What the Body Holds: Its Shame and Its Pleasure

a discussion and reading with memoirist Isidra Mencos and fiction writer Leslie Kirk Campbell

Isidra Mencos and Leslie Kirk Campbell will discuss what drew them to writing books that investigate the topic of the female body. They will share ways women (themselves included) have felt shame about their bodies and how both societal expectations and abject repression (political, religious, and/or gender-based) affect womens’ attitudes toward their bodies—including how women may self-repress as a consequence of external oppression. Finally, they will broach how their protagonists came to a point of acceptance of their bodies, opening to pleasure. Each of these three topics will be illustrated with short readings from their books. The event will end with a Q & A with the audience. A reception, mixer, and book signing with light refreshments will follow.