a literary agent. He serves of the Boards of PEN America Center, the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, the M.F.A. Writing Program of New School University and BOMB Magazine.
Fired by the belief that censorship and self-censorship increasingly threaten artistic expression, this collection of fiction, essays, and poetry provides a forum for new writing and young voices that address the "high risk" subjects of sex and obsessive behavior. Adventurous, innovative and sure to be controversial, here is a daring yet very important book.