Name: Xan West
Genre: Erotica
Nom de Plume: Corey Alexander
Notable Works: Nine of Swords, Reversed; Eight Kinky Nights; Their Troublesome Crush
[ID: Photograph of the lower half of a person outside, leaning against a red brick wall. Only their legs and the lower half of their stomach are visible. They are stood with their left side facing the camera. They are wearing blue jeans with a long metal chain next to their left hip, and black boots. Their feet are crossed at the ankle. /end]
About the Author:
“I find pieces of myself in various characters, but rarely come close to seeing my whole self in a character. Which is one of the reasons I write what I do, to write folks like me into the story.”
-Xan West, Queer Pack, 2018
West is a widely published author of erotic fiction, with many of their stories also having won awards. They have described themselves as “an autistic queer fat white Jewish genderqueer writer and community activist with multiple disabilities” (source), with aspects of this coming through in bith their literary and activism work. The character of Ernest, for instance, in West’s novel Their Troublesome Crush is one that West “poured a lot” (Their Troublesome Crush, Afterword) of themselves into. Similarily, they were known to blog about about issues relating to queerness, disability, kink, and trans representation within literature.
Though they were taking a break to focus on their writing, West also spent many years working as a community activist, providing kink education and programming. There are many essays that they have written on their website (linked below) about various aspects of kink culture, as well as links to other kink resources that they have found. Kink education is a theme that can thus be found to also be quite present in their work, with West taking particular care to make a note on the kink that may be present in some stories.
Sadly, West passed away from complications relating to diabetes in 2020.
If you would like an insight into the effect that their work has had and continues to have, here is a link an essay by Nicole Field that was published shortly in the aftermath of West’s death:
The Transformative works of Xan West by Nicole Field
List of Works:
A list of publications by this author can be found on their website, linked here.
A list of essays and resources by and collected by this author can be found on their website, here.
Books
Unpublished–
Shocking Violet
Before their death, West was working on a polyamorous erotic romance novel titled Shocking Violet. You can find the information about it on their website here.
Published–
Show Yourself to Me: Queer Kink Erotica
Originally Published: 2015
Publisher: Go Deeper Press
Formats: Kindle Edition, Paperback*
*Out of print
Nine of Swords, Reversed
Originally Published: 2018
Publisher: Xan West
Formats: Kindle Edition, Ebook
Their Troublesome Crush
Originally Published: 2019
Publisher: Xan West
Formats: Kindle Edition, Ebook
Eight Kinky Nights
Originally Published: 2019
Publisher: Xan West
Formats: Kindle Edition, Ebook, Paperback
Tenderness: A Kink & Showtunes Story
Originally Published: 2020
Publisher: Xan West
Formats: Kindle Edition, Ebook
Short Stories
Key:
[Au] – Audio Recording Available
[E] – Excerpt
[F] – Free Story Available
- “A Good Beating” available on sugarbutch.net [F]
- “A Large Full Meal” in Salacious magazine #1 and Cruising for Bad Boys edited by Mickey Erlach [Au] [F] *
*A free, abridged reading of this story is available on the author’s website. - “A Lesson About Gender” in Pleasure Bound: True Bondage Stories edited by Alison Tyler
- “A Solstice Date on Chanukah” in Gay Apparel: A Queer Holiday Flash Fiction Anthology edited by Rachel Sharp [E] *
*This is an excerpt from West’s unpublished novel Shocking Violet. - “A Wolf’s Yearning” available at xanwest.wordpress.com [F]
- “Alley Obsession” in Got a Minute?: Sixty Second Erotica edited by Alison Tyler*
*This was also available on godeeperpress.com, but I do not believe the website still exists. - “Baxter’s Boy” in The Big Book of Orgasms edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel *
*This book was also included in Tamsin Flowers’ Superotica Advent Calendar 2015 - “Building Something New” in The Big Book of Submission, Vol 2 edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel
- “Compersion” in I Like To Watch edited by Christopher Pierce
- “Crave” in Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year Volume 4 edited by Sinclair Sexsmith
- “Dancing for Daddy” in Best SM Erotica Volume 2: More Extreme Stories About Extreme Sex edited by M. Christian
- “Facing the Dark” in Coming Together: Pro Bono edited by Alessia Brio; Backdraft: Firemen Erotica edited by Shane Allison
- “First Time Since” in Hurts So Good: Unrestrained Erotica edited by Alison Tyler
- “How He Likes It” in Best Lesbian Erotica 2012 edited by Kathleen Warnock
- “Its My Job” in Hot Daddies edited by Richard Labonte
- “Kneeling for Him” in Bondage By the Bay: Tales of BDSM in San Francisco edited by M. Christian; In Plain View edited by Shane Allison
- “Knives” in Men on the Edge edited by Christopher Pierce; Best Gay Erotica 2009 edited by Richard Labonte; Coming Together: Keeping Warm edited by Alessia Brio
- “Lucky” in Sugar and Spice edited by Mira Paul; Best SM Erotica Volume 3 edited by M. Christian; Cupido magazine; Best Women’s Erotica 2009 edited by Violet Blue
- “Missing Daddy” in Best Gay Erotica 2013 edited by Richard Labonte; DADDIES: Gay Erotic Stories edited by Richard Labonte
- “My Precious Whore” in Best Lesbian Erotica 2011 edited by Kathleen Warnock
- “My Will” in SexTime: Erotic Stories of Time Travel edited by Christopher Pierce
- “Nervous Boy” in Cupido magazine; Bondage By the Bay: Tales of BDSM in San Francisco edited by M. Christian; Love at First Sting: Sexy Tales of Erotic Restraint edited by Alison Tyler *
*The author’s website also says that this story was available on on tbrotherswrite.com, but I can’t find that site. - “Please” in Cupido magazine; Best Women’s Erotica 2008 edited by Violet Blue
- “Ready” in Coming Together: With a Twist edited by Alesia Brio; Coming Together: In Flux edited by Nobelis Reed; Biker Boys edited by Christopher Pierce
- “Strong” in Best Lesbian Erotica 2015 edited by Laura Antoniou; Say Please: Lesbian BDSM Erotica edited by Sinclair Sexsmith
- “The Tender Sweet Young Thing” in Alternative Fucks edited by Go Deeper Press; available on sugarbutch.net [F]
- “Tenderness” in Queerly Loving, Vol 2
- “The Test” in Got a Minute?: Sixty Second Erotica edited by Alison Tyler
- “This Boy” in Brief Encounters edited by Shane Allison; Frenzy: 60 Stories of Sudden Sex edited by Alison Tyler
- “Trying Submission” in Best Lesbian Erotica Vol 3, edited by Sacchi Green
- “What I Need” in Best Lesbian Erotica 2014, edited by Kathleen Warnock [F] [Au] *
*A free, abridged reading of this story is available on the author’s website. - “Willing” in Coming Together: In Vein edited by Lisabet Sarai; Blood Sacraments edited by Todd Gregory; Men at Noon, Monsters at Midnight edited by Christopher Pierce; Leathermen: Gay Erotic Stories edited by Simon Sheppard [F] [Au] *
*A free, abridged reading of this story is available on the author’s website.
Archivist Comments:
At this point, I’ve read a few of West’s stories for the purpose of putting them on the archive. Their chosen genre admittedly isn’t my favourite, but the time and care they put into their work and characters is very evident. I really appreciate the effort they went through in noting the content warnings for their stories where they could, including inside the actual books (at least in the ones I’ve read), and for taking some extra time to explain the identities of their characters and concepts within the book for people who may not be as familiar them as others.
I don’t know why I struggled so much writing this entry. The list of works was fine, this section is fine. But trying to basically “summarise”, for lack of a better term, their life in the first section was so difficult.
The Disability Book Archive 
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