The letters in Atet A.D. span a seven-month period from shortly after Thelonious Monk's death to the former Mystic Horn Society's recording an album on John Coltrane's birthday. Written by composer and multi-instrumentalist N., this imaginative work transcibes black music into a kind of postmodern narrative: part philosophy, part confessional folklore.

Nathaniel Mackey, recipient of a 1993 Whiting Writer's Award, is the author of Eroding Witness, School of Udhra, Whatsaid Serif, Bedouin Hornbook, and Djot Baghosus's Run, as well as Discrepant Engagement: Dissonance, Cross-Culturality, and Experimental Writing. He teaches literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz.