December 1, 2017
Dennis Cooper writes “”One of this year’s big amazements – whose beauty is letter-perfect” and chooses A LONG CURVING SCAR WHERE THE HEART SHOULD BE as one of his top four books he’s read and loved! He writes,
“Quintan Ana Wikswo’s novel is one of this year’s big amazements for me. What she gets at here feels gigantic, a world torn to shreds and vivified by unsparing prose whose beauty is letter-perfect.”
Dennis has been a lifelong hero of mine for his dedication to the art of the forbidden, the boundary transgressing, and his brilliance in creating literature of substance and genius while maintaining his integrity as a social critic, potent truthteller, bon vivant of transgressive vision, and all-around exceptional human being. I spent several years working at Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles simply to soak up his legacy and passion, despite the fact that he had moved on to Paris long before. In his wake of fireballs he leaves the trace elements that I needed to survive and become a writer, so these words from him mean everything to me, from my sixteen year old self to who I am today, decades later.
: “In another country or another era, Dennis Copper’s books would be circulated in secret, explosive samizdat editions that friends and fans would pass around and savor like forbidden absinthe… This is high risk literature” – New York Times
“America’s most daring novelist” – The Face
“Cooper’s language is at first intense, nearly minimal, then suddenly, it ascends into vision” – Kathy Acker