The Chinese edition of Writers [Photo provided to China Daily]

Latest release The Chinese edition of Writers, a collection of short plays by American author Barry Gifford, 71, was recently published by Nanjing University Press, based in Jiangsu.

The book, comprising 13 plays, paints portraits of famous writers at vulnerable moments in their lives.

For example, Writers depicts Ernest Hemingway drunkenly setting explosive trip wires outside his home in Cuba and Albert Camus conversing with a young prostitute while staring at himself in the mirror of a hotel room.

In the book, Gifford also conjures up scenarios for other literary icons, including Marcel Proust, Charles Baudelaire and James Joyce.

Gifford has also worked with filmmaker David Lynch developing screenplays for several of Lynch's works.

The author has published more than 40 works, which have been translated into 28 languages.