Cecilia Tan (born April 8, 1967) is a writer, editor, sexuality activist, and founder of Circlet Press, the first press devoted primarily to erotic

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...

and fantasy. She lives in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. She also writes about

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

, but is not to be confused with a writer of the same name who specializes in Asian cookbooks.

Life and career

Tan first wrote professionally as a teenager. She wrote a monthly column for '' Superteen'' magazine and also wrote features for ''

Teen Machine Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

'', 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. She attended

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Provide ...

and received her BA in linguistics and cognitive science in 1989. Shortly thereafter, she took a job at

Beacon Press Beacon Press is an American left-wing non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is known for publishing authors such as James Bal ...

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 Arisia is a Boston-area, volunteer-run science fiction convention, named for a planet in the Lensman novels by E. E. "Doc" Smith. The name was chosen in response to an older Boston-area con, Boskone, which took the typical ending for a conve ...

and Gaylaxicon. She was one of a group of five people who began hosting

BDSM BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged in ...

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 Tewksbury is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Its population was 31,342 as of the 2020 United States Census. History Tewksbury was first settled in 1637 and was officially incorporated on December 17, 1734, from Bill ...

, 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 Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as ...

. 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 Susannah Bright (born March 25, 1958) is an American feminist, author, journalist, critic, editor, publisher, producer, and performer, often on the subject of politics and sexuality. She is the recipient of the 2017 Humanist Feminist Award, and ...

. Tan played baseball in a women's league in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, known as the Pawtucket Slaterettes, but retired after the 2007 season. 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. She was also a longtime

/ 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 National Leather Association International (NLA-I) is a BDSM organization, based in the United States with chapters in various cities in the United States and Canada. It was founded in 1986 as the "National Leather Association" (NLA), as a national ...

in 2001, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the

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.”

Circlet Press

While in graduate school, Tan remained in publishing with her own small press, Circlet Press, Inc. Circlet's first book was a

chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered booklet ...

of Tan's erotic science fiction stories, entitled ''Telepaths Don't Need Safewords''. ''Mate'' by Lauren P. Burka soon followed, as did a host of small anthologies like ''SexMagick'', ''TechnoSex'', and ''Worlds of Women''. Tan received her master's degree in professional writing and publishing in 1994 from Emerson and devoted herself to writing and running Circlet Press full-time thereafter. By June 2009, Circlet Press had published over fifty titles, most of them erotic science fiction with occasional forays into related genres. Circlet branched into digital publishing in 2008, and released nearly 100 ebook titles between 2008 and the end of 2013. As editorial director of Circlet Press, Tan was the creator of the press's later imprints, Clasp Editions to publish sf/f erotic romance, and Gressive Press, for exploring sexuality outside the "big binaries" (gay/straight, male/female) with themes of bisexuality, transgender issues, and other sexualities not easily labeled.

Publishing history

Tan herself has had her work published in a variety of outlets. Her stories have appeared in ''

Ms. Magazine ''Ms.'' is an American feminist magazine co-founded in 1971 by journalist and social/political activist Gloria Steinem. It was the first national American feminist magazine. The original editors were Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Mary Thom, Patricia Ca ...

'', ''Penthouse'', ''

Asimov's ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Penny Publications. From January 2017, the publication ...

Science Fiction'', ''

Absolute Magnitude Absolute magnitude () is a measure of the luminosity of a celestial object on an inverse logarithmic astronomical magnitude scale. An object's absolute magnitude is defined to be equal to the apparent magnitude that the object would have if it ...

'', '' Best American Erotica'', '' Best Lesbian Erotica'', ''

Nerve.com ''Nerve'' or Nerve.com, was an American online magazine dedicated to sexual topics, relationships and culture. Founded by Rufus Griscom and Genevieve Field, Nerve published articles and photography on its website and several books, in partnership ...

'', and many, many other places. Her collection of short stories, ''Black Feathers'', appeared in 1998 from HarperCollins. A follow-up collection of erotic short stories, ''White Flames,'' was published in 2008 by Running Press. Tan moved into writing erotic romance ebooks in 2009 with the publications of ''Mind Games'' and ''The Hot Streak'' from Ravenous Romance. Her erotic romance novel series known as the ''Magic University'' series was published in ebook form by Ravenous Romance and in trade paperback by Red Silk Editions, an imprint of Red Wheel Weiser. (Weiser killed the imprint after the demise of the Borders bookstore chain and so only two of the four books in the series appeared in Red Silk Editions.) The Magic University series was published in French. In 2013, her first BDSM romance novel from a major publisher appeared. ''Slow Surrender'', published by Hachette/Grand Central Publishing, was the first of a trilogy in the newly created romance category of "BDSM billionaire" (created by the publishing industry in the wake of the runaway success of ''50 Shades of Grey'' by E.L. James). The book was nominated for Book of the Year in the erotic category by RT Book Reviews, and Tan herself was nominated by RT for the Lifetime Achievement Award in Erotica. The Struck by Lightning trilogy, including Slow Surrender, was also published in France by Hachette Livre. Another romance trilogy published by Hachette/Grand Central Publishing soon followed, the Secrets of a Rock Star series, which was later published in Germany by Bastei Luebbe. Her baseball works include ''The 50 Greatest Yankee Games'' ( Wiley, 2005) and ''The 50 Greatest Red Sox Games'' (Wiley, 2006, co-authored with Bill Nowlin). She wrote weekly columns for GothamBaseball.com and YankeesXtreme.com and occasional articles for Yankees Magazine, and she continues to produce the online baseball magazine ''Why I Like Baseball''. In 2004 she won an award for baseball research at the national SABR Convention, the USA Today Sports Weekly award for best poster presentation for her work entitled, "The Women's Baseball Marathon". She has been editing the Maple Street Press ''Yankees Annual'' since 2007. In 2011, Tan became the publications director for the

Society for American Baseball Research The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New Y ...

, as well as co-editor of the

Baseball Prospectus Baseball Prospectus (BP) is an organization that publishes a website, BaseballProspectus.com, devoted to the sabermetric analysis of baseball. BP has a staff of regular columnists and provides advanced statistics as well as player and team perf ...

Annual with King Kaufman. She and Kaufman presided over the BP annual for two years in the transition from former in-house editor Steven Goldman to the in-house editing team of Sam Miller and Jason Wojchechowski. In 2011 she became the Publications Director for SABR (

), and in 2022 became the longest-tenured editor in that role in SABR's history.

Honors and awards

Tan has been the recipient of various literary and publishing industry awards. In 2010, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame for GLBTQ writers at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival. That same year her online serial, ''Daron's Guitar Chronicles'', won the inaugural Rose and Bay Award for Crowdfunded Fiction. Her novel ''The Prince's Boy'' was awarded Honorable Mention in both the 2010 Rainbow Awards and the NLA: International Writing Awards.. Her novel ''Slow Surrender'' won the RT Reviewers Choice Award in the erotic romance category from

RT Book Reviews ''Romantic Times'' was an American genre magazine ''Genre'' magazine () was a New York city-based monthly periodical from 1992 to 2009 written for gay men. It was owned by gay press publisher Window Media. History Launched in 1992 as a quarte ...

and the Maggie Award for Excellence given by the Georgia Romance Writers chapter of the

Romance Writers of America Romance Writers of America (RWA) is an American non-profit writers' association founded in 1980. Its mission is to "advance the professional and common business interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy and by inc ...

. Tan was awarded the RT Book Reviews 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award in Erotica. As of 2014, her books have been multiply nominated for the

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

, though she has not yet won one. Circlet Press, the publishing house Tan founded and still directs, was co-winner of Bi Book Publisher of the Year at the 2014 Bisexual Book Awards. Tan was given the Woman Of The Year Award from the

in 2001, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the

in 2004. She also received the President’s Award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards in 2009. She and Sarah Desautels received the

’s

Samois Samois was a lesbian-feminist BDSM organization based in San Francisco that existed from 1978 to 1983. It was the first lesbian BDSM group in the United States. It took its name from Samois-sur-Seine, the location of the fictional estate of Anne- ...

Anthology Award for 2010 for their anthology ''Like a Thorn''. Her baseball writing and research has also earned awards. In 2004, her research presentation on "The Women's Baseball Marathon" won the USA Today Sports Weekly Award. In 2022 she was co-winner of the Tweed Webb Lifetime Achievement Award with Sean Forman for editing The Negro Leagues are Major Leagues.

References

# LLC Boston Committee member bio list

# Biography - Tan, Cecilia (Maureen) (1967-): An article from: Contemporary Authors Online. Published by Gale Research. # Biography - Tan, Cecilia (Maureen) (1967-): An article from: Contemporary Authors Online. Published by Gale Research. # Alumni Notes, Expressions Magazine, (Emerson College Alumni Magazine), June 1998 # "About Us" Company Profile & History of Circlet Press

Retrieved June 16, 2009 # "About the Author" Cecilia Tan, Ravenous Romance web sit

Retrieved June 16, 2009 # "Andy McCue and Cecilia Tan Recognized at National Convention for Outstanding Research Presentations," press release dated July 22, 2004, Society for American Baseball Research

Retrieved June 16, 2009 # Leslie A. Heaphy & Mel Anthony May, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WOMEN AND BASEBALL. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006. # Bio at Eastern-Healing.com

Retrieved June 16, 2009 # RT Book Reviews Awards Nominee

# Rainbow Awards Winners 201

# Author Awards Pag

Retrieved January 14, 2014. See also: Tan, Cecilia
Cecilia Tan's Bio
Retrieved October 28, 2005.

External links

Cecilia Tan's Homepage

Circlet Press homepage

a dialogue between M. Christian and Cecilia Tan
SceneProfiles Interview
by Sensuous Sadie
Strange Horizons Interview
by

Mary Anne Mohanraj Mary Anne Amirthi Mohanraj (born July 26, 1971) is an American writer, editor, and academic of Sri Lankan birth. Background Mohanraj was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka but moved to the United States at the age of two and grew up in New Britain, Co ...

Mind Caviar Interview
by Jamie Joy Gatto
Ms. Magazine
The "pick three books" featurette
SABR Award Press Release

Interview from Hyphen Magazine
by Claire Light
Alternet column/interview
by

Annalee Newitz Annalee Newitz (born May 7, 1969) is an American journalist, editor, and author of both fiction and nonfiction, who has written for the periodicals '' Popular Science'' and ''Wired''. From 1999 to 2008 Newitz wrote a syndicated weekly column ca ...

Nerve.com essay

Interview
with Michael A. Ventrella, May 2010 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tan, Cecilia 1967 births 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers American erotica writers American horror writers American science fiction writers American women novelists American women short story writers BDSM writers Bisexual women Bisexual writers Brown University alumni Emerson College alumni Living people Science fiction editors Science fiction erotica Women erotica writers Women horror writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century LGBT people