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Nine original essays take "a smart plunge into fandom's sober fringe" and explore the personal impact of cultural icons (Wayne Koestenbaum).
Whose poster hung on your wall as a teenager? Whose record did you wear out? Whose life story could you not resist? Fascination works in mysterious ways—it can be born out of inspiration, or repulsion, or both. In these daring essays, some of the most provocative writers of our time offer a private view on a public figure. In the process, they reveal themselves in beautiful and unexpected ways, blurring the line between biography and memoir.
Original essays include Introduction by Amy Scholder, Mary Gaitskill on Linda Lovelace, Rick Moody on Karen Dalton, Johanna Fateman on Andrea Dworkin, Danielle Henderson on bell hooks, Hanne Blank on MFK Fisher, Kate Zambreno on Kathy Acker, Justin Vivian Bond on Karen Graham, Jill Nelson on Aretha Franklin, and Zoe Pilger on Mary Gaitskill.
—Wayne Koestenbaum, author of My 1980s and Other Essays
"In this collection commissioned by Amy Scholder, nine original essays explore the specific and personal impact of cultural icons—public figures, often celebrities, who become the objects of our everyday obsessions. These essays reveal the hidden side of adulation and serve as a reminder that even today's literary lights once had icons of their own."
—Publishers Weekly
"Blurring the line between biography and memoir, these essays consider the power of public personalities to illuminate one’s deepest sense of self."
—Kirkus
"These nine exquisite essays piece together dazzling mirror shards of biography, memoir, and homage. Seeking to live in community with great souls past and present, the writers gathered here forge electric collaborations with the dead, the lost, the rued, the canonized, and the newly loved."
—Sara Marcus, author of Girls to the Front
"In what seems like a paradox, self-awareness and reflection help these writers, and us readers, to empathize with and understand their subjects."
—LA Review of Books
"Hearing another woman explain exactly who or what matters to them [as seen in Icon] is the best thing about my life, and this book provides that experience and then some."
—The Hairpin
"The writers in Icon are icons in their own right, their words bluntly confessional more than devotional. These essays are batons--pass them forward."
—Evelyn McDonnell, author of Queens of Noise
"Icon illustrates the multiple ways in which we construct and read identity, and what it means to envy, adore, worship, and hate public figures. In a culture obsessed with celebrity, Icon reminds us that our icons say a lot about ourselves."
—Tristan Taormino, author of Opening Up
Mary Gaitskill on Linda Lovelace
Rick Moody on Karen Dalton
Johanna Fateman on Andrea Dworkin
Kate Zambreno on Kathy Acker
Justin Vivian Bond on Karen Graham
Jill Nelson on Aretha Franklin
Hanna Blank on MFK Fisher
Danielle Henderson on bell hooks
Michaela Angela Davis on Harriet Tubman
John Reed on Leslie Van Houten
Zoe Pilger on Mary Gaitskill