August 9
The Future of the Oldest Profession: Portrayals of Sex Work in SFF
- This event has passed.
About The Event
Via Glasgow Worldcon:
Stereotypes and myths abound around sex work, from the “hookers with a heart of gold” to universally trafficked underage addicts. Fiction, including genre fiction, has often fallen back on those stereotypes but has also been willing to subvert them, treating sex workers as the real, diverse people they are. Our panel considers the ways SFF writers have used sex work in their fiction, what that says about speculative fiction, and the best portrayals of sex work they recommend in SFF.
Part of our Glasgow After Dark series. 18+ only.
About the Speakers & Authors:
Liz Bourke (moderator) holds a Ph.D in Classics from Trinity College, Dublin. She’s written about SFF for Locus Magazine and Reactor Magazine (formerly Tor.com), among other places. Her first book, Sleeping With Monsters, a collection of reviews and criticism, was published in 2017 by Aqueduct Press. She lives in Ireland with her wife, an insomniac small child, and their two very put-upon cats.
Lauren Beukes is the award-winning South African author of six novels, a short story collection and NYT-best-selling graphic novels, including Zoo City which won the Arthur C Clarke Award and the Kitschies Red Tentacle, The Shining Girls, now a major AppleTV show with Elisabeth Moss, and, most recently, the reality-bending mother-daughter-dreamworm novel, Bridge. Her work has been translated into 25 languages and she’s also worked in kids animation, TV scriptwriting and directed an award-winning documentary.
Avery Delany is a small science fictional creature, and a lover of soft futures and obnoxious fictional men. They are a renegade PhD student where they were once doing research on video games, human/non-human relations and futurity. Avery is a member of the Beyond Gender collective, podcaster with Lore Party media, and an ex co-director of the London Science Fiction Research Community
Johannes T. Evans is a fantasy, romance, and horror author from the South of Wales, now living in Bradford, Yorkshire. As a gay, disabled trans man, he enjoys romances and character dynamics that go beyond the basic dynamic of boy meets girl and heterosexuality comes next. He writes a wide variety of characters and stories, most exploring themes of trauma, power dynamics, class, and sexuality.
Sarah Langan‘s an award-winning novelist and screenwriter. Her most recent novel, A Better World, is out now. She’s also the author of Good Neighbors, The Keeper, The Missing, and Audrey’s Door. She has an MS in Environmental Toxicology from NYU, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughters, and maniac rabbits.