Head’s up for Seattle-area readers: Rachel Kramer Bussel will be appearing with friends at Elliott Bay Book Company tonight, Tue, 02/23/2010, at 7:00pm. They’ll be reading from Rachel’s new anthology Best Sex Writing 2010

February being a month when eros is on the calendar, if not in the air (Valentine’s Day, Carnival, and more), editor Rachel Kramer Bussel being here to read from and discuss the anthology, Best Sex Writing 2010 (Cleis) is particularly apt. She is senior editor at Penthouse Variations, is the former “Lusty Lady” columnist for The Village Voice, and runs a New York City erotica reading series, “In the Flesh.” She also did the hard work of putting together an anthology that embraces many different takes on sex and sensuality—which adds to the pleasures of this book. Reading with Rachel Kramer Bussel tonight are two local contributors to the anthology, Michelle Perrot and Janet Hardy.

The Elliott Bay Book Company
101 S. Main St.
Seattle, Washington 98104

I like Rachel’s “Best Sex Writing” series. There’s nothing wrong with erotica either, of course, and Rachel’s no slouch when it comes to editing those. This series covers more of the nuts and bolts of sex, of coping with, say, complications of sex while pregnant or nursing, the contradictions of sex education in purity ball culture, the commonalities of political sex scandals, or the factors condom manufacturers must juggle to make their products safe, effective, and marketable.

Janet Hardy, who will be reading with Rachel, is co-author of the classic (and recently-revised) The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships & Other Adventures.

Michelle Perrot is a pen name for Kerry Cohen, a therapist, writer, mother of an autism-spectrum child, and author of Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity.

If I can possibly make it I will. I hope you can make it too.

Update: I’ll be there. I’m looking forward to it.