Kathy Acker was born in 1947 and was raised in New York City. In her twenties she broke ties
with her family and worked as a stripper while writing and publishing in the underground
literary scene. The 1984 publication of Blood and Guts in High School caused a sensation - the
book was at the centre of a surge of media attention. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996 she
abandoned Western medicine after a traumatic experience of surgery. She died in an alternative
cancer clinic in Tijuana Mexico in 1997.Her major novels include Blood and Guts in High School
Great Expectations Don Quixote and Pussy King of the Pirates . A collection of her emails
with cultural theorist McKenzie Wark was published in 2015 titled I'm Very into You .
