About

Best known for its introduction of French theory to American readers, Semiotext(e) has been one of America’s most influential independent presses since its inception more than three decades ago. Publishing works of theory, fiction, madness, economics, satire, sexuality, science fiction, activism and confession, Semiotext(e)’s highly curated list has famously melded high and low forms of cultural expression into a nuanced and polemical vision of the present.

Semiotext(e) authors include Jean Baudrillard, William S. Burroughs, Paul Virilio, Catherine Breillat, the Invisible Committee, Eileen Myles, Mark von Schlegell, David Wojnarowicz, Abdellah Taïa, Guy Hocquenghem, Félix Guattari, Michelle Tea, Penny Arcade, the Bernadette Corporation, Pierre Clastres, Guy Debord, Michelle Bernstein, Dhoruba Bin Wahad, Christian Marazzi, and Peter Sloterdjik. An anthology, Hatred of Capitalism, was published in 2001 to mark Semiotext(e)’s move to the MIT Press as its distributor.

Semiotext(e) was founded by Sylvère Lotringer. Today, it is coedited by Chris Kraus and Hedi El Kholti.

“Semiotext(e) is an ever-evolving distributor of cutting edge theory and avant-garde literature that holds true to its ‘punk rock’ way of never becoming the status quo . . . a consistently unpredictable distributor of the most daring thoughts to hit and rise from American shores.”
—Karissa Lang

“Semiotext(e) invented a new plateau of thought which is dizzyingly complex and deeply subjective . . . at once responsible to the past and bravely forward looking.”
—Avital Ronell

“Semiotext(e) has for a generation been the leading edge of the most incendiary and exciting intellectual revolution in the West.”
—Rick Moody