Join us for an intimate literary event celebrating the art of writing about love, desire, and personal transformation. We’ll celebrate how exploring these themes—as a writer and reader—can help us find grounding during these chaotic, dark times. Featured writers are poet and blogger Liza Achilles, and pleasure coach and author Laura Zam. Liza will read from her book Two Novembers: A Memoir of Love ’n’ Sex in Sonnets and Laura from her book The Pleasure Plan. They’ll share not only a bit of their personal journeys, but also how they translated it into writing. Come for the love stories and stay for how you can apply the messages to your own life and pages.
Liza Achilles is the author of Two Novembers: A Memoir of Love ’n’ Sex in Sonnets (Beltway Editions, 2024). DCTRENDING selected this sonnet sequence for its Summer Booklist 2024. Her writing has appeared in Beltway Poetry Quarterly, The Headlight Review, Tofu Ink Arts Press, Brief Wilderness, The Big Windows Review, Burrow, Exacting Clam, Washington Independent Review of Books, and the Silent Book Club blog. The Blog for the Discerning Reader at lizaachilles.com, which features great modern books, attracts thousands of readers each month. She works as an author, book editor, small website designer, speaker, and blogger, and she lives near Washington, DC.
Laura Zam is an award-winning writer, speaker, Certified Sexuality Educator, Certified Trauma Professional, and workplace wellness expert. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times (Modern Love column), Salon, Huffpost, and many other media outlets. Laura is the author of The Pleasure Plan, a memoir about creating great sex in the aftermath of sexual violation, as well as “every hooha hang-up in the DSM.” This memoir is based on Laura’s one-person play, presented Off-Broadway. Laura’s next book is about finding sanity in a crazy world—using America’s tea houses. Laura is the host of the podcast Zam On Pleasure, which explores the power of everyday pleasure to boost joy, rejuvenation, and resilience. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Brown University.
This event is free but registration is required. Click here to register for the Zoom link.