Best Gay Erotica 2004

I'd venture that this year's "Best Gay Erotica" is one of the best collections of erotica that I've read, and perhaps my favourite in the series to date. And I've read a lot of them. You'd think that an anthology about gay sex would be mostly about fantasy (and there is a lovely fantasy story this year about the power to stop time...) but I think what I like most about this collection is the reality. Objects of attraction are hairy guys (lots of `em); bears (quite a few); young studs; a bisexual married man, older men (than the narrators); and older men in general. There's a whole ton of sweaty humping, a bit of oral, some role-playing, powerfully written S & M, protected and unprotected sex, and drug-taking. There's joy and reflection, nostalgia, and quite a bit of hard reality. There's eroticism found in hard-luck stories, a history of a tattoo, and confession. These are real stories about real men having real sex. Good for us. I'm impressed that the editors, Kirk Read and Richard Labonté managed to put together a collection where I liked every story - and more so, was surprised by each of them: their tenderness, despair, joy, quirkiness, hardness, sweetness and reality. Think I'm gushing a little too much? Buy a copy yourself, and you'll see. I dare you.

Every year I look forward to this gay erotic series, and this year it's earlier. As there is every year, there are some favorite writers like Andy Quan (about loving muscles) and Ian Philips (about glory holes) and Jay Neal (about farting -- hey, everything is erotic to the right person, right?!). And there is one story I read already by local writer Michael Smith (he wrore Cumberland, about growing up in small town Ontario), who published it in his own 'zine about cruising. But there are some new great writers here too, Harry Thomas about being obsessed by a porn star, and Dayton Estes written from the view of a habitual convict and a sad story about hustlers in love by Alana Voth. These stories aren't as hard as some of the stuff in the gayboy mags, but the editor seems to find judges every year (this year it's Kirk read, whose memour How I Learned to Snap isn't really erotic, but it's really funny) with a good range of taste. There are some stories to read more than once to get off with, and some to enjoy because the writing is both sexy and literary. A great series that makes me look for other work by most of the writers.