Dena Hankins | |
---|---|
Born | December 1, 1975 |
Occupation | Novelist and short story author; Sailor |
Alma mater | University of Washington |
Genre | LGBTQ Romance and Erotica |
Website | |
denahankins |
Dena Hankins (born December 1, 1975) is an American novelist and short story author, best known for queer and transgender erotic romance. Her short stories have been published in several erotica anthologies, including Best Lesbian Romance of the Year 2015 edited by Radclyffe.
Hankins' work is part of a growing trend to feature queer romance that is outside of the "issues" books that were once more common. [1] Publishers Weekly called her novel Blue Water Dreams, featuring a love story between a queer cisgender woman and a transgender man, an "exciting debut", [2] and Lambda Literary Review included Blue Water Dreams among "new and noteworthy" LGBT books. [3] Literary blog Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews [4] chose Blue Water Dreams for inclusion in its "Best of 2014" top ten list. The American Library Association found her book to be "well within the expectations of the romance genre, albeit with an aypical male lead." [5]
Hankins' second novel, Heart of the Lilikoi, features an erotic romance between a cisgender lesbian construction contractor and a masculine genderqueer solar energy scientist in the midst of sabotage, murder, and the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. [6] Publishers Weekly called Heart of the Lilikoi an "intriguing contemporary", "strong and satisfying" with "intensely vivid erotic encounters". [7]
Lysistrata Cove, published in September 2016, is a romance within a tale of high seas adventure while examining questions of artistic autonomy within the U.S. music industry. It includes a BDSM relationship between a trans masculine sea captain and a polyamorous queer superstar chanteuse. [8]
Hankins studied English literature at the University of Washington Seattle, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1998. The following year she bought a boat with her partner, photographer James Lane, and began living aboard full-time. The couple sailed their small craft from Seattle to San Francisco, then across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. [9] After a year living in Kerala, India, they returned to the United States to purchase a new sailing vessel and traveled the East Coast of the United States from Virginia to Maine. [10] A Cruising Editor for The Waterway Guide, Hankins is certified to sail and charter intracostal waterways with a 50-ton Master License by the United States Coast Guard. [11] Hankins chronicled her "Around the World in 80 Years" traveling adventures as well as pieces from her growing body of literary work at her blog, Sovereign Nations. [12]
Before launching her writing career Hankins worked for eight years as a sex educator with Babeland, a Seattle-based feminist sex toy store. [13] In 2001 she was featured on HBO's Real Sex #26 as a demo model for a Babeland cunnilingus workshop. [14]
Novels:
Short Story Fiction:
Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of eros intended to arouse similar feelings in readers. This contrasts erotica, which focuses more specifically on sexual feelings. Other common elements are satire and social criticism. Much erotic literature features erotic art, illustrating the text.
Cleis Press is an American independent publisher of books in the areas of sexuality, erotica, feminism, gay and lesbian studies, gender studies, fiction, and human rights. The press was founded in 1980 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It later moved to San Francisco and was based out of Berkeley until its purchase by Start Media in 2014. It was founded by Frédérique Delacoste, Felice Newman and Mary Winfrey Trautmann who collectively financed wrote and published the press's first book Fight Back: Feminist Resistance to Male Violence in 1981. In 1987, they published Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry by Delacoste with Priscilla Alexander.
Babeland, until 2005 known as Toys in Babeland, is a sex toy boutique offering erotic toys, books and pornographic films. Babeland has an online store and four retail stores.
Connie Wilkins is an American author of lesbian themed science fiction and fantasy erotica published under the title Wild Flesh. Wilkins is based in Massachusetts.
Radclyffe is an American author of lesbian romance, paranormal romance, erotica, and mystery. She has authored multiple short stories, written fan fiction, and edited numerous anthologies. Radclyffe is a member of the Saints and Sinners Literary Hall of Fame and has won numerous literary awards, including the RWA/GDRWA Booksellers' Best award, the RWA/Orange County Book Buyers Best award, the RWA/New England Bean Pot award, the RWA/VCRW Laurel Wreath award, the RWA/FTHRW Lories award, the RWA/HODRW Aspen Gold award, the RWA Prism award, the Golden Crown Literary Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. She is a 2003/04 recipient of The Alice B Readers Award for her body of work as well as a member of the Golden Crown Literary Society, Pink Ink, and the Romance Writers of America. In 2014, the Lambda Literary Foundation awarded Barot with the Dr. James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist award acknowledging her as an established author with a strong following and the promise of future high-quality work. In 2015 she was a featured author in the award-winning documentary film about the romance writing and reading community, Love Between the Covers, from Blueberry Hill Productions. In 2019 she was named a Trailblazer in Romance by the Romance Writers of America, for her works of LGBTQ+ fiction. In 2021, she was named one of The Advocate's Women of the Year.
Circlet Press is a publishing house in Cambridge, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It was founded by Cecilia Tan, who is also its manager. It specializes in science fiction erotica, a once uncommon genre, and its publications often feature BDSM themes.
Rachel Kramer Bussel is an American author, columnist, and editor, specializing in erotica. She previously studied at the New York University School of Law and earned her bachelor's degree in political science and women's studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
Women's erotica is any erotic material that caters specifically to women target-demographic of various sexual preferences. When erotica is specifically directed at lesbians, it is referred to as lesbian erotica. Women's erotica is available from a variety of media including video games, websites, books, comics, short stories, films, photography, magazines, audio, anime and manga. The content may cover many aspects of sexuality, from relationships to fetishes; the main idea being to convey sex-positivism from a woman's perspective, or to feature female empowerment and sexual fantasies.
Judy Francesconi is an American photographer who concentrates on black-and-white fine art photography of lesbian women.
Alison Tyler is the pseudonym of an American author, editor and publisher of erotica living in Northern California. She has authored over 20 explicit novels, hundreds of short stories and has edited more than 60 erotic anthologies. She runs her own publishing company, Pretty Things Press . Tired of getting mixed up with the porn actress with the same name, she now blogs on Patreon as Alison Trollop.
Violet Blue is an American journalist, author, editor, advisor, and educator.
Solace Ames is an American writer specializing in erotic fiction. She has also written under the pen name Violetta Vane.
Riverdale Avenue Books, located in Riverdale, Bronx, New York, is a publisher of e-books, print books on demand and audiobooks founded in 2012 by Lori Perkins. Riverdale is a member of the American Association of Publishers and publishes between 50 and 75 books a year.
LGBTQ romance is a genre within gay literature and romance fiction focused on same-sex characters who fall in love and have a homosexual or homoromantic relationship. The genre has met with increasing acceptance and sales from the 1980s onward. Bussel, in Publishers Weekly, notes that as of 2020, presses that specialize in LGBTQ romance, mainstream publishers, and booksellers are expanding their offerings and inviting a more diverse authorship.
Rebekah Weatherspoon is an American author and romance novelist. Her books often feature heroines who are Black, plus-size, disabled, and/or LGBTQ. She founded the website WOC in Romance. Weatherspoon received a 2017 Lambda Literary Award for her novel Soul to Keep and was an honoree at the inaugural Ripped Bodice Awards for Excellence in Romance Fiction for Xeni.
Tiffany Reisz is an American author. She is best known for the Original Sinners series of erotica and she has won the RITA Award and a Lambda Literary Award.
Holley Trent is an American romance fiction author who writes with speculative fiction elements. Her books have queer characters and themes.
Angelina M. Lopez is an American romance author living in Houston, Texas.
Adriana Herrera is an author of romantic fiction and erotica. She was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and now resides in New York City.