More Stories * More Sex * Author Interviews * Readers' Poll Results

There's a party going on in here. Please come.

Lick the icing on this cake: from the raunchy to the sensual, the 10th anniversary edition of The Best American Erotica includes the most esteemed and lascivious writers at work today.

Dorothy Allison explores the wonderful, mysterious abilities of the human hand, Chuck Palahniuk opens the door on a carnal meeting in a church bathroom, Susanna Kaysen takes us inside that sensual moment before two lovers touch for the first time, and Zane's corporate tigress plays mind games that make other office shenanigans look like mere games of Candyland.

In candid Q&A's the authors reveal that they are great-grandfathers, prostitutes with Ivy League diplomas, and former lunatic asylum attendants. Here, too, are the results of the readers' survey. Straight, bisexual, or gay; dominant or submissive; kinky or just curious, you're sure to be turned on by the steamiest Best American Erotica ever.

<CENTER>* CONTRIBUTORS *

Martha Miller, Chuck Palahniuk, Susan St. Aubin, Mel Smith, Greta Christina, James Williams, Robert Irwin, Susan Volchok, Myriam Gurba, Vaginal Davis, Bertice Berry, Dorothy Allison, Susanna Kaysen, Jack Fritscher, Lisa Wolfe, Zane, Scott, Jill Soloway, Tennessee Jones, Alison L. Smith, Paula Bomer, Dagoberto Gilb, Tsaurah Litzky, Aaron Travis, Nicholson Baker, Rose White and Eric Albert, Ivy Topiary, William Harrison

What is Your Sexual Story?

Creating Sexual Characters

Steamy Plots

How to Mix Sex with Other Genres

Up-to-Date Resources for Erotic Authors For Erotic Readers:

Is This is a Stroke Book, or is This Art?

The Erotic Reader's Bill of Rights

The “Good Parts”

Susie's Erotic Reference Library For Erotic Thinkers:

Is Writing Sex Better than Having Sex?

The Similarities Between Erotica and Pornography

Sex and Violence

Erotic Burn-out For Erotic Publishers:

A Devil's Argument Against Publishing <P>Finding the Perfect Editor <P>Money Money Money <P>Big-Time, Small Press, and Internet Publishing <P>Fan Clubs, Book Tours, and Book Reviews With candor and humor, Bright tells her own explicit adventures in erotic publishing, from the creative inspiration to the nitty-gritty economics. She offers provocative exercises for writers and readers alike to hone their writing and critical skills, as well as opening up the whole treasure chest of erotic literature and history. Here's a guide that will teach you not only how to read and write a dirty story, but also how to recognize the most powerful insights of the erotica experience.

Famous for taking her readers to undiscovered places, Susie Bright has changed the rules for writing about sex. Erotica is no longer under-the-covers reading; it's thrilling literature that showcases the best writing around.

In Best American Erotica 2006, Bright chooses stories that toy with desire in excerpts from some of the most sexually charged and fearless writing of the year. John Updike's story recalls his narrator's first love and how they began to have sex. David Sedaris takes us into his strip poker card room. Tom Perrotta portrays a bored married man whose wife busts him as he navigates his Internet swinger life. Helen Walsh's diary shows a college student in England who drifts from a promis-ing academic career into the arms of prostitutes.

In Best American Erotica 2006, today's most popular writers add their voices to a collection for any reader -- straight, gay, curious -- seeking memorable sex and riveting storytelling.

<center>

<font size="+1">Contributors

John Updike, David Sedaris, Tom Perrotta, Steve Almond, Lynn Freed, Maxine Chernoff, Carol Queen, Helen Walsh, Stephen Elliott, Rachel Kramer Bussel,Bob Vickery, James Williams, Will Heinrich, Peggy Munson, Sera Gamble, Salome Wilde, Bianca James, Donna George Storey, Mr. Sleep, Gwen Masters, Gaea Yudron, Kweli Walker, L. Elise Bland, and Sidney Durham

Every Sexual Appetite

In the fourteenth edition of this seductive series, erotica's veterans and up-and-coming new writers join forces to explore how tantalizing crossing the so-called Lolita gap between youth and middle age can be.

Kathryn Harrison explores the story of a psychiatrist whose sexual affairs with a young client have an unexpected consequence; Dennis Cooper trails an extraordinary hustler working his older johns; and Jessica Cutler gives lessons on how a young woman can take down all the politicians in Washington with just the crook of her pretty little finger.

Guided by the genius of editor Susie Bright, The Best American Erotica 2007 will bring an exciting new climax to readers discovering that they love erotica -- and to those already hooked.

Book Magazine called her "America's ranking connoisseur of sex, porn, and freedom of physical expression." Tristan Taormino exalted, "The absolute bomb" in The Village Voice. More discerning than any judge and far ahead of the curve, Susie Bright plucks the best stories from every genre to create her much-anticipated annual collection.

In The Best American Erotica 2004, Broadway superstar Alan Cumming tells of the deep knowing offered by one stranger to another after casual sex; in science fiction hotshot Geoffrey Landis's bawdy fairy tale, we learn about the very first penis; Touré's breathless prose poem sets us up with an evening's worth of erotic visitors; and in Jerry Stahl's story, a man recalls his boyhood fascination with his mother's friends and their elaborate undergarments.

Always taking her readers to undiscovered places, Bright never disappoints in giving them an uninhibited, something-for-everyone collection of the year's most divine erotica.

<CENTER>CONTRIBUTORS

CLAIRE TRISTRAM, STEVE ALMOND, SHARON WACHSLER, RACHEL KRAMER BUSSEL, ALAN CUMMING, DAVID R. ENOCH, DAWN O'HARA, BILL NOBLE, JOHN YOHE, A. W. HILL, SUSANNAH INDIGO, MAGGIE ESTEP, JAMESON CURRIER, R. GAY, RACHEL RESNICK, SIMON SHEPPARD, GEOFFREY A. LANDIS, JOY VANNUYS, TOURÉ, DOMINIC SANTI, JERRY STAHL, I. K. VELASCO, LISA MONTANARELLI, JAMES STROUSE

The hottest of the hot

To mark its fifteenth anniversary, the top-selling erotica series achieves a scorching new climax with a special edition showcasing standout stories from the entire series as well as never before published pieces -- plus interviews with the authors and, for the first time, a hot and edgy piece from Susie Bright herself.

In Susie Bright's own contribution, "Story of O Birthday Party," she recounts her lover's elaborately orchestrated birthday gift: a re-creation of Pauline Réage's classic S/M tale with Susie at the center of the action. Joe Maynard enters a love/hate relationship with a two-million-dollar sex toy in "Fleshlight." Greta Christina's "Are We Having Sex Now or What?" asks the provocative question of what defines authentic sexual connection and experience.

Thoroughly electrifying -- and thrillingly eclectic -- the 2008 edition promises to open new doors with its exhilarating, equal-opportunity approach to erotic writing. Straight or gay, dominant or submissive, romantic or sadistic, Bright's selections run the gamut -- and push all the right buttons.

Twenty-two of America's finest writers bring something for everyone in The Best American Erotica 2001, which will gratify Susie Bright's fans and entice newcomers to her bestselling and always arousing series.

Contributors

Todd Belton · Marge Piercy · Cara Bruce · Matt Bernstein Sycamore · Tsaurah Litzky · Nathan Englander · Ginu Kamani · Joe Maynard · Wendy Becker · Jerry Stahl · Dani Shapiro · Dodie Bellamy · Dan Taulapapa McMullin · Claire Tristram · James Williams · M. J. Rose Damian Grace · Wade Krueger · Rosalind Christine Lloyd · Charles Flowers · Hanne Blank · Jack Murnighan

With disarming honesty and self-deprecating humor, Palac writes about how she began to gain control of her sexuality. When she found a boyfriend's stash of pornography, her kneejerk reaction was to tell him that if it didn't go, she would. He managed to convince her to watch a video with her; that led to another, and another...soon, Palac was renting her own tapes and started writing her own erotic stories.

Although sex-positive feminism can be a powerfully liberating philosophy, Palac does not sugarcoat the hardships. Not every sexual encounter was wonderful; sometimes there wasn't even any sex. ("I was a perfect candidate for cybersex," she drolly comments at one point. "I wasn't getting laid, I liked to masturbate, and I could type.") But the story of Palac's spiritual and physical awakening and her efforts to maintain honesty and integrity will continue to inspire long after they've finished titillating--and that's a mighty long time.

CONTRIBUTORS - Lauren P. Burka, Ivy Topiary, Mark Stuertz, Thomas Roche, Rose White and Eric Albert, Bob Vickery, Tsaurah Litzky, loana dp valencia, Nancy Kilpatrick, Michael Lowenthal, Serena Moloch, Marcy Sheiner, Stephen Spotte, Simon Sheppard, Joe Maynard, Bill Brent, Ted Blumberg, Lucy Taylor, E. R. Stewart, Isobel Bird, Allegra Long, M. Christian

Explore the bittersweet of yesterday and today, growing up with Elise D'Haene in an excerpt from "Licking Our Wounds." If Kirk-Spock fantasies are getting to be old hat, take a titillating peek into an amorous Boy Wonder's diary in Kelly McQuain's "Je T'aime, Batman, Je T'adore." The erotic imagination of America wouldn't be complete without a rock star fantasy: Ben Neihart's "The Number One Song in the Country" delivers, in spades. Cecelia Tan suggests an answer to the age-old question of what women do in bed together--and provides some ingenious toy ideas for those who already know--in her thrilling "Penetrations." And celebrating our ever-increasing Internet usage, Robin Sweeney's "Picking Up Daddy" provides an exhilarating narrative about nervously meeting and amorously greeting a lover met online.

The fabric of America's erotic life--twosomes, threesomes, same sex, opposite sex, gender benders, realistic sex, outrageous fantasies, revenge fantasies, dainty love stories, no-holds-barred one-night stands, and more--is well chronicled in this anthology from sexpert Susie Bright. --Cheryl Trooskin

Three cutting-edge writers explore the high-wire risk of having a sexual wish come true. In "Jodi K" by Jill Soloway, the award-winning writer/producer of Six Feet Under, a suburban teenager is a skeptical part of every high school make-out scene, but her heart is fixed on the middle-aged man next door. "Charmed, I'm Sure" by Eric Albert, a frequent contributor to Best American Erotica, tells of a single man who enters into a contract with a modern-day witch and finds there are unforeseen complications even in the most magical seductions. The young woman in "Bending" by Greta Christina, the author of Paying for It, can't seem to find an alternative sexual position...until her friends and lovers come up with a scheme that opens her up -- literally -- to her real needs and desires.

Contributors:

Susan St. Aubin

Jay Michaelson

Nicholson Baker

Susan Musgrave

Robert Olen Butler

Anna Nymus

Tom Caffrey

Lisa Palac

Renee Charles

Paul Reed

Corwin Erickson

Annie Regrets

Scarlett Fever

Raye Sharpe

Tsaurah Litzky

Le Shaun

Al Lujan

Trac Vu

Mary Malmros<P>Anne Wallace<P>James Williams<P>

Contributors

Marianna Beck

Bernadette Lynn Bosky

Mark Butler

Pat Califia

M. Christian

Leslie Feinberg

Sigfried Gold

Linda Hooper

Michael Lowenthal

Debra Martens

J. Maynard

Chris Offutt

Gerry Pearlberg

Bart Plantenga

John Preston

Carol Queen

Donald Rawley

Abigail Thomas

Anne Tourney<P>Danielle Willis<P>

Erotic Novellas by William Harrison, Greg Boyd, and Tsaurah Litzky

Pull down the shades and settle in for pleasure with this trio of erotic novellas -- handpicked by Susie Bright -- showcasing stories that are hot and masterful.

Susie Bright, hailed by The New York Times as "the avatar of American erotica," is the undisputed grandmaster of the genre. Now she has handpicked three rising stars -- new masters -- whose stories will delight, arouse, and captivate you.

Connected by a central theme -- the idea that one sexual moment can change a person forever -- each story is wildly different from anything you have read before.

In "Shadow of a Man," Emmy Award-winning writer William Harrison takes us to South Africa, where a photographer who thinks he's seen -- and done -- it all begins an intense affair with the daughter of a famous general. "The Motion of the Ocean" is Tsaurah Litzky's undaunted story about a woman's coming-of-age from her adolescence in the 1960s to the over-the-top sexuality of the 1990s. Greg Boyd's "The Widow" is about the consequences that transpire when a husband reads an erotic novel that his wife has been writing in secret. In it, she has fantasized the outrageous sexual experiences of a widow.

Sensual, provocative, funny, and profound, Three the Hard Way is a pleasure trove of great finds discovered by America's most trusted name in erotica.

Im Ganzen muss ich sagen, dass mir die Kapitel aus der Sparte "persönliche Erlebnisse" am besten gefallen haben. Lebhaft, bunt, schillernd und witzig vermitteln sie Wissenswertes über Sexpraktiken und Taktiken. Auf der anderen Seite muss ich nicht unbedingt ständig darauf hin gewiesen werden, wie schlecht die Auswahl an Dildos ist, welche Hersteller welche Materialien bevorzugen und wann die ersten farbigen Silikon-Dildos auf den Markt gekommen sind. Trotzdem -- Susie Sexpert hat ihren Ruf als DIE Autorin einer lesbischen "Sexbibel" nicht zu unrecht, Legehenne hin oder her. --Anja Buchmann