Jean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing. His major works include the novels Querelle of Brest, The Thief's Journal, and Our Lady of the Flowers,

Death, Excessive, Hallucinatory, Lyrical, Perverse, Profane, Queer, Rebel, Sensual, Tragic, Visceral

Chandralekha is credited as being the first to make a place for contemporary dance in India. She used her own style of classical Bharata Natyam to convey social messages and and political critiques. Her work has a quality that allows it to reach diverse audiences and has toured internationally, per

Clever, Feminine, Feminist, Political, Power, Rebel

Murakami's fiction, often criticized for being "pop" literature by Japan's literary establishment, is humorous and surreal, and at the same time reflects an essential alienation, loneliness, and longing for love in a way that has touched readers in the US and Europe, as well as in East Asia. In addit

Fantastic, Fantasy, Pop, Surreal

Sherman J. Alexie, Jr. was born in October 1966. A Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, he grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, WA, about 50 miles northwest of Spokane. Born hydrocephalic (water on the brain), Alexie underwent brain operation at the age of six. He survived the surgery,

Angry, Dark, Death, Deconstructive, Dreamy, In-your-face, Lyrical, Mythic, Native american fiction, Native american poetry, Pioneering, Playful, Political, Post-colonialism, Rhythmic, Rough, Spiritual, Tragic, Tribal