High Risk Books

High Risk Books was a book publisher, founded in New York City in 1993 as an imprint of Serpent's Tail Press of London. It was started by Ira Silverberg and Amy Scholder who was then an editor at City Lights Books in San Francisco. Its titles were designed by Rex Ray.[1]

High Risk Books was dedicated to publishing innovative, provocative, and progressive literature.[2] The publishing firm was united by its concern for certain subversive impulses,[3] and in this spirit printed authors as diverse as William S. Burroughs, Tim Dlugos, Kathy Acker, Diamanda Galas, Gary Indiana, June Jordan, Cookie Mueller, Lynne Tillman, John Giorno, Pagan Kennedy, Sapphire, Jayne Cortez, and many others. As a small press, High Risk played an important role in providing a space for many emerging writers who would otherwise have found it difficult to get published in mainstream, large houses.[2]

High Risk Books ceased operation in January 1997 because of disagreements with Serpent's Tail in London, although books bearing the High Risk logo continued to be published through Serpent's Tail until 2002.[4]

List of High Risk Titles
Author/Editor Title Year Translator Previous Edition Genre ISBN 10 Notes
Diamanda Galás The Shit of God 1996 Performing arts/Literature & Essay/PCultural Studies 1-85242-432-X
Lydia Davis The End of the Story 1996 1995, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York Fiction 1-85242-420-6
Daniel Evan Weiss The Roaches Have No King 1994 1990, Black Swan Books, UK, as Unnatural Selection Fiction 1-85242-326-9
Sapphire American Dreams 1994 Poetry/African-American Literature 1-85242-327-7
David Trinidad Answer Song 1994 Poetry/Pop culture/Gay Studies 1-85242-329-3
Benjamin Weissman Dear Dead Person 1994 Fiction 1-85242-330-7 Illustrated by the author
June Jordan Haruko/Love Poems 1994 1993, Virago Press Ltd, UK Poetry 1-85242-323-4 Foreword by Adrienne Rich
Catherine Bush Minus Time 1995 1993, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, Canada Fiction 1-85242-408-7
Robert Glück Margery Kempe 1994 Fiction/Gay Studies/Historical Fiction 1-85242-334-X
Gary Indiana Gone Tomorrow 1993 1-85242-336-6
Daniel Evan Weiss Hell on Wheels 1991 Fiction/Cult Lit 1-85242-439-7
Hervé Guibert To The Friend Who Did Not Save My Life 1994 Linda Coverdale 1990, Editions Gallimard, Paris Fiction/AIDS 1-85242-328-5
Lynne Tillman Haunted Houses 1995 1987, Poseidon Press, New York Fiction 1-85242-400-1
Lydia Davis Break It Down 1996 1986, Knopf, New York Fiction/Short stories 1-85242-425-1
Robert Glück Jack the Modernist 1995 1985, Gay Presses of New York Fiction/Gay Studies 1-85242-333-1
Klaus Kertess South Brooklyn Casket Company 1997 Fiction 1-85242-448-6
Cookie Mueller Ask Dr Mueller: The Writings of Cookie Mueller 1997 Fiction/Biograph & Autobiography/Art 1-85242-331-5 Introduction by John Waters
Caitlin Sullivan and Kate Bornstein Nearly Roadkill: An Infobahn Erotic Adventure 1996 Fiction/Gender Studies/Cyberculture 1-85242-418-4
Tim Dlugos Powerless: Selected Poems 1973-1990 1996 Poetry/Gay Studies/AIDS 1-85242-407-9
Daniel Evan Weiss The Swine's Wedding 1996 Fiction/Jewish Studies 1-85242-419-2
Ann Rower Lee and Elaine 2002 Fiction 1-85242-416-8
V.K. Mina The Splintered Day 1999 Fiction/Gay & Lesbian 1-85242-452-4
Pagan Kennedy Spinsters 1995 Fiction 1-85242-405-2
Luisa Valenzuela Bedside Manners 1995 Margaret Jull Costa 1990, Grupo Editor Latinoamericano S.R.L., Buenos Aires Fiction 1-85242-313-7
Ameena Meer Bombay Talkie 1994 Fiction/Multicultural Studies 1-85242-325-0
Pagan Kennedy Stripping and Other Stories 1994 Fiction 1-85242-322-6
Gary Indiana Rent Boy 1994 Fiction 1-85242-324-2
John Giorno You Got to Burn to Shine: New and Selected Writings 1994 Poetry/Memoir 1-85242-321-8
William S. Burroughs Ghost of Chance 1995 1991, Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art Fiction/Art/Gay Studies 1-85242-406-0 Illustrations by the author
Adam Klein The Medicine Burns 1995 Fiction/Gay literature 1-85242-403-6
Jayne Cortez Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere 1996 Poetry/Multicultural Studies 1-85242-422-2 Illustrations by Melvin Edwards
Luisa Valenzuela Symmetries 1998 Margaret Jull Costa 1993, Editorial Sudamericana S.A., Buenos Aires Fiction/Short stories/Latin American Studies 1-85242-543-1
Renaud Camus Tricks: Twenty-Five Encounters 1996 Richard Howard 1981, St Martin's Press Inc., New York Fiction/Gay Studies/Sexuality 1-85242-414-1 Introduction by Roland Barthes
Heather Lewis House Rules 1995 1994, Nan A Talese, New York Fiction/Lesbian Studies 1-85242-413-3
Ann Rower Armed Response 1995 Fiction/Film/TV 1-85242-415-X
Stewart Home Slow Death 1996 Fiction 1-85242-519-9
Richard House Bruiser 1997 Fiction 1-85242-437-0
Mary Woronov Snake 2000 1-85242-657-8
Mary Woronov Swimming Underground: My Years in the Warhol Factory 2000 Autobiography & Memoir/Art 1-85242-719-1 With photographs by Billy Name
Jack Smith Wait for Me at the Bottom of the Pool: The Writings of Jack Smith 1997 1-85242-428-1
Gillaume Dustan In My Room 1998 Brad Rumph 1996, P.O.L. éditeur, Paris Fiction 1-85242-590-3
Amy Scholder and Ira Silverberg High Risk: An Anthology of Forbidden Writings 1991 1991, Plume, New York Fiction 1-85242-231-9 Published in the UK by Serpent's Tail, not under the High Risk imprint
Amy Scholder and Ira Silverberg High Risk 2: Writings on Sex, Death, and Subversion 1994 Fiction 1-85242-366-8
Richard Peabody A Different Beat: Writings by Women of the Beat Generation 1997 Fiction/Poetry 1-85242-431-1
  1. ^ "A Picture is a Word: The Posters of Rex Ray". GLBT Historical Society. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  2. ^ a b Silverberg, Ira; Scholder, Amy (1991). High risk : an anthology of forbidden writings. London: Serpent's Tail. ISBN 1-85242-231-9. OCLC 877279946.
  3. ^ Scholder, Amy; Silverberg, Ira. High risk : writings on sex, death and subversion. New York: Serpent's Tail. ISBN 1-85242-366-8. OCLC 32350608.
  4. ^ "The Fales Library Guide to the Serpent's Tail/High Risk Archives". Archived from the original on 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2009-04-13.