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Discontents: New Queer Writers
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387 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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About the author
Dennis Cooper
109 books1,789 followersDennis Cooper was born on January 10, 1953. He grew up in the Southern California cities of Covina and Arcadia.
He wrote stories and poems from early age but got serious about writing at 15 after reading Arthur Rimbaud and The Marquis de Sade. He attended LA county public schools until the 8th grade when he transferred to a private school, Flintridge Preparatory School for Boys in La Canada, California, from which he was expelled in the 11th grade.
While at Flintridge, he met his friend George Miles, who would become his muse and the subject of much of his future writing. He attended Pasadena City College for two years, attending poetry writing workshops taught by the poets Ronald Koertge and Jerene Hewitt. He then attended one year of university at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he studied with the poet Bert Meyers.
In 1976, he founded Little Caesar Magazine and Press, which he ran until 1982. From 1980 to 1983 he was Director of Programming for the Beyond Baroque Literary/Art Center in Venice, California. From 1983 to 1985, he lived in New York City.
In 1985, he moved to Amsterdam for two and a half years, where he began his ten year long project, The George Miles Cycle, an interconnected sequence of five novels that includes Closer, Frisk, Try, Guide, and Period.
His post-George Miles Cycle novels include My Loose Thread, The Sluts and God, Jr.
Other works include the short-story collections Wrong and Ugly Man, poetry collections The Dream Police and The Weaklings, as well as the recent Smothered in Hugs: Essays, Interviews, Feedback, and Obituaries.
Dennis Cooper currently spends his time between Los Angeles and Paris.
He wrote stories and poems from early age but got serious about writing at 15 after reading Arthur Rimbaud and The Marquis de Sade. He attended LA county public schools until the 8th grade when he transferred to a private school, Flintridge Preparatory School for Boys in La Canada, California, from which he was expelled in the 11th grade.
While at Flintridge, he met his friend George Miles, who would become his muse and the subject of much of his future writing. He attended Pasadena City College for two years, attending poetry writing workshops taught by the poets Ronald Koertge and Jerene Hewitt. He then attended one year of university at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he studied with the poet Bert Meyers.
In 1976, he founded Little Caesar Magazine and Press, which he ran until 1982. From 1980 to 1983 he was Director of Programming for the Beyond Baroque Literary/Art Center in Venice, California. From 1983 to 1985, he lived in New York City.
In 1985, he moved to Amsterdam for two and a half years, where he began his ten year long project, The George Miles Cycle, an interconnected sequence of five novels that includes Closer, Frisk, Try, Guide, and Period.
His post-George Miles Cycle novels include My Loose Thread, The Sluts and God, Jr.
Other works include the short-story collections Wrong and Ugly Man, poetry collections The Dream Police and The Weaklings, as well as the recent Smothered in Hugs: Essays, Interviews, Feedback, and Obituaries.
Dennis Cooper currently spends his time between Los Angeles and Paris.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 13, 2007
many of these stories are interested in bodily orifices, the enactment of violence upon. unsurprising since it's edited by dennis cooper. i borrowed this from andrea, who is awesome, a while ago. pretty radical overall.
August 28, 2025
The collection is medicore at best. One was good, one was realy good, and the rest were off putting. It left me with an after taste of disgust as all of Cooper's work does. I wanted better. I expected better. This is an incredibly poor representation of queer writing.
March 27, 2008
A decent, if highly uneven, anthology of 'edgy' queer writing -- circa 1991. I skipped through a lot of it, read some of it, and even finished a few pieces.
Most of the work here hasn't aged too gracefully, but it's interesting to see what was thought to be 'edgy' and 'arty' and whatnot at that time. A time when I was still wrapped up in the Fear Street saga, and whatever other drivel I was reading then.
It's also amusing to read pieces from such unknown upstarts as Dorothy Allison, Alison Bechdel, and David Sedaris (such 'edgy' writers who are now household names: Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina is required reading in many schools, Bechdel's Fun Home was Time magazine's book of the year in 2005, and middle America worships the ground that Sedaris walks on); there are few other contributors whose names I recognized -- like Vaginal Davis -- but most of them have remained in obscurity.
Most of the work here hasn't aged too gracefully, but it's interesting to see what was thought to be 'edgy' and 'arty' and whatnot at that time. A time when I was still wrapped up in the Fear Street saga, and whatever other drivel I was reading then.
It's also amusing to read pieces from such unknown upstarts as Dorothy Allison, Alison Bechdel, and David Sedaris (such 'edgy' writers who are now household names: Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina is required reading in many schools, Bechdel's Fun Home was Time magazine's book of the year in 2005, and middle America worships the ground that Sedaris walks on); there are few other contributors whose names I recognized -- like Vaginal Davis -- but most of them have remained in obscurity.
May 4, 2015
A gem of a find. When you contextualize this historically it's a remarkable book to read and own. Pieces of note include Dorothy Allison writing queer science fiction erotica with all her power and corporeality applied to some Dune like atmosphere. The early 90's David Seders makes me laugh significantly more than his current incarnation. Several very grotesque sexual early 90's shock art pieces get you hard then gross you out then get you hard again. A truly unique compendium, one of my favorites in my collection.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews