Eros & Dust — Trebor Healey

Winner of the Ferro-Grumley Award--twice!--author Trebor Healey's work thoroughly captures the poignant and erotic life of gay men. In Eros & Dust, his newest short story collection, Healey sets loose an unforgettable cast of characters. There s the meth-addled youth bent on redemption by returning to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a mischievous imp who finds himself emotionally drawn to his victims, and a circus clown fleeing his Mexican trapeze artist lover by escaping to Argentina. If that's not enough, you'll find an elusive faun of the Oaxacan highlands, a traveler expiring from dengue fever and a revisionist Jack Kerouac, along with troubled chickenhawks and ambivalent lovers trying to work it out in chatrooms, Chile, a junkyard and a puppet theater. ''The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls,'' said Pablo Picasso. Healey reminds us that we should then moisturize with daily helpings of lust and sensuality.