In the advertising world there’s a new and controversial trend towards catering for the X-Generation; that is, consumers with a two-second attention span, and we’re not just talking about teenagers on rollerblades.

By comparison, it’s hard not to be a little cynical about the current plethora of anthologies: commercially packaged publications for the literary equivalent of the X-Generation rather than inspiringly crafted reading where the whole offers more than the sum of the parts.  

Even the reviewers become lazy; counting up the gender balance of contributors and concluding that the book ‘is good for dipping into’. Fortunately this Anthology of Australian Gay and Lesbian Writing shines through the mass of mediocre publisher’s fundraisers as an example of the difference a committed and careful editor can make when assembling source material under a common theme.