About Esmé
Esmé Louise James (@esme.louisee) is best known for her series Kinky History which has amassed nearly 3 million followers across her social media accounts.
Esmé is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne; her thesis traces an aesthetic of the erotic across eighteenth-century literature. She has produced a range of non-fiction articles for publications such as the Age, the ABC and the Conversation, as well as short stories and poetry, for publications such as Hardie Grant Press and Archer.
In 2020, she was listed in the Top 30 Emerging Writers by SBS Australia. Esmé’s upcoming book Kinky History: The Stories Behind Our Intimate Lives, Past and Present will be published by Pantera Press in Australia, and TarcherPerigee worldwide, in 2024.
Esmé also presents the popular Kinky History podcast, which charted to 1# History Podcast in Australia within a month of its launch. In 2022, Esmé gave talk at TEDxSydney entitled "Writing kinky sex back into the history pages.”
Esmé was the recipient of Screen Australia’s Every Voice initiative funding her TikTok series, SexTistics, alongside Dr Susan James. Esmé was the recipient of the Rising Star Alumni Award from the University of Melbourne in 2023. In recognition of her groundbreaking education online, Esmé was nominated for Best Digital Creator at the 2022 AACTA Awards.
Education
February 2020 - Present
March - October 2018
February 2015 - October 2017
PhD Candidate at the University of Melbourne
English and Theatre Studies, School of Culture and Communication
Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at the University of Melbourne
English and Theatre Studies, School of Culture and Communication
Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne
English and Theatre Studies & Creative Writing, School of Culture and Communication
Let's Get
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