May 20th is True Sex Confessions Night

In The Flesh logo by Molly Crabapple

There is no RSVP requirement, but if you'd like to RSVP and/or spread the word on Facebook, click here for the True Sex Confessions event listing. See also the In The Flesh Reading Series fan page on Facebook.

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
TRUE SEX CONFESSIONS NIGHT
May 20, 2010, 8 pm - 10 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)
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

True Sex Confessions is back! Featuring comedians Dave and Ethan, The New York Times Magazine reporter Benoit Denizet-Lewis (author of American Voyeur), David Ellis Dickerson (author of the memoir House of Cards), Rae Padilla Francoeur (author of the memoir Free Fall, A Late in Life Love Affair), Gina Frangello (author of the short story collection Slut Lullabies), comedian Ryan Paulson, Kathleen Rooney (author of the essay collection For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs). Hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Editor, Peep Show, Bottoms Up). Free Astroglide samples will be given out. Authors' books will be available for sale from Mobile Libris. 100 free copies of Sexis Magazine will be distributed and a $25 gift card to online sex toy retailer EdenFantasys will be raffled off. Free cupcakes by Baked by Melissa and chips, cookies and candy 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, NBC New York, New York Post, New York Observer, Philadelphia City Paper, Time Out New York, Flavorwire, Fork in the Road, Gawker, Gothamist, Jezebel.com, Nerve.com, Serious Eats, Tasting Table and Wonkette, and has been praised by Dr. Ruth.

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 over 30 anthologies, including the kink-themed Spanked, Bottoms Up, Yes, Sir, Yes, Ma'am, He's on Top, She's on Top, Rubber Sex as well as Peep Show, The Mile High Club: Plane Sex Stories, Do Not Disturb: Hotel Sex Stories, Tasting Him, Tasting Her, and the non-fiction Best Sex Writing series. Her books won 3 2009 Independent Publisher Awards. 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. Rachel conducts nationwide readings and erotic writing workshops. She has hosted In The Flesh since October 2005.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com


photo by Anya Garrett

Using ads on Craigslist and YouTube, best friends Dave and Ethan invited pairs of women to double date them. Two hundred dates later, their experiences have been translated into reenactments, educational songs, and valuable lessons in everything from dancing to kissing. Now, with a monthly show at the People’s Improv Theater, performances at various comedy clubs throughout New York City, and a national
college tour, they attempt to enlighten their audiences on the art of romance.



Benoit Denizet-Lewis is a writer with The New York Times Magazine who has authored memorable and controversial cover stories about teens and sex, men on the down low, fraternity boys, young gay married men in Massachusetts, and kids coming out in middle school (which one the recent GLAAD award for best magazine article of 2009). He is the author of America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in Search of a Life, about addiction in this country, and American Voyeur: Dispatches from the Far Reaches of Modern Life, which is a collection of his previously published writing about youth culture, gender, and sexuality. He lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.
www.benoitdenizetlewis.com/



David Ellis Dickerson is the author of a humorous memoir, House of Cards (Riverhead, October 2009), about his life as a geeky recovering fundamentalist writing greeting cards for Hallmark. He is a regular contributor to public radio's "This American Life," and hosts a videoblog called "Greeting Card Emergency," on YouTube, which has drawn the attention of such public radio shows as "Talk of the Nation" and "Studio 360." He is currently at work on his second book, which should probably be called Thank God For Public Radio, but won't be.
www.davidellisdickerson.com



Rae Padilla Francoeur is a journalist and editor. She is the author of Free Fall: A Late-in-Life Love Affair. She has managed a number of magazines and newspapers, and she writes book reviews, essays, nonfiction articles, short stories, and novels. She divides her time between Rockport, MA and Manhattan. Read more about Rae’s adventures at freefallrae.blogspot.com/.



Gina Frangello is the author of the novel My Sister's Continent (Chiasmus 2006) and the collection Slut Lullabies (Emergency Press 2010.) The longtime editor of the literary magazine Other Voices, she co-founded its book press, Other Voices Books, in 2005 and is now the Executive Editor of the press' Chicago office. She is also the Editor of the Fiction Section at The Nervous Breakdown. Her work has appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies including Homewrecker: An Adultery Journal (Soft Skull), Swink, StoryQuarterly, Blithe House Quarterly, Prairie Schooner and &NOW: The Best of Innovative Writing. She teaches at Northwestern University and Columbia College Chicago, and runs The Nervous Breakdown Literary Experience-Chicago reading series.
ginafrangello.com




Ryan Paulson is the performer and co-writer (with Virginia Scott) of two solo shows, "Ryan Paulson: I'm Uncomfortable" and "Pentecostal Wisconsin." He has performed "Pentecostal Wisconsin" in 11 cities across the US and Canada as well completing a run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. The show has received numerous nominations, including Best Comedy and Best Solo Performance at the Victoria Fringe Festival and Best Visiting Production by the Montreal English Critics Circle and was awarded Best Solo Performance at the Ottawa Fringe Festival. In reviewing "Pentecostal Wisconsin" Time Out New York wrote, "This categorically pitch-perfect one-man comedy has it all: music, character work, soul-searching, integrity, and honesty."
www.ryanpaulson.com



Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, and the author, most recently, of the memoir Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object and the essay collection For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs. She lives in Chicago.
www.kathleenrooney.com



Latest books by True Sex Confessions authors (some of which you will hear from at True Sex Confessions Night):


Please, Sir: Erotic Stories of Female Submission edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel


American Voyeur: Dispatches from the Far Reaches of Modern Life by Benoit Denizet-Liews


House of Cards: Love, Faith, and Other Social Expressions by David Dickerson


Free Fall: A Late-in-Life Love Affair by Rae Padilla Francouer


Slut Lullabies by Gina Frangello


For You, For You I Am Trilling These Songs by Kathleen Rooney