The Skinny
Kink: Stories by R.O. Kwon & Garth Greenwell
Erotica can get a bad, Fifty Shades of Grey rep, but Kink showcases the beauty of libidinous words in a brilliant anthology of short fiction
★★★★★ Book title: Kink: Stories Author: R.O. Kwon (Editor) & Garth Greenwell (Editor)
The crack of a crop against soft skin in a dark dungeon, or the aggressive hate-fuck between lesbian and male friend, or the rough sex to mask the mental pain of an unspooling relationship, or the sharp snap of scissor play. You can take your pick from the riches splayed across the pages of
What Is Kink?
A new collection of stories edited by R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell explores the line between good taste and desire fulfilled.
LUCA SOLA/AFP/Getty Images
Kink is a new collection of short fiction edited by the novelists R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell, including contributions from both. It’s a tasting menu of real variety, with flogged bottoms and lust-drunk tops mingling with vanilla straights nervously trying out their first slap.
The title is the theme: kinky sex. Roxane Gay’s story “Reach” is a delicate recipe for domination, for example, its narrator lingering over details like chopping onions before fucking her partner “over the kitchen counter so that she can taste their bite and cry without cause.” In Zeyn Joukhadar’s “Voyeurs,” a neighbor spies on a suburban queer couple having sex, transforming himself into the freak, despite claiming to find them disgusting and abnormal.
A celebration of our recent issue, Mizna: Queer + Trans Voices, featuring sixteen authors from the issue.
On January 17th, we’re celebrating our most recent issue Mizna: Queer + Trans Voices in abundance! This virtual reading features SIXTEEN authors, Dina Abdulhadi, Rasha Abdulhadi, Kamee Abrahamian, Danielle Badra, Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, Michael Chang, Tarik Dobbs, Hazem Fahmy, Carissa Halston, Ghinwa Jawhari, Mena Kamel, Nour Kamel, Aiya Sakr, Omar Sakr, Mejduline B. Shomali, and Fargo Tbakhi, whose works are published in the issue.
When: January 17, 12 noon to 2 pm Central Standard Time (UTC+6)
About Mizna: Queer + Trans Voices Wake up to the Trusted Mideast News source Mideast Daily News Email
Zeyn Joukhadar in Conversation with Liz Harmer The Media Line Staff
Author Zeyn Joukhadar, in conversation with Liz Harmer, will read from his new book and answer questions from the audience.
We are thrilled to have Zeyn join us at Cellar Door for a virtual conversation about his new novel
The Thirty Names of Night from many time zones away!
Zeyn Joukhadar is the author of the novels
The Map of Salt and Stars, which won the 2018 Middle East Book Award and was translated into 20 languages, and
The Thirty Names of Night. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in the anthology KINK (coming Feb 2021), Salon, The Paris Review, and elsewhere, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Joukhadar has received fellowships from the Montalvo Arts Center, the Arab American National Museum, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Camargo Foundation, and the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.
What books have most profoundly shaped how you serve and lead others for the sake of the gospel?
A handful of girlfriends and I memorized Colossians, plus a good chunk of Ephesians, a couple years ago. Getting those words into my heart and mind have had a huge effect on me. The supremacy of Christ in Colossians 1 is grounds for immeasurable comfort and joy. God’s grace displayed in these two letters has served as an antidote to self-centeredness and reminded me to be God-centered in my life, as well as in my serving and leading of others.
Along those same lines, reading John Piper’s