With less than a week to go before Ladyfest Ten, we found out a bit more about the Read Dirty To Me event…

Tell us about yourself and your work?

The idea for Read Dirty initially came up at the beginning of this year. Laura J had just launched her adult photography website The Itch, Laura T had recently completed a degree in English literature and was working as a musician. Josephine was in the midst of writing a dissertation about William Burroughs.

Consequently, sex, pornography, sensuality, bodies and gender were very much on the forefronts of our minds, and many discussions were had about the fusion, co-existence and significance of sexuality in high and low art.

Working on the Read Dirty event gave us an opportunity to bring together our individual areas of expertise and create a stimulating event and environment where we invited others to join in and bring their talents and opinions to the table.

What can we expect from your event at Ladyfest Ten?

We’re interested to see how literature-loving and -creating women today write and feel about their sexual and sensual self. For Ladyfest Ten, we asked our writers to recall classic feminine roles, such as the mother, temptress, virgin or whore, and think about their contemporary counterparts.

One of the main aims of Lit at Ladyfest Ten is to promote and celebrate writing by women. What advice would you give to women finding it tough to carve out their own niche?

If you’re passionate about what you do, keep carving! Anything else will feel like bowing to defeat and will not fulfill you.

What has your experience been as a woman working in your field?

We’ve found it helpful to have a wide network of open minded and creative people available in London. Within those communities, where gender and sexuality aren’t set in stone but open to be questioned and played with in an intelligent way, gender seems less confining.

How important is sex, sexuality and gender to you and your writing?

It’s a core piece. We believe that sex, sexuality and gender are fluid attributes, free to be discussed, explored, and thrown over board if necessary. This, of course, doesn’t contradict the fact that they are categories by which people are judged in a very basic way.

Going against the grain and refusing to take on the sex/sexuality/gender attributed by society is still considered an affront. For this event, we’ve encouraged writers to be as creative, queer and subversive as they wish, offering a platform to women of all genders.

For our audience who might not be able to make it to Ladyfest Ten, what authors and projects are you into at the moment that they can investigate instead?

We’re really into Kitty Stryker’s blog and the events she helps put on, and Jen Calleja is involved in some great projects. We also had the pleasure of young poet extraordinaire Jack Underwood reading at our last event.

One of our favourite queer spaces/event organisers are Queer Invisible Academy. Last but not least, read Karley Sciortino’s blog, it’s rude, bold, sex-positive and not to be missed.

Thanks to Laura J, Laura T and Josephine – even more great projects for us to explore! The Read Dirty To Me event (featuring Dani Malone) takes place this Saturday 13th November as part of the Lit at Ladyfest Ten programme. There’s still time to book your tickets!

Post by Alex Herod