"Demanding but mind expanding . . . A fascinating study of language's slippery relation to reality."--Publishers Weekly

A selection of prose and poetry written by those whom society has deemed mentally unbalanced,In the Realms of the Unrealis an international compilation involving the active participation of individuals and institutions in the U.S., Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and France. This anthology is meant to be a window on alternative ways of seeing, a beginner's guide to what the "insane" can offer those of us with more conventional outlooks.

Introduced by Kurt Vonnegut and with a foreword by the editor, In the Realms of the Unreal contains more than three hundred works--including short essays, poems, and stories--by nearly one hundred individuals. Most of the contributors to the anthology have never before been published, and currently are institutionalized.