Twenty-Six

(Paperback)

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Description

Crafted around twenty-six extraordinary erotic encounters, this highly charged work is a powerful meditation on the pursuit of pleasure. In each chapter, titled after a letter of the alphabet, an anonymous narrator details his experiences, travelling to cruising grounds and sex clubs, exploring the boundaries of sex, desire, pleasure, and the body, while reflecting on the limits of language and the act of writing. In the tradition of Georges Bataille, Kathy Acker and Jean Genet, these pieces take us to places language doesn't often go. Kemp powerfully stages a series of anonymous encounters, describing the relentless pursuit of sexual pleasure with luminous intensity, while at the same time facing the impossibility of capturing the moments he describes. This is a bold and challenging work, unashamedly sensual and searching. Kemp beautifully counterpoises explicit description with a searing interrogation of the extreme measures taken in the quest for sexual fulfillment.

Author Bio

Jonathan Kemp teaches creative writing, literature and queer theory. He also DJs. Originally from the North, he has lived in London for twenty years. His first novel London Triptych won the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize. Myriad will publish his third novel, Hannah Rose, in 2012.