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Cecilia Tan
Photo: Rosiestep, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons9

Cecilia Tan

American writer, editor, and sexuality activist

Cecilia Tan is an American writer, editor, sexuality activist, and founder and manager of Circlet Press, which specializes in science fiction erotica, a once uncommon genre; its publications often feature BDSM themes. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[1] She also writes about baseball, but is not to be confused with a writer of the same name who specializes in Asian cookbooks.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Cecilia Tan (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Apr 8, 1967.1

Companies

Early life and education

  • Date not recordedEmerson College3
  • Date not recordedBrown University3

Career

Occupation: science fiction writer, editor, activist, novelist.5

Tan first wrote professionally as a teenager. She wrote a monthly column for Superteen magazine and also wrote features for Teen Machine, two popular teen titles published by the conglomerate Sterling's Magazines. Her aspiration was to be a science fiction writer, and she idolized Roger Zelazny, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Ray Bradbury.[2] She attended Brown University and received her BA in linguistics and cognitive science in 1989.[3]

Shortly thereafter, she took a job at Beacon Press in Boston. At the same time, she discovered the leather community via the newsgroup alt.sex.bondage and the science fiction/fantasy fan community through conventions like Arisia and Gaylaxicon.[4] She was one of a group of five people who began hosting BDSM play parties at science fiction conventions (known as "asb parties" after the newsgroup). The first one was at the July 1991 Gaylaxicon in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, followed soon after by a party at Philcon in November that drew hundreds of participants. Later, other fans took up the duties and Tan ceased hosting these parties.

Tan first published her erotic science fiction on alt.sex.bondage, posting stories and vignettes with some regularity in 1991 and 1992.

By 1992 she decided to leave her job at Beacon Press to pursue a master's degree in writing at Emerson College. On her final day of work at Beacon, she returned home to find her first acceptance letter for the publication of a story waiting in her mailbox. It was for the story "A True Story", which was accepted into the anthology Herotica 4, edited by Susie Bright.

Tan played baseball in a women's league in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, known as the Pawtucket Slaterettes, but retired after the 2007 season.[10] She holds a black belt in tae kwon do, receiving her second degree (dan) in June 2009, and is a certified technician in Okazaki Restorative Massage.[11]

She was also a longtime BDSM/leather community activist, joining NLA: New England in 1991, founding the Fetish Fair Fleamarket in 1992 and going on to direct almost 50 Fetish Fair Fleamarket events throughout New England (Boston, Providence, and other cities) as well as those in Houston, Atlanta, and Charlotte, NC. She served on the board of the New England Leather Alliance (NELA), and was given the Woman Of The Year Award from the National Leather Association International in 2001, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Leather Association International in 2004. She was also awarded the Pantheon of Leather President's Award in 2009.

She retired from formal involvement with BDSM community activism in 2013, citing health reasons, but continues to speak, teach workshops and classes, and appear at BDSM and leather/fetish events as a writer and educator.

She has described herself as a “Chinese-filipino Irish Welsh bisexual”, and as living a polyamorous lifestyle.

From Wikipedia’s article on Cecilia Tan (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Personal life

  • CitizenshipUnited States6

Sources

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