Poet Kenward Elmslie’s only novel The Orchid Stories is a little-known classic of twentieth century queer literature and a masterpiece of eccentric detail.
It presents us with interwoven stories as delicate and exquisite as the flowers for which they are named, conveying a dreamlike, otherworldly beauty.
Kenward Elmslie (1929–2022) was a radical poet, artist, performer and librettist. An important figure of the New York School of poets and artists, he was the author of numerous books of poetry in his lifetime, as well as plays, opera librettos and his only novel, The Orchid Stories. The latter was first serialised by The Paris Review in the late 1960s and published together as a novel in 1973, remaining out of print for decades. Alongside his own work, he also edited Z Press and Z Magazine, promoting the work of fellow poets, including John Wieners, Bernadette Mayer, John Ashbery and Anne Waldman. From 1963 he was the life partner of the poet and artist Joe Brainard, living and working closely alongside one another until the latter’s death from AIDS in 1994.
