“Loosen up that id, mister!”

I picture an “erotic writing workshop” as a combination of high school sex ed and a visit to the hot tub with the orotund and libidinous literature professors played by Will Ferrell and Rachel Dratch on Saturday Night Live – ridiculously arch and lubricious at the same time. But what do I know?

Erotic Writing with Mitzi Szereto at the 2004 Cheltenham Festival of Literature

For the first-time ever, the world-famous Cheltenham Festival of Literature in the historic spa city of Cheltenham, England will be taking the plunge by hosting critically acclaimed author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto for one of her popular erotic writing workshops. This trendsetting writer and editor is credited with putting the erotic writing workshop on the map in the UK and Europe, and has conducted them in locations from the Lake District to the Greek islands. Mitzi will also be available to sign copies of her new releases Foreign Affairs: Erotic Travel Tales and Celia Collection, available from the Cheltenham Ottakars and other booksellers. Spaces are limited, so book early to avoid disappointment.

Date: Saturday, Oct. 9, 2004

Time: 2 to 5 p.m.

Location: Isbourne Foundation, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Cost: £16

To book: email: [email protected]

Festival website

Mitzi Szereto has several books to her credit, including the critically acclaimed Erotic Fairy Tales: A Romp Through the Classics, Foreign Affairs: Erotic Travel Tales, Erotic Travel Tales 1 and 2, highway; and as M. S. Valentine, the Celia Collection, The Governess, The Martinet, The Captivity of Celia, The Possession of Celia, and Elysian Days and Nights . The pioneer of the erotic writing workshop in the UK and Europe, this transplanted Californian is a well-known fixture on the interview circuit, appearing frequently on television and BBC radio. She also travels in academic circles, presenting papers on erotica at conferences throughout the UK. Always outspoken and often controversial, she’s earned a reputation as the author and editor who has put the “literature” back into erotic literature. Her previous anthology, Erotic Travel Tales 2, is the first collection of erotica to feature a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Hey, if you’re in the neighborhood and want to bone up on sexy scribblings, why not?