Dena Hankins
| Dena Hankins | |
|---|---|
|
Touring with Blue Water Dreams, 2014 | |
| Born | December 1, 1975 |
| Occupation | Novelist and short story author; Sailor |
| Genre | LGBTQ Romance and Erotica |
| Website | |
|
denahankins | |
Dena Hankins (born 1975) is an American novelist and short story author, best known for queer and transgender erotic romance. Her short stories have been published in several erotica anthologies, including Best Lesbian Romance 2015 edited by Radclyffe.
Publisher's Weekly called her novel Blue Water Dreams, featuring a love story between a queer cisgender woman and a transgender man an "exciting debut",[1] and Lambda Literary Review included Blue Water Dreams among "new and noteworthy" LGBT books.[2] Literary blog Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews[3] chose Blue Water Dreams for inclusion in its "Best of 2014" top ten list.
Hankins' second novel, Heart of the Lilikoi, features an erotic romance between a cisgender lesbian construction contractor and a masculine genderqueer solar energy scientist in the midst of sabotage, murder, and the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. It will be published by Bold Strokes Books in October, 2015. [4]
Personal life
Hankins studied English Literature at the University of Washington Seattle, graduating with a Bachelor's Degree in 1998. The following year she bought a boat with her partner, photographer James Lane, and began living aboard full time. The couple sailed their small craft from Seattle to San Francisco, then across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii.[5] After a year living in Kerala, India, they returned to the United States to purchase a new sailing vessel and traveled the East Coast of the United States from Virginia to Maine. Hankins chronicled her adventures as well as pieces from her growing body of literary work at her blog, Sovereign Nations.[6]
Before launching her writing career Hankins worked for 8 years as a sex educator with Babeland, a Seattle-based feminist sex toy store.[7] In 2001 she was featured on HBO's Real Sex #26 as a demo model for a Babeland cunnilingus workshop.
Bibliography
Novels:
- Blue Water Dreams published by Bold Strokes Books (September 2014)
- Heart of the Lilikoi published by Bold Strokes Books (October 2015)
Short Story Fiction:
- “Cooling Down, Heating Up” in Love Burns Bright: A Lifetime of Lesbian Romance, and in Best Lesbian Romance 2015 both edited by Radclyffe (October 2013/February 2015)
- "Gift" in Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel (March 2015)
- “Goa” in Twice the Pleasure: Bisexual Women's Erotica, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel (April 2013)
- “Floating in Space” in Girl Fever: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex for Lesbians, edited by Sacchi Green (June 2012)
- "Teamwork" in Me and My Boi: Queer Erotic Stories, edited by Sacchi Green (September 2015)
References
- ↑ "Fiction Book Review: Blue Water Dreams by Dena Hankins. Bold Strokes (www.boldstrokesbooks.com), $16.95 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-62639-192-5". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
- ↑ "New in September: Sarah Waters, Cookie Mueller, Christos Tsiolkas, Jericho Brown, Saeed Jones, Daisy Hernandez, and Douglas Ray". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
- ↑ "Out in Print:"Best of 2014"". Outinprintblog.wordpress.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
- ↑ "Heart of the Lilikoi". Goodreads.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
- ↑ "Hankins, Dena". Boldstrokebooks.com. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
- ↑ "Sovereign Nations". Sovereignnations.net. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
- ↑ "Dena Hankins". Goodreads. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
External links
- Official website
- Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews "Best of 2014"
- Hankins Reading "Cooling Down, Heating Up" on the Liz McMullen Show
- Author Page at Bold Strokes Books: Dena Hankins
- Sailing Blog: Sovereign Nations
- Photography by James Lane: Sovereign Nations
- Sexlife Canada Review of Twice the Pleasure: Bisexual Women's Erotica
- Interview with Dena Hankins about writing Blue Water Dreams