Illinois Authors

Hyperion, New York : ©1994.

From the acclaimed author of Night People and Wild at Heart comes a stark, eccentric, and wholly original plunge into the dark and grimy world of just revenge. Set in New Orleans at the turn of the twenty-first century, Arise and Walk continues the chronicle of American madness begun in Night People. Tracking the lives of individuals intent on making a profound difference in the world before they are willingly or forcibly removed from it, Barry Gifford strips away the veneer of civility character by character only to leave the disturbing echo - is even vengeance enough?

Harcourt Brace, New York : ©1995.

Seven Stories Press, New York : 2010.

Gifford's newest fiction, tasting of Bunuel and Cocteau.--Pedro Almodovar.

Seven Stories ; New York : 2005.

Chronicle Books, San Francisco : ©1997.

From the chop shops of East Bakersfield to the drag strips and deserts of California and Utah, David Perry captures the American obsession with speed, thrills, and cars in this collection of photographs. Greasers, gearheads, drag strip beatniks, rockabilly queens, and hopped-up machines of all kinds are featured in these evocative images. Tracing the cult of cars from the tattooed and goateed hipsters of San Francisco to the no-frills land-speed racers of the Bonneville Salt Flats and the dry lake beds of El Mirage, Hot Rod exposes the underbelly of a growing obsession that is creeping up on the nation in snakeskin boots. Barry Gifford adds an original novelette in which Danny and his paramour Yolanda find themselves in a zone somewhere between the San Joaquin Valley and the Gates of Hell - an eerie ballad that seizes the rebellious spirit of the images.

Canongate, Edinburgh : 2012,

In this kaleidoscopic portrait of Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Carolyn Cassady, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Gore Vidal and many others talk, argue and reminisce about their times with him. But alongside these luminaries of the Beat generation are the voices of those who knew a different side of Kerouac: the working men, the childhood friends, the bar companions, the lovers. --Back cover.

Penguin Books, New York : 2012.

Here is Jack Kerouac's story, as recorded through the voices of his friends and lovers. Authors Barry Gifford and Lawrence Lee retraced Kerouac's life at home and on the road and talked with the prophets, musicians, poets, socialites, and working people who knew him. Some are famous (Allen Ginsberg, Gore Vidal, William Burroughs) ; some are not (Jack's boyhood buddies, his lovers, his barroom companions). All have contributed to a remarkably vibrant, riveting portrait of a life and the Beat Generation.

Seven Stories Press, New York : ©2007.

Seven Stories Press, 2011.

Grove Press ; New York : 1996.

Seven Stories Press, 2010.

Seven Stories Press, New York : 2010.

Mixing a fool for love, a smoking gun and a chance in hell.

Thunder's Mouth Press ; New York : 2007.

Seven Stories Press, New York : ©2009.

The Imagination of the Heart is the final chapter in the saga of Sailor Ripley and Lula Pace Fortune, the "Romeo and Juliet of the Deep South." Their story began in Barry Gifford's novel Wild at Heart, which in 1990 was made into a Palme d'Or-winning feature film by David Lynch.

Seven Stories Press, New York : ©2003.

Seven Stories Press, New York : ©2005.

Seven Stories Press, New York : 2004.

Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., New York : 2012.

A subtle, impeccably rendered new novel from one of America's most distinctive writers. A woman and her young son are traveling together by car through the southern and midwestern United States in the mid-to-late 1950s. As the mother drives, she and the boy, Roy, talk about their lives, their disappointments, and their dreams. Wyoming exists as a state of mind rather than an actual place, a place neither the boy nor his mother have ever been, an idyll where the two of them can live an untroubled life. Told entirely in dialogue, the story of Roy and his mother traverses both real and im.