Robert Frank is among the most important living photographers, but to say this is to understate the self-evident. At the same time, it seems ironic to articulate the importance of an artist who is so indifferent to success and so suspicious of whatever is well regarded. Frank's work chronicles th

Beats, Contemplative, Documentary photography, Intimate, Melancholy, Minimal, Open-ended, Sublime

All writers struggle with the weight of moral responsibility, even if they profess to create an amoral art. Few writers, however, have carried this burden through the confluence of political and cultural rivers in the way Chinua Achebe has. Achebe came of age in Africa's largest country, Nigeria,

Intimate, Mythic, Political, Post-colonial literature, Spiritual

Buddhist, male-to-female transsexual Performance artist, gender educator, and author of the iconoclastic book "Gender Outlaw," Kate Bornstein brushes aside the confinements of gender categorization. At age 37, after three marriages and many years as a Scientology spokesman, Al Bornstein decided to be

Intimate, Mythic, Queer art, Queer literature, Quirky

Little is known about Maurice Blanchot except that he wrote an odd style of fiction. His novels are not really novels, his stories barely stories. His prose is very French in that it can be almost mathematical, yet it simultaneously evokes the most intense feelings of loss, misunderstanding, joy, and

Clean, Death, Deconstructive, Discourse as event, Dreamy, Elegant, Ethereal, Intimate, Literature of transgression, Mathematical