Porn star Kayden Kross switches time between adult films and literature

New York: Porn star Kayden Kross has revealed that she spends her spare time between sex scenes by reading novels of David Foster Wallace or short stories of Amy Hempel. “I have tons of time between sex scenes,” the New York Daily News quoted her as saying. “We’re not retarded,” Kross says of her porn pals. She listed some of her favorite writers: the Southern master Barry Hannah, the writer-editor Gordon Lish and Gary Lutz, who, in her words, “makes me hate mediocrity.” Kross, surrounded by adult publications, is now working on an autobiographical book about the porn industry. Kross spoke from Los Angeles, where she is shooting a porn flick that she says is tentatively titled “Code of Honor.” At 26, the Sacramento, California, native is one of the rising stars of the industry. Last year, she won three Adult Video News Awards (Best All-Girl Sex Scene, Wildest Sex Scene, Female Acting Performance of the Year) for ‘Body Heat.’ But books, not sex, are what Kross wants to talk about as she navigates the Southern California traffic. As of earlier this summer, she is a published author. Her short story, ‘Plank,’ appeared in ‘Forty Stories,’ an e-book of short fiction by promising young writers. Kross came to the attention of Harper Perennial editor Cal Morgan when, earlier this year, the literary journal McSweeney’s published a conversation between Kross and the writer Adam Levin. His book, ‘The Instructions,’ is a thousand-page experimental novel in the style of Thomas Pynchon. While searching for Kross on the Internet brings up plenty of videos and images of her pornographic work, her blog, unkrossed.blogspot.com, is full of her writing. There’s everything from short fiction (‘Plank’ appeared here first) to wry musings on the adult-film business, which she generally treats, in both writing and conversation, with an ironic distance. “I have fans who don’t watch my movies. ‘I don’t want to see your nipple, I want to see what you wrote’,” Kross said, describing her readers’ take on her work. ANI