by Lily Pond
ERIC MECKLENBURG Eric Mecklenburg is currently learning to swallow taro and roasted dog shanks on the island of Pohnpei. He teaches English and Astronomy at the College of Micronesia and is a graduate of the Emerson College Writing Program in Boston.
W. S. MERWIN W. S. Merwin is the first recipient of the Tanning Prize for Poetry, as well as the Pulitzer and Bollingen Prizes, the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets, the PEN Translation Prize, and others. Born in New York City in 1927, he now lives in Hawaii. His books include Flower & Hand (Copper Canyon, 1997), The Rain in the Trees, and The Unframed Originals.
KENZABURO OE (tr. Luk Van Haute) Winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature, born in Japan in 1935, Kenzaburo Oe has won numerous awards throughout his life, beginning when he was twenty-three. An author whose work displays both his traditional upbringing and his fondness for Western literature, Oe’s novels include A Personal Matter, The Catch, Hiroshima Notes, and The Silent Cry.
PAULANN PETERSEN Born under the sign of a neon wolf, Paulann Petersen’s latest books are The Animal Bride and Fabrication. Stegner fellow at Stanford University, Paulann Petersen’s work has appeared in Poetry, Poetry Northwest, and The New Republic.
LILY POND Lily Pond was editor, publisher, and designer of YELLOW SILK: JOURNAL OF EROTIC ARTS from 1981 to 1995. Since then she has edited YELLOW SILK as an annual book. This is the third of those books. The first two are Seven Hundred Kisses (HarperSanFrancisco, 1997) and Pillow (Celestial Arts, 1998). Her earlier books, anthologies of work from the magazine, are Yellow Silk: Erotic Arts and Letters and The Book of Eros.
ANTHONY ROBBINS Spending most of his time in North Carolina, Anthony Robbins’s books include On the Tropic of Time, The Votive Flesh, and others. His work has appeared in Sulfur, Temblor, New Directions, and other journals.
PATTIANN ROGERS Pattiann Rogers has six books of poetry, including Eating Bread and Honey (Milkweed, 1997) and Fire-keeper. Recipient of two NEA grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship and other awards, her poems have won numerous prizes. On faculty, or visiting writer, at universities around the country, she is the mother of two grown sons and lives with her husband in Colorado.
RUMI (tr. Coleman Barks) Born September 30, 1207, in Balkh, Afganistan, which was then part of the Persian empire, Rumi was sheikh of a dervish community and was called “Jellaluddin Balkhi.” When he met wandering dervish Shams, Rumi’s consciousness changed forever, and their relationship led to Rumi’s becoming a mystic and an ecstatic poet. Rumi died on December 17, 1273.
MAYRA SANTOS-FEBRES (tr. Nathan Budoff and Lydia Platon Lazaro) Puerto Rican Mayra Santos-Febres includes the 1994 Letras de Oro Prize for Short Stories, granted by University of Miami, and, for “Oso Blanco,” the French Radio Sarandi Juan Rolfo Prize, among her awards. In March 1997, her body of Caribbean literature was featured at the Afro-Hispanic Literature Conference.
JAMES SCOFIELD A poet and essayist whose work has appeared throughout the world, including England, Canada, and India, James Scofield’s work has appeared in the U.S. in Ploughshares, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. In the fall of 1998, he was featured poet in both Pittsburgh State University’s The Midwest Quarterly, and in Austin’s The Sulphur River Literary Review.
GARY SCOTT Gary Scott’s work has appeared in Northwest Review, and A Gathering of Poets (Kent State University Press). He received his M.A. in Creative Writing at Western Washington University, where he was Managing Editor of The Bellingham Review.
ROBERT SHUSTER With his short stories appearing in numerous publications, and in MicroFiction, an anthology of very short fiction published by W. W. Norton, Robert Shuster is now working on a novel in Seattle, where he lives.
ELéNI SIKéLIANòS Eléni Sikèlianòs is the author of The Book of Tendons, The Lover’s Numbers, and the forthcoming Crimson Coat. She has been the recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Poetry and two Gertrude Stein Awards for Innovative American Writing. She lives and works in New York City.
EDWARD SMALLFIELD Teacher of a poetry workshop at the University of California at Berkeley, Extension, Edward Small-field’s poems and stories have appeared in Caliban, Manoa, YELLOW SILK, and other publications and in the book Seven Hundred Kisses. With Toni Mirosevich and Charlotte Muse, he is author of Trio. He lives in Albany, California, with his wife and daughter.
MOLLY TENENBAUM Living in Seattle, where she teaches English at North Seattle Community College, Molly Tenenbaum’s books include Blue Willow (Floating Bridge 1998) and By a Thread. Her banjo playing appears on several recordings of traditional American music; she plays with an old-time string band, the Queen City Bulldogs, and reviews music for The Old Time Herald.
PAUL THEROUX Paul Theroux is the author of numerous novels, including Chicago Loop and Mosquito Coast, and such travel books as The Old Patagonian Express. Other books include O-Zone, The Black House, My Secret History, The Kingdom by the Sea, The Happy Islands of Oceania, and Riding the Iron Rooster, and more. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.
DEBRA VIOLYN A child of the Midwest, Debra Violyn has studied writing with teachers throughout the country. She lives on the West Coast.
ROBERT WRIGLEY Robert Wrigley’s new book is Reign of Snakes (Penguin, 1999). He is a former Guggenheim fellow and lives with his family in Idaho.
PERMISSIONS
Grateful acknowledgment is given for permission to reprint the following:
Psalm, by Samuel Green, printed by permission of the author.
Opening Quote, by Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks), from The Essential Rumi. (Broadway Books, copyright © 1997). Reprinted by permission of the translator.
Venus Coming, by Heather M. Bellson, printed by permission of the author.
Calling the Rain Rain, by Molly Black, printed by permission of the author.
The Gates Are Closing, by Amy Bloom. From an upcoming volume of Collected Stories by Amy Bloom, copyright © 1998, 2000 by Amy Bloom. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Standing Stone, by Carmela Delia Lanza, printed by permission of the author.
The Sheep Child, by James Dickey, from The Whole Motion: Collected poems, 1945–1992. Copyright © 1992 by James Dickey, Wesleyan University Press, by permission of University Press of New England.
Bucolic, by Mariela Dreyfus (translated by Alfred Mac Adam), from Review 57 (Fall 1998), p. 71. Copyright © 1998 by the Americas Society, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
Spending, by Mary Gordon, adapted with the permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, from Spending by Mary Gordon. Copyright © 1998 by Mary Gordon.
Songs, by Melissa Holmes, printed by permission of the author.
The Bed, by Catherine Hammond, printed by permission of the author.
The Angels of Tian-An-Men Square, by Ingrid Hill, printed by permission of the author.
Painting, by Jane Hirshfield, from Lives of the Heart by Jane Hirshfield, Copyright © 1997 by Jane Hirshfield. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
The Day of Sin, by Ikeno Yuri, printed by permission of the author.
Reading (You) in Bed, by Ed Kleinschmidt Mayes, printed by permission of the author.
A Baffling Choice, by Ivan Klìma, (translated by Gerald Turner) from Lovers for a Day by Ivan Klìma. Copyright © 1999 by Grove Press. Reprinted by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Nice Girls Do It, Too, by Dany Laferriére (tr. by Carrol F. Coates), from Review 58 (Spring 1999), pp. 62–68. Copyright © 1998 by the Americas Society, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
The Guide, by Victoria Lancelotta, printed by permission of the author.
The Orgasms of Organisms, by Dorianne Laux, printed by permission of the author.
Insomniac, by Michele Leavitt, printed by permission of the author.
The Peddlers, by Joseph Leon, printed by permission of the author.
Miss Keller Returns to Her Senses, by Lynn E. Levin, printed by permission of the author.
Shi Lu & the Dairy Accountant, by Li Bao Li, printed by perm
ission of the author.
World Tonight, by Carole Maso, printed by permission of the author.
Happen in Darkness, by Grace Mattern, printed by permission of the author.
The Winter Field, by Eric Mecklenburg, printed by permission of the author.
Marietta, by W. S. Merwin, from The Miner’s Pale Children (New York: Antheneum, 1970). Copyright © 1969, 1970 by W. S. Merwin. Reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc. for the author.
Seventeen, by Kenzaburo Oe (translated by Luk Van Haute), from 17 & J. (Blue Moon Books, copyright © 1996). Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
Not an Angel, by Paulann Petersen, printed by permission of the author.
Then into the Mountains, by Lily Pond, excerpted from the unpublished novel Doing Benjamin, printed by permission of the author.
Emperiality Saws South, by Anthony Robbins, printed by permission of the author.
The Center of the Known Universe, by Pattiann Rogers, from Eating Bread and Honey. (Milkweed Editions, copyright © 1997). Reprinted by permission of the author.
Resins for Aurelia, by Mayra Santos-Febres (translated by Nathan Budoff and Lydia Platon Lazaro), from Urban Oracles (Lumen Editions, copyright © 1997). Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
April, by James Scofield, printed by permission of the author.
Commas: A Boy Writes of his Clitoris, by Gary Scott, printed by permission of the author.
Another Sign of June, by Robert Shuster, printed by permission of the author.
Wave, by Elèni Sikèlianòs, printed by permission of the author.
Anonymous Songs, by Edward Smallfield, printed by permission of the author.
Her Morning as the Hibernating Arctic Ground Squirrel, by Molly Tenenbaum, printed by permission of the author.
Sex and Its Substitutes, by Paul Theroux, from Collected Stories of Paul Theroux. Copyright © 1997 by Paul Theroux. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.
On the Afternoon of Moon Taylor, by Debra Violyn, printed by permission of the author.
Creation, by Robert Wrigley, printed by permission of the author.
* Like the American magazine. (back to text)
Mary Gordon. Kenzaburo Oe. Amy Bloom. Ivan Klíma.
James Dickey. Paul Theroux. Jane Hirshfield. W. S. Merwin.
And many others.
Acclaimed International Writers Explore the Essence of Eros
Now the editor of Yellow Silk, the world’s premier publication of erotic literature, assembles a collection of over 40 new erotic short stories and poems—many never before available—from around the world. From Mary Gordon’s tribute to seeing and being seen, to James Dickey’s ode to “interspecies infatuation” … from Dany Laferrière’s confession of Haitian secrets to Ingrid Hill’s revelation of Chinese ones … from W. S. Merwin’s account of sexual initiation in backwoods America to Kenzaburo Oe’s adventures in urban Japan and Amy Bloom’s tale of a luxurious sexual experience before the eyes of God … YELLOW SILK II conveys the power and the transformative nature of passion with the brilliance and intensity only great writing can conjure. Expect to be moved. Expect to reacquaint yourself with the many astonishing faces of sex, love, and Eros itself.
Yellow Silk II
International Erotic Stories and Poems
“Explores the erotic imagination in stories and poems that delight and inform. It is a breath of fresh air.”
—SAM HAMILL, editor of The Erotic Spirit
