Printed digitally in Toronto. Full colour. Saddle stitch bound.

A fictional short story by Erin Klassen about getting off. Illustration by Erin McPhee.

This Is Pleasure is not a story that wastes time skittering around honesty. It is barefaced and frank, down to the very title itself, repeating throughout like a proclamation. You’ll wonder how it came to be, knowing that desire — those private, sticky moments of longing we keep to ourselves — are not stories that fall out of our mouths so easily. Rerouting (and, blurring the lines of) our personal narratives through fiction, rather than divorcing one from the other, can mitigate our discomfort. This can be a way of setting boundaries we need for ourselves and those around us, so that with time, when we are ready, the sharing will come with ease.