Lynne Tillman - American Genius - A Comedy

I thank Dr. George Lipkin for his skin genius and giving me an informal education in dermatology; Dakis lannou, for lending me a house to write in, and Katerina Gregos, for facilitating it; Lydia Davis, for helping me get me started on this book; Geoffrey Cruickshank Hagenbuckle, for his understanding of the tarot; and Robert Gober, for the perfect cover image. David Rattray, who hovers always in memory, is the novel's touchstone, and Carol Mahoney, recently gone, is, even if such things can't happen, its guardian angel.

Lynne Tillman is a novelist, short story writer, and critic. American Genius, A Comedy is her fifth novel. Her previous novel, No Lease on Life, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction (1998) and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her stories have appeared in anthologies and journals, such as Bomb, The New Gothic, New York Writes After September 11, Conjunctions, Black Clock, The Literary Review, McSweeney's and Cabinet. Her art and literary criticism has been published in Art in America, Artforum, Frieze, Aperture, Bookforum, Nest, The Village Voice, and The New York Times Book Review. Her most recent book, This Is Not It (2002), is a collection of stories and novellas that responds to the work of twenty-two contemporary artists. She is Professor/Writer-inResidence at the University at Albany, and in 2006 was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives in Manhattan with bass player David Hofstra. Lately, she collects succulents.