Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction [Paperback]

Edmund White (Compiler), Don Weise (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 2004

Certain to become a literary touchstone, Fresh Men collects the best new writing by emerging gay authors from around the nation. The critically acclaimed author Edmund White, chair of the Creative Writing program at Princeton and the author of more than 17 gay works, selects 20 original stories from the new crop of extraordinary writers. With equal parts sensitivity and irreverence, Fresh Men speaks to the broad range of gay experiences. From stories of coming out, coming of age, self-representation and family to sex and love in the time of AIDS, from living in the closet to loving in a post-gay world, this book highlights the complexities of gay life. This groundbreaking collection also embodies a wide spectrum of literary tastes, from works rich in experimental, transgressive elements to more conventional, traditionally crafted stories.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Twenty stories by up-and-coming gay male writers offer vibrant takes on themes ranging from coming out to unrequited obsession. The anthology opens with Vestal McIntyre's "ONJ.com," which follows a mean-spirited freelancer's manipulative relationship with a female boss. Philip Huang contributes a lyrical, poignant portrait of a young woman's sad life ("American Widow"), while Patrick Ryan's "Ground Control" is a brilliant coming-of-age yarn about the bittersweet yearnings of a boy and his older classmate in the 1980s. The best discoveries include Scott Pomfret's "Chicken," a moving portrait of the tense intimacy between an aging gay man and a teenage hitchhiker with "runaway eyes"; Jorge Ignacio Cortinas's engaging, atmospheric "His Five-Year Sentence," about a young Latino shoplifter's life in northern California; and Kevin Reardon's delicately droll office opera "Teamwork." Hearts both young and old soar with ecstasy and are consumed with longing in these irresistible tales. In the book's foreword, White notes that many feel gay fiction has "run its course." This excellent collection offers proof positive to the contrary.
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From Booklist

This marvelous anthology contains stories selected by the critically acclaimed and well-known gay writer Edmund White,^B who, with coeditor Weise, gathers a collection of 20 stories by male writers relatively unknown in the literary world. Similar to the popular Men on Men series but including only new authors, these stories explore a wide range of gay experiences. Stories selected for this book are refreshing, clever, witty, and moving. Topics include aspects of gay life from teenage coming out, family drama, sexual abuse, and unrequited love to living with AIDS. Many stories deal with youthful topics (although issues of middle age appear here, too), and many explore issues of gay isolationism and gay integration into society. Especially refreshing are stories that are relevant to all sexualities, dealing with universal issues that feature both straight and gay characters. This new crop of outstanding gay writers impresses. The pithy truths, surprise (but not cliched) endings, and stimulating language prove that there is a great future in gay writing, and there are still more stories to be told. Michael Spinella
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Running Press; First Carroll & Graf Edition edition (October 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786714212
• ISBN-13: 978-0786714216
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,781,013 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Stories of Life in the Gay Community, November 16, 2004

By 

interested_observer "interested_observer" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction (Paperback)

"Fresh Men" is a collection of twenty short stories selected by distinguished author Edmund White. All are interesting. There are stories with African-American, Hispanic, Filipino, and Asian characters, as well as the usual types. There are stories set at school, in the family, at work, at cruising, and around relationships. The variety is good, at least as it has been understood.

The last two sentences of Edmund White's introduction read: "If this anthology is thought of as a house, it's a big rooming house inhabited by every kind of client, of every age and color and background, some on their way up and some in quick descent; some of the roomers are shacking up and others are breaking up. It's a very full house."

When I look at the "About the Authors" section, the twenty stories' authors now live in or near the following places: New York City 7, Yale University 2, 1 each at Boston, San Francisco, Long Beach, Montreal, London, Austin, and 5 unknown. When I read the stories, the locations are New York City 6, coastal California 6, with additional locations in Montreal, Dublin, London, Sicily, Honolulu, New Orleans, Tucson, Florida (near the Space Center), rural Maine, and over the Atlantic {Some stories have multiple locations). There is a feel of gay cosmopolitans writing for other gay cosmopolitans. This has been a successful approach for previous anthologies.

Still, after the November elections, I have heard endless commentary on the divide between 'blue' and 'red' states, on the need to counter 'religious' criticisms, on the fear of being transferred from a state with domestic partnerships and state permission to raise children to one without. These stories do not feature material anti-gay characters or people considering marital status-related issues. The stories are personal and relationship-oriented, not political.

I do worry that writers from or directed at socially conservative areas are not part of the "new voices in gay fiction" that "Fresh Men" proclaims. One of the reasons for the setbacks in the recent elections was the inability of a large part of the Midwestern and Southern electorate to imagine a different, improved world. Having local voices is a large part of moving ahead.

This is a fine collection. I can relate to the stories. I do recommend the book highly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Outstanding Book, October 14, 2004

By 

Tim Vender "Tim" (San Francisco USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction (Paperback)

I recommend this book to anyone, gay or straight. The writing is top-notch, often hilarious, and always compelling. From beginning to end it will hold your interest and impress you. We'll be hearing from these authors in the future, I'm certain, and this is a wonderful opportunity to get in the "ground floor" of their careers. You won't be disappointed!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Freshmen Team Does Well, July 19, 2005

By 

H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fresh Men: New Voices in Gay Fiction (Paperback)

First, this new anthology of gay writing, FRESH MEN, has a clever title with at least two meanings. Secondly, the writers are all for the most part unknown. Edmund White, who selected them says that not one writer has had a book published yet. Third, they come from all areas of the United States as well as the British Isles. And they are not all Caucasian. The stories are set in a variety of locales and are not all about gay men picking up other gay men in bars. We can finally read about gay men who interact with other people besides other gay men and live outside a gay ghetto in a large city, usually New York. As you would expect from most any collection of stories, some are better than others. Some of the stories are excellent. I would put "ONJ.com," "Acqua Calda," "TV Dinner" and "Teamwork" in that category. "ONJ.com" by Vestal McIntyre, the first story in the book, is about a young woman in the world of advertising who wishes to "make a gay friend," a silly wish on its face, and gets more than she bargains for. In Keith McDermott's "Acqua Calda" a young American wrestles with how and when or if he should tell an Italian whom he is attracted to that he is HIV positive. "TV Dinner" by Reed Hearne is a funny account of a minor TV personality's filming of a day in the life of a waiter in the California Bay Area. Kevin Reardon's "Teamwork," which according to the biographical data about the authors won the 2003 Richard Hall Memorial Short Story Contest, is a great little story about proofreaders at Healthco, "a pharmaceutical advertising agency. The narrator has a crush on Todd, a perfectly drawn character, who when he gets fired over an ampersand by Gregory, a gay art director who "played for the team," responds: "'You're a bastard, man. . . I am so out of here.'" He is just so "kwel."

This is a very good collection and introduces the reader to writers he wants to read more of. Several of the selections are from novels in progress and should be available soon if not already.