Cecilia Tan is “simply one of the most important writers, editors, and innovators in contemporary American erotic literature” for her pioneering, award-winning efforts to combine erotica with fantasy and science fiction, according to Susie Bright. She is mixed-race (Chinese-filipino-Irish-Welsh), bisexual, bigender, poly, and kinky, and has been a longtime activist and organizer in the bi and BDSM communities. Though she holds a Masters in Professional Writing and Publishing from Emerson College, Cecilia believes some of the best training and experience to be a professional writer one can get is to be found in fanfiction communities.

Tan is the founder of Circlet Press, Inc., publishers of erotic science fiction and fantasy, and has edited over 100 anthologies of fiction, as well as the being author of many books, including the ground-breaking erotic sf/fantasy short story collections Black Feathers (HarperCollins) and White Flames (Running Press), and the Magic University series (Riverdale Avenue Books). Her short stories have appeared in Ms. Magazine, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Absolute Magnitude, Strange Horizons, and tons of other places, and her work has earned her numerous awards and honors including RT Magazine’s Career Achievement award in 2015 and their prestigious Pioneer Award, and induction into the Saints & Sinners LGBT Writers Hall of Fame. Her upcoming series from Tor Books, The Vanished Chronicles, will be published Real Soon Now.