Electric Literature's 2023 Spring Salon Series is presented by Mount Saint Mary's University.

All events are pay-what-you-want, and proceeds support Electric Literature, a 501c3 nonprofit with the mission to make literature more exciting, relevant, and inclusive.

In a time when women’s bodily autonomy is under renewed legal attack, narratives about ungovernable female desire take on new urgency. As our laws regress, more and more contemporary fiction is pushing back against outdated beliefs regarding writing about sex, giving female horniness the central focus it deserves.

Our panelists Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties and In the Dream House), Rebecca Rukeyser (The Seaplane on Final Approach), and Lillian Fishman (Acts of Service) began this conversation during a packed panel at AWP, but found that there was still so much to say about bodies, lust, and publishing. Now Electric Literature is continuing the conversation for free, online. Whose desire gets to be depicted, and how are narratives about lust molded by society’s judgments? And how do authors navigate the vulnerable process of publishing explicit work?  Moderated by Alyssa Songsiridej, author of Little Rabbit and managing editor at Electric Literature. Their discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A.

Lillian Fishman’s first novel, Acts of Service, was one of The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2022.

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, The Believer, Guernica, and elsewhere.

Rebecca Rukeyser is the author of the novel The Seaplane on Final Approach. She teaches fiction writing at Bard College Berlin.

Alyssa Songsiridej is the author of Little Rabbit, a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the PEN/Hemingway award. A 2022 National Book Foundation 5 under 35, she is also the managing editor at Electric Literature.

Horny Between the Covers: Women Writers on Lust