Impossible Princess

Impossible Princess is compelling for its sexual orientation—that is, both as a book of gay fiction and as a book of erotic fiction. Killian writes supremely well-crafted short fiction, so, while audience of this book will doubtless be mostly gay, there’s a lot here for any reader of innovative contemporary fiction. I feel like Kevin has created his own genre of “avant-camp,” appealing to the campier or pop side of gay culture even as the work is imbued with intense psychological darkness and is undergirded by formidable literary process. I’m almost tempted to say “Bukowski for Queers,” though Kevin is a nicer man. Kevin can also be portrayed as a member of a “famous” literary grouping (“New Narrative” fiction) along with the likes of Dennis Cooper and Kathy Acker. What makes Kevin’s work unique is the degree to which he amps up both the humor and the horror of his stories simultaneously. An erotic story can suddenly become a cringe-inducing experience with the twist of a sentence, and even the darkness is frequently hilarious. We consider this to be Killian's break-out year. In addition to the City Lights collection, he has a novel coming out from Alyson Books in early 2010.