“Attention Is the First and Final Act of Love”

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Steve Almond’s Writs of Passion is “the best Valentine’s gift money can buy,” at least according to About.com (and us!).

About.com guide Corey Silverberg interviewed Almond about pleasure, emotional danger, and how to write sex scenes.

A preview:

…even if we do enjoy sex, we find all kinds of ways to punish ourselves for that pleasure. I wish it wasn’t so complicated (believe me — I wish!). But it is. I’m trying to capture that.

Lauren O'Neal is an editorial assistant at the Rumpus and an MFA student at San Francisco State University. Her writing has appeared in publications like Slate, The Hairpin, and Corium Magazine. You can follow her on Twitter at @laureneoneal. More from this author →