First published in 1984, Blood and Guts in High School remains Kathy Acker’s most notorious and influential work: a ferocious coming-of-age novel that helped define the radical edge of post-punk feminism. Part autobiography, part anti-novel, it follows the young Janey Smith through a landscape of obsession, desire, exploitation and fantasy, as Acker dismantles conventional ideas of identity, sexuality and power with a fearless disregard for literary rules. Combining fiction, poetry, theatre, plagiarism and visual art, the book unfolds as a collage of voices and forms. Childlike yet explicitly sexual drawings appear alongside Acker’s intricate ‘dream maps’, creating a fragmented visual language that mirrors Janey’s turbulent inner world. This new edition includes an introduction from American writer and critic, Chris Kraus.