Rachel Kramer Bussel is a New Jersey-based author, journalist, copywriter, anthology editor, erotica writing teacher, consultant, and event organizer. She writes widely about sex, dating, books, pop culture, feminism and body image. Rachel has written for numerous publications, including The Arrow, BUST, CNN.com, The Daily Beast, DAME, Elle.com, Fast Company, Forbes.com, Fortune.com, The Frisky, Gothamist, The Guardian, The Hairpin, Harper's Bazaar, Inked, InStyle.com, Jezebel, Marie Claire, Mediabistro, Men’s Health, The Nervous Breakdown, New York Post, New York Observer, New York Press, The New York Times, O, The Oprah Magazine, Penthouse, Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy.com, Playgirl, The Root, Salon, San Francisco Chronicle, SELF, Slate, The Girlfriend, Time.com, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, and The Washington Post, among other publications.
Rachel has edited over 70 anthologies, including two volumes of The Big Book of Orgasms, Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica, and edits the Best Women's Erotica of the Year series. Her books have won 8 IPPY (Independent Publisher Book) Awards and her short story “Necessary Roughness” from Best Bondage Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 won the Living in Leather John Preston Short Fiction Award from the National leather Association-International. As an erotica author, she has contributed to over 100 anthologies, including Susie Bright's Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006 and X: The Erotic Treasury and Zane’s Purple Panties and Chocolate Flava II.
She’s the author of the essay collection Sex and Cupcakes and the February 2023 nonfiction guide How to Write Erotica. Her debut erotic short story collection Lap Dance Lust was published by Cleis Press in 2024. She is currently working on a nonfiction essay anthology about our attachments to our belongings.
Rachel has been quoted widely as an expert about cupcakes, books, hoarding, sex and dating. Media appearances include CBS Sunday Morning on separate bedrooms, the topic of her Refinery29 essay, The Martha Stewart Show, The Gayle King Show, Berman & Berman, the Book Riot Annotated podcast, Derek and Romaine Show on SiriusXM, Feminist Erotica, The Globe and Mail, Keith and the Girl podcast, Lady Books podcast, Los Angeles Times, Marilu Henner’s podcast, Naked News, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR’s On Point, Pleasure Mechanics, Popaganda podcast (Bitch magazine), Sex Out Loud podcast, and elsewhere.
Rachel conducts reading and erotic writing workshops worldwide at sex toy stores, universities and events, as well as online. She has presented, spoken and taught at conferences including ASJA (American Society of Journalists and Authors), CatalystCon, Dark Odyssey, Erotic Authors Association, Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Sex 2.0, SEXx, SXSW, and Texas Book Festival. For five years, she hosted In The Flesh Erotic Reading Series in New York City, which featured 300 readers including Susie Bright, Gael Greene, Michael Musto and Zane. Rachel holds a bachelor's degree in political science and women's studies from the University of California at Berkeley.
Rachel is the founder and editor of Substack personal essays newsletter and website Open Secrets, which publishes, memorable, powerful, and intimate essays every week about relationships, family and parenting, work, grief, mental health, physical health, LGBTQIA+, and idenitty.. See the archives here.
Rachel is a copywriter for two major national retail companies and is an advisor to romance and erotica website Theo Reads.
She was recently Editor-in-Chief of the sexuality and relationships site Residence 11, where she also conducts video interviews with prominent nonfiction and fiction authors.
Rachel is currently at work on a nonfiction anthology about our attachments to our belongings, which is represented by literary agent Iris Blasi of Arc Literary Management.
Select podcast appearances:
The Categorically Romance Podcast
Fat Chicks on Top Podcast
Unprintable LitReactor Podcast
Sex Out Loud hosted by Tristan Taormino