with Maxim Jakubowski and Stella Duffy

20-22 November 2009

at Faber and Faber
Bloomsbury House
74-77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DA

Course cost: £450 / €505 (inclusive of VAT)

Literary erotica has become a thriving genre, what with the success in recent years of the Catherine Millet’s memoirs, Italian author Melissa P., Charlotte Roche’s Wetlands, the writings of Michel Houellebecq, Adam Thirlwell, and many others. It has, of course, a worthy heritage going back to Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, The Story of O etc …

More importantly, integrating writing about such a common activity as sex has become a dilemma for all writers: how explicit should one be? Where do you draw the line between eroticism and pornography, exploitation and observation? Why is there such a veil of privacy and self-censorship around an activity that is so integral to everyday life?

The Faber Academy course on erotic writing will try to answer some of these questions, study the history of the genre, and examine the dos and don’ts of writing about sex.

Set over three days at the home of Faber and Faber in the heart of literary Bloomsbury, the course will be conducted by writer and editor Maxim Jakubowski, whose Mammoth Book of Erotica series is now in its 14th year and whose own books have proven controversial. He will teach alongside acclaimed author Stella Duffy.

Details at:
www.faber.co.uk/article/2009/5/faber-academy-erotica-course