Bleakswan Publications
cellar books
That there is a nonhuman aspect of language is a perennial awareness from which we cannot escape, because language does things which are so radically out of our control that they cannot be assimilated to the human at all, against which one fights constantly.
— Paul de Man
I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.
— John Keats
The catastrophe has already happened.
— Martin Heidegger
Recent Titles
The Suicide's Wife and Other Poems
Lucy Isabel Williams
2015
A page-turner of poetry that paradoxically literalizes metaphor, written in the wake of the wake for her husband, Jonathan Williams, originally titled, And the Hearse He Rode In On.
Pervert-Schizoid-Woman
Michael Williams and David Cohn
2016
An experimental humanities project, with texts and graphics.
The Structure of the Dick
Andy Pink
2026
An analysis of psychoanalytic representations of the penis, including critical work on the genealogy of patriarchy and phallocentrism.
Boy Delusions: Memoirs in Queer Manic Depression
Andy Pink
2026
A memorable memoir of a Mary's masturbatory magic.
"Homosexual"
Andy Pink
2025
An exploration of the archive of queer theory, with an emphasis on masochism.
Master Signifier
Michael Williams
2025
An application of Lacan's theory of the four discourses to making in history, part of the series Perverse Relational Cinematic.
Pervert
Michael Williams
June 2025
A theorization of perverse selfhood and sociality, excerpted from the tomb, Pervert-Schizoid-Woman.
A Metaphor for Truth
Andy Pink
2024
An articulation of a faggot's will to voyage beyond good and evil, excerpted from the archive of Pervert-Schizoid-Woman.
Academic Abortion
Michael Williams
Out of print
An illumination of an academic career that quickly became an abortion. This title is no longer available.
Communist Unconscious
Michael Williams
2024
A rehash of previous material, mined from the bottom's bible, Pervert-Schizoid-Woman.
The Death of the Author, or Psychoanalysis
Michael Williams
2024
An illumination of the psychoanalytic destructuration of the liberal and humanist individual of the oedipal era, part of the series, Perverse Relational Cinematic.
Manifesto
Michael Williams
2024
An exploration of early humanist marxism and later althusserian structuralism.
Notes on Cultural Studies
Andy Pink
2024
A fabulous defense (offense) of the interdisciplinary project of Cultural Studies against the pretensions of philosophy, part of the series, Perverse Relational Cinematic.
Madness of Order
Andy Pink
2024
A rehash of previous material, excerpted from Pervert-Schizoid-Woman, about the schizoid kernel at the center of language.
Good Golly, Miss Molly
Lucy Isabel Williams
2023
A book of poetry after the suicide of a daughter, after the suicide of a husband.
Perverse
Andy Pink
2023
A theorization of one of the master signifiers of Andy Pink's work, part of the series, Perverse Relational Cinematic.
(a)sexuality
Andy Pink
2023
A novel thesis about masochism and the edged deferral of pleasure in selfhood and sociality, excerpted from Pervert-Schizoid-Woman.
Centers of Discourse
Andy Pink
2022
An introduction to deconstruction, psychoanalysis, and marxism, a primer in volume one, Death, of the series, Perverse Relational Cinematic.
"Yes, Yes"
Andy Pink
2022
The first book in volume one, Death, in the series, Perverse Relational Cinematic, about the faith in a deferred future that animates the author's development of his master signifiers: perversity, relationally, and cinematic.
"Empire of the Illogical" and Perversity of Deconstruction
Andy Pink
2022
The appendix to volume one, Death, of the series, Perverse Relational Cinematic, a close reading of Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, and a demonstration of the clinical perversity of grammatology.
Andy Pink's Perverse and Gay Romance
Andy Pink
April 2022
A playful and whimsical introduction to the author's pick-up line at the coffee bar.
Bleakswan Publications is an independent press located in Cambridge, Massachusetts — specifically on Hurley Street. We publish poetry and literature, politics and history, memoir and biography, and philosophy and cultural criticism for both a general audience and an academic readership. The aim of Bleakswan Publications is to make unique and nuanced independent titles available to a public readership. Our credo is drawn from an aphorism by the Romanian existentialist philosopher, E.M. Cioran: "Noise: listening to someone who has never suffered." We forsake noise for song and clamor for truth.