Events

A panel discussion as part of the Oakland Book Festival. Free and open to the public. More information.

Sex work continues to simultaneously titillate and scandalize the ever seducible bourgeoisie. But behind the peephole sensationalism and the hand-wringing is a ruthless economy and an army of workers to whom both progressives and conservatives persistently condescend. This panel will address the politics and criminalization of sex work, and the deeper socioeconomic prejudices and misconceptions that deny such labor dignity.

ELIZABETH ALICE CLEMENT is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Utah, and a prominent scholar of prostitution and the ways it broadens our understanding of race, gender, and class.

MELISSA GIRA GRANT is a writer covering sex, tech, and politics. Her latest book, Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work, challenges the myths about selling sex and those who perpetuate them. She is a columnist at Pacific Standard, and her reporting has appeared in The Nation, Wired, The Guardian, Slate, Buzzfeed, and VICE.

RAMONA NADDAFF (moderator) is Associate Professor of Rhetoric at UC Berkeley and an editor of Zone Books. Author of Exiling the Poets: The Production of Poetry in Plato's Republic, she writes on philosophy and literature, and literary censorship.

Melissa is reading as part of Charlotte Shane's series, Bad Advice from Bad Women.

Join some of NYC’s finest strident writers for a special Emily Books edition of Bad Advice From Bad Women! Featuring Lana Del Rey poet laureate Niina Pollari, unapologetic coffee and TV addict Ruth Curry, heroin bard Jade Sharma, Zappos' favorite customer Chloe Caldwell, "not cold, just a New Yorker" Melissa Gira Grant, and bleak fame scholar Natasha Stagg. Hosted by laundry loving feminist failure Charlotte Shane.

Natasha Stagg published her first novel, Surveys, with Semiotext(e) / Native Agents this year. She is an editor and writer for several magazines in New York.

Ruth Curry is a writer and the cofounder of Emily Books.

Jade Sharma is a writer living in New York. Her first novel, Problems, was released in July of this year by CoffeeHouse & Emily Books. She has an MFA from the New School.

Chloe Caldwell is the author of the novella, Women and the essay collection Legs Get Led Astray. Chloe’s next essay collection, I’ll Tell You in Person, will release fall of 2016 from CoffeeHouse & Emily Books.

Niina Pollari is the author of Dead Horse (Birds LLC), which was named a "best independent book of the year" by Flavorpill.. She translated translated Tytti Heikkinen’s The Warmth of the Taxidermied Animal, She also wrote two poetry chapbooks, both now sold out: one called Fabulous Essential (Birds of Lace 2009) and one called Book Four (Hyacinth Girl, 2012). She also organizes the annual organize the POPSICKLE Festival, a day-long Brooklyn lit fest/reading at a different, nontraditional space each year.

Melissa Gira Grant is the author of Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work. She's a columnist for Pacific Standard, and her reporting and commentary has appeared in The Nation, The New York Times, BuzzFeed, VICE, Wired, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Dissent, among other publications.

Charlotte Shane is an essayist and author best known for her lyric personal writing, which garnered national attention when distributed in the form of her letters, now collected in the book Prostitute Laundry. The Guardian likened her work to Charles Dickens, and Vice has called it "addictive [and] intimate." She has contributed to many outlets including Matter, The New Inquiry, Pacific Standard, and Playboy, and is a columnist for Fusion.