Yellow Silk

I’ve fallen in love with a magazine. Its name is Yellow Silk and its editor is Lily Pond. Does that sound improbable? Well, so is this unique and sassy literary journal, devoted exclusively to erotica, exuberantly different from all the other women’s and men’s magazines that sell sex. Remarkably, Yellow Silk is a turn-on that makes you feel good, reaffirmed in your sensuality, and emboldened, rather than pandered to. Indeed, it’s a turn-on in every sense — with its elegant graphics, subtle themes (Lily likes to disclose them about a year after an issue appears), consistently good fiction and poetry, and Lily’s disarmingly personal editor’s presence. “Frank and indescribable” is how one fan described her. (No, Lily Pond isn’t her real name, but it’s what she’s been called for years.)

I discovered Yellow Silk only recently — it’s been published quarterly since 1981 — and promptly ordered all the back issues. On the following pages we’re presenting what strikes me as some of the best work in the magazine, reprinted with the kind permission of the authors and, of course, of Yellow Silk. I can’t help but wonder whether — if the anti-pornography movement has its way Yellow Silk would be able to continue publishing. Lily has no doubts: “Anything that censored ‘them’ would get ‘me’ too. Many might not stop to note the difference between exploitative fuck pictures and ‘art’ fuck pictures. What’s needed instead is for us to create healthy alternatives and hope we can make them strong.” Yellow Silk’s masthead proclaims, “All persuasions; no brutality.”

Subscriptions to Yellow Silk are on a sliding scale from $10 to $40, depending on your ability to pay. Write Yellow Silk, Journal of Erotic Arts, P.O. Box 6374, Albany, California 94706.

— Ed.

Yellow Silk articles reprinted in THE SUN

Issue 115 | “Desire” | Stephen Vincent

Issue 115 | “M’Orgasms” | Adele Levin

Issue 115 | “Organic Gardening” | Ira Wood

Issue 115 | “Ovulation” | Lily Pond

Issue 115 | “The Day of Saint Valentine” | Lily Pond

Issue 115 | “The Housesitting” | Pamela Altfeld Malone

Issue 115 | “Thesme and the Ghayrog” | Robert Silverberg

Issue 211 | “This Summer” | John Gregory Brown

Issue 229 | “Each Child” | Keith Eisner

Issue 231 | “Speaking in Tongues” | Carson Reed