Aime’ SansSavant is not the real Dread Pirate Roberts, but has been called “the best kind of trouble-maker.” She is Esoterotica’s live host and chief cat-wrangler, founder and a co-producer. An unreliable narrator, rain-chaser, skinnydipping enthusiast, ersatz DJ, and writer of sensualist, confessional fictions, she lives at the corner of Love and Poetry, below Canal. Find her at the library, in a pillow fort, or on Instagram, @aimesanssavant.

Moxie is a writer, photographer, and poet in New Orleans. When they aren't making you question your feelings about hot dogs at Esoterotica, they are working on their "My Heart as a House" project on Substack or performing drag as their alter ego Dru Cocky.

Chris "Codex" Andrews is a writer, artist, game designer, mystic, and programmer. Originally from Mississippi, they've been living in paradise (NOLA) since 2013, and hope their works lead others in finding their own slices of heaven.

There’s whimsy in the brush of lips and skin raked by clawed fingertips. The moan that turns into a howl. The wild rush of lightning between tethered limbs. The silken lash that licks you into a wild frenzy. The gaze that strips you bare, then beckons you to linger naked. Where words meet the primal scream, I’ll see you there you delicious thing…

The first porn Lila Harvey ever looked at on the Internet was BDSM erotica that had pictures with the text. She thinks this explains what she's doing here pretty well. She should probably worry less about editing and just get up and read her stuff more often. Lovers on 4 continents, all content. Actually that just sounds true. And great. Doesn't it sound great?

Roux B Shears has been baring her truths alongside the talented provocateurs of Esoterotica for over a decade, crediting this bold and brilliant community with mending her heart and awakening her voice. Her poetry is an intimate unveiling, a slow, lingering exploration of her experiences with love.

Wendalyn Lewis is a vagabond soul finally come home, fortune's own beloved daughter, and a compulsive maker of things. Finding as much joy in smithing words as illustrating imaginary worlds, as kissing clever lips, as midnight bike rides to the river, she believes that being a dilettante is not necessarily a bad thing. At the very least, it is a great deal of fun.

New Orleans has a way of amassing denizens who don't have a home, or no longer feel as if they do. Ben was one of them. Now he can be found lurking in the corners of the city wherever music, literature, and/or games abound. He is also a founder of Pseudopod (https://pseudopod.org), the world's largest short horror fiction podcast.

Geoff Munsterman comes from Plaquemines Parish but now lives in New Orleans’ Holy Cross neighborhood. His full-length collection Because the Stars Shine Through It was published in 2013 and in late 2018 he released Abandon, a chapbook of his Esoterotica writings. He can usually be found at Crescent City Books or Flora’s Gallery & Coffee Shop. He prefers to be asked before being hugged.

Ben is Rosencrantzing and Guildensterning his way through a charmed life you wouldn’t believe, but he’ll tell you a little anyway if you want to hear it. Through decades of independent writing and music publishing, a wide and weird range of artistic performance, and stumbling through a thicket of DIY star-studded Americana madness unfit for even the most gonzo craftspeople of fiction - he yet remains enamored with the art of storytelling, in awe of the storyteller, and in euphoric reverence of performers that can polish a living moment into a rich and deep adventure for the imagination. It is not so strange his steps would lead him to one of New Orleans’ greatest and closely guarded secrets: this extraordinary salon with exquisite provocateurs that arouse all faculties, where he has a seat at his table for any who share his gratitude.

Kae St. James is a bitch for jewel tones and citrus, as well as a perpetual student of linguistics, with emphasis on the tongue. She writes poetry for the taste of it, and the chance to tease out new conjugations of the human experience between her fingers. She can often be found in a wine bar joyfully failing to learn to talk about wine correctly.

Born and raised near New Orleans, Paris read anything she could get her hands on and this habit has not changed since childhood. In 2020, she mostly listened to erotic poetry to cope with the global pandemic, and then started writing for an audience in 2021. A lifelong writer, Paris writes erotica to connect, to heal and reclaim, to answer questions, to combine the lusty animalistic and hopeless romantic within herself, but mostly to get out of her head and into her favorite virtue. Her non erotic poetry can be found in The Poetry Buffet, Maple Leaf Rag, Tilted House Review, and The Last Stanza Poetry Journal.

Just Shannon has been known as a nomad, a teacher, a naturalist, and a vociferous advocate of the self-founded “Bring Back the Handjob” campaign. They are still at least one of those things. Coming to New Orleans was an experiment in root-laying and is now an ongoing lesson in lovemaking of all kinds. You can thank the city for their poetry.

Poet, photographer, lover- Shadow Angelina approaches all with the same savage artistic intimacy. A daughter of the sea and swamp, with a gaze as unflinching. Her preferred aphrodisiacs are unusual beauty, truth, & relentless bravery. She’s held many titles and they’re all authentic; siren, oracle, bitch. She wishes you’d be less intimidated. She wonders if you’re a good kisser. Her family has called New Orleans home since 1727, and as such she is in love with storytelling, heartbreak, language, and the magnificent wet.

In the years she’s written for Eso, Juliet has vacillated between every stage of an active volcano salted by a tornado, before settling into a swampy magick equal parts medicinal, provocative, and restless. Softer now, with sharper teeth. Unapologetically Indigenous and Sicilian. In her writing, she invites you to let her love you madly, and shed a little snakeskin at the crossroads.

From the desert of Santa Fe to the swamps of New Orleans, Meesh explores the arts of language, textiles, memes, and interdimensional connections.

Mills is an experimentalist. First in science and now in words and performance. They have been writing and performing queer art since being an undergrad physics major at a conservative engineering college back when the gay/straight alliance still had to meet in a secret location. If their writing needed a Netflix three-word tag, it would be: Creative | Humorous | Queer.

Tara Vega is a writer, event producer, and free spirit who moved to New Orleans on a whim and fell in love with the city. Words were her first love and they remain a constant in her life, whether reading or writing them. Her work is deeply personal, usually raunchy, and reflects her lifelong commitment to laughing at herself. For better or for worse, she believes in doing it for the plot and then writing about it for the audience. She doesn’t believe in shame.

A chef, creative, and overall Jack of all trades, Mike Marina has been writing and performing for several years. Hoping to connect with people through his words, he seeks understanding and to understand. He co-authored the Fringe show Beyond Desire and has been featured in the Esoterotica anthology Enflame and the Poetry Buffet Anthology. When he isn't cooking, writing or performing, you can see him dancing in Paul Mccartney’s music video Come On To Me #TeamFred. He also makes delicious food. Ask him about a recipe or a recent book, just ask. The answers are always fun to find.

Melissa G. discovered poetry at the age of 9, when she wrote an ode to her favorite football team. Since then, she's self-published half a dozen chapbooks, performed on a multi-state feature tour, and hosted successful readings near Los Angeles. She went underground almost 20 years ago, but occasionally resurfaces to howl at the moon.