Adult Stars 'Come Out' With Jiz Lee for L.A. Readings

LOS ANGELES—Next week the denizens of Porn Valley and the greater L.A. area get two opportunities to meet some of the essayists who contributed to the anthology Coming Out Like a Porn Star. Edited by Jiz Lee, the Amazon best-seller offers a platform for adult film performers to share their stories of how they “came out” about their work in porn. It’s a must-read for industry folk, and a thoroughly fascinating look inside another world for everyone else.

On Wednesday, September 14 at Stories Books & Café in Echo Park, Coming Out Like a Porn Star creator/editor Lee will host a free reading and signing with adult industry icon Nina Hartley, kink performer and author Milcah Halili and AVN Transsexual Performer of the Year Venus Lux (who is also the newly appointed Adult Performer Advocacy Committee treasurer). The event starts at 7 p.m. at the venue, which is located at 1716 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles. For more information, click here.

On Sunday, September 18 at CatalystCon, Lee will moderate a panel reading and discussion with alt-porn pioneer Joanna Angel, award-winning performer Casey Calvert and BDSM performer Jack HammerXL. A signing will follow the panel, welcoming additional contributors Jackie Strano, Shar Rednour and Andre Shakti. The panel takes place at 12:30 p.m. during CatalystCon, which runs September 16-18 at the Westin Los Angeles. For more information, click here.

Hailed one of the year’s best sex books by Reason magazine, Coming Out Like a Porn Star has been listed as required reading on international universities’ sex work course syllabi, and it is the leading collection of essays written by porn professionals about the adult film industry. The pivotal anthology reveals the stigma of having been involved in porn as its workers’ largest obstacle, resulting in discrimination in housing, finances, custody battles, and more. Contributing authors and guests will read from their essays and share their experiences at both of these literary events.

For more information visit ComingOutLikeaPornStar.com and follow along on social media with #comingoutlikeapornstar.