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Canongate has scooped Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black, a compendium of short stories from the late writer and actor Cookie Mueller, featuring a preface from Olivia Laing.
Canongate acquired UK and translation rights, excluding North America, France, Germany and Sweden, for the collection. Publisher at Large Francis Bickmore bought rights from Hedi el Kholti at Semiotext(e). The title will be on Canongate’s Canons list of modern classics, with a cover that feature’s Nan Goldin’s portrait of the author.
The book chronicles Mueller’s "high-risk, high-reward life in glorious technicolour", the synopsis says. "Never previously published in the UK, the book will publish on 4th August 2022.
"From becoming a part of John Waters’ legendary acting troupe to becoming a mother, from the hedonism of 1980s New York to critiquing the dire response to the AIDS epidemic, Mueller’s voice is fresh, wise, freewheeling and unafraid of darkness. Mueller’s work presents a testament to a life lived courageously and well," said the publisher.
Mueller (1949–1989), nee Dorothy Karen Mueller, played leading roles in John Waters’ "Pink Flamingos", "Female Trouble", "Desperate Living" and "Multiple Maniacs". She wrote for the East Village Eye and Details Magazine, performed in a series of plays by Gary Indiana and wrote numerous stories that were published posthumously. She died in New York City of AIDS-related complications at age 40.
"Cookie Mueller’s writing is mind-blowingly addictive, a channel of pure, unrestrained life force that anticipates the life writing of the modern age," Bickmore said. "Like a lysergic Nora Ephron, or the beatnik fairy godmother of autofiction, she tells the truth about candid flipside to the hippie dream. Whether good, bad or ugly, her stories are fiercely entertaining, reliably honest and testament to a life lived courageously and well. Fans of the writing of Eve Babitz, Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe, Andy Warhol and Rachel Kushner will love Cookie."