Beyond Pleasure: What a Sex Scene Can Do with Mac Crane

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Editor's Note

Beyond Pleasure: What a Sex Scene Can Do with Mac Crane
Sunday, June 14
10 AM – 1 PM PST / 1 PM – 4 PM ET
Online

Are sex scenes really so hard to write, or are we thinking about them the wrong way? What can a sex scene do? How can it achieve psychological complexity on the page? How can it communicate emotional history? How can it move the plot forward?

In this generative class, we’ll consider the power of the sex scene, and what it can accomplish in fiction and nonfiction to explore theme, character, context, and beyond. We’ll do this by doing in-class readings of sex writing from prose writers and poets alike, including work by James Baldwin, Garth Greenwell, Isle McElroy, Miranda July, Justin Torres, and more, and then doing various prompts using our works-in-progress and/or drafting new work.

Scholarship
The scholarship for this intensive has already been awarded.

BIO: Mac Crane is a jock, sweatpants enthusiast, and the author of I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, which won the LAMBDA Literary Award in Speculative Fiction, was an Indie Next Pick, and was selected as a New York Times Editors’s Choice, and A Sharp Endless Need, which is a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist in Lesbian Fiction and was featured on the New York Times Paperback Row. Their debut short story collection, Perverts, comes out on July 7, 2026. They have served as faculty at the McCormack Writing Workshop, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, and Community of Writers and have received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers Conference, American Short Fiction, and Vermont Studio Center.