Conjunctions 48: Faces of Desire (No. 48)

"Desire, for hire, would tire a shire," James Joyce wrote in Finnegans Wake, though Conjunctions: 48 proposes the shire'd be tired even if the desire weren't hired. Desire informs everything we do, from the smallest gestures to the grandest concerns. When it establishes residence in the heart, it becomes a tireless engine, motivating good, and by turns evil. Yearning can be sexual or religious, charitable or greedy, thoughtful or callous, profound as belief or superficial as a whim. Is there any more formidable, defining emotion? Mary Gaitskill, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Mary Caponegro, Robert Kelly, Carole Maso, Brian Evenson, Robert Olen Butler, Joyce Carol Oates, Will Self, David Shields, Frederic Tuten and Rikki Ducornet, mong others, explore its tricky terrain in never-before-published essays, memoirs, poetry and fiction. Faces of Desire is an exuberant look--now grim, now hilarious, now poignant--into one of the most mysterious and crucial forces of life.