Kathy Acker posthumously fronts the second issue of literary magazine io in a photograph released just one month after her untimely death from breast cancer. Sporting a shaved head and multiple body piercings, Acker talks candidly in an interview with R.U. Sirius about why writing is like sex, her love of Georges Bataille and Jean Paul Sartre, and the enduring ‘coolness’ of American culture. ‘Writing is basically about time and rhythm. Like with jazz. You have your basic melody and then you just riff off of it,’ she said. The issue also features an interview with Canadian writer and artist Douglas Coupland following the publication of his collection of short stories, Life After God (1994).