The romance novel and representations of sexuality after #MeToo
Kate Cuthbert, at the time still managing editor for Escape Publishing (and now at Writers Victoria) presented this on the first morning of the conference. I had a severe migraine and unfortunately missed it. I say unfortunate because it was by all accounts a showstopper, and one of the highlights of the convention.
However it has been widely reported on a number of blogs and even in the Sydney Morning Herald, so I’ll link to some of those for people to read at their leisure.
My friend Renee Dahlia wrote about it on her blog.
Book Thingo (Kat Mayo) hosted a podcast with Kate and Jodi McAllister discussing the speech and other related topics.
Books and Publishing did a transcript: Consenting adults: Kate Cuthbert on the romance novel and representations of sexuality after #MeToo.
Sydney Morning Herald did an article which quoted and referenced it: Turning Pages: Romance and the influence of #MeToo.
Honestly, I could have (SHOULD HAVE) been right there in the room! Of all the sessions to miss due to a lousy migraine, why did this have to be the one? Given my passion for academic discussions of romance fiction and literature, I feel like I missed out on something that is going to be seen as a turning point in terms of genre fiction.
In other news, the image accompanying this article is a digital collage created by me to accompany this discussion.