Until now, the poet Peter Orlovsky, who was Allen Ginsberg's lover for more than forty years, has been the neglected member of the Beat Generation. Because he lived in Ginsberg's shadow, his achievements were seldom noted and his contributions to literature have not been fully recognised. Now, this first collection of Orlovsky's writings traces his fascinating life in his own words. It also tells, for the first time, the intimate story of his relationship with Ginsberg. Drawn from previous...

Most poets are or have been at one time or another members of what Mark Strand here calls “The Midnight Club”: they are insomniacs, or feel most productive in the middle of the night, or, if nothing else, are people whose work requires an openness to the dreams, visions, and scraps of inspired language that may drift across our path in the wee hours. In this selection, drawn from Knopf’s Poem-a-Day program (the daily e-mails we’ve sent to our fans every April for the last dozen years or mo...

The first collection of letters between the two leading figures of the Beat movementWriters and cultural icons Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg are the most celebrated names of the Beat Generation, linked together not only by their shared artistic sensibility but also by a deep and abiding friendship, one that colored their lives and greatly influenced their writing. Editors Bill Morgan and David Stanford shed new light on this intimate and influential friendship in...

**Named one of the 50 best memoirs of the past 50 years by The New York TimesWinner of the National Book Critics Circle Award“Among the great American literary memoirs of the past century . . . a riveting portrait of an era . . . Johnson captures this period with deep clarity and moving insight.” – Dwight Garner, The New York Times**In 1954, Joyce Johnson’s Barnard professor told his class that most women could never have the kinds of experiences t...

In this collection of anecdotes, lessons, quotes, and prompts, author and writing teacher Barbara Abercrombie provides a delightfully varied cornucopia of inspiration nuts-and-bolts solutions, hand-holding commiseration, and epiphany-fueling insights from fellow writers, including Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners and Abercrombies students who have gone from paralyzed to published.

"A psychologically nuanced, tough-minded portrait" of the New York filmmaker and his relationships with Mia Farrow and Soon-Yi Previn ( Publishers Weekly).Writer, director, actor, humorist. Woody Allen stands as one of our era's most celebrated artists. Starting in the 1950s, Allen began crafting a larger‑than‑life neurotic persona that has since entertained and enlightened millions. In his films, widely thought to be autobiographical explorations of his ow...

"A lively portrait of American literature's 'Dirty Old Man'." — Library JournalA former postman and long-term alcoholic who did not become a full-time writer until middle age, Charles Bukowski was the author of autobiographical novels that captured the low life—including Post Office, Factotum, and Women—and made him a literary celebrity, with a major Hollywood film ( Barfly) based on his life. Drawing on new interviews w...

When Patti Smith was plagued with writer’s block — “scattered and stymied, surrounded by unfinished songs and abandoned poems” — playwright Sam Shepard advised her, “When you hit a wall, just kick it in.” In these pages, Abercrombie shows readers how to do just that. Like a workout with a top trainer, her writing exercises warm up, stretch, and build creative muscle. Quotes from famous writers inspire each day’s exercise. Though Abercrombie says readers need only commit five minutes to eac...

In the first biography of Ginsberg since his death in 1997 and the only one to cover the entire span of his life, Ginsberg's archivist Bill Morgan draws on his deep knowledge of Ginsberg's largely unpublished private journals to give readers an unparalleled and finely detailed portrait of one of America's most famous poets. Morgan sheds new light on some of the pivotal aspects of Ginsberg's life, including the poet's associations with other members of the Beat Generation, his complex relat...

Fifty years ago, Norman Mailer asserted, "William Burroughs is the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius." Few since have taken such literary risks, developed such individual political or spiritual ideas, or spanned such a wide range of media. Burroughs wrote novels, memoirs, technical manuals, and poetry. He painted, made collages, took thousands of photographs, produced hundreds of hours of experimental recordings, acted in movies, and recorded mo...

This books contain 250 anecdotes, including this one: British graffiti artist Banksy is quite the social satirist. When Paris Hilton came out with her debut CD of music, Banksy created his own version of the cover of her album. Banksy's version featured a topless photo of Paris and the slogans "What Am I For?" and "Why Am I Famous?" He made 500 copies of the satiric work of art, and then he sneaked them into United Kingdom record stores and left them. Other targets of his satire are less d...

Short offers the tradition and glorious present of these popular forms that stretch and defy genre. From 1500 to present, hundreds of pieces. Inventive, entertaining, and addictive.Short prose forms are elusive to define--one writer's prose poem is another's flash fiction or brief essay. Rather than quibble, Short opts for inclusiveness. Here is a dazzling array: 100s of pieces (under 1250 words) from 24 Western countries, written over five centur...