Chris Kraus

Chris Kraus is an American experimental filmmaker and writer whose oeuvre is deeply rooted in cultural theory and criticism as well as personal experience and the female conscience. Although born in the Bronx in 1955, Kraus spent her formative teenage years in New Zealand. In 1976, Kraus moved back to New York, taking acting classes with Richard Schechner, Ruth Maleczech, and Lee Breuer, and eventually meeting Sylvere Lotringer--cultural theorist and founder of Semiotext(e)--in 1980. Maleczech encouraged Kraus to make films, which she did for fifteen years, until she put down the camera and wrote her first novel, I Love Dick (Semiotext(e) 1997). Since, Kraus has written ten more books and is the editor of the Semiotext(e) imprint Native Agents. Kraus has presented several readings at The Kitchen since 1989, notably as part of events with Semiotext(e) imprint Native Agents in 1992 and 1997.