In intense, lyrical language, Jeff Mann's short stories give us an array of tormented characters: adulterous lovers, a kidnapper and his handsome victim, the sadistic ghost of a Confederate soldier, a yearning forestry student, an eager masochist, and a hairy biker.

These tales explore the sex and psychology of BDSM and of bear culture, and most are set in Mann's native Appalachia, an area often mythologized as a place where the wilderness within converges with the wilderness without.

Read "Raspberry Moonshine"
from A History of Barbed Wire at Velvet Mafia.

Read "Captive"
from A History of Barbed Wire at Velvet Mafia.

Author Photo by John Ross

Jeff Mann has published two full-length collections of poetry, Bones Washed with Wine and On the Tongue; a memoir, Edge; a novella, Devoured, in Masters of Midnight; and a book of memoir and poetry, Loving Mountains, Loving Men. He teaches creative writing at Virginia Tech.

Read
Southern Bears, Well-Stocked Liquor Cabinets,
and Bible Belt Dungeon Fantasies:
Shane Allison Talks to Jeff Mann about A History of Barbed Wire.

Visit the Jeff Mann website.