Search Worlds Without End

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 himself 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, Joel Lane, and Lee Thomas.

Contents

• Introduction - Steve Berman
• The Woman in the Window - Jameson Currier
• Awkward - Francisco Ibáñez-Carrasco
• Acid and Stoned Reindeer - Rebecca Ore
• City of Night - Joel Lane and John Pelan
• Lycaon - by Peter Dubé
• Lycanthropy - Jonathan Harper
• The Emerald Mountain - Victor J. Banis
• An Apiary of White Bees - Lee Thomas
• The Burial - Polly Buckinham
• The Island of the Pirate Gods - Hal Duncan
• Ever So Much More Than Twenty - Joshua Lewis

The latest edition of Wilde Stories promises readers a range of gay-themed fiction published the prior year, tales that ranges from the horrorific (Lee Thomas' "I'm Your Violence") to the surreal (Sven Davisson's "Dim Star Descried") to the fantastical ("Firooz and His Brother" by Alex Jeffers). These are imaginative stories that 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:

• Introduction - essay by Steve Berman
• Bluff - (2008) - shortstory by L. A. Fields
• Firooz and His Brother - (2008) - shortstory by Alex Jeffers
• Dim Star Descried - (2008) - shortstory by Sven Davisson
• The Bloomsbury Nudes - (2008) - novelette by Jameson Currier
• Echo - (2008) - shortstory by Peter Dubé
• I'm Your Violence - (2008) - novelette by Lee Thomas
• A Troll on a Mountain with a Girl - (2008) - shortstory by Steve Berman
• Behind the Curtain - (2008) - shortstory by Joel Lane
• Aka St. Mark's Place - [Dust Devil] - (2008) - novelette by Richard Bowes
• In the Night Street Baths - (2008) - novelette by Chaz Brenchley
• The Behold of the Eye - (2008) - novelette by Hal Duncan

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 year.

Contents:

• Introduction - Steve Berman
• Strappado - Laird Barron
• Tío Gilberto and the Twenty-Seven Ghosts - Ben Francisco
• Lots - Marc Andreottola
• I Needs Must Part, the Policeman Said - [Dust Devil] - Richard Bowes
• Ne Que Von Desir - Tanith Lee
• Barbaric Splendor - Simon Sheppard
• Like They Always Been Free - Georgina Li
• Some of Them Fell - Joel Lane
• Where the Sun Doesn't Shine - Rhys Hughes
• Death In Amsterdam - Jameson Currier
• The Sphinx Next Door - Tom Cardamone
• The Far Shore - Elizabeth Hand

Celebrate a decade of gay speculative fiction with Wilde Stories 2011! This 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 (Laird Barron, Richard Bowes and Joel Lane) and fresh voices in the field (Nick Poniatowski and Jeffrey Ricker) No other anthology provides readers the widest variety of gay men men facing the weird, the fantastic, and the horrific.

Table of Contents:

• Love Will Tear Us Apart - (2010) - shortstory by Alaya Dawn Johnson
• Map of Seventeen - (2010) - novelette by Christopher Barzak
• How to Make Friends in Seventh Grade - (2010) - shortstory by Nick Poniatowski
• Mortis Persona - (2010) - shortstory by Barbara A. Barnett
• Mysterium Tremendum - (2010) - novella by Laird Barron
• Oneirica - (2010) - shortstory by Hal Duncan
• Lifeblood - (2010) - shortstory by Jeffrey Ricker
• Waiting for the Phone to Ring - (2010) - novelette by Richard Bowes
• Blazon - (2010) - shortstory by Peter Dubé
• All the Shadows - (2010) - shortstory by Joel Lane
• The Noise - (2010) - shortfiction by Richard Larson
• How to Make a Clown - (2010) - shortstory by Jeremy C. Shipp
• Beach Blanket Spaceship - (2010) - shortstory by Sandra McDonald
• Hothouse Flowers: or The Discreet Boys of Dr. Barnabas - (2010) - novelette by Chaz Brenchley

"Illusion is the first of all pleasures."
--Oscar Wilde

Prepare to skew your view of the world: where jinn in the clouds of a future Tel Aviv aren't spirits but powerful computer programs; where a suburban garden hides unrecognizable bones; to a colony planet 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:

• Introduction - essay by Steve Berman
• The Arab's Prayer - (2011) - shortstory by Alex Jeffers
• Fairy Tale - (2011) - shortstory by Justin Torres
• Thou Earth, Thou - (2011) - shortstory by K. M. Ferebee
• Hoffmann, Godzilla and Me - (2011) - shortstory by Richard Bowes
• Color Zap! - (2011) - shortstory by Sam Sommer
• All Smiles - (2011) - shortstory by Steve Berman
• The Peacock - (2011) - shortstory by Ted Infinity and Nabil Hijazi
• Ashes in the Water - (2011) - shortstory by Mat Joiner and Joel Lane
• A Razor in an Apple - (2011) - shortstory by Kristopher Reisz
• The Cloud Dragon Ate Red Balloons - (2011) - shortstory by Tom Cardamone
• Filling up the Void - (2011) - shortstory by Richard E. Gropp
• The House by the Park - (2011) - novelette by Lee Thomas
• Pinion - (2011) - shortstory by Stellan Thorne
• We Do Not Come in Peace - (2011) - shortfiction by Christopher Barzak
• The Duke of Riverside - (2011) - shortstory by Ellen Kushner

In the 2013 volume, 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. A dozen tales written by award-winning authors--including Laird Barron, Richard Bowes, Hal Duncan--and new talent including L. Lark and Rahul Kanakia.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Steve Berman
• Breakwater in the Summer Dark - (2012) - shortfiction by L. Lark
• The Keats Variation - (2012) - novelette by K. M. Ferebee
• Tattooed Love Boys - (2012) - novelette by Alex Jeffers
• Grierson at the Pain Clinic - (2012) - shortstory by Richard Bowes
• Wave Boys - (2012) - shortfiction by Vincent Kovar
• Renfrew's Course - (2012) - shortstory by John Langan
• Wetside Story - (2013) - shortfiction by Steve Vernon
• Next Door - (2012) - shortfiction by Rahul Kanakia
• A Strange Form of Life - (2012) - shortfiction by Laird Barron
• Night Fishing - (2012) - shortstory by Ray Cluley
• Sic Him, Hellhound! Kill! Kill! - (2012) - shortstory by Hal Duncan
• Keep the Aspidochelone Floating - (2012) - novelette by Chaz Brenchley
• The Contributors - essay by uncredited

Wilde Stories 2014 showcases the best gay-themed speculative fiction of the prior year. That means readers can anticipate strange stories about smart phone apps that stalk their prey, replacement arms built by a tinker for a wounded WWI soldier, and a world where water cascades down on anyone who tells a lie. Zombies, vampires, and ghosts are as much a woe to the men in these stories as being an outsider or an outcast. Featuring fifteen stories that will leave readers with a sense of dread--or wonder--when the last page is turned. Enjoy the creative tales of John Chu, R.W. Clinger, Matthew Cheney, Sean Eads, Eli Easton, Casey Hannan, Clayton Littlewood, Sam J. Miller, J.E. Robinson, Damon Shaw, Cory Skerry, Robert Smith, Nghi Vo, andKai Ashante Wilson.

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:

• Introduction - essay by Steve Berman
• The Love of the Emperor Is Divine - (2014) - shortfiction by Tom Cardamone
• The Vampire of Xanthos - (2014) - shortfiction by Andrew Warburton
• The True Alchemist - (2014) - shortfiction by Sonya Taaffe
• The Mortuaries - (2014) - shortfiction by Katharine E. K. Duckett
• What Glistens Back - (2014) - shortstory by Sunny Moraine
• Passion, Like a Voice - That Buds - (2014) - shortfiction by Steve Berman
• True North - (2014) - shortstory by Chaz Brenchley
• The Oily Man - (2014) - shortfiction by Alex Jeffers
• Werewolves of Northland - (2014) - shortfiction by Patrick Pink
• Notes for "The Barn in the Wild" - (2014) - shortstory by Paul G. Tremblay
• Conjuring Shadows - (2014) - shortfiction by Craig Laurance Gidney
• The God Within - (2014) - shortfiction by Damien Kelly
• A Gift in Time - (2014) - shortstory by Maggie Clark

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?

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Steve Berman
• Imaginary Boys - (2015) - shortfiction by Paul Magrs
• Wallflowers - (2015) - shortfiction by Jonathan Harper
• Camp - (2015) - short story by David Nickle
• The Ticket Taker of Cenote Zaci - (2015) - short story by Benjamin Parzybok
• The Duchess and the Ghost - (2015) - shortfiction by Richard Bowes
• Lockbox - (2015) - shortfiction by E. Catherine Tobler
• What Lasts - (2015) - short story by Jared W. Cooper
• He Came From a Place of Openness and Truth - (2015) - short story by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
• The Language of Knives - (2015) - short story by Haralambi Markov
• To Die Dancing - (2015) - shortfiction by Sam J. Miller
• Edited - (2015) - shortfiction by Rich Larson
• Envious Moons - (2015) - shortfiction by Richard Scott Larson
• Utrechtenaar - (2015) - shortfiction by Paul Evanby
• To the Knife-Cold Stars - (2015) - shortfiction by A. Merc Rustad
• The Astrakhan, the Homburg, and the Red Red Coal - (2015) - novelette by Chaz Brenchley

A man named Turing visits a museum to see its rarest automata; during the Plague Years, three artists seeking to express a voice for their friends lost to AIDS unwittingly create life; a far-future restaurant offers patrons questionable cuisine; an immortal assassin may be one step closer to a paranoid king, despite his unspeakable precautions; the very existence of a mysterious and ancient golden android challenges a clergyman's faith...

Wilde Stories showcases the previous year's best offerings in gay short fantasy, science-fiction, and horror. This edition includes award-winning and critically acclaimed authors Sam J. Miller, A. Merc Rustad, A.C. Wise, Martin Pousson, and more.

The stories in this, the latest volume in this annual series, challenges the definition of life and infamy, existence and reputation, were chosen by Steve Berman, the premier editor of queer speculative fiction for more than a decade.

Table of Contents:

• "The Tale of the Costume Maker" by Steve Carr
• "Das Steingeschöpf" by G.V. Anderson
• "Where's the Rest of Me?" by Matthew Cheney
• "The Gentleman of Chaos" by A. Merc Rustad
• "Frost" by 'Nathan Burgoine
• "Bull of Heaven" by Gabriel Murray
• "The Sound a Raven Makes" by Mathew Scaletta
• "Angel, Monster, Man" by Sam J. Miller
• "Most Holy Ghost" by Martin Pousson
• ?"Ratcatcher" by Amy Griswold
• "The Drowning Line" by Haralambi Markov
• "My Own Heart's Desire" by Robert Levy
• "The Turing Test" by Eric Schaller
• "Of All Possible Worlds" by Eneasz Brodski
• "Carnivores" by Rich Larson
• "It's the End of the World As We Know It" by A.C. Wise
• "The Death of Paul Bunyon" by Charles Payseur

The final volume in the series that offers readers the best gay-themed stories of the strange, uncanny, and fantastical is out! In these pages are work by such acclaimed spec fic authors as Richard Bowes, Sam J. Miller, Sean Eads, and John Chu. Turn a page and walk the halls of a library shelved with every book never completed by authors before they passed away, a fish grants a young man wishes without ever explaining their true cost, ghosts relive their erotic past, Captain Hook and the Greek god Pan finally meet, and even Oscar Wilde himself makes an appearance in this anthology by Lambda Literary Award-winning editor Steve Berman.

Table of Contents

• Ghost Sex - (2017) - short fiction by Joseph Keckler
• Serving Fish - (2017) - short story by Christopher Caldwell
• Some Kind of Wonderland - (2017) - short story by Richard Bowes
• Pan and Hook - (2017) - short fiction by Adam McOmber
• The Summer Mask - (2017) - short story by Karin Lowachee
• The Library of Lost Things - (2017) - short story by Matthew Bright
• Making the Magic Lightning Strike Me - (2017) - short story by John Chu
• Salamander Six-Guns - (2017) - short story by Martin Cahill
• Cracks - (2017) - novelette by Xen Sanders [as by Xen]
• The Future of Hunger in the Age of Programmable Matter - (2017) - short story by Sam J. Miller
• Uncanny Valley - (2017) - novelette by Greg Egan
• Love Pressed in Vinyl - (2017) - short story by Devon Wong
• There Used to Be Olive Trees - (2017) - novelette by Rich Larson
• The Secret of Flight - (2017) - short story by A. C. Wise
• A Bouquet of Wonder and Marvel - (2017) - short story by Sean Eads