Leonie Dams
is a book lover and online reviewer. Her short story Zaailing was a finalist in the erotic writing competition Het Rode Oor 2024. With her (English-language) YouTube channel The Book Leo, she inspires young people and twenty-somethings worldwide to read more. In her videos, she shares book tips, reviews and analysis of popular book trends. She is especially known for her humorous criticism of modern romantic stories and likes to look at literature from a feminist angle.
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Literary Heat - The Female Gaze
Erotica is often dismissed as a genre filled with stereotypes. Bouquet books with muscular men on the covers come to mind. Rarely, it is seen as an art form. Is this because erotic literature is inherently lacking, or is it because the open discussion of sexual desire, especially by women, is still considered taboo? English spoken.
Join authors Yael van der Wouden, Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta for an engaging discussion on what makes erotica powerful, how voices of women are reshaping the genre, and whether erotic stories deserve the status of literature with a capital L. The programme will open with a short video made for the occasion by famous reviewer and reading vlogger Leonie Dams. Host will be Jennifer Muntslag.
Yael van der Wouden is a writer and teacher of creative writing and comparative literature. Together with Daphne Huisden and Simone Atangana Bekono, she wrote the mosaic narrative Vlucht/Dans/Vondst (Flight/Dance/Finding, 2023). Her debut as a novelist The Safekeep (2024) is one of six books shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. Yael is the first Dutch author to make the shortlist.
Onjuli Datta (UK) is the co-author of Feast While You Can, a queer horror-romance which the New York Times described as 'adventurous, exciting, fantastical and erotic', and of the novel The View Was Exhausting. Her writing has been featured in Salon, Reactor Magazine, Lithub, Autostraddle, Vulture and more. She lives in Berlin with her wife and co-author Mikaella Clements.
Mikaella Clements is an Australian writer currently based in Berlin. With her wife Onjuli Datta, she co-wrote Feast While You Can (2024), an 'exciting new hybrid horror-romance about queer love in a small town that serves as an unsettling reminder that the horrors of modern life are a monster ready to possess us all' (New York Times Book Review), as well as The View Was Exhausting. Her non-fiction has been published in the New York Times, Guardian, Washington Post, TLS, and many others. She has a Masters in English Studies from the Freie Universität Berlin.
Leonie Dams is a video creator, 'dweller of fictional worlds', makes reviews, reading vlogs and all sorts of other bookish, English spoken content that is viewed by many on her YouTube and Instagram platforms titled The Book Leo.
Jennifer Muntslag makes music, presents, sings, acts and leads workshops. She has presented events at Pakhuis De Zwijger, Kunstbende, Oerol, Amsterdam Roots Festival, spoken word nights, and was host/MC of events like Vieze Poezendek, Milkshake Festival, Kwaku and Into the Great Wide Open.
Reading tip: the essay The Best Queer Sex Scenes in Literature (2024, published by the digital publisher Electric Literature).Literary Heat - The Female Gaze is curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Mojdeh Feili.
