March 25, 2016
Best Lesbian Erotica - 20th Anniversary Edition
Winnie McCroy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Cleis Press releases another in their annual series of "Best Lesbian Erotica" anthologies, and this collection of well-written, steamy tales will get your blood pumping! Lambda Award-winning editor Sacchi Green assembles a winning team of writers to present a diverse collection of 17 coming-out to coming of age stories featuring hot, intense sex between women.
This excellent anthology kicks off with Rose de Fer's "Dust," a sexy story about a woman picking up a good-looking hitchhiker and bringing her fantasy to life. In "Smorgasbord," an artist whose medium is food meets a chef that helps her create a picture-perfect tableau.
D.L. King melds werewolves with lesbian auto mechanics in "Hot Blood," and Megan McFerren looks at women taking refuge in a London bomb shelter during WWII in "The Royalty Underground." Emily L. Byrne brings Miss Scarlet to life in a NYC subway seduction scene with a wily woman detective.
Annabeth Leong's "Give and Take" follows the dynamic between a guitar player and her roadie, and Louis Blaydon pairs a nice girl and a bad girl into a gritty band in Liverpool, circa 1961 in the excellent "Ascension." That story starts out, "Everybody knew about Cat. They said she didn't walk out with lads the way another girl might, but walked instead with razor blades under the lapels of her blazer, a tall, upright figure like Hepburn with her long legs in tight jeans, auburn hair piled up messily on her head."
Fans of the drag king scene will love Anna Watson's "Easy," which bookends nicely with the next story, "Grindhouse," Valerie Alexander's tale of a burlesque dancer turned on by Times Square smut films.
For those into kink, Harper Bliss looks at hardcore bondage and piercing in "Reunion Tour," and Teresa Noelle Roberts goes softcore, with humor, in "Tomato Bondage." Sossity Chiricuzio tackles the hanky code among genderqueer Portland bootblacks in "Make Them Shine," and longtime Cleis contributor Sinclair Sexsmith outlines a hot hotel hookup in Seattle in "Luscious and Wild."
Jean Roberta examines the power dynamic between a teacher and her subservient prot�g� in "Tears From Heaven," and Rose P. Lethe's "A Professional" indulges the fantasy of a woman seeking the services of a dominatrix, and getting a bit more than she bargained for.
This year's edition of "Best Lesbian Erotica" offers something for every reader. Here's wishing them a Happy 20th Anniversary!
"Best Lesbian Erotica" 20th Anniversary Edition
Cleis Press
$16.95
Winnie McCroy is the Women on the EDGE Editor, HIV/Health Editor, and Assistant Entertainment Editor for EDGE Media Network, handling all women's news, HIV health stories and theater reviews throughout the U.S. She has contributed to other publications, including The Village Voice, Gay City News, Chelsea Now and The Advocate, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.