Are sex scenes really so hard to write, or are we thinking about them the wrong way? What can a sex scene do? How can it achieve psychological complexity on the page? How can it communicate emotional history? How can it move the plot forward? What can it reveal about a character? About a relationship?
In this four-week generative class, we’ll expand the idea of what an erotic scene can entail as well as consider the power of the sex scene and what it can accomplish in fiction and nonfiction to explore theme, character, context, subtext, psychology, and beyond. We’ll do this by closely reading examples of sex writing from prose writers and poets alike, including work by James Baldwin, T Kira Madden, Garth Greenwell, Isle McElroy, Miranda July, Justin Torres, and more; and then doing various prompts using our works-in-progress and/or drafting new work.
