Short stories by two Washington writers have been chosen for Men on Men 5 (Plume, 347 pp., $11.95), the latest in a series of gay fiction anthologies. Richard McCann, an American University assistant professor of creative writing and the author of the poetry collection Ghost Letters, previously contributed to 1988’s Men on Men 2; this time, he offers “Some Threads Through the Medina,” the sensuous, picaresque tale of a petty liar’s endless escapes from his sublimated desires and unsatisfactory self. “No, I’m not German,” the narrator says to a woman staring at him on the quay. “I’m something else.” McCann’s imagery glints and gleams in the Moroccan sun, rendering rich and subtly surrealistic scenes of a man ruefully far from home—yet not far enough. Another D.C. writer, Lambda Rising book-catalog editor John L. Myers, presents “All Who Are Out Are In Free,” a rambunctious tale of sexual discovery, secret heartbreak, and the mystical set along North Carolina’s Catawba River. This story opens in 1992 with the voice of a gay man named Clive, then flashes back to the WWII era and the voice of Clive’s closeted Uncle Carrol; the plot centers on a forbidden place in the woods, a devil’s den, where at least once priapic temptation met the supernatural. Most arresting about Myers’ account is how close the nephew comes to comprehension: “We drove over from Conover, me and Mamma and Daddy, to watch on Uncle Carrol’s set. He was the only one in the family that had color.” McCann and Myers read from Men on Men 5 at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, at Lambda Rising; McCann reads from Ghost Letters at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, at Vertigo Books.