"Close Writing" by Alice Butler is a profound exploration of the lives and works of two significant queer-feminist writers: Kathy Acker and Cookie Mueller. Butler reflects on their diaries, letters, publications, and performances, shedding light on the often-overlooked aspects of their life stories. In this creative and critical study, the archive is reinterpreted as a space of bittersweet love that transcends the boundaries between life and death. By employing autofictional strategies that Acker and Mueller developed in their own experimental works, Butler creates intimate theoretical spaces that explore themes such as sensuality, sexuality, and illness. These encounters with Acker and Mueller as transgressive innovators and beloved figures allow readers to gain new, reparative perspectives on understanding, embodiment, and affection. Alice Butler is a Tutor (Research) at the Royal College of Art and co-editor of "Gestures: A Body of Work.".