According to Pulitzer Prize finalist Luis Alberto Urrea, it’s not just the subject of writing that’s sexy, but also the sensual experience of reading itself. “Literature is an erotic experience in a lot of ways,” Urrea says, “no matter who or what you read. Just think, our work goes to bed with you at night, bathes with you, is held close to your heart. You warm the pages with your breath, it’s a very personal thing.”
Rachel Dewoskin / Photo: Anne Li
“Beyond Lolita: Literary Writers on Sex and Sexuality” brings together several nationally-recognized Chicago area writers for a night of discussion hosted by Women & Children First at the Swedish American Museum on November 5. The event benefits the PEN America’s Writers’ Emergency Fund, which provides grants for published writers in financial crisis. The participating authors are passionate thinkers who will touch on topics including teen sexuality, LGBT culture and more, making for a thought-provoking evening.
Audrey Niffenegger
This remarkable panel promises to be both entertaining and intellectually rewarding. It will put award-winning and best-selling authors — Rachel DeWoskin (“Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China”), Audrey Niffenegger (“The Time Traveler’s Wife”), Megan Stielstra (“Once I Was Cool”), Luis Alberto Urrea (“The Devil’s Highway: A True Story”), and Cyn Vargas (“On The Way”) — in conversation about how sex and sexuality in literature impact their craft, the work of others and our culture.
Megan Stielstra
Chicago is the first stop, followed by panels in Los Angeles, Portland, Brooklyn and Cambridge. The series, organized and moderated by Anna March, whose work appears in The New York Times, New York magazine and Salon.com, was inspired by years of working through sex and sexuality in her own writing.
To March, it is important that honest conversations about sex happen, and vital that they happen out loud. “I wanted to talk more openly, more broadly and publicly,” March explains, “…writers conversing in public about ideas and craft is a great notion, one that we don’t get enough of these days.”
Luis Urrea / Photo: Joe Mazza
Furthermore, March wants to combat repressive sexual attitudes through dialogue. “I think sexual shame makes us sick as a people,” March says. She tells me she hopes the event will spur more writing on sex, and ideally encourage others to start public discussions.
The panel also presents an opportunity to explore how sex blends the personal and the political. Megan Stielstra explains that this sort of conversation is critical in the current political climate: “…A female state representative from Michigan was barred from saying the word vagina. A male senator from Missouri thought women’s bodies could shut down rape. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are being killed in horrifying numbers because of who they are. This ridiculous lack of information about sex and sexuality is being used to legislate, to control, to harm. We have to talk about it.”
Cyn Vargas
Certainly, the conversation will be intellectually enriching, but attendees should know that its concerns won’t only be scholarly. Stielstra’s interest in examining stories about sex and sexuality grows from a hearty enjoyment of erotic literature. She shares, “…first things first: I want to read hot stuff.” Stielstra’s and others’ interest in writing about sex and sexuality is ultimately grounded in an enthusiastic enjoyment of great stories, an enjoyment that no doubt will spread to all who attend. (Catlyne Lasser)
November 5, The Swedish American Museum, 5211 North Clark, (773)769-9299, 7:30pm, free.
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