"Ryan Adams writes with equal parts precision and recklessness; the blood he draws from the text is easily as unnerving as its unapologetic tenderness. He is proof that poetry will find its writer.”—Mary-Louise Parker, actress

Praise for Infinity Blues:

“The award-winning author of Prospero’s Daughter has written a novel more intimate than her usual big-picture work; this moving exploration of immigrant identity has a protagonist caught between race, class and a mother’s love.”—Ms. Magazine

Praise for Pr...

"Ryan Adams writes with equal parts precision and recklessness; the blood he draws from the text is easily as unnerving as its unapologetic tenderness. He is proof that poetry will find its writer.”—Mary-Louise Parker, actress

"Ryan Adams, one of America's most consistently...

"The storytelling has vitality and a spirit of rebellion, giving us hope for the future of all those bad girls with dirty faces and bad boys on bikes."—The New York Times

"There is about Maggie Estep's work a directness, a clear determination—a drive to cut through, to brea...

Set in 1942 on the imagined island of San Carlos, a cultural cocktail of Trinidad, Cuba, and Jamaica, this is the story of Estrella Thompson, a headstrong fourteen-year-old girl who’s forced to fend for herself when she’s banished from the isolated fishing village where she’s lived all...

“Lydia Lunch is an American icon.”—Austin American-Statesman

“Lunch has defined the underground music and art scene for over thirty years. Predictable only in her unpredictability, she has exploited every creative outlet at her disposal, from film to books, photography ...

The nation's capital gave birth to the most influential punk underground of the '80s and '90s. Dance of Days recounts the rise of trailblazing artists such as Bad Brains, Henry Rollins, Minor Threat, Rites of Spring, Fugazi, and Bikini Kill.

This groundbreaking poetry collection is a work of interval, delay, and retracing; a writing of shifts of silence. Each page serves as a kind of frame that superimposes itself temporally, aurally, and visually on pages that come before and after.

Rick Reid is a conceptual artist...

“Jones has learned—and this has been very rare in jazz criticism—to write about music as an artist.”—Nat Hentoff

Black Music is a book about the brilliant young jazz musicians of the early 1960s: John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Tayl...

Nearly forty years after breaking his way into public consciousness, the indefatigable godfather of African American cinema presents a graphic novel version of his latest film (of the same name). Beholden to no one but himself, Melvin Van Peebles vividly brings the big screen alive on the pr...

“The Age of Dreaming is a masterpiece of the sort that doesn’t just seduce the reader—it leaves you transformed. Nina Revoyr deserves to be counted among the top ranks of novelists at work today.”—Jerry Stahl, author of I, Fatty

“This is a riveting, wise, and ...

“A startling new voice in Canadian letters.” —Olive Senior, author of Shell

"Ede has the warmth of William Carlos Williams and the analytical power of Malcolm X.”—George Elliott Clarke, author of George & Rue

Amatoritsero Ede was born in Ni...

“Nersesian is this generation’s Mark Twain and the East River is his Mississippi.”—Jennifer Belle, author of High Maintenance

“Nersesian is a first-rate observer of his native New York.”—Publishers Weekly

"The unquestioned authority of Moses is diffi...

Brand-new stories by: Thomas Adcock, Kevin Baker, Thomas Bentil, Lawrence Block, Jerome Charyn, Suzanne Chazin, Terrence Cheng, Ed Dee, Joanne Dobson, Robert Hughes, Marlon James, Sandra Kitt, Rita Laken, Miles Marshall Lewis, Pat Picciarelli, Abraham Rodriguez Jr., S.J. Rozan, Steven Torres...

Inspired by fifty years of Cuban literary noir, from Cold Tales by Virgilio Piñera to Reinaldo Arenas’ Before Night Falls, Robert Arellano’s Havana Lunar intertwines an insider testimony on the collapse of socialist Cuba with a psychological mystery.

Robert...

"John O'Brien was a stunningly talented writer who created poetry from the most squalid materials."—Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City

Within the walls of a foreboding mansion situated in the hills overlooking Los Angeles, the suave Double Felix plays hos...

“Everett’s talent is multifaceted, sparked by a satiric brilliance that could place him alongside Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison.”—Publishers Weekly

“I think Percival Everett is a genius. . . . He’s a brilliant writer and so damn smart I envy him.”—Terry McMill...

A phenomenal debut novella to further establish the literary excellence of Dennis Cooper's Little House on the Bowery series.

“In The Late Work of Margaret Kroftis, Mark Gluth does something I've never seen another author do: he captures perfectly the feel of da...

“Jones/Baraka usually speaks as a Negro—and always as an American. He is eloquent, he is bold. He demands rights—not conditional favors.”—The New York Times Book Review

In 2007, Akashic Books ushered Amiri Baraka back into the forefront of America’s literary consciou...

This murder mystery follows a tragic overnight train journey in 1952 from Bolivia to Chile, presenting a moving environment at once carnivalesque and sinister. The novel explores the social tensions characteristic of Bolivian society in a way that is both accessible and highly entertaining.<...

“A richness of language and observation pervades this collection of short stories by a black writer about real black people.”—The New York Times Book Review

These early writings from award-winning playwright Ed Bullins explore loneliness and despair in beautifully crafted ...

The second book from the iconic Chicago underground poster artist.

Jay Ryan has been busy since the 2005 release of his book 100 Posters, 134 Squirrels (Akashic/Punk Planet Books), a collection of his favorite prints from the first decade of his work. Since th...

“Great writers by definition are outriders, raiders of a sort, sweeping down from wilderness territories to disturb the peace, overrun the status quo and throw into question everything we know to be true. . . . On its face, the novel is a murder mystery, and at the book’s heart, always, ...