Little Men

by Kevin Killian

This book is a collection of prose pieces, the line between fact and fancy,between actuality and invention is constantly blurred.

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 25, 1996

About the author

Kevin Killian was an American poet, author, and playwright of primarily LGBT literature. He is also a highly regarded editor. My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer, which he co-edited with Peter Gizzi, won the American Book Award for poetry in 2009. His novel, Impossible Princess, won the 2010 Lambda Literary Award as the best gay erotic fiction work of 2009. Killian is also co-founder of the Poets Theater, an influential poetry, stage, and performance group based in San Francisco.

He is married to Dodie Bellamy.

Reviews

[Rodney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine Armistead Maupin tied up in latex and injected with sodium pentathol and you're halfway to the spirit of Little Men. In these 11 short shorts Killian slips a magnet under nearly every moral compass with a chatty, diamond-sharp prose that's pulpy on the surface but with murderous depths below. "Chain of Fools" is one of the most bizarre and oddly moving accounts of growing up Catholic you'll ever read, while "Santa" and "Who Is Kevin Killian?" cover some dark psychological territory with the unblinking art of a Baudelaire, if Baudelaire had cable and a thirst for Tab. If you like Kathy Acker or Dennis Cooper--or hey, even Louisa May Alcott--then Killian's your man.

[Paul Hoehn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Killian volume, but there are many great moments. Interesting for me to see material that would be reworked later output. Made me want a tab.