The New Smut Project’s First Two Anthologies

This was a project born from love and frustration. We loved smutty writing. We couldn’t find enough of the smutty writing we wanted. 

So in 2015, we decided to publish it ourselves.

We love smut, but we also love language. We love sentences that sing with meaning, action so vivid you can feel as well as picture it, and dialogue that rings so true it hurts. And we’re queer feminists. It became dispiriting to search in vain for erotic stories that reflected our own experiences: “Where are the bisexuals?” we asked ourselves. “The trans and nonbinary characters? And is there any place for asexuals in erotic fiction as something other than challenges?”

With our goals of high-quality writing and nuanced, diverse characterization, we put out calls for submissions. After a fascinating slushpile experience, some headhunting of our favorite writers, and several “next drafts” aided by the generous talent of our volunteer copyeditor Annabeth Leong, we gathered thirty-nine stories by thirty-six writers into two anthologies. Between the Shores contains twenty stories about sexual negotiation and consent, while Heart, Body, Soul holds nineteen stories about how people tick both inside and outside the bedroom.

Between the Shores

A volume of literary erotica exploring the possibilities of sexual negotiation.

Twenty complex, surprising, intense, and relatable stories from a spectrum of new and established writers center on something unusual in erotic fiction: someone saying no. Submissives—and dominants—safeword out of BDSM scenes. Couples (and one threesome!) discover the options and boundaries within their new relationships. Past trauma rears its head. Personal preferences clash.

Between the Shores shows respect for the boundaries people set as an integral part of sex, and highlights trust, communication—and mutual pleasure.

Some call a halt to the action. Some proceed with care and caution. Some reveal secrets to their partners that they’ve never before shared. And some find exciting alternatives. Through negotiation—whether serious or accompanied by laughter—they move beyond their “no” to reach what they truly desire: healing, growth, and fulfillment both sexual and otherwise.

“…talented authors show us that consent can be sexy, too…..In fact, I would say the quality of Between the Shores is among the best of all the erotica I’ve read, and that says something given how many books I’ve reviewed”. – Adriana Ravenlust, ofsexandlove.com 

Find Between the Shores:

Heart, Body, Soul

A book of literary erotica celebrating sex as only these characters can have it.

Characterization doesn’t stop in the bedroom. Discerning readers’ craving for emotionally and intellectually satisfying erotica will be fed by a spectrum of popular authors and new favorites as varied as the smart, smutty stories they’ve written for this anthology. Sweet, kinky, romantic, magical, even heartbreaking, one thing they all have in common is a groundbreaking vision of what erotic writing can be.

Featuring characters who are queer and straight, cis and trans, from mature couples celebrating fresh firsts to new adults playing familiar games, these stories reveal and revel in how people tick when it comes to sex, what they take to bed—their desires, hopes, dreams, and fears, their pasts, their passions, and their power—and what they bring away.

Find Heart, Body, Soul: