Zoe Terakes on queer myths for lovers [First Date 2026]

This event is a part of First Date 2026 edition series. Click to view more from this festival.

This event is part of FIRST DATE ROMANCE FICTION FESTIVAL, which we are thrilled to co-host with Book Lovers Bookshop! You can book tickets to their First Date events on their website.

She keeps her eyes on me while she lights the end of my cigarette. I stare back at her. Something in the pills and in her eyes is opening up my muscles like hands parting from prayer, like trees breathing.

EROS is a stunning collection of short stories, grounded in truth and coloured with dazzling imagination and alluring, unpredictable mystery. Revealing how queerness, nature and myth have been intertwined for eternity, these are stories of gods and goddesses. Of Zeus, of Eurydice, of Hermaphroditus, of Icarus before he flew into the sun.

Stories of queer life, lust, revenge, wrath, passion and sex. Of yearning, love, loss. Some transformations span across a life, and others, an evening.

Perspectives will shift. Houses will burn. Lovers will learn their fate.

Zoe Terakes has skilfully blended myth and modernity to illuminate the complex and enduring truth of trans lives, resisting a history of erasure and delivering a sexy, soul-touching book to read to your lover...or yourself.

'Transness is not an abnormality of nature but a necessity of it. You'll find that refrain woven into EROS's tapestry, stitched into the way characters dive into the ocean, like they are returning to it' VOGUE

About our speaker:

Zoe Terakes is a writer and award-winning actor living and working on Gadigal land. They are a vocal advocate for trans rights within arts industries and on a global scale. Zoe was most recently seen on screen in A24's critically acclaimed film Talk to Me. Their other acting credits include Nine Perfect Strangers, Creamerie, Wentworth and Ellie & Abbie. They will soon appear in the Marvel Studios series Iron Heart. Eros is Zoe's debut literary work, inspired by their Cretan heritage.

Author photo credit: Nick Walker