In The Best American Erotica 2002, Jane Smiley illustrates the singular escapism found in the gentlest caress, Maggie Estep relates the surprising sexual happenings in a detox clinic, Francesca Lia Block explores the aquatic fantasies haunting a surfer, and Ernie Conrick introduces a tennis star and sex symbol who surrenders to an unusual coach. In these twenty-five stories you will also find cutting-edge work from other luminaries and from the Internet, where the next wave of erotica has matured into some of the most enticing writing around.

Susie Bright's experienced eye and wide-open mind deliver exceptional writing that will satisfy all tastes and preferences -- and the merely curious.

CONTRIBUTORS

Jamie Callan, Maggie Estep, Simon Sheppard, Debra Boxer, Andi Mathis, Adelina Anthony, Pam Ward, Francesca Lia Block, J. T. LeRoy, Laurie Sirois, Robert Devereaux, Stacey Richter, Gary Rosen, Lucy Taylor, Anne Tourney, Jane Smiley, Ernie Conrick, Nell Carberry, Nalo Hopkinson, Poppy Z. Brite, Paula Bomer, Michael Stamp, Tsaurah Litzky, Alma Marceau, Shaun Levin

Amazon.com Review
Is this sex in America? Let's hope so. The Best American Erotica 1999 is a melting pot of inventive selections that run the gamut from bittersweet stories of youthful passion to Henry Miller-esque vignettes of cosmopolitan lust. There are detours along the way to raunchy merriment, steamy liaisons, erotic sorrow, and many other landmarks in the erotic landscape, both fresh and familiar.

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