Best Gay Erotica 2000

Rating:
Summary: Renewed Interest in Gay Erotica
Review: Being only a casual reader of gay erotica over the years, I was surprised to be taken in by such a strong anthology. I commend Scott and Labonte for highlighting indie literature, particularly the excerpt taken from Henry Flesh's "Massage." This excerpt provoked me to read the novel, which I haven't put down since. It's nice to see Scott and Labonte provide a breath of fresh air to an increasingly stale genre by providing a platform for new writers and smaller presses. I look forward with renewed interest to the next Best Gay Erotica.

Rating:
Summary: Renewed Interest in Gay Erotica
Review: Being only a casual reader of gay erotica over the years, I was surprised to be taken in by such a strong anthology. I commend Scott and Labonte for highlighting indie literature, particularly the excerpt taken from Henry Flesh's "Massage." This excerpt provoked me to read the novel, which I haven't put down since. It's nice to see Scott and Labonte provide a breath of fresh air to an increasingly stale genre by providing a platform for new writers and smaller presses. I look forward with renewed interest to the next Best Gay Erotica.

Rating:
Summary: Oops
Review: I actually got this thinking it would include lesbian erotica, which it sadly does not. Egads!

Rating:
Summary: Best anthology I've read in a long time
Review: I'd gotten pretty burned out on gay anthologies, erotic orotherwise, but this one really renewed my faith. Scott and Labontehave put together a diverse collection of top-notch writers, both familiar and new. The book has many fresh voices and unusal narratives, something I can't say for many gay anthologies. High quality and consistently surprising.

Rating:
Summary: Best anthology I've read in a long time
Review: If elegant can be used to describe erotica, then it can fit more than well, in describing this latest selection of passionate writing from the more than skillful editorship of Richard Labonte. From reclaiming homoeroticism during the frontier life of America in Michael Jensen's first novel excerpt, to the Ferd Eggan's durge "About Rapture" and Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite's written grievous angel like drawl in "Bonehead", we have not only slow, careful and attentive seductions and yearnings but a glimpse of the future of homosexualism in literature. The stories often center themselves in the place of the working-class and empower the voices and desires of a class of masculinity often ignored or exploited for fetish sake. Along with these patient recollections are crisp and metred tales from Ishmael Houston-Jones and Andy Quan. Not only is the word elegant more than appropriate for this collection but the title has never been more fitting. It truly is the Best Gay Erotica 2000 (Cleis Press). It is an anthology which contains stories that go beyond gay or queer and take brave steps forward to capture the subtly of masculine gestures of pleasure, if not masculinity itself, for a new millennium.