About the Book
AN ANTHOLOGY OF ART AND WRITINGFULL-COLOR ILLUSTRATED EDITION"It's pleasant being naked, as swimmer or writer or reader.... Naked's a way of being free, unencumbered by garment or censor. There exists no other way of knowing certain things, or oneself, without stripping away." -from the Preface by Debra Di Blasi, editorOne artist and 54 writers accepted the challenge of creatively defining "dirty" in the 21st Century. Mugi Takei's delicate, profane watercolors position the human body within, on and against nature. While some writers surrendered to play through sexually explicit love poetry, bawdy fiction, threesomes, twosomes, onesomes, and all the delightful fantasies and realities in-between, others suggested genocide to be the real dirt of humanity, or offer sexy, new versions of biblical stories. As an anthology, Dirty: Dirty exhibits the beauty, humor, raunch and invention possible when talented artists and writers tackle a very old subject.THE ARTIST: Mugi TakeiTHE WRITERS: Greg Bachar, Elizabeth Burns, Jennifer Calkins, Jane L. Carman, Kylee Cook, Beth Couture, Dirk Cowan, Justin Dobbs, Trevor Dodge, Rion Woolf, C. M. Connelly, April Gigliotti, Christopher Grimes, Steve Halle, Jeff Hansen, Michael Harold, Garrett Hayes, Jacqueline Heffron, Lily Hoang, Nabila Najwa, Eric Jeitner, Liesl Jobson, Steve Katz, Kimberly Koga, Stacey Levine, Marilyn Jaye Lewis, Robert Lopez, Cris Mazza, Joe Milazzo, Kathleen Miller, Scott Million, Theresa A. O'Donnell, Jordan Okumura, Melanie Page, Mitch Parker, Aimee Parkinson, Jack Rees, AE Reiff, Doug Rice, Thaddeus Rutkowski, Davis Schneiderman, Mikal Shapiro, Gary Shipley, Ascot Smith, Rob Stephenson, Helen Tran, Holms Troelstrup, J. A. Tyler, c.vance, Laura Vena, Hal Wert, Lane Williams, Alyssa Wisener, Lidia Yuknavitch
About the Author: Editor Debra Di Blasi is multimedia, multi-genre writer, artist, and founding publisher of Jaded Ibis Press. Her books include The Jiri Chronicles and Other Stories; Drought; Prayers of an Accidental Nature, and Skin of the Sun. She received a James Fellowship in Fiction from the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the Thorpe Menn Book Award, Cinovation Screenwriting Award, and The Diagram Innovative Fiction Award. Debra frequently lectures on the intersection of literature and technology. Artist Mugi Takei was born in New York and moved to Japan when her parents decided to return to their homeland. She studied painting at Massachusetts College of Art, and received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. In 2001, she traveled to Brussels, Belgium to study French, Russian history and philosophy. Two years later she moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to live with her mother, and organize an independent film festival in support of young Japanese filmmakers and to develop cultural exchange. She served as teaching artist at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience in Seattle, where her art is represented by Cullom Gallery. Writers' biographical information is contained in the book.
