Tonight was the very first reading for Best Lesbian Erotica 2005. This is the tenth anniversary edition, which I find both thrilling and a little unbelievable. Ten years! I'm always excited to hear writers read their own stories out loud and tonight was no exception. Well-known poet Cheryl B. read her story about a high school girl's first dyke experience. It was so reminiscent for me because we both graduated from high school in the same year. Kyle Walker (a pseudonym) said she planned to only read one page from her story, but after a shot of tequila, she decided to go for much more of it. She treated the audience to her fabulous story with a nice dose of assfucking (you can never go wrong with assfucking!). My fellow Village Voice columnist Rachel Kramer Bussel read an emotional piece about a break-up. I worked with her after I accepted the story to edit it, and I am really pleased with the final version; plus, she was so brave to read it in front of an audience because it's clearly very personal and captures a moment we've all been through where we are so vulnerable. Skian McGuire came all the way from Western Massachusetts to read her story, "Pointed," which had particular significance to me. Skian has contributed to several volumes of Best Lesbian Erotica, but I did not receive a submission from her by the April 2004 deadline. Then, after I had already sent out acceptance letters, I got a submission from her in the mail postmarked in March! The U.S. Postal Service had lost it, then apparently found it. As soon as I received it, I called her and asked her to email me copies of her submissions, so I could forward them at once to the guest judge Felice Newman. Knowing that I loved Skian's writing, I forwarded them directly to Felice, without reading them, which, under normal circumstances I would never do (I read each and every story I receive.) Felice said she liked both stories, but definitely liked one best. Since we were on deadline, I went with her choice. Then I got the manuscript back from the copyeditor and began reading it. When I came to Skian's story, I was floored: it was about me! Okay, okay, it was inspired by me and my pointy-toed boots. It seemed perfect that I didn't pick it and didn't even know what it was about until it was in the book. It's really exceptional (and I'm not just saying that because of the hot femme in it ). It's quite complicated, and there are some amazing parts about the butch narrator's father (and his tuxedo) and the butch's love of other butches' boots. I think it's also a daring portrait of butch sexuality, one that's not a big part of the current dialogue. In Skian's story, butches have cunts, butches are called "she," butches are vulnerable, sexually submissive, hungry so hot!!!! In the batch of erotica I read for this book, there's lots of