A discussion on writing about sex and sex in literature with authors Karen Abbott, Douglas Carlton Abrams, Melanie Abrams, Mary Roach, and Ellen Sussman.
Bio
Karen Abbott
Karen Abbott worked as a journalist on the staffs of Philadelphia magazine and Philadelphia Weekly, and has written for Salon.com and other publications.
She is the author of Sin in the Second City.
Melanie Abrams
Melanie Abrams, wife of writer Vikram Chandra, is a novelist and creative writing teacher at the University of California, Berkeley. Her first novel, Playing, was published by Grove/Atlantic Inc. in spring 2008 under their Black Cat imprint.
Douglas Carlton Abrams
Douglas Carlton Abrams is a former editor at the University of California Press and HarperSanFrancisco. He is the co-author of a number of books on love, sexuality, and spirituality, including books written with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar, and Taoist Master Mantak Chia.
He is the co-founder of Idea Architects, a book and media development agency, which works with visionary authors to create a wiser, healthier, and more just world. In his life and work, he is interested in cultivating all aspects of our humanity body, emotions, mind, and spirit.
Mary Roach
Mary Roach is the author of the national bestsellers Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, and Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void.
Her writing has appeared in such publications as Salon, GQ, Vogue, and the New York Times magazine.
Ellen Sussman
Ellen Sussman's anthology, Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave, was published by W.W. Norton in July, 2007. She is the author of the novel, On a Night Like This, (Warner Books, 2004) which became a San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller and has been translated into six languages.
Ellen teaches private classes in the San Francisco Bay area.
In discussing the definition of great sex, authors Mary Roach, Ellen Sussman, and Douglas Carlton Abrams agree that the "best sex" is had between long-term partners.
Roach and Abrams believe that emotions, not mechanics, define great sex.
Authors Douglas Carlton Abrams and Karen Abbott, authors who write on sex and sexuality, share the reactions of family members and friends after having read their books.