Friday 9/4 Quickies = Sarah Palin erotica, sex toy stories, Sheia Levine, dominatrix memoir and more!

September 4, 7:30-8:30
QUICKIES: SHORT EROTICA
Readers have six minutes to turn you on with erotica and true sex stories. Featuring Jackson West reading Sarah Palin erotica, Melissa Febos reading from her dominatrix memoir Whip Smart, Madlyn March reading from the classic Gail Parent novel Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York (see cover below), comedian Kelli Dunham, erotica writer Michelle Robinson, TheFrisky.com columnist John DeVore, and Rocco Ernest Privetera. Hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Bottoms Up, Spanked, The Mile High Club). Free cupcakes from Baked by Melissa.
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, 21+ only
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676


Madlyn March will read two short scenes from this classic novel by Gail Parent, Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York.


plus 100 free cupcakes from Baked by Melissa

Kelli Dunham (www.kellidunham.com) is everyone's favorite ex nun dorky boi-girl comic. She is also the author of four books of humorous nonfiction and a contributor to numerous anthologies. Despite being almost middle-aged, she has never once waited for a bus at Port Authority without being challenged by the truancy police.

Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir Whip Smart, forthcoming from St. Martin’s Press in 2010. Her writing has been featured in The Southeast Review, Redivider, The Rambler, Storyscape Journal, Bitch Magazine, and Smut Magazine, among many others. She co-curates and hosts the Mixer Reading and Music Series at Cake Shop, and teaches at SUNY Purchase College and The Gotham Writers’ Workshop. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and lives in Brooklyn. More information about her can be found at melissafebos.com.

Madlyn March is the pseudonym of a Brooklyn journalist who has had articles published in The New York Post, Self, Time Out New York, Parenting, and AfterEllen, to name but a few. Erotica credits include First-Timers, Spanked, Ultimate Lesbian Erotica 2009, Do Not Disturb, and the e-book Love Notes.

Rocco Ernest Privetera started in NYC ten years ago doing comedy and theater, and now performs adult improv and tells his own ribald storytelling. He plays piano for friends comedy shows, enjoys scandalizing his siblings with filthy web videos and tells stories about the things that fascinate him: food, sex, science, and birds.

Michelle Janine Robinson is the author of three novels being published by Simon & Schuster; Color Me Grey, More Than Meets The Eye and Serial Typical. Michelle's short story "Mi Destino" was included in Zane's New York Times Bestseller Caramel Flava and her short story contribution "The Quiet Room" was the first featured story in the Times Bestseller Succulent: Chocolate Flava II. Michelle has contributed to other anthologies, such as Purple Panties, with the story she wrote titled “Hailey's Orgasmic Splendor” and Honey Flava with the story "The Flow of Qi. "Michelle is also a contributor to the oral sex-themed anthology, Tasting Him, with her story “A Tongue Is Just A Tongue,” edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel.

Jackson West is trying to get over himself and write more fiction. Until then, his non-fiction work and attempts at oversharing can be found on jacksonwest.com, a veritable firehose of online nonsense.

And look what you can win - so appropriately, we'll have a copy of Wicked Quickies to give away!

More Quickies: Short Erotica September 4, one hour

As you may know, Quickies is an offshoot of In The Flesh, held on Friday nights for a short sweet hour of 7:39-8:30. The next one is Friday, September 4th, kicking off Labor Day weekend, at Happy Ending Lounge, 302 Broome Street, NYC.

Readers include Jackson West reading Sarah Palin erotica, comedian Kelli Dunham, erotica writer Michelle Robinson, and blogger/writer Diana Vilibert.

Still booking readers - email a 6-minute sample to rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com if you're interested.

Free (21+) and free snacks!

Some In The Flesh favorites

I'm working on a list of ALL the readers I've had grace the In The Flesh stage since I started hosting th e seres in October 2005 (the one on this site is woefully out of date). And Susie Bright's footage should be up next week. As you wait for the March 19th reading, here are some of my personal favorite videos (we only started taping the readings in the last year and a half or so, sadly, because Jessica Cutler and Josh Kilmer-Purcell killed at the first True Sex Confessios Night in April 2006).


Jonathan Ames reads "Womb Shelter" from Sex for America: Politically Inspired Erotica edited by Stephen Elliott.


Samara O'Shea reads her very own erotic love letter from her book For The Love of Letters, and dazzles us with a tidbit of James Joyce's early 20th century erotic love letter masterpiece.


Cherry Bomb (aka "The Bad Girl of Burlesque") reads a hauntingly beautiful piece that I hope I someday get to publish, though spoken it's perfect.


Comedian (and "ex-nun" and "huge nerd") Kelli Dunham completely cracks us up.


Tracie Egan (of Jezebel fame) reads her rape fantasy article for Vice (that I reprinted in Best Sex Writing 2009. Part 1.


and part 2 of Tracie Egan reading her rape fantasy article.

Those are just a few of my favorites from the past 3+ years. What are yours?

November 20th = 3rd Anniversary reading! Free condoms and sex toys!

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
THIRD ANNIVERSARY BASH
November 20th at 8 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) - look for pink awning that says "health club"
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676

In The Flesh celebrates its third anniversary with a blowout night featuring drink specials, giveaways, and extra-steamy stories. This evening features an eclectic mix of erotic fiction and non-fiction this November, with novelist and screenwriter Trey Ellis (Home Repairs, Platitudes), novelist Francis Levy (Erotomania), David Henry Sterry (Master of Ceremonies author), comedians Kelli Dunham and Margot Leitman, Jincey Lumpkin (DigiRomp.com), and blogger Desiree. Hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Spanked, Tasting Him, Tasting Her, Dirty Girls). Free candy and cupcakes from Kumquat Cupcakery will be served and books and other prizes will be given away. $5 drink specials! Free condoms courtesy of Rachel Sarah and free sex toys courtesy of event sponsor Babeland will be given away while supplies last.

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, Philadelphia City Paper, Time Out New York, Gothamist, Nerve.com and Wonkette, and has been praised by Dr. Ruth. This is not Amanda Stern’s Happy Ending Reading Series.

Rachel Kramer Bussel’s most recent edited anthologies include Spanked: Red-Cheeked Erotica, Tasting Him, Tasting Her, Dirty Girls, Yes, Sir, Yes, Ma’am and Best Sex Writing 2008. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and wrote the popular Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Cosmopolitan, Gothamist, Mediabistro, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out New York, Velvetpark and Zink. She also co-edits the cupcake blog Cupcakes Take the Cake.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com

Desiree is a brainy, sexy, foodie, geeky, writer chick from New York. She lives in Brooklyn with her vampire cat Snarf and has always had an inclination toward the naughty. She never backs down from a Scrabble challenge and once scored seventy six points with the word "clitoris." She blogs about sex and life at www.baserinstincts.com. For general info on her antics or to find out where to read her stuff, check out www.desireemoodie.com.

Kelli Dunham (www.kellidunham.com) is a Fresh Fruit award-winning queer comic based in New York but is always traveling everywhere and never quite certain where she’s left her underwear. She has two comedy CDs to her credit: I am NOT a 12 Year Old Boy and Almost Pretty and is the author of four published books of light hearted nonfiction and a frequent contributor to humorous anthologies. She was been featured on Showtime’s Penn and Teller Bullshit and once taught a nun to masturbate.

Trey Ellis is a novelist, screenwriter, essayist and professor. He is the author of Bedtime Stories: Adventures in the Land of Single-Fatherhood (Rodale). His acclaimed first novel, Platitudes, was reissued by Northeastern University Press along with his influential essay, “The New Black Aesthetic.” He is also the author of Home Repairs and Right Here, Right Now which was a recipient of the American Book Award. His work for the screen includes the Emmy nominated Tuskegee Airmen, and Good Fences starring Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg which was shortlisted for the PEN award for Best Teleplay of the year. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, Playboy, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and Vanity Fair, among others and he has contributed audio commentary to NPR’s All Things Considered. His first play, Fly, was produced and performed at the Lincoln Center Institute. He is a regular blogger on the HuffingtonPost.com and Babble.com and lives in Manhattan with his two children where he is an Assistant Professor of Film at Columbia University.

Margot Leitman’s off beat, brutally honest, fearless comedy has earned her two ECNY “Best Female Stand Up” nominations and the “Joke of the Week” in Time Out New York. Margot now regularly appears as various characters, including the cult favorite Gynoblast on Late Night With Conan O’ Brien, in addition to appearances on VH1’s Best Week Ever, ESPN’s Cheap Seats, AMC, the Style Network, E!, Comedy Central, MTV and NBC Broadband. Most recently she can be heard as the voice of “Fox” on the new Spike TV cartoon The Team, as a featured comedian on Comedy Central.com’s “Weekly Evil,” and dancing in the current Mohegan Sun ad campaign. Every month she and Giulia Rozzi co-host the wildly popular, monthly, sex-themed storytelling show “Stripped Stories”. Margot has been featured in Glamour Magazine, and the books Fifty Dates Worse Than Yours and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Jokes. She has written online for the Lifetime Network, College Humor.com, EHow.com and in print for Playgirl Magazine. Her stories will appear in three different anthologies slated for publication in 2008/2009.
www.margotleitman.com



Erotomania is Francis Levy’s first published novel. He is a prolific fiction writer whose humor, essays, criticism, and poetry have appeared in a wide variety of publications including The Washington Post, New York Times, New Republic, Newsday, Village Voice, Penthouse, Travel & Leisure, Architectural Digest, The Journal of Irreproducible Results, and The Big Book of New American Humor.

Jincey Lumpkin, Esq. is a New York-based attorney and entrepreneur. She is the CEO of DigiRomp.com, the first lesbian social network for sharing erotic experiences. In addition to her burgeoning online business, Jincey also runs FashionLawyerBlog.com, a blog she covers current issues in Fashion Law. She writes erotic fiction both under her real name as well as the pen name, Virginie de la Montcagne. She hopes to expand her growing businesses while traveling the world.



David Henry Sterry is the author of Master of Ceremonies: a True Story of Love, Murder, Roller Skates and Chippendales, about being the MC at Chippendale's in New York in the cash-happy coke-crazy 80s. He also wrote Putting Your Passion Into Print, and as a book doctor has helped many writers become authors. His first book, Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent, is being made into a TV series by Showtime. Chicken, the 1-man show was named the #1 show in the UK. And yes, he was the ugliest man at Chippendales.
www.davidhenrysterry.com