Ann Rower's novel "Lee & Elaine," originally published in 2002 by Serpent's Tail, is being reissued next month by Semiotext(e). The autofictional work follows a narrator—a lightly fictionalized version of Rower—who, after learning of the death of her friend, artist Hannah Wilke, becomes obsessed with the graves of Lee Krasner and Elaine de Kooning at Green River Cemetery. The narrator imagines these two women, known primarily as wives of famous male painters, as secret lovers or comrades, and attempts to write a joint biography that doubles as a journey of self-discovery.
The reissue matters because it resurrects a prescient work that anticipated the current wave of feminist group biographies and autofiction. Rower's novel critiques the tendency to lump women artists together under reductive labels, while also exploring themes of female friendship, erotic desire, and the erasure of women in art history. Its return to print offers contemporary readers a chance to engage with a nuanced, genre-blending meditation on legacy, grief, and the creative process.