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