Wilde Stories 2008
As such literary movements as interstitial and slipstream gain momentum, more and more authors interweave their traditional stories with gay themes as coming out, homophobia, and self-as-other, with a bit of the strange and weird. Named after one of the founding fathers of gay speculative fiction, Wilde Stories is a new annual anthology that offers readers the best of such stories from the prior year. Editor Steve Berman, a finalist for both the Lambda Literary and Andre Norton Awards, has collected an engaging selection of the fantastical, the strange, and the scary from such notable authors as Victor J. Banis, Hal Duncan and Lee Thomas.
Wilde Stories 2009
The latest edition of Wilde Stories, once more edited by Steve Berman, promises readers a range of imaginative gay-themed fiction culled from the prior year. These are tales that range from the horrific to the surreal to the fantastical. Many of the authors included have won awards for their fiction, and their stories seek to press new boundaries of loneliness, loss and love between men and monsters (and those men who happen to be monsters).
Table of Contents:
"Bluff " by L.A. Fields
"Firooz and His Brother" by Alex Jeffers
"Dim Star Descried" by Sven Davisson
"The Bloomsbury Nudes" by Jameson Currier
"Echo" by Peter Dube
"I’m Your Violence" by Lee Thomas
"A Troll on a Mountain with a Girl" by Steve Berman
"Behind the Curtain" by Joel Lane
"AKA St. Mark’s Place" by Richard Bowes
"In the Night Street Baths" by Chaz Brenchley
"The Behold of the Eye" by Hal Duncan
Paperback, 238 pages
The Touch of the Sea
"At sea a fellow comes out. Salt water is like wine, in that respect." - Herman Melville.
Greek myths held that Oceanus to be a massive river surrounding the land. A Titan, son of sky and earth, he was depicted as a handsome, muscular man whose torso ended in a scaled tail. As the Olympians emerged, Oceanus retreated, his domain restricted to strange and dangerous shores, the realm of sailors' fortunes and worries. So, too, are the eleven tales within the pages of The Touch of the Sea: fantastical, at times eerie, with sightings of mermen, water spirits, and sea beasts (even the fabled "living island," the aspidochelone) as well as a smattering of pirates. What makes these stories memorable is that they affirm the masculinity of the sea, the taste of brine on another man's lips. Become mates with such award-winning authors as Joel Lane and Jeff Mann--seasoned storytellers 'Nathan Bourgeoine, Chaz Brenchley, and Alex Jeffers--and a wide array of coxswains: Brandon Cracraft, Jonathan Harper, John Howard, Vincent Kovar, Matthew A. Merendo, Damon Shaw--under the helm of editor Steve Berman.
"Time and Tide" by 'Nathan Burgoine
"The Calm Tonight" by Matthew A. Merendo
"The Bloated Woman" by Jonathan Harper
"The Stone of Sacrifice" by Jeff Mann
"Air Tears" by Damon Shaw
"The Grief of Seagulls" by Joel Lane
"Ban's Dream of the Sea" by Alex Jeffers
"Night of the Sea Beast" by Brandon Cracraft
"Wave Boys" by Vincent Kovar
"Out to Sea" by John Howard
"Keep the Aspidochelone Floating" by Chaz Brenchley
Paperback, 196 pages
Burly Tales
Releasing August 1, 2021!
ed. by Steve Berman
What has been missing from the daring tales of fairy tale heroes is quite simply some heft. In Burly Tales, Lambda Literary Award-winning editor Steve Berman has gathered a dozen stories of whimsy and romance that feature gay men with plenty of curves and fur. Run away with us to enchanted woods, where the cubs and bears are not going to eat you (not without informed, enthusiastic consent), where no one will judge if you take up residence in a house with seven bearded men and only one bed, and where if you fall in love with a large, hairy man with a forbidding castle and a well-stocked library, he'll still be that way after you kiss him. Featuring an introduction by Matthew Bright and an afterword by award-winning ursine author Jeff Mann.
Introduction by Matthew Bright
"Three, to the Swizz'!" by James K. Moran
"The Red Bear of Norroway" by John Linwood Grant
"Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue" by Jonathan Harper
"The Three Little Prigs" by M. Yuan-Innes
"Snow Melt and Rose Bloom" by John T. Fuller
"A Giant Problem" by Charles Payseur
"The Most Luxuriant Beard of All" by B.J. Fry
"The Man Who Drew Cats" by Alysha MacDonald
"Heft" by Mark Ward
"El Muerto’s Godson" by Evey Brett
"Lesson Learned" by Rob Rosen
"Bears Move In" by Ann Zeddies
Afterword by Jeff Mann
Paperback, 218 pages
Wilde Stories 2016
Reality and memory; imagination and oblivion. Somewhere between these signposts can be found the events of Wilde Stories 2016: a future world has forbidden the songs of dancefloor divas but on one night the show returns as a cautionary exhibition; high school outcasts create a fictional scapegoat and then his body is found; and let us not forget that colonial Mars needs Oscar Wilde, but then, who doesn't?
ed. by Steve Berman
"Imaginary Boys" by Paul Magrs
"Wallflowers" by Jonathan Harper
"Camp" by David Nickle
"The Ticket Taker of Cenote Zací" by Benjamin Parzybok
"The Duchess and the Ghost" by Richard Bowes
"Lockbox" by E. Catherine Tobler
"What Lasts" by Jared W. Cooper
"He Came From a Place of Openness and Truth" by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
"The Language of Knives" by Haralambi Markov
"To Die Dancing" by Sam J. Miller
"Edited" by Rich Larson
"Envious Moons" by Richard Scott Larson
"Utrechtenaar" by Paul Evanby
"To the Knife Cold Stars" by A. Merc Rustad
"The Astrakhan, the Homburg, and the Red Red Coal" by Chaz Brenchley
Paperback, 246 pages
Wilde Stories 2010
A newcomer to San Francisco falls in love too fast despite the warnings of a cadre of ghosts haunting his uncle; a businessman comes to regret his ennui when faced with the machinations of an outsider artist; on a train traveling through a dangerous Russian winter, a passenger encounters a wolf on two legs; a mining colony where love has become dangerous but no less passionate; a young man, mourning those loss of his ballet career, may yet get his chance to fly. These are some of the stories included in this anthology, stories chosen from magazines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best gay male speculative fiction of the past year.
Table of Contents:
"Strappado" by Laird Barron
"Tio Gilberto and the Twenty-Seven Ghosts" by Ben Francisco
"Lots" by Marc Andreottola
"I Needs Must Part, the Policeman Said" by Richard Bowes
"Ne Que Von Desir" by Tanith Lee writing as Judas Garbah
"Barbaric Splendor" by Simon Sheppard
"Like They Always Been Free" by Georgina Li
"Some of Them Fell" by Joel Lane
"Where the Sun Doesn’t Shine" by Rhys Hughes
"Death In Amsterdam" by Jameson Currier
"The Sphinx Next Door" by Tom Cardamone
"The Far Shore" by Elizabeth Hand
Paperback, 228 pages
Wilde Stories 2011
Celebrate a decade of gay speculative fiction with Wilde Stories 2011''s expanded volume from Lethe Press brings stories of undead lovers, stranded astronauts, ghosts and phantom reflections, men lost in an inhospitable wilderness, and fiends who hide under handsome veneers, all written by award-winning authors and fresh voices in the field. No other anthology provides readers the widest variety of gay men men facing the weird, the fantastic, and the horrific.
"Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Alaya Dawn Johnson
"Map of Seventeen" by Christopher Barzak
"How to Make Friends in Seventh Grade" by Nick Poniatowski
"Mortis Persona" by Barbara A. Barnett
"Mysterium Tremendum" by Laird Barron
"Oneirica" by Hal Duncan
"Lifeblood" by Jeffrey A. Ricker
"Waiting for the Phone to Ring" by Richard Bowes
"Blazon" by Peter Dubé
"All the Shadows" by Joel Lane
"The Noise" by Richard Larson
"How to Make a Clown" by Jeremy C. Shipp
"Beach Blanket Spaceship" by Sandra McDonald
"Hothouse Flowers" by Chaz Brenchley
Paperback, 300 pages
Wilde Stories 2012
Prepare to skew your view of the world: where jinni in the clouds of a future Tel Aviv aren't spirits but powerful computer programs; where a suburban garden hiding unrecognizable bones; to a planet colony that outlaws color; or the night when a lonely lab tech finds a spambot flirting with him. The latest volume in the acclaimed Wilde Stories series has tales of hitchhikers on the run, dragons in the sky, swordsmen drawing their blades. These are stories fantastic and strange, otherworldly and eerie, but all feature gay men struggling with memories or lovers or simply the vicissitudes of life no matter how wild the world might be.
Table of Contents:
"The Arab's Prayer" by Alex Jeffers
"Fairy Tale" by Justin Torres
"Thou Earth, Thou" by K. M. Ferebee
"Hoffmann, Godzilla and Me" by Richard Bowes
"Color Zap!" by Sam Sommer
"All Smiles" by Steve Berman
"The Peacock" by Ted Infinity & Nabil Hijazi
"Ashes in the Water" by Joel Lane & Mat Joiner
"A Razor in an Apple" by Kristopher Reisz
"The Cloud Dragon Ate Red Balloons" by Tom Cardamone
"Filling up the Void" by Richard E. Gropp
"The House by the Park" by Lee Thomas
"Pinion" by Stellan Thorne
"We Do Not Come in Peace" by Chris Barzak
"The Duke of Riverside" by Ellen Kushner
Paperback
Where Thy Dark Eye Glances
The canon of Edgar Allan Poe, one of the foremost writers of dark and atmospheric fiction and poetry, offers readers haunted shores teeming with various erudite men brooding in the waning light over their feelings for unobtainable women. Yet, whether the tales or verses are grotesque or sinister, Poe's narrators are Outsiders, dealing with emotions that so many LGBT individuals feel: isolation and abandonment as well as loneliness and lost love. In the Shirley Jackson Award nominated Where Thy Dark Eye Glances, editor Steve Berman has assembled a range of tales that queer the prose and poetry of the Poe, the man himself, as well as dark and eerie stories about reading Poe's work.
"The City and the Stranger" by Seth Cadin
"Matthew Brady, The Gallery of Illustrious Americans" by Daniel Nathan Terry
"Poetaster" by Steve Berman
"The House" by Ed Madden
"The House of the Resonate Heart" by L.A. Fields
"The Raven and Her Victory" by Tansy Rayner Roberts
"Corvidae" by Peter Dubé
"The Man Who Was" by Ray Cluley
"Gwendolyn" by Máiréad Casey
"Telltale" by Claire London
"The Lord's Great Jest" by Satyrus Phil Bucato
"His Hideous Heart" by Kyle S. Johnson
"Variations of Figures Upon the Wall" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
"For the Applause of Shadows" by Christopher Barzak
"By that Sweet Word Alone" by Heather Lojo
"Two Men in a Bedchamber, as Observed by the Ghost of the Girl in the Oval Portrait" by Terra LeMay
"Midnight at the Feet of the Carayatides" by Cory Skerry
"Surrounded by Death" by Ronna Magy
"The Bells" by Chip Livingston
"The Demon and the Dove" by Collin Kelley
"The Death of Beautiful Men" by Jeff Mann
"Eureka!" by Nick Mamatas
"Seven Days of Poe" by Richard Bowes
"The Chicken Farmer and His Boy: A Metaphysical History" by John Mantooth
"A Portrait in India Ink by Harry Clarke" by Alex Jeffers
"Lacuna" by Matt Cheney
Wilde Stories 2014
ed. by Steve Berman
Oscar Wilde said: "I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability." Thankfully, the authors featured in Wilde Stories 2014 possess the ability to create men on the page that love and risk and suffer and mourn, deeds that deserve telling despite the frailties of fictional flesh. Once more editor Steve Berman has collected a variety of stories that range from the fantastical to the eerie to surreal-yet all possess the spark of imagination that is what brings storytelling the closest to a divine act of wonder an individual can perform.
Table of Contents:
"Grindr" by Clayton Littlewood
"The Ghosts of Emerhad" by Nghi Vo
"How to Dress an American Table" by J.E. Robinson
"Caress" by Eli Easton
"57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicides" by Sam J. Miller
"Happy Birthday, Numbskull" by Robert Smith
"Right There in Kansas City" by Casey Hannan
"The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere" by John Chu
"Seven Lovers and the Sea" by Damon Shaw
"In the Brokenness of Summertime" by R.W. Clinger
"Lacuna" by Matthew Cheney
"Superbass" by Kai Ashante Wilson
"Midnight at the Feet of the Caryatides" by Cory Skerry
"The Revenge of Oscar Wilde" by Sean Eads
Steve Berman owns a great many books, a great many of which are gay-themed and a great many of those are eerie and fantastical. Well, the stories, not so much the books themselves, but he does possess a book reported to turn any flower pressed between its pages into a cordial (he's never dared try because he fears getting the book wet) and a scandalous memoir penned by Didier de Grandin, the bastard gay son of Seabury Quinn's famous occult detective.
Paperback, 246 pages
Wilde Stories 2013
Editor Steve Berman has collected stories of adolescents suffering growing pains in the midst of lake monsters, boyfriends seeking safe pest-free shelter in an infested dystopian world, the most unique story of a boy and his dog ever written, and pirates encountering a living island. Experience the wonders of these amazing stories:
"Breakwater in the Summer Dark" by L. Lark
"The Keats Variation" by K.M. Ferebee
"Tattooed Love Boys" by Alex Jeffers
"Grierson at the Pain Clinic" by Richard Bowes
"Wave Boys" by Vincent Kovar
"Renfrew’s Course" by John Langan
"Wetside Story" by Steve Vernon
"Next Door" by Rahul Kanakia
"A Strange Form of Life" by Laird Barron
"Night Fishing" by Ray Cluley
"Sic Him, Hellhound! Kill! Kill!" by Hal Duncan
"Keep the Aspidochelone Floating" by Chaz Brenchley
Paperback, 264 pages
Wilde Stories 2015
Wilde Stories showcases the previous year's best offerings in short gay fantasy, horror, weird, and science fiction. This volume offers readers the secret missives of Roman emperors, an ungrateful ghost haunting her father's lover, werewolves, possible vampires, and more tales of the strange and eerie blended with bit of loss and passion. Editor Steve Berman has been collecting the finest stories in the field for nearly a decade.
Table of Contents:
"The Love of the Emperor Is Divine" by Tom Cardamone
"The Vampire of Xanthos" by Andrew Warburton
"The True Alchemist" by Sonya Taaffe
"The Mortuaries" by Katharine Duckett
"What Glistens Back" by Sunny Moraine
"Passion, Like a Voice—That Buds" by Steve Berman
"True North" by Chaz Brenchley
"The Oily Man" by Alex Jeffers
"Werewolves of Northland" by Patrick Pink
"Notes for 'The Barn in the Wild'” by Paul Tremblay
"Conjuring Shadows" by Craig Laurence Gidney
"The God Within" by Damien Kelly
"A Gift in Time" by Maggie Clark
Paperback, 214 pages
The Burning Day and Other Strange Stories
A Summer 2021 release!
by Charles Payseur
The secrets of lives not shared, not taken, not known, all can be found in the eclectic fiction of author Charles Payseur.
A sentient star deals with the trauma of their binary partner having collapsed into a black hole, and gets a little inspiration from the intrepid humans that happen by; a lumberjack must weigh his own safety and comfort against the lives of the dryads whose bodies and blood could buy him the life he desires; a young man deals with the loss of his fathers in a future where cold has claimed much of the globe; on a special holiday, people gather to burn their burdens from the previous year, unknowing if they’ll return again with the next day; and on a ship maintained by cats and powered by ectoplasmic energies, the Emperor of All Things has died, and a young man is given a very unique opportunity.
Paperback, 204 pages
Books edited by Steve Berman
Books authored by Steve Berman
Music Teacher
The first in the The Irishman Trilogy, Bob Sennett's acclaimed historical romance, The Music Teacher was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Growing up in the early years of the twentieth century, Joe Dooley allows his love for music and his passionate friendships with other young men to blind him to the tides of revolution rising around him in British-dominated Ireland. When he realizes he can't support himself teaching music in Dublin, he enlists in the British Army's peacetime reserves--only to be swept up by the Great War convulsing Europe. Guiding his men through the chaos of the Western Front, Joe comforts himself with music and memories of dear friends: adventurous Severin Coole, an Irish Nationalist, and fiercely loyal Harry Vogeler, an expatriate of Germany. A sniper's bullet throws Joe into the care of conscientious objector Davy Rose, in whose arms he begins to discover a kind of love he had not believed possible. But then he learns that Severin is actively working to liberate Ireland of the British yoke, and during the Christmas Truce discovers Harry across the trenches in the German army. Loyalties increasingly divided, Joe must choose which cause is truly his and which man will be his true partner.