Best Gay Erotica 2011

Best Gay Erotica 2011 is the biggest page-turner of them all, with stories that run the gamut of gay male sexual experience: from first times to one-night stands and from long-time lovers to explosive group get-togethers. Writers line up to get into Cleis Press' Best Gay Erotica series because it sets the bar for the highest quality of sexy, gay stories. With the the knack for finding seductive, literary talent, award-winning editor Richard Labonté is an icon in the field of erotic and romantic writing. This year's edition is hot-to-trot and globetrotting, featuring stories are incredibly diverse in both the people and the pleasures.

In the 2011 edition of Best Gay Stories Peter Dub questions the representations of gay men's lives found in the general media that present gay life and culture as some monolithic structure--that we all go to the same bars, shop in the same stores, eat in the same restaurants, hold the same kinds of political opinions, have similar backgrounds, and work the same kinds of jobs (more often than not urban, and vaguely white-collar.) He has collected authors who have stepped up the proverbial microphone to tell stories that are different through unique voices. Proof that we have moved well past the sentimental coming out story, the boy-meets-boy romance, the dangers and pleasures of sexual adventure, and we have done it without having to abandon them--because those things still happen and are still important. But we have found new ways of thinking about them, and have more experience to share, a deeper understanding of them, and we have added an array of other stories, from other parts of our lives, and dreams, and troubles to them. We have moved past the "gay story" and towards "gay stories." In these pages are a magnificent assortment of narratives and an equally fabulous range of ways of narrating them. The book includes experimental work and traditional tales, fantasy and realism, and as many different perspectives as one might hope to find.

Rough and surly, smooth and sultry, or quick and raw in public places — however you like it, you’ll find it in Best Gay Erotica 2007, twenty of the hottest and best-written sex stories to appear in print this year, along with fourteen pages of comics that aren’t for kids. In Jay Neal’s “The Lighthouse Keep,” a stranded traveler stumbles into a ghost story, a murder mystery, and a skin-tingling S/M thriller rolled into one, complete with B-movie storm effects and a gnarled ancient mariner. Cat Tailor’s “There’s More to Kink than Leather” follows a leather daddy as he makes a crucial misstep into a drag bar, where the queens are restless for new subjects. And in Greg Herren’s “Disaster Relief,” a renter whose apartment was flooded by Hurricane Katrina gets some unexpected comfort from a FEMA inspector.

Celebrate a decade of gay speculative fiction with Wilde Stories 2011! This expanded volume from Lethe Press brings stories of undead lovers, stranded astronauts, ghosts and phantom reflections, men lost in an inhospitable wilderness, and fiends who hide under handsome veneers, all written by award-winning authors (Laird Barron, Richard Bowes and Joel Lane) and fresh voices in the field (Nick Poniatowski and Jeffrey Ricker) No other anthology provides readers the widest variety of gay men men facing the weird, the fantastic, and the horrific.

The latest edition of Wilde Stories promises readers a range of gay-themed fiction published the prior year, tales that ranges from the chilling (Lee Thomas' ''I'm Your Violence'') to the surreal (Sven Davisson's ''Dim Star Descried'') to the fantastical (''Firooz and His Brother'' by Alex Jeffers). These are imaginative stories that seek to press new boundaries of loneliness, loss and love, between men and monster (and those men who happen to be monsters).

From ruggedly handsome athletes to fresh-faced twentysomethings and ravishing male models, Beautiful Boys is a tribute to the glory of gorgeous gay men. Richard Labonté, master of gay erotica, has gathered sensational erotic stories that explore the undeniable attraction to classic good looks, charisma, and glamour. From sizzling porn bodies, and sultry neighborhood baristas, to sexy boys next door, scorching bathhouse tricks, and sublime Mr. Right Nows, it’s all here. "A Litany of Desire" tracks author Dan Cullinane's encounters with beauty, and his subsequent desire over the years. Jamie Freeman’s "Bookended by Beauty," is the story of three men: a lovelorn narrator and the beautiful lovers (one older and one much younger) who come into his life and find a permanent place there. David Holly's "The Solipsism of Narcissus" follows a handsome man who learns to marvel at another man's beauty, not just his own. For men looking for those classic, Adonis types, Beautiful Boys is their ticket to fun.

Richard Labonté is a self-confessed true romantic and it shows — Best Gay Romance 2011 covers every romantic possibility with first love, true love, wake-up sex, makeup sex, and everything in between. Labonté has gathered a sensational collection of stories about finding love at home, at work, at any age, and often in the most unexpected places. Sometimes rowdy, always randy, and surprisingly tender, these tales celebrate the uniting of souls as well as bodies. Each story revels in romance, great sex, and characters who are fully fleshed out (in more ways than one). Whether happily ever after or a happy ending, Labonté continues to raise the bar on gay love stories with compulsively readable great writing on true romance.

The dance between the viewer and the viewed fuels the stories of I Like to Watch, a stunning anthology of gay erotica for voyeurs and exhibitionists. In the words of editor Christopher Pierce, "the possibilities are as varied as the individuals who have watched and performed this ritual since the first Cro-Magnon man accidentally saw two men getting it on and decided to stay and watch the show." Pierce has assembled stellar contributors including Shane Allison, T. Hitman, Jeff Mann, Rob Rosen, and more in this collection devoted to spying, ogling, teasing, flaunting, and showing off for a lover or a stranger. Every exhibitionist needs a voyeur — and in the intimately charged scenarios of I Like to Watch, the special thrill of getting caught is as much fun as completely shedding one’s inhibitions.