'This issue of Hecate prints papers presented at the Excess and Desire conference in February 2017.1 A central topic of many of them is that of gendered corporeality, especially as this is represented in literary and cultural production that comes from a fringe, an edge, a periphery—that often stands (up) for a much larger group. The authors discuss texts from a range of contexts, with approaches to ways of reading that involve innovative practices of recognition, and a critique that evaluates writing that speaks out for silenced majorities, and for those who envisage paths for liberation.' (Carole Ferrier, Editorial introduction)