High Risk Books was a book publisher, founded in New York City in 1993 as an imprintofSerpent'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]
| 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 |
