Russell Smith

So, which one is your favourite story?

Haha, no way! I love all my children equally. Besides, they are all so different it’s hard to compare. Some are experimental, one is surrealist, one fantastical, some are not very explicit but reflective, some are poetic, some are humorous and some are just pure smut. There’s something for every mood.

The anthology is based on an American publication called Anonymous Sex. What drew you to the original collection and what made you decide to do this here?

I didn’t read the American one! I just heard about it and I thought it sounded like a good idea. I did read their list of authors and didn’t recognize many of the names. 

Were there any surprising occurrences while putting this together?

Goodness yes. First I was surprised by how many authors said no when I invited them to participate. I started with a much longer list of authors, and about 40% turned me down. It wasn’t, I think, because they thought they were too famous or anything; I think they were daunted by the task of setting their minds specifically to sex acts, which as we know are extremely difficult to write in fiction. Sex scenes are usually part of a larger plot, not the story itself. Some authors were nervous about what their community might think of them being in an erotic anthology. Some asked to approve the list of other authors before agreeing to participate, which is not something I would agree to. In general, I was surprised by how nervous the whole project seemed to make people. 

Then when I got them I was amazed by their stylistic diversity – particularly in the experimental ones. There is one written entirely in text messages, and one compiled entirely from actual Pornhub video titles, and one written entirely in obscure archaic language. 

The subject matter is highly varied too: one story is about food as eroticism, and one portrays writing itself as a masochistic sexual activity.

What is the “sexiest” piece of literature you can think of outside of this collection?

The depictions of sex that most marked me when I was young were probably the most romantic. Most influential of all was probably For Whom The Bell Tolls. The stream-of-consciousness passages that attempt to replicate an interior monologue during sex have been derided for being embarrassingly purple. But what makes the erotic connection so powerful in these scenes is the declarations of love. They are about the most romantic scenes in all literature.

In terms of contemporary fiction, I find the sex scenes in Sally Rooney to be exquisite because they are so precise, and objective -– that is to say that they are observed as if by a camera. (Technically you could call that an external focus.) So there is no emotion at all, just action. Quite the opposite of the scene above. And yet the details recorded – a shiver or a whimper here and there – are powerfully erotic, and the emotion is all suggested. 

How did you decide how many authors to include?

We were limited by budget because we paid an honorarium to each author. We were looking for a collection of about 60,000-70,000 words, which is a nice thick book but not too hefty. 

How did you curate and select the short stories for this anthology, and what criteria did you use?

I wanted a mix of established authors and up-and-coming authors, which is what we got. A number of them are published with Rare Machines, so I knew their work. I especially wanted a mix of ages, because I don’t believe that sex ends in middle age, and because I know that the readership for literary fiction is generally older. The ages of the authors range from 20s to 70s. Geographically, the country is pretty well represented too.

Did you notice any concrete themes coming up with “different generations” of writers? 

It is true that the older authors were less willing to be graphic.

How did you approach balancing humour with other themes? Was that important to you?

I didn’t, actually, set off looking for humour, but I certainly got it, and I am glad.

Can you talk more about the distinction between erotic and literary? or how the erotic becomes literary?

In my introduction, I say that these stories are not erotica in the conventional sense because their goal is not to arouse. (They may well arouse, but that is incidental.) These are literary stories that happen to have sex as a central theme. They really show off a diversity of literary technique.. 

Why didn’t you contribute a story?

That would be egomaniacal.

What do you feel is your best piece of work? 

I feel I get better with age, so my best work is alway my most recent: my last book is a collection of short stories called Confidence. I do have a new book coming out with Biblioasis in 2024 or 2025, called Self-Care, and I am excited about that too.

What music have you been listening to lately?

I can never get enough of the Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87. It is cold, crystalline beauty – like the music of the spheres.

Who is the last character you related to and why?

It will forever be Jim Dixon in Lucky Jim.

What’s an example of a good ending? 

“I look around for my girls, but they're gone, of course. There wasn't anybody but some young married screaming with her children about some candy they didn't get by the door of a powder-blue Falcon station wagon. Looking back in the big windows, over the bags of peat moss and aluminum lawn furniture stacked on the pavement, I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep through. His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he'd just had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.”

(John Updike, “A & P”)

Anything you’d like to promote?

https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459752429-secret-sex