Listen to me talk resistance erotica and meeting my celebrity crush on Susie Bright's podcast

For your listening pleasure, check out my interview on the podcast In Bed With Susie Bright. The show's title: "The Resistance Will Be Hot and Heavy." It's about my Rolling Stone anti-Trump erotica article and meeting my celebrity crush after 18 years (stay tuned for more about that experience from me soon).

Listen to Tristan Taormino's new radio show Sex Out Loud, tonight with Susie and Aretha Bright

I'm very excited about Tristan Taormino's new radio show Sex Out Loud, which you can listen to every Friday at 8 pm EST or afterward. It debuted last week with Dan Savage (listen to that one here or on iTunes) and I'll be on June 29th! Today she'll have on Susie and Aretha Bright, authors of the excellent new ebook Mother/Daughter Sex Advice. Tune in! You can also follow the show @SexOutLoudRadio on Twitter. Read more about what you'll find in Mother/Daughter Sex Advice on Susie's blog.



More info on the show from Tristan's site:

Join award winning author, speaker, sex educator and filmmaker Tristan Taormino as she explores the world of sexuality from every angle on her radio show Sex Out Loud™ on the Variety Channel of the VoiceAmerica Talk Radio Network. Tristan will interview leading authors, educators, artists and icons and give you an uncensored, inside look at alternative sexual practices and communities. She’ll delve into topics from the popular to the taboo, including sex education and sexual health, taboo fantasies, BDSM, non-monogamy, the adult industry, and more. Tristan will answer your questions on the air and share her 15 years of experience and honest, down to earth, sex-positive advice. Open your mind and expand your erotic horizons.

Listen LIVE every Friday at 8:00 pm EST/5:00 pm PST
See a list of guests and show topics
Listen to past shows on VoiceAmerica either streaming or download as an mp3
See the Resource List for a past show
Download and listen to the show as a podcast on iTunes

Free Best Sex Writing 2012 reading tonight: polyamory, why atheist sex is better, female orgasm and more

Tonight at 7:30 pm come enjoy free cupcakes and some of the smartest thinkers and writers about sex at the Best Sex Writing 2012 reading at Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco. Facebook invite here and below find excerpts from all of your readers: Susie Bright, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Greta Christina Tracy Clark-Flory and Thomas S. Roche. And yes, of course I want you to buy the book, and come to the reading, and get your book signed, but I am also linking to the pieces so you can read them in full (and then buy the book for all the pieces you can't read online and to support the series). If you like any/all of these, please let someone know about the reading, tweet about it (@bestsexwriting or I'm @raquelita), give it as a gift, let your San Francisco and Santa Cruz and NYC friends know about tonight, April 12th, April 25th; anything you can do to support this series is wonderful. And a reminder: I am in search of submissions for Best Sex Writing 2013. Original pieces, reprints, suggestions are all welcome as long as they arrive by May 1 and I will be announcing which San Francisco writer is our guest judge very soon! Thanks for reading and see you at Booksmith and Bookshop Santa Cruz and Housing Works. For my full event schedule, visit my website.



"Why Lying About Monogamy Matters" by Susie Bright

It must make Ross pout that unrelenting evidence proves abstinence programs are not only "ineffective," they actually cause higher pregnancy rates than in places where young people have info and access to birth control. Eww!

It can turn a smiley-face upside-down, if you're a Christian religious fanatic, but sometimes the truth is... proof-y.

As for women having an infantile essential nature, which desires innocence and vacuity above all other sexual traits, leading to an unparalleled state of happy brainlessness -- gosh, how do you even begin to document that, outside of scripture and tattered Catholic catechism pamphlets?

Douthat's faith is based on the tenets of unapologetic misogyny, sexism, gender determinism, and an all-around "Daddy Knows Best" approach. I'm sure you've heard how well the Catholic clergy has led in this regard.

In Christianity, men are the natural leaders, and must stand guard against their carnality. Grrr!

Women must follow man, doting on him, caring for the hearth. Women have a lot to atone for, because they're the reason human beans got tossed out of the Garden of Eden. That's where God created everything in Seven Days and there was a Magic Apple and it really tasted good... which was premature and ill-advised. To say the least

"Penis Gagging, BDSM, and Rape Fantasy: The Truth about Kinky Sexting" by Rachel Kramer Bussel

“You don’t want to gag a woman with your penis unless you have some serious issues with the way you see women.” So says Kirsten Powers, ex-girlfriend of sex-scandal star Congressman Anthony Weiner, in a piece for The Daily Beast. She is referencing his sexting relationship with a Las Vegas blackjack dealer. The transcript of their texts was posted by Radar Online, including one bit that prompted Powers’ musing: “You will gag on me before you c** with me in you” and “[I’m] thinking about gagging your hot mouth with my c***.”

This column is not about Weiner. I’m pretty over political sex scandals and am inclined to think that someone like Weiner wanted to get caught, consciously or unconsciously. The only positive thing I can say about such scandals is that they do help shed light on just how unenlightened we are about topics like monogamy and BDSM. Here we have an example of a woman making a blanket statement about something she clearly doesn’t know the first thing about, simply because it offends her.

You know the phrase, “Taken out of context, I must seem so strange?” That goes double for pulling random bits of erotic conversation, texted or otherwise, and analyzing them as if they told a whole story. Without the motivation of the person sending and receiving them, you really don’t know anything, and yet it seems that a default anti-BDSM reaction is acceptable. Our public squeamishness over the fact that some people can eroticize pain, degradation, and being ordered around, safely, consensually and pleasurably, is nothing more than a prejudice that needs to be eradicated.

"Atheists Do It Better: Why Leaving Religion Leads to Better" by Greta Christina

And sexual guilt doesn't just go up with more conservative religions. It goes up with more religiosity, period. The more religious your upbringing is, the worse your sexual guilt is likely to be. Of people raised in very religious homes, 22.5% said they were shamed or ridiculed for masturbating (to give just one example)... compared to only 5.5% of people brought up in the least religious homes. And of people raised in very religious homes, 79.9% felt guilty about a specific sexual activity or desire... while among people raised in the least religious and most secular homes, that number drops to 26.3%. That's a huge, huge difference.

But one of the most surprising conclusions of this research? Sexual guilt from religion doesn't wreck people's sex lives forever.

Guilt According to conventional wisdom -- and I will freely admit that I held this conventional wisdom myself -- religious guilt about sex continues to torment people long after the religion itself has lost its hold. But according to the "Sex and Secularism" report, that's rarely the case. Once people let go of religion, people's positive experiences of sex, and their relative lack of guilt, happen at about the same rate as people who were never religious in the first place.

Ray was surprised by this result as well. (Surprising results -- a sign of good science!) "We did think that religion would have residual effects in people after they left," he told me, "but our data did not show this. That was a very pleasant surprise. That is not to say that some people don't continue to experience problems, but the vast majority seem to shake it off and get on with their sexual lives pretty well." So letting go of religion means a rebound to a sex life that's as satisfying, and as guilt-free, as a sex life that was never touched by religion in the first place.

"The Worship of Female Pleasure" by Tracy Clark-Flory

Nicole Daedone pulls her long dirty-blond locks into a bun, rolls up the sleeves of her crisp white dress shirt and readies her lube. On the table in front of her there is a woman, naked only from the waist down, with her knees spread wide. The 40-something founder of OneTaste, a center dedicated to “mindful sexuality,” is about to give a live and impromptu demonstration of orgasmic meditation (“OMing” for short) in a conference room at the sophisticated Le Meridien hotel in San Francisco. She takes a long look between the volunteer’s legs and enthuses to the audience of roughly 40 women: “Oh my god, it’s beautiful. It’s an electric rose color. The swelling is already beginning.”

Before long, Daedone is hunched over and vigorously stroking the woman’s most sensitive “spot” — the “upper left quadrant” of the clitoris — with just her forefinger. The recipient moans wildly as though she is being taken over by a spirit and Daedone urges her on: “Good girl. Good, good. Reach, reach, reach, reach.” As the woman’s groans peak, Daedone lets out a throaty exhalation that sounds like it belongs in a Lamaze class. Two audience members overcome by the intensity of the performance are silently crying. The demonstration, which is part of a weekend-long women’s retreat, continues for 15 minutes.

It is both arousing and deeply bizarre.

It isn’t every weekend that I find myself watching a woman being repeatedly brought to orgasm in front of a live audience — but I hardly expected normality when I asked to sit in on the workshop.

"Men Who “Buy Sex” Commit More Crimes: Newsweek, Trafficking, and the Lie of Fabricated Sex Studies" by Thomas S. Roche

Are they joking? Buying sex is already illegal most places — and it also exists almost everywhere. But this group is actually claiming that it must be “criminalized”? How far out of the world we live in do you have to be before you can believe that prostitution hasn’t been criminalized?

The answer? You just have to be a radical anti-sex feminist, apparently…in which case male-dominated society looks like just one big blur…at least, that’s what I, as a man, take away. Equating a law enforcement structure that can’t manage to stamp out street prostitution with men who frequent call girls and politicians who don’t pass stronger laws is only possible if men aren’t people.

What’s more, places where sex work is most illegal (Saudi Arabia and other Sharia-governed states) are without exception where it’s most dysfunctional (e.g., trafficked women). The nations that have the harshest anti-prostitution laws are the places where there are the greatest social strictures against consensual sexual encounters between men and women. Those countries are also — and this isn’t an accident — the nations where there’s the greatest difference between rich and poor, and the places where women have the lowest status. Oppressive laws disproportionately affect the poor, women, and racial, ethnic and religious minorities, no matter what they’re passed to do.

But it gets way worse. The “hooker-free Utopia” Farley wants to see take root in the U.S. is even more extreme than she’d let you know. In the case of Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, those nations have a documented constancy of homosexual rape in both social and penal circumstances, as well as anti-gay murders for anyone who isn’t “discreet” about same-sex contacts.

Sex diary, sex tip and Best Sex Writing 2012 West Coast and NYC tour dates

A lot of info all at once, and at the bottom, some art I loved at the Milwaukee Art Museum, where I want to go back and spend hours upon hours, it was so incredible, and up top, Valentine's Day appropriate, neon hearts at the restaurant Elsa's in Milwaukee. I'm back, but am planning a return trip to Milwaukee when it's warmer. $98 flight on Frontier Airlines and so much awesomeness. You can read about my erotic writing workshop at Northwestern in The Daily Northwestern. I also did one at The Tool Shed, which has an amazing selection of sex toys.

This week's sex diary involves a busted Hitachi Magic Wand, foreign guys and bad communication, and an expat exploring a new city. (I'm the editor; if you want to write an anonymous sex diary, email me at sexdiaries at nymag.com)

I gave a Valentine's Day sex top to Blisstree.

And in April I'll be going on what is probably one of my last proper book tours unless I suddenly win the lottery or write some kind of blockbuster, so I'm going all out, to old favorites like Powell's, which deserves its own essay about the piece that's only in Best Sex Writing 2012 because of Powell's, Elliott Bay, and Booksmith, and Bookshop Santa Cruz, where I've never been, and the bookstore where I spend the most money and score the most incredible finds, Housing Works. There will also be assorted interviews along the way and hopefully a cupcake meetup in Seattle and attending theater and I'm also reading at Writers With Drinks April 14th. But these are the Best Sex Writing 2012 events, where I'll get to meet a lot of my contributors. And do readings with Susie Bright! See you there. Whether you can or can't make these if you've got a blog, I'd love to have you join the March virtual book tour for Best Sex Writing 2012. These dates are left - email bestsexwriting2012 at gmail.com with "Tour" in the subject and include your URL and mailing address and you'll be assigned a date. Thank you!



Free cupcakes at all readings!

April 6, 7:30 pm
Powell's, 1005 W. Burnside, Portland, Oregon
Free and free cupcakes! Featuring editor Rachel Kramer Bussel and contributors Tim Elhajj, Kevin Sampsell and Lidia Yuknavitch. 503-228-4651.
Facebook invite

April 7, 7 pm
Elliott Bay Books, 1521 10th Avenue, Seattle, WA
Free and free cupcakes! Featuring editor Rachel Kramer Bussel and contributors Kevin Sampsell and Lidia Yuknavitch. 206-624-6600.
Facebook invite

April 9, 7 pm
Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco
Free and free cupcakes! Featuring editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, guest judge Susie Bright and local contributors Greta Christina, Tracy Clark-Flory and Thomas S. Roche. 415-863-8688.
Facebook invite

April 12, 7:30 pm
Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Free and free cupcakes! Featuring editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, guest judge Susie Bright, and local contributors. 831-423-0900.
Facebook invite

April 25, 7 pm
Housing Works Bookstore, 126 Crosby Street, NYC
Free and free cupcakes! Featuring editor Rachel Kramer Bussel and contributors Ellen Friedrichs, Lynn Harris, Amanda Marcotte, Joan Price, and Rachel Rabbit White. 212-334-3324.
Facebook invite

Milwaukee Art Museum art:


Nancy by Chuck Close - more info below, and the Nancy Graves piece was adjacent to it




Object Disguised 4 Times by Nancy Graves


St. Dionysus by Kehinde Wiley




Bluffs by Tara Donovan (made of buttons!)


There was sun, snow and water right out the window, and it was beautiful. And below is what I saw when I looked up.



This greets you when you either look down from street level, or right when you walk in from the parking garage:

Pre-order this: Best Sex Writing 2012!

As I posted on Twitter, when you pre-order a book, you're both buying your single copy and signaling to the store that there's so much interest in the book that they should stock up. Whether that's Amazon or your local indie bookstore or wherever, every little bit helps, and more than any of my other books, this is the one that I'm most proudest of and that I think will hold up in ten or twenty years. As timely as some of the pieces are, unless our entire culture changes into a sex-positive one, we will be facing dealing with "sluts," homophobia, insane sex scandals and more well into the future, and these thinkers have some profound things to say about these topics. Also, I'll link to the Kindle and Nook editions as soon as they're for sale (probably January 10th), but this book will be in stock by the end of December at stores, probably a little sooner. Basically, this is my 42nd book, and I'd say, if you've never read any of them, read this one. (Love the rest, but this feels like my best work and the book of mine I'd most want to take to a desert island.) A quick and easy way to help the book? Click "like" on its Amazon page!



It has an instant and powerful effect, and in an age when book publishing is, shall we say, a precarious profession, I strongly encourage you as book consumers to do so if you're sure you want to read the book. And, well, I don't think I need to do a hard sell on Best Sex Writing 2012 once you see the lineup below. It touches on culture, education, religion, the law, the military, New York City, circumcision, SlutWalk, butch femme, sex work, gender roles, sex scandals, monogamy and nonmonogamy, queerness and many other topics. It's a truly powerful collection I'm incredibly proud of and I hope you enjoy it too. I'm working on NYC, Seattle and Bay Area readings (possibly others, time/money/venue permitting).

Best Sex Writing 2012: The State of Today's Sexual Culture is a nonfiction anthology edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, with Susie Bright as guest judge, to be published by Cleis Press in January 2012. It is available for pre-order at Amazon (other links below). Email bestsexwriting2012 at gmail.com if you have any questions; to request a review copy, email Brenda Knight at bknight at cleispress.com. Stay tuned for details about the virtual book tour and readings in NYC, Seattle and San Francisco. For more information about the Best Sex Writing series, visit www.bestsexwriting.com.



Pre-order Best Sex Writing 2012:

Amazon

Kindle (coming soon)

BN.com

Nook (coming soon)

Powell's

Books-a-Million

IndieBound (find your local independent bookstore

Cleis Press

Table of contents:

When the Sex Guru Met the Sex Panic Susie Bright

Beyond the Headlines: Real Sex Secrets Rachel Kramer Bussel (see below)



Sluts, Walking Amanda Marcotte

Criminalizing Circumcision: Self-Hatred as Public Policy Marty Klein

The Worship of Female Pleasure Tracy Clark-Flory

Sex, Lies, and Hush Money Katherine Spillar

The Dynamics of Sexual Acceleration Chris Sweeney

Atheists Do It Better: Why Leaving Religion Leads to Better Sex Greta Christina

To All the Butches I Loved between 1995 and 2005: An Open Letter about Selling Sex, Selling Out, and Soldiering On Amber Dawn

I Want You to Want Me Hugo Schwyzer

Grief, Resilience, and My 66th Birthday Gift Joan Price

Latina Glitter Rachel Rabbit White

Dating with an STD Lynn Harris

You Can Have Sex With Them; Just Don’t Photograph Them Radley Balko

An Unfortunate Discharge Early in My Naval Career Tim Elhajj

Guys Who Like Fat Chicks Camille Dodero

The Careless Language of Sexual Violence. Roxane Gay

Men Who “Buy Sex” Commit More Crimes: Newsweek, Trafficking, and the Lie of Fabricated Sex Studies Thomas Roche

Taking Liberties Tracy Quan

Why Lying about Monogamy Matters Susie Bright

Losing the Meatpacking District: A Queer History of Leather Culture Abby Tallmer

Penis Gagging, BDSM, and Rape Fantasy: The Truth about Kinky Sexting Rachel Kramer Bussel

Adrian’s Penis: Care and Handling Adrian Colesberry

The Continuing Criminalization of Teen Sex Ellen Friedrichs

Love Grenade Lidia Yuknavitch

Pottymouth Kevin Sampsell

Beyond the Headlines: Real Sex Secrets Rachel Kramer Bussel

I think about sex a lot—every day, in fact. I don’t mean that in an “I want to get it on” way, but in a “What are other people up to?” way. I’m a voyeur, first and foremost, and this extends to my writing. I’m naturally curious about what other people think about sex, from their intimate lives to how their sexuality translates to the larger world.

With the Best Sex Writing series, I get to merge my voyeuristic self with my journalism leanings, and peek into the lives, public and private, of those around me. This volume in the series doesn’t pull any punches; the authors have strong opinions, whether it’s Marty Klein sticking up for circumcision in the face of an effort in California to criminalize it, Roxane Gay taking the New York Times to task for its treatment of an 11-year-old rape victim, Thomas Roche calling out Newsweek for its shoddy reporting about prostitution, or Radley Balko examining a child pornography charge.

There are also more personal takes on sex here that go beyond facile headlines or easy answers, that aren’t about making a point so much as exploring what real-life sex is like in all its beauty, drama, and messiness. Whether it’s Amber Dawn and Tracy Quan sharing the truth about their lives as sex workers, or Hugo Schwyzer explaining the damage our culture does to men with its mythology about their innate sexual prowess, or Tim Elhajj’s first-person account of pre–don’t ask, don’t tell military life, these authors show you a side of sex that you rarely see.

What you are about to read are stories, all true, some reported on the streets and some recorded from lived experience, from the front lines of sexuality. They deal with topics you read about in the headlines, and some topics you may never have considered. They are but a small sampling of the many kinds of sexual stories I received in the submission process.

Part of why I think sex never goes out of style, as a topic or activity, is that it is so very complex. There is no one way to do it, nor two, nor three. Sex can be mundane or mind-blowing, and for those who are trying to get from the former to the latter, there is a plethora of resources but also a host of misinformation purveyed by snake oil salesmen.

In Best Sex Writing 2012, you will read about subjects as diverse as “Guys Who Like Fat Chicks,” the care an handling of a man’s penis, and the glamour and glitter of the Latina drag world. Abby Tallmer, telling a story set in a very specific time and place—the gay leather clubs of New York’s Meatpacking District in the 1990s—manages to capture why sexual community is so vital, and why, I’d venture, those who lack such a community wind up mired in sex scandals. Tallmer writes, “These clubs gave us a place to feel that we were no longer outsiders—or rather, they made us feel that it was better to be outsiders, together, than to force ourselves to be just like everybody else.”

I’m especially pleased to present stories about the kinds of sexuality and sexual issues that don’t always make the headlines, from Lynn Harris’s investigation of dating with an STD to Hugo Schwyzer’s moving look at men’s need to be sexually desired and what happens when boys and men are told that that wanting to be desired is wrong. Joan Price gives some insight into elder sexuality, as well as into what it’s like to purchase the services of a sexual healer. The topic of elder sex is often treated with horror or disgust, or the focus is placed on concern over STDs—which is a worthy topic this series has explored before. But Price, author of two books on elder sexuality (her piece here is excerpted from Naked At Our Age), obliges the reader to see the humanity behind her age. She writes, “My birthday erotic massage from a gentle stranger changed something in me. It showed me that I was still a responsive, fully sexual woman, getting ready to emerge from the cocoon of mourning into reexperiencing life. I realized that one big reason I ended up on Sunyata’s massage table was so that I could get ready to reenter the world.”

Not all, or even most, of the reading here is “easy.” Much of it is challenging and heartbreaking. Roxane Gay’s media criticism centers on a New York Times story about a Texas gang rape and why “The Careless Language of Sexual Violence” distorts our understanding about rape. You may think such a piece doesn’t belong in an anthology with this title, but until we rid our world of sexual violence so that everyone can freely express themselves sexually, we need to hear searing indictments of media or those in power who ignore injustice.

As an editor, I’m not only looking for pieces that I agree with, or identify with, but for work that illuminates something new about a topic that’s been around forever. The authors here dig deep, challenging both mainstream ideas about sex and a few sex-positive sacred cows. Ellen Friedrichs sticks up for the right of teenagers to be sexual without throwing parents, school boards, and other adults into a sex panic. Amanda Marcotte explores the fast-moving SlutWalk protest phenomenon, which has garnered criticisms from various sides, from being futile to only appealing to white women.

I will quote Abby Tallmer again, because I don’t hear the words “sexual liberation” often enough these days. What moves me most about her piece is that you don’t have to be a New Yorker, queer, leather, or kinky to understand what she’s talking about. I’m 100 percent with her when she writes, “Back then, many of us believed that gay liberation was rooted in sexual liberation, and we believed that liberation was rooted in the right—no, the need—to claim ownership of our bodies, to experience and celebrate sexuality in as many forms as possible, limited only by our time and imagination.” I hope this applies in 2012 just as much as it did in the 1970s, 80s, or 90s.

The truth is, I could have filled a book twice this size. Every day, stories are breaking, and being told, about sex—some wondrous, some heartbreaking. This is not a one-handed read, but it is a book that will stimulate your largest sex organ: your brain. Whether you live and breathe sex, you are curious about sex, or somewhere in between, I hope Best Sex Writing 2012 informs, incites, and inspires you. I hope it inspires you to write and tell your own sexual story, because I believe the more we talk about the many ways sex moves us, the more we work toward a world where sexual shame, ignorance, homophobia, and violence are diminished.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this book and what you think are the hot topics around sex. Feel free to email me at rachel at bestsexwriting.com with your comments and suggestions for next year’s anthology.

Rachel Kramer Bussel New York November 2011

Susie Bright interview and slut-shaming article at Alternet

Heading to DC this weekend - excited for Momentumcon, but kindof wish this were a stay-in-NYC-and-be-warm-and-catch-up-on-scary-to-do-list weekend. That'll have to be next weekend, I supposed. Very behind but determined to put Best Bondage Erotica 2011 and my kinky couples anthology (deadlines today!) to bed before I leave for Seattle in two weeks. Or as damn close as I can get. I have this mantra on repeat kindof like "I think I can," but in my case it's "The perfect is the enemy of the good." In-fucking-deed.

I interviewed Susie Bright for SexIs Magazine about her memoir Big Sex Little Death.



I wrote "Slut Shame: Why Are We Still Attacking Women for Having Sex?" at Alternet.

I didn't write either headline.

My review: Big Sex Little Death by Susie Bright

My interview with Susie Bright should be up tomorrow at SexIs Magazine but in the meantime, my review of her new memoir Big Sex Little Death, available at Amazon and wherever books are sold. See susiebright.com for tour dates.



Big Sex Little Death is about some of the things you would expect from a Susie Bright memoir: her time at pioneering lesbian sex magazine On Our Backs, the feminist sex wars, politics and hypocrisy. But it's also about a lot of things you might not expect, things that revealed not just how she got to where she is now and the forces that shaped her, but the rift her parents' divorce caused inside her, and how it shaped her as a parent and person.

Bright starts off as a little girl trying to absorb what she can about her family, and to tolerate the wild mood swings her mother has, often with Bright as the object of her derision. It's almost easy to forget that she was ever that little girl when she so boldly takes on the status quo as a high school student with the newspaper The Red Tide. But Bright's vision is set on being part of real socialist organizing, and she drops out of school, argues her way into the IS, raises the money to get there by housecleaning and is even willing to stay after almost being beaten to death and facing extremely dangerous situations. To her the cause stands paramount, yet she is always questioning and observing those around her. There are moments that make one pause and think, "This happened in America?" Even for those of us who aren't under the illusion that the US is perfect, those are hard moments, but Bright manages to write about them, such as the racism at her department store job, with an eye for injustice and a belief that there are ways to change these injustices.

This is especially clear as she maps out the feminist culture at the time she was starting to sell vibrators at Good Vibrations and become part of On Our Backs. The clash between what women were being told they were supposed to be doing in the name of feminism and what women were exploring sexually provided for plenty of drama, and Bright is at perhaps her sharpest here, highlighting both the thrill of being part of something new and visionary as well as the death threats that came with it. During this time, Bright also becomes a mother and there are some very poignant observations about the credit she was given, by random neighbors and others who previously would have dismissed her, and how the process of becoming a parent helped her see that she was not doomed to repeat her mother's mistakes.

This book is admittedly not an attempt to document an exhaustive history of either The Red Tide, On Our Backs, or Susie Bright's entire life, and the stories she did choose to tell are illuminating. She doesn't lose that youthful spirit of wanting to shake things up that she had at sixteen, even in the face of ostracism from within the ranks of the IS or the lesbian or feminist worlds. She does, however, make choices she needs to to best protect herself and her family. This is a powerful book that will, perhaps, leave you unsettled...in a good way. The writing is so rich, too (she describes Andrea Dworkin as "Like arguing with Freud but being happy he was taking you for a ride.), and Bright is clearly not just rehashing the same old stories. The final chapters, in which she is served with papers, there's a murder and Bright grapples with motherhood, are particularly dramatic, but there is a gracefulness to Bright's words, one that doesn't mute any of the horror of the details she's revealing, but that in fact leaps off the page. It highlights the reality that truth is stranger than fiction and certainly makes the book go out with a bang. A fascinating read whether you're familiar with Bright's book or not, whether you share her political beliefs or not; this is a memoir about finding companionship as well as fierce opposition among the rebels, and figuring out when to stand one's ground and when to find new ground to stand on.

Call for Submissions: Best Sex Writing 2012

This is not part of the “official” call but I’d really love to see pieces that are not by “sex writers,” but by comedians or comedy writers, other kinds of artists, scientists, etc. – people who deal with sex in their fields (or personal lives). To me its vastness as a subject is what makes sex continually interesting, so please, spread the word wide and far. The deadline is looking (May 1st) but I hope this reaches all sorts of fascinating people. I highly encourage you to check out the previous editions (these links go to the pages for those books, or see more information at www.bestsexwriting.com) of the series to get a feel for the types of work we are looking for, but anything nonfiction about sex is applicable. For tables of contents and introductions, see: Best Sex Writing 2008, Best Sex Writing 2009 and Best Sex Writing 2010.

And click here for the illustrious list of past contributors to all the editions (I didn't edit Best Sex Writing 2005 or 2006).

Call for submissions: Best Sex Writing 2012
To be edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, selected by guest judge Susie Bright, author of Big Sex Little Death
Publication date: December 2011
Deadline for submissions: May 1, 2011 (earlier submissions welcomed!)

Editor Rachel Kramer Bussel is looking for personal essays and reportage for inclusion in the 2012 edition of the Cleis Press series Best Sex Writing, which will hit stores in December 2011. Any non-fiction writing covering the topic of sex will be considered.

I like work that looks at sex in new and unusual ways (see Stacey D'Erasmo's "Silver-Balling" in Best Sex Writing 2009 for a prime example, as well as “It’s a Shame About Ray” by Kirk Read and “Sexual Outlaw” by Betty Dodson in Best Sex Writing 2010), that challenges us to think about sex and our own sexuality, is thought-provoking and possibly disturbing. I want sex journalism that's found in the most unexpected places and is as topical as possible.

No fiction or poetry will be considered.

Previous editions of BSW have featured authors such as Brian Alexander, Violet Blue, Susannah Breslin, Betty Dodson, Stephen Elliott, Gael Greene, Paul Krassner, Judith Levine, Michael Musto, Scott Poulson-Bryant, Mary Roach, Tristan Taormino, Virginia Vitzhum, and others.

Requirements: For reprints, story must have been published (or is slated to be published) between August 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011, online and/or in print (book, magazine, zine or newspaper) in the United States. Original, unpublished work is also welcome.

Authors:

Please send your double-spaced submission (1,500-4,000 words) as a Word document or RTF attachment to bestsexwriting2012 at gmail.com – you may submit a maximum of TWO pieces for consideration. You MUST include your full contact information, a 50-word or less bio, and previous publication details for reprints.

Include your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, and exact publication details (title of publication, date of publication, and any other relevant information). Only send work you own the licensing rights to.

Editors:

Submit up to three submissions from their publication, following the guidelines above. Provide the author's contact information available upon request.

Email address (for queries and submissions): bestsexwriting2012 at gmail.com
Payment: $100

Deadline: May 1, 2011 (earlier submissions welcomed and encouraged)
You will receive an email confirming your submission; after that you can expect to hear back from me by August 2011.

Rights bought:
Author hereby grants Editors, during the first term of the United States copyright, and any renewals thereof, in the “Work”:
a. The non-exclusive right to "publish" (i.e. print, publish, and sell) the Work as part of the Book in book and digital form in English in the United States and its territories; and
b. The non-exclusive right to "publish" and license the Work as part of the Book in book and digital form in English in other countries; and
c. The non-exclusive right to license translate and publish the Work as part of the Book in book and digital form in languages other than English in all countries.

Rachel Kramer Bussel (www.rachelkramerbussel.com) is an author, editor, blogger and event organizer. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations, sex columnist for SexIs Magazine, and has edited 38 anthologies, including Gotta Have It, Surrender, Best Bondage Erotica 2011, Orgasmic, Fast Girls, Spanked, Bottoms Up and Best Sex Writing 2008, 2009 and 2010. She hosted In The Flesh Reading Series from 2005-2010 and writes for a variety of publications about sex, dating, books and pop culture.

Susie Bright (http://susiebright.com) is the author of the national bestsellers Full Exposure and The Sexual State of the Union, as well as The Best American Erotica and Herotica series, which ushered in women’s erotic publishing. She the host of Audible’s In Bed With Susie Bright, the longest-running sex-ed show in the history of broadcasting. She was co-founder and editor of On Our Backs magazine, and was the first journalist to cover erotic cinema and the porn business in the mainstream press. A progenitor of the sex-positive movement, Bright taught the first university course on pornography, and brought lasting sexual influence to her role in films like Bound and The Celluloid Closet. Her latest book is the memoir Big Sex Little Death.

$2.20 buys you sex writing tips from me, Susie Bright, Stephen Elliott and Rachel Resnick

If you missed me, Susie Bright, Rachel Resnick and Stephen Elliott talking sex writing at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books (or just want to relive it), there's audio available for $2.20 on Amazon (I did not know we were being taped). It was such a blur because of the whole LA ride thing (I'm going back next month for the West Hollywood Book Fair but am gonna station myself early in WeHo somehow) and running around being interviewed for the radio that I dashed in and must've looked like a madwoman but I think it was a fascinating panel and was honored to be asked, and also impressed with the free event, which had a food section, outdoor stuff for kids, and was my first chance to meet the wonderful Jillian Lauren.

Sex writing panel today at UCLA, LA Times Festival of Books and Coco de Mer lust

I went to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
I'm impressed that there are signs all over to use the hashtag #latfob on Twitter and to log in on Foursquare:



I really enjoyed AWP, and BEA is my favorite part of the year, but there is really something to be said for a festival that is so welcoming of anyone. You don't need special knowledge of the authors, don't have to be up on all the latest literature. The room was packed for Memoir: All The Single Ladies yesterday, featuring Amy Alkon (I See Rude People), Julie Klausner (I Don't Care About Your Band), Giulia Melucci (I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti, which has a blurb by Mario Batali!) and Sascha Rothchild, whose memoir How To Get Divorced by 30: My Misguided Attempt at a Starter Marriage I bought and am enjoying. (She signed it, "Congrats on avoiding these steps!") I live Tweeted a lot of it so won't recap it all now.

From the Facebook invite I made, but apparently John Freeman is stranded by ash, sadly. Just go to the Ticketmaster booth at UCLA and tickets are totally free, no service charge. Love that. Panel is today, April 25, 3-4 pm. After, I'll be signing copies of The Mile High Club: Plane Sex Stories.

Panel at LA Times Festival of Books. Code: 2034. Moderated by Rachel Resnick (Love Junkie). Panelists: Susie Bright (Bitten, X: The Erotic Treasury), Rachel Kramer Bussel (Please, Sir), Stephen Elliott (The Adderall Diaries), John Freeman (editor, Granta). Free but must get ticket. See http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/program-schedule/sunday-panels/#franz for more information.

Speaking of Granta, I swooned over the entirety of New York's Coco de Mer store at their sex issue release party. See all my photos here. Follow @Cocodemerusa on Twitter for special events and news.




Yes, Sir and Spanked were in the most gorgeous displays I've ever seen, complete with beautiful paddles.


Rulers, all the better to spank you with my dear...




I'd be hard pressed not to want to lick anyone wearing this stuff! It comes in an elegant bag with a risque quote on it and smells like coconut and fig and is meant to be for the bath but you can just wear it and smell edible all the time!


pussy lover plate

I'm not here

I'm not really here, at least, until Blogger gets an iPhone app. Find me all over the internet but especially (though maybe not this week before I head to LA for the LA Times Festival of Books) at my oversharey probably overdone Tumblr. I'll be back with the Please, Sir: Erotic Stories of Female Submission book trailer (with music by Partyline!) very soon. In absolute deadline hell so blogging takes a backsheat, as well it should.

LA Times Festival of Books tickets go on sale today. My panel, Hot Off The Press: Writing About Sex is this Sunday, April 25, 3 pm, moderated by Rachel Resnick featuring me, Susie Bright, Stephen Elliott and Granta editor (!! have you seen their vagina purse sex issue cover?) John Freeman. Looking forward to it; Saturday is also the book fair and...the Grilled Cheese Invitational! If I get on my flight and make it through the week...you never know with a girl like me.

In the meantime, a great review of Peep Show: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists.



From the review:

Peep Show is a scorching hot read. Usually in anthologies or story collections, there is one or two bad reads, but that is not the case for Peep Show.

I enjoyed most stories in this collection but some of my favorites were:

Showtime by Susan St. Aubin
Clean and Pretty by Donna George Storey
Busted by Kissa Starling
Indecent by Lolita Lopez
People in Glass Hotels by Jennifer Peters
I've Only Got Eyes for You by Rachel Kramer Bussell
Audience Participation by Elizabeth Coldwell

This is a great book if you love to watch, want to watch, fantasy about being watched or want to be watched. Peep Show takes readers into both sides of the story, people who love to watch and people who love to be seen. Rachel Kramer Bussel did an excellent job selecting stories that not only complimented each other, but also showed off the hot and sultry exhibitionist and voyeuristic worlds. Peep Show is a book that will get you hot and bothered. It is an irresistibly, naughty read that entertains.

Free at In The Flesh February 18th: I Dare You by Susie Bright

Yes, one lucky winner will take home I Dare You: 30 Sealed Seductions by Susie Bright next Thursday...



It's a beautiful little box put out by Chronicle Books, with mini envelopes where Susie Bright has written dares like:

TELL ME...

an erotic fantasy you have
that gets you off just thinking about it--
but that you would never do in real life,
under any circumstances.

Hot, right? The whole thing is hot - check it out. It's also for sale on Amazon.



IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
LOVE AND LUST NIGHT
February 18, 2010 at 7:30 PM - note early start time (doors at 7)
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey or F/V to 2nd Avenue, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Between Forsyth & Eldridge. Look for the hot pink awning that says "XIE HE Health Club."
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://www.inthefleshreadingseries.com

Published authors from New York, Portland and London offer up their post-Valentine's Day take on Love and Lust at In The Flesh Reading Series. Join Jami Attenberg (The Melting Season), Michelle Churchill (I Thought I Grew Up), Julie Klausner (I Don't Care About Your Band), Michael Musto (Village Voice gossip columnist, author, Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back), Suzanne Portnoy (The Not So Invisible Woman), Kevin Sampsell (A Common Pornography: A Memoir), Rakesh Satyal (Blue Boy) and Justin Taylor (Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever). Hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Best Sex Writing 2010, Peep Show). Authors' books will be available for sale. Cupcakes by Baked by Melissa will be served.

In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the country's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. The series was named Best Reading Series by New York Press in 2009. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Since its debut in October 2005, In the Flesh has featured such authors as Laura Antoniou, Mo Beasley, Susie Bright, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Mike Daisey, Stephen Elliott, Valerie Frankel, Polly Frost, Gael Greene, Andy Horwitz, Debra Hyde, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Edith Layton, Logan Levkoff, Suzanne Portnoy, Sofia Quintero, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Grant Stoddard, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, Dana Vachon, Veronica Vera, Susan Wright, Zane and many others. The series has gotten press attention from the New York Times’s UrbanEye, Escape (Hong Kong), Flavorpill, The L Magazine, New York Magazine, New York Observer, Philadelphia City Paper, Time Out New York, Flavorwire, Gothamist, Jezebel.com, Nerve.com and Wonkette, and has been praised by Dr. Ruth.

Jami Attenberg is the author of the short story collection, Instant Love, and two novels, The Kept Man, and The Melting Season, which is forthcoming from Riverhead Books in January 2010. She has contributed to a number of publications, including The New York Times, New York, Print, Salon, and Nylon, as well as the anthologies Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone and Love is a Four-Letter Word: True Stories of Breakups, Bad Relationships, and Broken Hearts. jamiattenberg.com



Rachel Kramer Bussel is an author, editor, blogger and reading series host. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and a former sex columnist for The Village Voice. She’s edited numerous anthologies, two of which (Up All Night and Glamour Girls) have been Lambda Literary Award finalists, most recently The Mile High Club: Plane Sex Stories, Do Not Disturb: Hotel Sex Stories, Best Sex Writing 2009, Tasting Him, Tasting Her, and Spanked. Her writing been published in publications such as Clean Sheets, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast, Fresh Yarn, Huffington Post, Mediabistro, Newsday, New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Tango, The Village Voice, and Time Out New York, and in over 100 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006. She has hosted In The Flesh since October 2005.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com


photo by Hilary McHone

Michelle Churchill is an author, blogger and real estate maven. Her first book, a memoir entitled I Thought I Grew Up, was released in May 2009. On Barnes & Noble’s web site Rising Star List and consistently in the Top 500 in Women’s Biography, I Thought I Grew Up is an Award-Winning Finalist in the National Best Books 2009 Awards. She is a single woman living, loving and working in New York City. Michelle is working on her first novel.
michellechurchill.com



Julie Klausner is a comedy writer and performer whose first book, I Don't Care About Your Band, from Gotham Books, will be released in February of 2010. She's appeared in many shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, and on VH1’s Best Week Ever, where she was also a staff writer. She has written for Saturday Night Live’s “TV Funhouse” and The Big Gay Sketch Show, and her prose has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, McSweeney’s, Salon, Videogum, and others.
julieklausner.com


Michael Musto writes the popular “La Dolce Musto” column in The Village Voice as well as the breathless blog “La Daily Musto” on villagevoice.com. He’s a regular commentator on shows like Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Theater Talk, and is celebrating the release of his fourth book, a collection with some new essays called Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back.


photo by Ivylise Simones

Suzanne Portnoy is a London based erotic memoirist and the author of The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker and The Not So Invisible Woman. Her stories have been published in Ultimate Decadence (XCite Books), Scarlet Magazine and Desire. An entertainment publicist for fifteen years, when not writing about her own sex life, she can usually be found accompanying celebrities to store openings or taking one of her two teenage boys to football practise. She once had a portfolio of lovers but recently has settled down with one.
suzanneportnoy.com



Kevin Sampsell has been the publisher of Future Tense Books since 1990. His fiction has been published widely in literary journals like LIT, McSweeney’s and Opium, and on popular sites like Nerve and Failbetter. His non-fiction essays and reviews have appeared in various newspapers and magazines. His books include Beautiful Blemish and Creamy Bullets as well as his latest work, A Common Pornography: A Memoir (HarperPerennial). He works as Small Press Champion (his actual title) for Powell’s Books. He lives in Portland, Oregon.


photo by Barb Klansnic

Rakesh Satyal is the author of the novel Blue Boy, a gender-bending comedy about a young Indian American boy's fascination with the Hindu god Krishna. He is an editor at HarperCollins, where he works with such authors as Paulo Coelho, Clive Barker, Armistead Maupin, and Paul Rudnick. A member of the planning committee for the annual PEN World Voices Festival, he sings a popular cabaret show in the city. He lives in Brooklyn.
rakeshsatyal.com



Justin Taylor is 26 years old. He is the author of Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever (HarperPerennial). His fiction and nonfiction has been published by n+1, The Nation, The Believer, Brooklyn Rail, Slate, NPR, Time Out New York, and Best American Essays 2007, among many other journals, magazines and websites. In 2007 he edited acclaimed short fiction anthology The Apocalypse Reader, compiling new and selected stories about the end of the world; and guest-edited an issue of McSweeney’s (#24), for which he produced “Come Back, Donald Barthelme,” a symposium on the author’s life and work. He co-edits The Agriculture Reader and is a regular contributor to HTMLGiant: The Internet Literature Magazine Blog of the Future. He teaches at Rutgers and is at work on his first novel.

You will hear from the following books:


The Melting Season by Jami Attenberg


Peep Show: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel


I Thought I Grew Up by Michelle Churchill


I Don't Care About Your Band: What I Learned from Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Felons, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters, and Other Guys I've Dated by Julie Klausner


Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back by Michael Musto


A Common Pornography: A Memoir by Kevin Sampsell


Blue Boy by Rakesh Satyal


Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever by Justin Taylor

The best endorsement In The Flesh could ever get

And it touches me more than I can say. From the one and only Susie Bright, who I was SO honored to have at the series in February, and hers was the only time we opened up the upstairs and downstairs. via Huffington Post

I have read and performed at hundreds of venues, all over the world— and in terms of sheer class, generosity, and author-happiness, the only producer who comes close to Rachel, is the British Film Institute. And they don't have cupcakes.

Women don't know how to write about sex says female editor of The Erotic Review

I'm planning to write more about this, but in case you missed Kate "women can't write about sex" Copstick, the new editor of The Erotic Review, check out Tracy Clark-Flory's piece at Broadsheet, where she quoted me, debauchette, Lux Alptraum, Tracy Quan, and Susie Bright, and Jezebel nailed Copstick's ridiculousness and gave a sweet plug to In The Flesh (this Thursday, free cupcakes/sex toys/books!).

And to be fair, here is one of the exact quotes:

I think women, too many of them, whether it's nature or nurture or politics, they're not straightforward about sex.

Remittance Girl had this to say:

It's not that men and women write about sex differently. I've read male erotica writers who are all about context, all about emotion. I've read women writers who are about nothing more than scratching the itch. Every writer brings their own understanding of sex to the table when they write about it. The best ones can suck you into a glimpse of their sexual space and turn you on there.

Dinosaurs like Copstick need to go away. This isn't about gender, and it hasn't been for years. And that the magazine doesn't even has on online edition of its own speaks volumes about the stuck-in-the-seventies mentality resident there.

Adventures in book covers: Bitten and In Praise of Indecency

forthcoming from Chronicle Books


forthcoming from Cleis Press (actually found this one looking up Susie Bright on Amazon)

Susie Bright inspired by In The Flesh to strip naked in subway car

Susie Bright rocking her tiara in February 2009 at In The Flesh; photo by Stacie Joy

If this isn't a ringing endorsement from the one and only Susie Bright, I don't know what is!

I have not told Martha, or anything else, but her storytelling inspired me. I had a real New York moment that night, after I said goodbye to her and all the other authors.

The reading ended around midnight. I needed to get to the upper West Side from our bar in Chinatown. I was in a strapless evening gown, heels, a tiara. I stepped out onto Canal Street to get a cab, and the wind was howling. February, 20 degrees. Icy rain.

I could not get a cab to save my life. I motivated through sheer rage and flew into the first subway staircase I could find. I don't know the NYC subway system well. This was a "J." What the fuck. I had no idea where it went, but I was sure I could get uptown.

Once I was underground, I looked at the platform and realized... I was alone. I've never been alone on a City subway platform. It wasn't quiet, but it was soundless from "people noise." Incredible.

The train came. I knew I had to go one stop to Chambers, then transfer to a Green line. One Stop.

I was still quite alone— the only person in my J-car, speeding from Canal to Chambers. I became convinced that I could take off ALL my clothes and change into the jeans, sneakers, and t-shirt I had hidden in my tote bag.

After all, if Martha Garvey can describe getting handcuffed and fucked on a lonely Broadway night, surely I could have a brief moment of total nudity and clothes-struggling.

I did it! I was completely composed and dressed like a boring gym rat by the time I stepped off the train.

The car was warm and there was a moment when I wondered what would happen if I just sat there naked for the whole ride. Probably nothing. I took refuge in the thought that people would think I was simply a "crazy old lady." I'm not young enough to look like I'm doing it for commercial gain!

This is in response to the fabulous Martha Garvey, who was a reader at, I believe, the very first In The Flesh, reading from her story "Night Train" in Susie's gorgeous, strokeable (sp?), amazing Chronicle Books anthology X: The Erotic Treasury.

In case you missed Susie Bright at In The Flesh, watch her here

In case you missed the one and only Susie Bright last month at In The Flesh, here we have her reading from her erotica story "The Best She Ever Had" from the new Chronicle Books anthology X: The Erotic Treasury, as well as part of her Q&A about appearing on Six Feet Under. And just for you: her scene on Six Feet Under!

And of course be sure to join us for our outstanding lineup on March 19th, with the usual free cupcakes and candy!

Susie Bright reads her story "The Best She Ever Had" at In The Flesh Reading Series:



Susie Bright talks about appearing on Six Feet Under at In The Flesh Reading Series:



Susie Bright, bong wrangler, on Six Feet Under:



Read "The Best She Ever Had" in X: The Erotic Treasury.

2/19 (TONIGHT): The Biggest In The Flesh Ever

If you've never been to In The Flesh, or have and liked it (or even have and didn't like it), you SO don't want to miss tonight's extra-special massive lineup and special guests Susie Bright and Maxim Jakubowksi. We've also got 80 mini Sugar Sweet Sunshine cupcakes, Ferrer Rocher chocolates, candy cane cookies, mini peanut butter cups, chips and giveaways galore (including sex toys)! We'll go from 7:30-10.

Questions: email me at rachelravenous at gmail.com (fastest email to reach me)

See you tonight!

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
SUSIE BRIGHT NIGHT
February 19th at 7:30 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey or F/V to 2nd Avenue, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://inthefleshreadingseries.blogspot.com





The legendary author, editor, activist and sexual provocateur Susie Bright joins us from Santa Cruz, California to celebrate her beautiful new hardcover anthology X: The Erotic Treasury (Chronicle Books), which includes a story set at In The Flesh which you will hear! Joining Susie will be contributors Paula Bomer, Ernie Conrick, Martha Garvey, Nicholas Kaufmann, Tsaurah Litzky, Marcelle Manhattan, Lisa Montanarelli, Chelsea Summers and host/curator Rachel Kramer Bussel (Best Sex Writing 2008, Spanked). Special guest Maxim Jakubowski, editor of the Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica, also joins us from London. Note special start time (for February only): 7:30 pm. Doors open at 7. Arriving early is highly recommended. Books will be available for sale by Mobile Libris. There will be a Q&A with Susie and book signing after the reading.

In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Since its debut in October 2005, In the Flesh has featured such authors as Laura Antoniou, Mo Beasley, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Stephen Elliott, Valerie Frankel, Polly Frost, Gael Greene, Andy Horwitz, Debra Hyde, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Edith Layton, Logan Levkoff, Suzanne Portnoy, Sofia Quintero, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Grant Stoddard, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, Dana Vachon, Veronica Vera, Susan Wright, Zane and many others. The series has gotten press attention from the New York Times’s UrbanEye, Escape (Hong Kong), Flavorpill, The L Magazine, New York Magazine, New York Observer, Philadelphia City Paper, Time Out New York, Gothamist, Nerve.com and Wonkette, and has been praised by Dr. Ruth.

Susie Bright is the editor of X: The Erotic Treasury as well as the author and editor of multiple best-sellers on the themes of sexual politics and erotic literature, including The Best American Erotica series, Full Exposure, and The Sexual State of the Union. She blogs on sex and politics every day at susiebright.com ad hosts the weekly audio show In Bed with Susie Bright at Audible.com
susiebright.com

Rachel Kramer Bussel is an author, editor, blogger and reading series host. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and a former sex columnist for The Village Voice. She’s edited numerous anthologies, most recently Best Sex Writing 2009, Tasting Him, Tasting Her, and Spanked. Her writing been published in publications such as Clean Sheets, Cosmopolitan, Fresh Yarn, Huffington Post, Mediabistro, Newsday, New York Post, Penthouse, San Francisco Chronicle, Tango, and Time Out New York, and in over 100 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006. She has hosted In The Flesh since October 2005.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com

Paula Bomer is a writer from South Bend, Indiana who now lives in New York. Her fiction has appeared in Best American Erotica 2002 and 2003, Nerve, Open City, Fiction, The Mississippi Review, The First City Review, The New York Tyrant, juked, Storyglossia, Word Riot and elsewhere.
www.paulabomer.com

Ernie Conrick is the penname of Richard Connerney, a religions and philosophy scholar who recently returned from India as a Phillips Talbot Fellow studying the influence and impact of religion on Indian life and society. He is the former senior editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and the author of Safe in Heaven Dead. One of his previous erotic short stories, “The Queen of Exit 17,” was published in The Best American Erotica, and had the distinction of being Hunter S. Thompson’s favorite story from the series.

Martha Garvey’s fiction has been published in The Best American Erotica, Exhibitions, Glamour Girls, Strange Pleasures 3, Salon, Clean Sheets, Bust, and November 3rd. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times and Killing the Buddha. She is also the author of two pet health books, My Fat Dog and My Fat Cat.

Maxim Jakubowski is a writer and ex-publisher who lives in London. He edits and pens erotica, being responsible for The Mammoth Book of Erotica series and several novels and short story collections including recently American Casanova, Fools for Lust and Confessions of a Romantic Pornographer, and the Rome Noir anthology being published in the USA this week. In civilian life, he is better known for his crime and mystery books and runs London's annual TCM Crime Scene festival, as well as being a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper. He has been known to frequent hotel rooms and has no website. Read into that what you will.

Nicholas Kaufmann is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of General Slocum's Gold and Walk in Shadows, and the editor of Jack Haringa Must Die!, a fundraising anthology benefiting the Shirley Jackson Awards. His short fiction has appeared in Cemetary Dance, The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 3, City Slab, The Best American Erotica 2007, Playboy, X: The Erotic Treasury, and elsewhere. Nick lives in Brooklyn.
www.nicholaskaufmann.com

Tsaurah Litzky writes erotic fiction because she has a perpetual case of steamy stockings. She hopes her stories will steam your stockings, too. Tsaurah's erotica has appeared in over sixty-five publications including Best American Erotica eight times. Simon & Schuster published The Motion of the Ocean, Tsaurah's erotic novella as part of Three the Hard Way, a series of erotic novellas edited by Susie Bright. Her prize-winning course "Silk Sheets: Writing Erotica" is now in its eleventh year at the New School in Manhattan. She has recently completed a collection of short stories, End Of The World Sex.
www.tsaurahlitzky.com

Marcelle Manhattan launched the popular blog "Sexegesis" in 2007, combining sexuality with gender politics. She first appeared at In the Flesh as a spectator, and later as a reader with "Shaved," something of a hit on YouTube. Marcelle is currently on blogging hiatus while working on a novel version of her blog, and can also be seen bi-monthly at Bar On A with the comedy writers' troupe "Inner Monologues." She holds an M.A. in Literature but dropped out of her Ph.D. to write smut, among other things, in New York City.
sexegesis.blogspot.com

Lisa Montanarelli's erotic fiction has appeared in Best American Erotica 2004, Best American Erotica 2005 and Whipped, among others. She has co-authored three nonfiction books, including The First Year – Hepatitis C: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed, which she revised and updated in 2007. She also holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from U.C. Berkeley.
www.LisaNY.com

Finding herself uninspired to write her doctoral dissertation, Chelsea Summers began writing her award-winning blog (prettydumbthings.typepad.com) in March 2005. Since then, her work has appeared in GQ, Penthouse, and Singular magazines in the United States and in Scarlet, a couple magazines in the UK, on a bunch of big websites, and in several erotic anthologies. Currently, Chelsea is working on a novel and a host of other projects. Chelsea lives and writes in glamorous New York City. She has gleefully abandoned the world of academia for the writing life.