Image by Rita Renoir.
By Laura Borrowdale for Stuff. Laura is a teacher, a mother and the founder of New Zealand’s first erotic journal, Aotearotica.
Looking out at a room full of people who have accidentally booked a dinner party on the same night you’ve been booked to recite erotic poetry is always going to be awkward. It’s been two years since I launched a sideline career editing New Zealand’s first erotic journal, Aotearotica. There’s been a lot of awkward, but at least I’m not alone. There’s a new breed of us coming out of the woodwork: creatives who view sex as political, as part of the way we relate to society, as something that needs to be unpacked.
I’m certainly not the only one who is interested in sex. With 170,000 followers, Aotearotica’s Instagram account suggests as much.
“Editing this journal has made me more sex-positive than ever, and clear in my conviction that, as a community, we need to strip sex of the shame and blame we often imbue it with. According to Durex’s 2017 Global Sex Survey, 48 per cent of New Zealanders want information on how to have better sex, and two-thirds find it hard to admit a sexual problem. We need to celebrate and enjoy the ways in which it goes right, as well as deal pragmatically to the ways it goes wrong.”
Laura Borrowdale.
Buy it NowRead more articles about Aotearotica
The Spinoff: Monica read an explicit description of a threesome’
A brief update on erotic writing in New Zealand. Read here.
The Wireless: Talking sex with the editor of Aotearotica
Yes – there’s a clever, fun and real journal about sex in New Zealand. Read here.
Radio NZ: Aotearotica – a literary journal of erotic writing
Christchurch school teacher, Laura Borrowdale, admits her father is horrified that she opened a new literary journal. It’s called Aotearotica, and features 80 pages of erotic writing and art. Listen here.
Stuff: Aotearotica – New journal explores Kiwi erotica
This is Laura Borrowdale’s outing so to speak. From today, she’s the Kiwi erotica woman. Google her and you’ll see she’s teacher and writer, and from today, greatly interested in sex. Read here.
Illustration: Ant Sang.