NO GENDER: Reflections on the Life & Work of kari edwards

Editors: E. Tracy Grinnell, erica kaufman, and Julian T. Brolaski

Publisher: Litmus Press/Belladonna Books (2009)

With contributions from Cara Benson, Frances Blau, Mark Brasuell, Julian T. Brolaski, Reed Bye, Marcus Civin, CA Conrad, Donna de la Perrière, E. Tracy Grinnell, Rob Halpern, Jen Hofer, Brenda Iijima, Lisa Jarnot, erica kaufman, Kevin Killian, Wendy Kramer, Joseph Lease, Rachel Levitsky, Joan MacDonald, Bill Marsh, Chris Martin, Yedda Morrison, Eileen Myles, Akilah Oliver, Tim Peterson, Ellen Redbird, Leslie Scalapino, Michael Smoler, Sherman Souther, Eleni Stecopoulos, and Anne Waldman.

"kari's authorial 'signature' undoes the authorial body in favor of a visible obfuscation-strikethru: kari never just signed, but rather crossed out hir name and wrote "NO GENDER." The erasure—well no, the palimpsestic remaking of the name into a symbol for the dismantling of enforced gender codes is a profound and provocative gesture—the name is still visible behind the NO GENDER, as if behind bars. . . . kari's genius moved others to their own words, art, action—following a mandate of reclaiming the very words we speak and write—writing our selves, our other(ed) bodies, into a foundational post-gender post-genre state. This book is the start of what hopefully will be a much longer conversation."

–from the introduction by Julian T. Brolaski and erica kaufman