“The Anti-Sex and the City“

Tuesday night we went to the Fig & Olive as Self threw a party to celebrate the publication of Behind the Bedroom Door, a collection of essays edited by the magazine’s articles director, Paula Derrow (a frequent instructor at mediabistro.com writing courses). While the party chattered around us, she laughingly described the anthology as “the anti-Sex and the City,” in that she pushed her contributors to get past the cavalier sex talk and talk about stuff that really mattered: “It’s about them and their insecurities,” she said, “it’s about what they’re feeling. I’m used to getting writers to open up… and these women really rose to the challenge.”

“You know how when your friends publish books and you have to go through them quickly and underline bits that you can use when you tell them of course it was great?” another writer (who’s not in the anthology) told us. “I totally didn’t have to fake it with this book. It’s that good.” Contributors like Pari Chang and Valerie Frankel were equally enthusiastic, while another essayist, Susan Shapiro, introduced us to the book’s editor at Delacorte, Danielle Perez, and filled us in on another event for the book—a “writing about love & sex” panel at the Borders at Manhattan’s Columbus Circle on February 13.

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