A writer whose books explore the sweetness of mutilation, the beauty of violence and the eroticism of school shootings has found an unlikely home at the corporate-owned publishing powerhouse HarperCollins. Until now, Dennis Cooper, nothing if not a cult icon, has only ever published with independent presses; last week, he left his longtime publisher, Grove/Atlantic, and signed a three-book contract with Harper Perennial, an imprint at HarperCollins that specializes in paperback originals and literary reprints.

Mr. Cooper is a guy who couldn’t get interviews with Marilyn Manson and Trent Reznor when he worked at Spin because they both thought the things he wrote about were too weird. Why is a major conglomerate willing to come anywhere near him, let alone put him under contract for a book of short stories, an essay collection and a novel that he has not even begun writing?  read more »