There’s still time to enter our AROUSE: Erotica Writing Contest! For this year’s contest, the stakes are higher than ever before: The winner will receive $1000; runner-up will receive $500; and the first-, second-, and third-place authors will each get to take home something wonderful to assist them with pleasure. OH FUCK, yesssssssss. 

We get it, it’s a daunting genre to jump into. That’s why we hosted two free erotica writing workshops earlier this summer (led by the one and only Tamara Faith Berger). Due to popularity, we’ve decided to add a THIRD workshop on August 15 so that you can get those creative juices flowing.

For those who haven’t flipped through pages scribed by Tamara and felt a tingle, you really ought to check out her work. Here’s a teaser to get you acquainted:

Tamara Faith Berger’s career as a writer started with pornographic fiction for XXX-rated magazines. Lie With Me, Tamara’s first novel, was published in Canada in 2001. Balancing her writing on the thin line between erotica and porn, Tamara’s second novel, The Way of the Whore, was released in 2004. Maidenhead, published by Coach House Books, was released in March 2012. It won the Believer Book Award and was also nominated for an Ontario Trillium Award. Little Cat—a re-release of Lie With Me and The Way of the Whore—was published by Coach House Books in 2013. Tamara published an erotic novella, Kuntalini, in 2016 with artist Paul Chan’s New York imprint Badlands Unlimited. Her most recent novel, Queen Solomon, was published by Coach House Books in 2018 and nominated for an Ontario Trillium Award. Tamara has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.

To ensure the safety and comfort of everybody in attendance, the workshop is only open to women (self-identified), transgender, genderqueer/non-binary. We welcome writers of all levels, so don’t worry if you’ve never done anything like this before. We’re all capable of using words, rhythm, and storytelling to arouse.

The workshop takes place Thursday, August 15 at Stag Shop (271 Queen Street West). RSVP now.

You still have a few weeks to enter the contest. C’mon, turn us on!