Slash fiction is fan fiction, describing gay pairings between media characters, often in explicit detail, and very frequently outside the canon of the source. The name arises from the use of the slash character in phrases such as “Kirk/Spock/Figwit” to describe the stories. (“Kirk/Spock” is widely thought to be the first type of slash fiction, first appearing in the 1970s in Star Trek fanzines.)
Slash fiction was actually the very first type of fan fiction known to have been created for Star Trek, with many show principals recalling letters sent in from mostly females. Slash writers were the first to call themselves “trekkies”, a reference to “groupies” and stand as marked contrast to the modern more male-dominated trekker phenomenon. At least one officially licenced Trek novel was published containing slash elements: the 1985 novel Killing Time by Della van Hise. According to the Web site The Complete Starfleet Library, an early draft of the novel was erroneously published in which the author had included homosexual subtext between Kirk and Spock before an editor requested a revised version (which was subsequently published in place of the original version).
Today slash fiction is written, or at least explored, by a wide variety of people of all backgrounds and orientations. Horror author Poppy Z. Brite’s works, along with others, could be conidered slash fiction by extension, although several of her characters are already gay and there is little need to further pair them off. (via Wikipedia)
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