Smut Staff

Nikki Rome – Director

USA Today Best Selling Romance Author Nikki Rome has been a romance junky since a young age. As a girl she reached for book after book, looking for that happily ever after she always believed in. She loves all forms of romance and you can find her latest read not far from her reach.

Nikki writes contemporary romance with a touch of danger and kink. Her love of realistic characters who face real problems provides a story that touches the hearts of many. As a writer, reader and lover of words, it only made sense that she publish her stories.

Now years letter she owns and manages Smut Lovers: The Community. A group of like minded individuals that come together to talk about their love of all things smut. You can find her hosting Smut Lovers: The Podcast or running Smut Lovers: The Conference. Either way you know she’ll always be talking about her love of books.

Ruthie Bowles – Diversity and Inclusion Consultant

Ruthie is an Army Veteran and former marketing consultant from Southern California who now calls Central Maryland her home. If she’s not in her sound booth recording an audiobook during the work day, you can find her sensitivity reading a book. Ruthie’s Black and Latine heritage has made her very devoted to helping authors write inclusively. Besides her experience in critical analysis, she also brings her education in emotional intelligence and social psychology to any conversation about diversity in books. 

Madison Hartung – Director of Operations

Madison Hartung is an indie author and operations strategist with a background in organizational psychology and a career that spans startups, university innovation programs, and large-scale organizational initiatives. As Director of Operations for Smut Lovers, she brings the same systems-thinking and people-first approach to the bookish community that she’s applied across industries building the kind of behind-the-scenes infrastructure that lets creative communities thrive.

When she’s not optimizing processes or designing programs, Madison writes the kind of stories she loves to read: romance and fantasy with emotional depth, sharp dialogue, and characters you can’t stop thinking about. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where she’s probably juggling three projects, a garden, and at least one horse-related adventure.

Ashley Michele – Assistant Director

Ashley Michele is your neighborhood queer little witch. She likes snark, stuffies and dark, fantastical things. She also enjoys writing about mixed latina plus sized babies such as herself getting to live out their best lives with queer and kinky loving.

She has a BA from Florida State University that she still hasn’t opened. When she’s not doing library things or sending hour long voice notes to someone she loves she can usually be found in her hammock between the trees of her swamp or laying out, listening to an audio while she paints and catches some sun.

You can find her all over the internet, here.

Shannon Elliot – Director of Partnerships

Shannon Elliot is a neurodivergent polyamorous bisexual Gemini who’s never made a decision in her life. She’s also an author of queer kinky romance–spank the rainbow, bitches!

As an author, Shannon believes that representation should be the foundation of the romance genre. We all deserve our own kinky, queer and maybe unconventional HEAs.

When she’s not coming up with fantasies for us to devour, she can be found hanging out with her co-author, Elliot, or hanging out at a club or kink event with her lifestyle community.

BZ and Lewis – Support and Accommodations Directors

Lewis (they/them) and BZ (they/them) are access and accommodations specialists who work with conferences and community spaces to build and sustain accessible communities. Their work is grounded in respect for autonomy and dignity, with a focus on reducing the burden placed on attendees so they don’t have to navigate access alone.

At Smut Lovers: The Conference, they provide both virtual and on-site accessibility and accommodations consulting, coordination, and in-person support. You’ll find them working behind the scenes throughout the year and on-site at the conference, anticipating and reducing barriers so attendees can focus on their experience without the stress of repeatedly advocating for themselves. They manage accessibility questions and accommodations requests, connect directly with attendees, and follow through so needs are clearly understood and met plus a few other things.

Around here, BZ says they’re the “Department of Human Stuff & Things,” because access is fundamental, and accessibility and accommodations intersect with every part of a conference.

Outside of their accessibility work, BZ and Lewis are book lovers, photographers, artists, and nurses based in the Pacific Northwest. And surprising absolutely no one who has met them, they have cats.

For access and accommodations, sometimes referred to as ADA requests, you can reach them at Support@SmutLovers.org