A brand new anthology series of guys in love with guys. First, prisoners of a medieval circus unite against their wicked ringmaster. Then a tale of forbidden love between members of two rival gangs in modern Tokyo. The final tale is of a boy who escapes two sadistic hillbilly captors and recovers from their torture with the help of a romantically vulnerable cop. Our top talent comes together for this brand new yaoi anthology
Boys Love Manga and Beyond looks at a range of literary, artistic and other cultural products that celebrate the beauty of adolescent boys and young men. In Japan, depiction of the “beautiful boy” has long been a romantic and sexualized trope for both sexes and commands a high degree of cultural visibility today across a range of genres from pop music to animation. In recent decades, “Boys Love” (or simply BL) has emerged as a mainstream genre in manga, anime, and games for girls and young women. This genre was first developed in Japan in the early 1970s by a group of female artists who went on to establish themselves as major figures in Japan's manga industry. By the late 1970s many amateur women fans were getting involved in the BL phenomenon by creating and self-publishing homoerotic parodies of established male manga characters and popular media figures. The popularity of these fan-made products, sold and circulated at huge conventions, has led to an increase in the number of commercial titles available. Today, a wide range of products produced both by professionals and amateurs are brought together under the general rubric of “boys love,” and are rapidly gaining an audience throughout Asia and globally. This collection provides the first comprehensive overview in English of the BL phenomenon in Japan, its history and various subgenres and introduces translations of some key Japanese scholarship not otherwise available. Some chapters detail the historical and cultural contexts that helped BL emerge as a significant part of girls' culture in Japan. Others offer important case studies of BL production, consumption, and circulation and explain why BL has become a controversial topic in contemporary Japan.
The boys love (BL) genre was created for girls and women by young female manga (comic) artists in early 1970s Japan to challenge oppressive gender and sexual norms. Over the years, BL has seen almost irrepressible growth in popularity and since the 2000s has become a global media phenomenon, weaving its way into anime, prose fiction, live-action dramas, video games, audio dramas, and fan works. BL’s male–male romantic and sexual relationships have found a particularly receptive home in other parts of Asia, where strong local fan communities and locally produced BL works have garnered a following throughout the region, taking on new meanings and engendering widespread cultural effects. Queer Transfigurations is the first detailed examination of the BL media explosion across Asia. The book brings together twenty-one scholars exploring BL media, its fans, and its sociocultural impacts in a dozen countries in East, Southeast, and South Asia—and beyond. Contributors draw on their expertise in an array of disciplines and fields, including anthropology, fan studies, gender and sexuality studies, history, literature, media studies, political science, and sociology to shed light on BL media and its fandoms. Queer Transfigurations reveals the far-reaching influences of the BL genre, demonstrating that it is truly transnational and transcultural in diverse cultural contexts. It has also helped bring about positive changes in the status of LGBT(Q) people and communities as well as enlighten local understandings of gender and sexuality throughout Asia. In short, Queer Transfigurations shows that, some fifty years after the first BL manga appeared in print, the genre is continuing to reverberate and transform lives.
"Boys' love," a male-male homoerotic genre written primarily by women for women, enjoys global popularity and is one of the most rapidly growing publishing niches in the United States. It is found in manga, anime, novels, movies, electronic games, and fan-created fiction, artwork, and video. This collection of 14 essays addresses boys' love as it has been received and modified by fans outside Japan as a commodity, controversy, and culture.
Sunn idolizes his chieftain brother Raffe, even if Raffe treats him more like a concubine than brother. Sunn thinks the war Raffe wages on the 'barbarian' tribe is righteous. That is until he meets a beautiful captive of theirs named Ciclo. Includes a second steamy boys love story.
Seven stories of love and impending doom. What happens when… Escaped demons threaten prom? An energy drink breaks the fabric of space-time? A smug VR gamer is forced to team up with her last-choice player? The pursuit of the perfect university application goes way too far? A first date turns into a chase across alternate universes? A wizard fanboy accidentally becomes a hero? Death’s secretary tries to save her favorite human from dying? Bad ideas—that’s what. One prompt. Seven writers. Seven wildly different stories. Monday Night Anthology is a multi-genre collection featuring unique interpretations of the same idea. From romance to satire, fantasy to humor, this volume brings fresh narratives and surprising twists that will make you believe in the brilliance of bad ideas. Featuring stories by Kristina Horner, Stephen Folkins, Jennifer Lee Swagert, Katrina Hamilton, Shay Lynam, Sunny Everson, and Maria Berejan.
Chinese-speaking popular cultures have never been so queer in this digital, globalist age. The title of this pioneering volume, Boys’ Love, Cosplay, and Androgynous Idols: Queer Fan Cultures in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan already gives an idea of the colorful, multifaceted realms the fans inhabit today. Contributors to this collection situate the proliferation of (often online) queer representations, productions, fantasies, and desires as a reaction against the norms in discourses surrounding nation-states, linguistics, geopolitics, genders, and sexualities. Moving beyond the easy polarities between general resistance and capitulation, Queer Fan Cultures explores the fans’ diverse strategies in negotiating with cultural strictures and media censorship. It further outlines the performance of subjectivity, identity, and agency that cyberspace offers to female fans. Presenting a wide array of concrete case studies of queer fandoms in Chinese-speaking contexts, the essays in this volume challenge long-established Western-centric and Japanese-focused fan scholarship by highlighting the significance and specificities of Sinophone queer fan cultures and practices in a globalized world. The geographic organization of the chapters illuminates cultural differences and the other competing forces shaping geocultural intersections among fandoms based in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. “This important collection complicates our understanding of fan practices, showing how national and regional factors play an important role in how media texts and identities are understood. It also shows how the Chinese-speaking world is home to dense and often conflicting modes of audience reception of cultural texts deriving from Sinophone, Japanese, and Western contexts.” —Mark McLelland, University of Wollongong “An exciting anthology by a talented group of emergent scholars whose vibrant studies offer fresh insights on the diverse practices and transregional flows of queer fandom in the Chinese-speaking world. Local in its specificity and transnational in its scope, this book highlights the creativity of queer fan practices while critically locating them within the political and social structures that produce them.” —Helen Hok-Sze Leung, Simon Fraser University
They are the men of our wildest dreams. With just a look, they can jump-start our deepest desires. So, crack open the cover. . .and discover men who can't be tamed. . . Her Craving New York Times bestselling author Lori Foster Shy Becky Harte has decided to explore her wicked side. Being spotted in a sex shop by her secret object of desire, George Westin, was not part of the plan. George is intrigued at her purchases, and he'd love to teach the blushing Becky a thing or two about surrender. But when fantasy becomes reality, it's the not-so-innocent Becky calling the shots. . . Naughty by Night USA Today bestselling author Janelle Denison Since they were teenagers, sparks have flown between Chloe Anderson and Gabe Mackenzie. Now, Gabe is back in town, and a friendly poker game is turning into a game of seduction. The stakes: their wildest desires. Leave it to the irrepressible Chloe to turn the poker tables on Gabe. Now she has him at her mercy for four nights--and they've got six years of pent-up passion to make up for. . . . . .And When They Were Bad USA Today bestselling author Donna Kauffman For Cameron James IV, a vacation at the private Caribbean club Intimacies is his chance to find his inner wild man. In real life, Allison Walker is a computer nerd with a successful firm, but at Intimacies, she's in over her head--until she meets Cam. And though Cam is looking to shuck his nice guy image with a wanton woman, it's the nice girl he's just met who's about to bring out the wicked in him. . .
For fans of Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, American Horror Story and The Walking Dead comes a powerhouse anthology featuring some of the best thriller and horror writers in YA Stefan Bachmann, Leigh Bardugo, Kendare Blake, A. G. Howard, Jay Kristoff, Marie Lu, Jonathan Maberry, Danielle Paige, Carrie Ryan, Megan Shepherd, Nova Ren Suma, McCormick Templeman, April Genevieve Tucholke, Cat Winters A host of the sharpest young adult authors come together in this collection of terrifying tales and psychological thrillers. Each author draws from a mix of literature, film, television, and music to create something new and fresh and unsettling. Clever readers will love teasing out the references and can satisfy their curiosity at the end of each tale, where the inspiration is revealed. There are no superficial scares here; these are stories that will make you think even as they keep you on the edge of your seat. From blood horror, to the supernatural, to unsettling, all-too-possible realism, this collection has something for anyone looking for an absolute thrill.
Boys is an anthology of essays showcasing the voices, stories, and lives of gay, queer, and trans* men from around the world. Through these essays, readers are allowed an intimate glimpse into moments like the time one of the boys accidentally came out as gay on MySpace, another was kidnapped by his mother who wanted to "pray the gay away," to the first time a boy went to a leather bar after transitioning to male and before he became a famous porn artist and performer. Boys shows readers that at the end of the day, there isn't one type of boy in the world, but lots of boys with all their own stories.
