Winner of the 2010 Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Erotica.

Impossible Princess is the third collection of gay short fiction by Kevin Killian. An original member of the notorious San Francisco-based "new narrative" circle including Dennis Cooper and Kathy Acker, Killian is a master short story writer, crafting campy yet edgy tales that explore both the humor and darkness of desire. From an examination of an ex-British-boy-band-member's skeevy skivvies, to a sexual assault inside a copy machine, to a nocturnal tryst in a panther cage, Impossible Princess runs a bizarre gamut of erotic experience, where the appetite of lust is only satisfied by the peculiar unexpected.

Killian has published numerous books, including two previous story collections, the Pen award-winning Little Men (1996) and I Cry Like a Baby (2001). His latest novel, Spreadeagle (2010), is published by Alyson Books.


"Kevin Killian is the greatest unsung genius in contemporary American literature."
—Dennis Cooper, author of Everyman: Stories and Closer: A Novel

"Kevin Killian's Impossible Princess is impossibly captivating, each short story a bed of sticky pollen. It's an endless inspiration to writers and readers alike."
—Susie Bright, editor of Best American Erotica

"Kevin Killian's stellar body of work defies categorization. His novels, stories, and poems have been around for over two decades, occupying sacred spaces on the bookshelves of idolators like me and many others. The pieces in Impossible Princess—some of them written with various splendid collaborators—are hilarious, sad, scary, intimate, weird, complex, really dirty, and most of all, first-rate. Each story's a little outburst of brilliance. I love this book."
—Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin and We Disappear