Gay erotica/romances written by actual gay men? (NSFW)
May 28, 2013 7:05 PM   Subscribe

Most of the slash fanfic I read is probably written by 14-year-old girls. Please direct me to the real stuff written by real gay men, so that I may develop snobbish taste in yet another one of my pastimes.

Non-fanfic erotica/romance or even nonfiction is fine too.

Basically, I'd like to read some authentic gay male perspectives on sex and romance because I suspect that gay men love stories written by women for women are most likely as unrealistic as lesbian porn movies produced by men for men.

Thanks!
posted by Jacqueline to Media & Arts (21 answers total) 21 users marked this as a favorite

 
Nifty archive.
posted by squirbel at 7:12 PM on May 28, 2013 [4 favorites]


I remember this writer, Lars Eighner, who was briefly pretty famous for his book about being homeless, is a gay man who had written a lot of porn. The article says he edited anthologies of it - presumably, that's the real thing, but I'm not qualified to judge.
posted by thelonius at 7:12 PM on May 28, 2013


Response by poster: The one fanfic story I knew for sure was written by a man was very different from all the others I've read, and that's left me wondering whether it's a gender/authenticity thing or whether that particular author is just a weirdo. ;)
posted by Jacqueline at 7:14 PM on May 28, 2013


You might be interested in Nathan Burgoine.
posted by bunderful at 7:19 PM on May 28, 2013


Response by poster: Oh, and I'm especially interested in stories that include at least some element of emotional attachment, romance, love, relationships, etc., since anonymous hookup porn written by men is relatively easy to find in any genre.
posted by Jacqueline at 7:21 PM on May 28, 2013


If you go around asking the same questions as I do, Jacqueline, no one is ever going to be able to tell us apart.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:31 PM on May 28, 2013 [22 favorites]


Samuel Delany's novels The Mad Man and Through The Valley Of The Nest of Spiders as well as his memoir Times Square Red, Times Square Blue are probably not precisely what you're looking for, but they have porn and romance and are written by a gay man. He also wrote the most romantic story in the entire world, "Time Considered As A Helix of Semi-Precious Stones", but it's what you might call subtle, also has a sad ending. Fantagraphics has just republished his memoir piece Bread And Wine: An Erotic Tale of New York" which I have never read but which seems to involve both sex and romance.

As a side note, though, there's this trope going around in fandom that is "real gay men don't read soft mushy fanfic stuff, it's all written by women for women which means it is bad both artistically and culturally not to mention sexually, etc". However, two of my actual gay men friends both enjoy precisely the kind of goopy slash fic-ish stuff that is so often written by women; one writes it himself, but has been loath to tell me what he's written (and I don't blame him; I'm not sure I could tell my friends about any romantic pornography I'd been writing) and one is a huge OTT fan of Sarah Monette's extremely...er...trope-heavy novels in the Melusine series and those Wraethethu books by Storm Constantine. I am actually a little bit troubled by that whole thing - god knows there's some awful, stereotyping, unrealistic (and disturbingly sexually impossible) stuff out there, but I've definitely seem both gay men fandom dudes and women in fandom tip over into this sort of femme-phobic cliched Castro-clone description of gay men when they criticize slash fiction. In my experience, there are lots of gay men out there and they're pretty various in their literary and artistic tastes.
posted by Frowner at 7:35 PM on May 28, 2013 [3 favorites]


Also, if you would like to read a depressing novel with what you might call a strongly erotic atmosphere, you could do worse than read Alan Hollinghurst's The Swimming Pool Library. It's a simply tremendous book - a really morally smart book with a lot to say about colonialism, racism, love and failed love, maybe the most to say about self-delusion and self-flattery. It's one of those books that you feel a bit weird reading on the bus since the people in the novel have...well, quite a bit more sex than many of the rest of us and you never know what people may chance to read over your shoulder.
posted by Frowner at 7:43 PM on May 28, 2013 [2 favorites]


The Donald Strachey Mysteries by Richard Stevenson are fun, and there are a few movie adaptations too.

They also give a fascinating view of homosexual culture throughout the decades, because the early novels in the series are set in the 80s, while the most recent one came out last year. There's a scene in the one from 1984 that kind of blew my mind-- a bunch of men are hanging out in a gay bar, discussing the celebrities they think are hot. Someone mentions Michael Jackson, and everyone agrees he's so sexy and handsome. I was reading it about a year before his death, when the narrative of his persona had so completely shifted into spectacle, and it was interesting to think about him as a potential gay icon of another era.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 7:46 PM on May 28, 2013


You might look at the Best Gay Erotica series of books. There's been a new anthology published every year since the mid-90's. So many that there are now three volumes of Best of the Best Gay Erotica. It's been a while since I've read any of them, but my recollection is that the stories are well-written and varied.
posted by expialidocious at 8:11 PM on May 28, 2013 [1 favorite]


Alexandr Voinov.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:29 PM on May 28, 2013


Vincent Virga's Gaywyck
posted by brujita at 8:32 PM on May 28, 2013 [1 favorite]


Right now I'm reading B-Boy Blues, by James Earl Hardy. It's light and funny, so I'm not sure if the tone appeals to you, but there is definitely romance and sex!
posted by snorkmaiden at 9:04 PM on May 28, 2013


At its best, this blog is pretty astoundingly good, though oriented (almost entirely) to the hookup spectrum. It's a journal with (I'm guessing) a very healthy dose of pure imagination.

The photos no longer load, and you go to the start to read chronologically. It's also been adapted into a rather edgeless web series that uses the character names and little else. Le sigh.
posted by lewedswiver at 9:31 PM on May 28, 2013


Josh Lanyon? A lot of his stuff is more mystery-oriented, but there's a lot of sexytime. (I can only assume he's actually a guy, but who knows.)

Andrew Grey?
posted by Madamina at 10:06 PM on May 28, 2013


While England Sleeps by David Leavitt is basically literary RPF.
posted by betweenthebars at 4:47 AM on May 29, 2013


Seconding Gaywyck along with Vadriel Vail and A Comfortable Corner, all by Vincent Virga. I read the first two back in the 80s. Corner came out a couple of years ago but I'm leery of that book's particular subject matter.

Also Josh Aterovis.
posted by jaimystery at 12:26 PM on May 29, 2013


Oh, Aterovis writes for "teen market" so it's more romance than erotica
posted by jaimystery at 12:36 PM on May 29, 2013


I am a straight dude. But I read sex blogs for, uh, research. Or something.

The absolute best sex blog out there is Quickies New York (Google it. I'm at work, and will not link. But I think it's quickiesnewyork.com). It's a mix of straight/kinky/gay writing and pics. And the writing is very good. The contributors have several e-books of "brorotica" available on Kindle.
posted by I am the Walrus at 12:46 PM on May 29, 2013


Response by poster: I've received some additional recommendations via MeMail from people who did not feel comfortable posting in the public thread. Paraphrased and shared with their senders' permission:

Recommended fanfic authors who are men: mydwynter, bendingsignpost, and copperbadge.

Novelist Dorien Gray writes mysteries that include gay sex and romance. The Good Cop was recommended as being especially good.
posted by Jacqueline at 2:16 PM on May 29, 2013 [2 favorites]


You might look at the Best Gay Erotica series of books. There's been a new anthology published every year since the mid-90's. So many that there are now three volumes of Best of the Best Gay Erotica. It's been a while since I've read any of them, but my recollection is that the stories are well-written and varied.

Friend of friend named Otto has a short story in one of those collections that is hilarious and I can attest they are generally really well written ( and cheap!)

David Leavitt ( no relation ...I don't thnk.) writes long, complex gay romances, usually in picturesque period setting, with steamy scenes.
posted by The Whelk at 2:34 PM on May 29, 2013


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