The Mumpsimus

This is the fourth post in a series I have fallen into calling " Revisitations ", in which I chronicle gay male short fiction from the 1980s and 1990s, starting first with the Men on Men series of anthologies. For the concept and purpose behind this series, see the first post .   Contents (source in parentheses if previously published elsewhere) Men on Men 4: Best New Gay Fiction edited by George Stambolian, Plume/Penguin, 1992, 405 pages introduction by Felice Picano "Love in the Backrooms" by John Rechy "Fucking Martin" by Dale Peck "The Fiancé" by Michael Wade Simpson ( Crescent Review ) "Sacred Lips of the Bronx" by Douglas Sadownick "The Little Trooper" by Manuel Igrejas "Cultural Revolution" by Norman Wong ( Kenyon Review ) "The Magistrate's Monkey" by Richard House "Ten Reasons Why Michael and Geoff Never Got It On" by Raymond Luczak "The Greek Head...

This is the third post in a series I have fallen into calling " Revisitations ", in which I chronicle gay male short fiction from the 1980s and 1990s, starting first with the  Men on Men  series of anthologies. For the concept and purpose behind this series, see the  first post . Contents (source in parentheses if previously published elsewhere)  Men on Men 3: Best New Gay Fiction  edited by George Stambolian, Plume/Penguin, 1990, 375 pages Part One "Halfway Home" by Paul Monette "Myths" by William Haywood Henderson "Blond Dog" by Robert Haule "Great Lengths" by Joe Keenan "Meeting Imelda Marcos" by Christopher Bram "Enrollment" by Philip Gambone "A Happy Automaton" by Bruce Benderson ( Pretending to Say No ) "In My Father's Car" by George Stambolian "Popular Mechanics" by Craig Lee "When Marquita Gets Home" by Bil Wright "English as a Second Language" by Bernard ...

This is the second post in a series I have fallen into calling "Revisitations", in which I chronicle gay male short fiction from the 1980s and 1990s, starting first with the Men on Men series of anthologies. For the concept and purpose behind this series, see the first post . Contents (source in parentheses if previously published elsewhere)  Men on Men 2: Best New Gay Fiction edited by George Stambolian, Plume/NAL/Penguin, 1988, 371 pages This volume includes both reprint and original stories, but unlike the first volume, the reprints are no more than two years before the copyright date of the book itself. "My Mother's Clothes: The School of Beauty and Shame" by Richard McCann ( Atlantic Monthly ) "The Age of Anxiety" by David B. Feinberg ( Mandate ) "Jungle Dove" by Joseph Pintauro ( Christopher Street ) "In This Corner..." by James Purdy ( Christopher Street ) "Solidarity" by Albert Innaurato "Dancing on Tishe B...

Background I have begun a project to read all eight volumes of the Men on Men  series of anthologies published between 1986 and 2000. (I hope also to read various other such anthologies — for instance, there were three [I think?] Women on Women  anthologies from 1990-1996, the His: Brilliant New Fiction by Gay Writers  and Hers: Brilliant New Fiction by Lesbian Writers  series, etc. — but I am not a fast reader, so need to take this one step at a time.)  I am interested in looking at queer short fiction in the last two decades of the 20th century, for a variety of reasons. The first reason is recuperative: a lot has been forgotten because of changes in the publishing industry, changes in society, the inevitable effects of time, and the fact that a significant proportion of these writers died early in their careers because of AIDS. That links to another reason for this reading: curiosity about how much of this material holds up, either as historical artifact or a...