title: Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex
author:  Ellen Sussman 
description: Author Sussman compiled this quasi-reference book as a corrective for not getting the "facts of life" talk that her brother received. The result is an often riveting, and occasionally shocking, essay collection that does much more than define 94 sex-related terms. With close to 100 writers (including Thomas Beller, Antonya Nelson, Pagan Kennedy, Jonathan Ames and poet Stephen Dunn), there's a huge range of styles and sensibilities. The pseudonymous writer tackling "adultery" admits to cheating on his girlfriend with his wife: "six months in and who's to tell whom you're horny for anymore?" Meredith Maran's essay on "bisexuality" has a surprise ending for all involved: Maran reveals her bisexuality to her husband at the very moment she first recognizes it herself. Some essays are romantic; Victoria Redel's impressionistic entry for kissing begins with the delicious line, "The first surprise of your mouth and mine." Some are goofy-Bret Anthony Johnston revives the old what's-your-porn-star-name parlor game-and some are actually fiction-like Lucy Ferriss's brief one-act play script, "Mile High Club"-but most are surprisingly straightforward and entirely unconcerned with shock value, even regarding the terms too dirty to print here. <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: ![](Images/cover00117.jpeg)
  
  A  
  DIRTY  
  WORD
  
  A  
  DIRTY  
  WORD
  
  HOW A SEX WRITER  
  RECLAIMED HER SEXUALITY
  
  STEPH AUTERI
  
  ![](Images/image00116.jpeg)
  
  Copyright © 2018 by Steph Auteri.
  
  All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine,
  radio, television, or online reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced
  in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
  or recording, or by information storage or retrieval system, without
  permission in writing from the publisher.
  
  Published in the United States by Cleis Press, an imprint of Start Midnight,
  LLC, 101 Hudson Street, Thirty-Seventh Floor, Suite 3705, Jersey City, NJ
  07302.
  
  Printed in the United States
  
  Cover design: Allyson Fields
  
  Cover photograph: iStock
  
  Text design: Frank Wiedemann
  
  First Edition
  
  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
  
  Trade paper ISBN: 978-1-62778-276-0
  
  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62778-277-7
  
  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
  
  To my mom, wh