Kevin Killian was born on December 24, 1952, on Long Island, New York. He was the author of more than thirty novels, plays, stories, and poetry collections, some of the best-known of his works being Shy (The Crossing Press, 1989), Little Men (Hard Press, 1996), Arctic Summer (Masquerade Books, 1997), Argento Series (Krupskaya, 2001), Action Kylie (In Girum Imus Nocte et Consumimur Igni, 2008), Impossible Princess (City Lights, 2009, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Erotica), Spreadeagle (Publication Studio, 2012), Tweaky Village (Wonder, 2014). A prominent figure in the San Francisco–based New Narrative movement, Killian was the founder of Small Press Traffic and cofounder of Poets Theater in San Francisco, where he lived from 1980 until his death, on June 15, 2019.

Masha Tupitsyn is a writer, critic, and multimedia artist from New York. She teaches film, literature, and gender studies at the New School. Her website is: https://www.mashatupitsyn.com/