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...

Ben Marcus's 2004 anthology The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories  is a wonderfully rich collection for a book of its type. I remember first reading it with all the excitement of discovery — even the stories I didn't like seemed somehow invigorating in the way they made me dislike them. I've used the book with a couple of classes I've taught, and I've recommended it to many people. I was overjoyed, then, when I heard that Marcus was doing a follow up, and I got it as soon as I could: New American Stories . I started reading immediately. Expectations can kill us. The primary emotion I felt while reading New American Stories  was disappointment. It's not that the stories are bad — they aren't — but that the book as a whole felt a bit narrow, a bit repetitive. I skipped around from story to story, dashing in search of surprise, but it was rare. I tried to isolate the source of my disappointment, of my lack of surprise: Was it the subject matter? ...

I have a story in Where Thy Dark Eye Glances: Queering Edgar Allan Poe edited by Steve Berman and published by Lethe Press , due out next month. Steve sent me an advanced copy of the book, for which I'm grateful, because it gave me some time to read a few of the other stories (and some poems). I'm all the more honored to be included, because there's some excellent work here, and it's all organized well, highlighting connections without diminishing the range of tones, styles, and ideas. I'm not going to review a book I'm a contributor to (for early reviews, see Publisher's Weekly and Ideomancer ), but I will admit to some surprise at how consistently interesting and unpredictable the stories are. (Okay, I'll mention one specifically: Rick Bowes's story blew me away. And I'm a fan of his, so that's saying something.) This could have been a gimmicky theme anthology, and it's very much not. I don't think you necessarily have to b...

Suddenly my RSS feeds are full of people posting the table of contents for the upcoming Apex Book of World SF vol. 2 , and with good reason -- this is really an exciting ToC, at least at first glance: Rochita Loenen-Ruiz (Philippines)–Alternate Girl’s Expatriate Life Ivor W. Hartmann (Zimbabwe)–Mr. Goop Daliso Chaponda (Malawi)–Trees of Bone Daniel Salvo (Peru)–The First Peruvian in Space Gustavo Bondoni (Argentina)–Eyes in the Vastness of Forever Chen Qiufan (China)–The Tomb Joyce Chng (Singapore)–The Sound of Breaking Glass Csilla Kleinheincz (Hungary)–A Single Year Andrew Drilon (Philippines)–The Secret Origin of Spin-man Anabel Enriquez Piñeiro (Cuba)–Borrowed Time (trans. Daniel W. Koon) Lauren Beukes (South Africa)–Branded Raúl Flores Iriarte (Cuba)–December 8 Will Elliott (Australia)–Hungry Man Shweta Narayan (India)–Nira and I Fábio Fernandes (Brazil)–Nothing Happened in 1999 Tade Thompson (Nigeria)–Shadow Hannu Rajaniemi (Finland)–Shibuya no Love Silvia M...