The Wild Creatures: Collected Stories of Sam D'Allesandro

Tue, Nov 8
7:30 pm
Free

Diana Cage, Rob Halpern, and Kevin Killian read from The Wild =

Creatures: Collected Stories of Sam D'Allesandro. The Wild Creatures =

brings together all the stories of Sam D'Allesandro, a young voice =

whose life was tragically snuffed out at age 31 at the height of the =

AIDS epidemic in 1988. This new collection includes all of =

D'Allesandro's published stories (including those first collected in =

the out-of-print cult classic The Zombie Pit) as well as unpublished =

stories found among D'Allesandro's papers years after his death by =

his editor, the poet and novelist Kevin Killian, who worked with the =

literary estate to create this extended edition of his writing.

The Wild Creatures explores a strange terrain of urban legend, the =

power of sexual obsession, and the thin line where the too-cool =

becomes the too-hot. Sam D'Allesandro's focused, vivid writing is the =

stuff of legend: writing so powerful it drags the reader in by the neck.

"Sam D'Allesandro's stories blur the lines between truth and fiction, =

in the cause of a devotion to writing as strong as anyone's I've ever =

known. Even before his death he had attained icon status, and now, =

years later, the work still holds up--its purity and its power still =

stun, like jewels in a tomb. We all make up our own legends as we go =

along, but Sam had only to look inside to find the divine."
--Dodie Bellamy, author of Pink Steam

"The Wild Creatures is enough to give anyone a crush on Sam =

D'Allesandro. His voice is beguilingly intimate, but never gossipy or =

confessional--perfect for his spare, focused little stories. He =

describes relationships with an attention to emotional nuance that =

makes his characters seem both unique and eerily familiar. His =

thoughts glimmer with a lucid, unsentimental intelligence and =

freshness. This is what queer literature looks like freed from =

pretension and banality."
--Alvin Orloff, author of Gutter Boys

"For years I've scoured used book stores for copies of Sam =

D'Allesandro's work, buying up what I could find and passing it on to =

friends with the injunction: Read this. The Wild Creatures is more =

than the resuscitation of a brilliant, out-of-print writer. It's that =

rarest of things: a true literary event."
--K.M. Soehnlein, author of You Can Say You Knew Me When

"Beautiful, queer, former farmboy Richard Anderson took the name Sam =

D'Allesandro on arriving on the West Coast--sometimes claiming he was =

the son of the Warhol film "superstar" Joe Dallesandro--and never =

looked back. Before he died of AIDS at 31 in 1988, D'Allesandro had =

been writing poetry and fiction, and had some stories published in =

literary magazines and anthologies. This compilation from Killian, =

who knew D'Allesandro, has the unevenness of first fiction, but =

contains enough gems to stand with any of the short collections =

published this year. It's pretty hard to beat the opening of "Nothing =

Ever Just Disappears," the book's first piece: "I didn't know exactly =

what he meant by 'accessible.'" It ends with one of the most =

understated, angry depictions of the loss of a lover to AIDS, ever. =

The best of the other 17 pieces make what is usually inarticulate in =

casual attraction and sex deadpan articulate; D'Allesandro also =

writes beautifully of women that his speaker loves, including San =

Francisco neighbor Judy, who searches for "effortless, perfect =

rhythm." The same can be said of D'Allesandro, whose refined =

sentences convey real grace."
--Publishers Weekly
Copyright =A9 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier =

Inc. All rights reserved.

Sam D'Allesandro, born Richard Anderson in 1956, studied at the =

University of California, Santa Cruz, and came to San Francisco as a =

youth in the early 1980s. He was handsome and charismatic, the man =

who'd turn your head at a hundred yards. He began as a poet and =

published a book of elegant lyrics called Slippery Sins. Soon he fell =

in with the so-called "New Narrative" writers Robert Gl=FCck, Bruce =

Boone, Steve Abbott and others, and his writing took a sharp turn =

toward an extreme purity and poise. He reached out to other like- =

minded writers and contacted Dennis Cooper, Kathy Acker, Benjamin =

Weissman, David Trinidad, and Dodie Bellamy, with whom he began an =

epistolary collabo-ration she was later to publish as Real: The =

Letters of Mina Harker and Sam D'Allesandro. At the peak of his =

powers, he began to feel ill. He died of AIDS in 1988, leaving behind =

a brilliant body of work that ranges from stories of one paragraph =

only to fully developed novellas.

Kevin Killian is a poet, novelist, critic and playwright. He has =

written a book of poetry, Argento Series, two novels, Shy and Arctic =

Summer, a book of memoirs, Bedrooms Have Windows, and two books of =

stories, Little Men and I Cry Like a Baby. For the San Francisco =

Poets Theater, Killian has written thirty plays, including Stone =

Marmalade (with Leslie Scalapino) and Often (with Barbara Guest). His =

next book will be all about Kylie Minogue.

Venue:

Cody's Stockton Street
2 Stockton Street
San Francisco
415-773-0444
http://www.codysbooks.com

Additional Info:

415-773-0444
http://www.codysbooks.com