The Best American Erotica 1996 is the ideal collection for all lovers of

first-rate erotic literature. Edited by Susie Bright, whom the Utne Reader calls

"one of the leading thinkers and visionaries of our time," this fourth annual

edition of a best selling series brings together the most outstanding erotic

writing of the year - including peculiarly dark and dangerous takes, as well as

cutting-edge forays into the world of cybersex.

This is a titillating new addition to Bright's bestselling annual series, featuring works from Dorothy Allison, Susannah Moore, Alan Hollinghurst, and others, all chock full of surprises, real-life drama, and sensation.

Susie Bright

Susie Bright is an author, editor, activist, performer and mother. Through her books, lectures, and film shows, Susie has inspired a new public discussion on eroticism and sexual politics, particularly in the areas of the changing roles of women and men, sexual liberation, and erotic identity in the 90s. The New York Times Book Review says, "Ms. Bright is the voice of sweet reason and literacy," in the field of erotica. The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog calls her, "a national treasure right up there with the Grand Canyon, the battlefield at Gettysburg, the Okefenokee Swamp, and the Smithsonian's Nancy Reagan Memorial Dress Collection."

Bright is the pre-eminent feminist sex writer, called "the goddess of erotica" (Boston Phoenix) by some, the godmother of contemporary erotic fiction by others, and even the "Pauline Kael of porn." In Susie Bright's Sexual Reality: A Virtual Sex World Reader (Clefs Press, 1992), Susie Sexpert's Lesbian Sex World (Clefs Press,1990), and SexWise (Clefs Press, 1995), she has collected extraordinary, explicit essays on sex, power and culture. Her photo anthology, Nothing But The Girl: The Blatant Lesbian Image (Cassell, 1995), is the first portfolio and history ever published of lesbian erotic photographers. Susie is also the editor and founder of the most talked about collection of women's erotic fiction ever — Herotica, Herotica II and Herotica III.

An outspoken advocate since adolescence, Susie's involvement in sexual politics has continued to grow and shape her career. In 1981, she began working at Good Vibrations, San Francisco's one-of-a-kind vibrator and sex toy shop, where she created the first progressive feminist erotic video library. Her work there led her to become the first person — let alone woman — to write real criticism of porn movies. Bright first came to national attention as the co-founder and editor of On Our Backs (from 1984 to 1990), the first sex magazine invented and published by women. A magazine for the "adventurous lesbian," it changed the course of lesbian and feminist publishing. Bright's insight into contemporary sexuality is also in demand in the Hollywood film world: she co-wrote a script with Lizzie Borden for the feature film, "Erotique," and most recently she worked as the sex consultant on the film "Bound" (where she also provided a cameo appearance).

Susie currently lives in the Bay Area with her six-year-old daughter Aretha.

You can find out even more about Susie at her website.