This September, Read Local SoCal is reading Orbital Bebop by Reuben “Tihi” Hayslett. Orbital Bebop is a daring collection of speculative stories set from the Moon to the edge of the Year 3000. Black queer lives take center stage amid corporate empires, alien intelligences, and fractured futures. Each tale blends intimacy and rebellion, where romance, memory, and desire collide with power and control. The collection opens in 2067 California, and Tihi is a longtime part of the LA literary community, having read in BookSwell’s Intentional Intersectionality event in 2019. Read along with us all month.
“This isn’t your father’s science fiction, and that’s a good thing.” — Jerry L. Wheeler, Out in Print
Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026 | 6:30–8 p.m. (PT) | West Hollywood Library Community Room
Ahead of WeHo Reads: Reimagining History, we asked friends of BookSwell across the Los Angeles literary community to spend time with the books of our four featured writers and tell us what they found. Reader and reviewer Michael Narkunski took on Outliving Michael (Moon Tide Press), the newest collection from Steven Reigns, West Hollywood’s first Poet Laureate. Here is what he sent us.
Outliving Michael by Steven Reigns (Moon Tide Press)
Bookshop.org purchases through this link support BookSwell and independent bookstores.
My favorite and, I think, the best type of book: the kind that could speak completely for itself. It does its own work and doesn’t need me or any reviewer to make a connection between its potent memory mining and messages. But it also knows better than to totally do it for us. In the most deft, generous, and sobering way, the writing, in an ingeniously unfussy rhythm and sequence, allows us to share in the experience of queer friendship and cutting loss, casual and profound regret, and the unexpected meanings of the everyday.
It gives us so many matters of fact that you wish weren’t so, from years spent staying in grief to avoid being in grief to a simple book recommendation you wish you’d read while Michael was alive. I say “Michael” because, through Reigns’ honest and incantatory voice, Michael becomes a totem for any impactful person you may have lost. “I learned this from Michael.” “All these years later / I realize it was all about Michael.” By the time these lines come, you will feel yourself relating and, without any forethought or against any resistance, replacing Michael’s name with someone of your own.
At the same time, you will be thrilled to get to know the actual subject: an important man who lived and loved, rendered by an important poet who continues to live and love, using every aching anecdote and detail to urgently and earnestly remind us of the importance of living and loving ourselves.
Steven Reigns is a poet, educator and was appointed the first Poet Laureate of West Hollywood. He is the author of A Quilt for David and Outliving Michael, which received the 2025 Poz Award for Best in Literature.
Hear him read on Sept. 23
Steven Reigns reads alongside Kate Maruyama, Mike Sonksen, and Désirée Zamorano at WeHo Reads: Reimagining History, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, at the West Hollywood Library Community Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. with an informal reception; the program runs 6:45 to 8 p.m., and West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng opens the evening with a futurist poem. The writers will sign and sell their books after the program. Free, 18+, with free parking in the structure at 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026 | 6:30–8 p.m. (PT) | West Hollywood Library Community Room
Ahead of WeHo Reads: Reimagining History, we have been sharing what readers found in the books of our four featured writers. This one is from BookSwell founder and WeHo Reads host Cody Sisco, on Alterations by Kate Maruyama (Running Wild Press), from the Reel he posted this week.
Bookshop.org purchases through this link support BookSwell and independent bookstores.
Alterations by Kate Maruyama follows a costume designer for Hollywood in its golden era who falls in love with another woman. They’re living together in a beautiful house, I think it’s on Melrose, with a garden and a lemon tree, and it’s an idyllic relationship.
But then reality sets in. For the costume designer to continue in her career, she’s got to marry someone. She’s got to marry a man. She has to leave her lover behind. And that’s one thread of several that intertwine in Alterations.
It’s a wonderful novel. Kate, a very good friend, is going to be reading from it and discussing it at WeHo Reads: Reimagining History, and I can’t wait to ask her some questions about this book. So come on by, and I’ll see you soon.
Kate Maruyama is a professor of writing and an author of realist and fabulist novels, short stories and essays set in and about Los Angeles. Her latest book is Alterations.
Hear her read on Sept. 23
Kate Maruyama reads alongside Steven Reigns, Mike Sonksen, and Désirée Zamorano at WeHo Reads: Reimagining History, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026, at the West Hollywood Library Community Room, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. with an informal reception; the program runs 6:45 to 8 p.m., and West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng opens the evening with a futurist poem. The writers will sign and sell their books after the program. Free, 18+, with free parking in the structure at 625 N. San Vicente Blvd.
Four local writers dare to break the rules, raise their voices, and refuse to compromise.
WeHo Reads: No Apologies
Online Via Zoom and YouTube
Free, RSVP Requested
What does a writer sacrifice when they soften their work to fit the mold? And what becomes possible when they refuse?
This November, four local writers confront subjects many books shy away from: race, desire, class, the messy moments when life stops making sense. They decline to sand off the rough edges. Their work runs from punk-inflected inter-genre prose to memoir, from poetry to historical fiction, but the nerve is the same: they write without asking permission and without apology. In an evening of reading and discussion, Marcus Clayton, Joshua Escobar, Rasheed Newson, and Kaila Yu will talk about writing hard truths, the pressure to make difficult material palatable, and what a writer stands to gain by holding the line.
Featuring:
Marcus Clayton is a multigenre Afrolatino writer from South Gate, who has a collection of inter-genre prose, ¡PÓNK!, with Nightboat Books.
Joshua Escobar is a poet, novelist, and screenwriter from Southern California’s Inland Empire and author of the Bo Huston Award-winning novel Demons of Eminence.
Novelist Rasheed Newson is the author of the national bestseller My Government Means to Kill Me, which was named one of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2022, and the critically-acclaimed There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood, which explores Black LGBTQ+ life during Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Kaila Yu is a Los Angeles-based author and journalist whose debut memoir, Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty, was published by Crown, with bylines in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times and Condé Nast Traveler.
WeHo Reads is a literary series presented by the City of West Hollywood. For more information and events, visit www.weho.org/wehoreads. The 2026 program is produced by BookSwell, a literary media company amplifying historically excluded voices. Additional support is provided by media partnerships with Book Soup and Los Angeles Review of Books. Attendees are advised that the program may include mature language and themes.
Authors
Marcus Clayton
Marcus Clayton is a multigenre biracial Black and Costa Rican writer from South Gate, CA, and a current part-time professor for English and Ethnic studies departments across the California State University system. He has an inter-genre story collection titled ¡PÓNK! with Nightboat Books, is a 2026 finalist of the DAG Foundation Prize for Literature, and has published work in the anthology Black Punk Now!. He moonlights as a guitarist and shouts for Los Angeles punk band, tudors., and spends a lot of time at home tolerating his hyperactive pug named Darby Crash.
Joshua Escobar is author of the chapbooks Califorkya Voltage (No, Dear/Small Anchor) and xxox fm (Doublecross Press), a full-length collection of poems, Bareback Nightfall (Noemi Press and Letras Latinas), and a novel, Demons of Eminence, that was the winner of the 2023 Bo Huston Award. Recipient of the 2022-2023 Faculty Excellence Award, they direct the Creative Writing program at Santa Barbara City College, where they co-publish the arts magazine Open Fruit. A 2026 Queer | Arts Fellow, they are at work on an original TV show about Mexico City’s electronic underground.
Rasheed’s writing career began when he partnered up with T.J. Brady, and together they were hired as staff writers on the Fox drama Lie to Me. As a writing team, Rasheed and T.J. have worked on Narcos, The Chi, and Shooter, among other drama series. They are currently executive producers on Bel-Air.
Over the course of roughly two years, Rasheed wrote the novel My Government Means to Kill Me. It was a passion project that he wasn’t sure would attract a publisher. However, his literary agent, Jim McCarthy of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, saw potential in the manuscript. So did his literary editor, Nadxieli Nieto of Flatiron Books. Rasheed is grateful to both of them.
Rasheed’s second novel, There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood, was published by Flatiron in June of 2026. Recently, Rasheed was selected as a 2025–26 American Library in Paris Visiting Fellow. Rasheed lives with his husband and their two children in Pasadena, California.
Kaila is an author based in Los Angeles. Her debut memoir, Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty, was just published with Penguin Random House’s Crown Publishing. She’s also a luxury travel and culture writer with bylines in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Condé Nast Traveler, and many more.
Five queer authors open portals to spectacular new worlds and dare us to get lost in them.
WeHo Reads: Into the Unknown
Online Via Zoom and YouTube
Free, RSVP Requested
What can we discover in worlds that have never existed? And how does queer imagination remake the rules of magic, adventure, and belonging?
This October, five queer fantasy and YA authors venture past the edges of the map, into imagined realms cozy, macabre, sweeping and strange. Their books conjure witches and spellwork, alternate universes, and heroes who have rarely seen themselves at the center of the story. In an evening of reading and discussion, Georgia K. Boone, Kiri Callaghan, Lizzy Ives, C.B. Lee, and Shelly Page will talk about building the fantastical, the freedom of the undiscovered, and why imagined worlds can tell the truest stories about our own.
Featuring:
Georgia K. Boone is the author of the critically acclaimed YA novel And Other Mistakes and When We Almost Came Undone, both of which are Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections.
Kiri Callaghan is a best-selling author of sapphic fantasy fiction that’s both cozy and a little macabre, including The Hemlock Saga and its latest installment, The Hearth Witch’s Guide to Spite & Spellwork.
Lizzy Ives is the author of Fat Witch Summer and Thick Witch Travels and co-designer of the upcoming cozy fantasy board game, Bookwyrm.
C.B. Lee is a New York Times bestselling author of young adult and middle grade fiction, including the Lodestone Award for Best Young Adult Book–winning Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe, A Clash of Steel, and the acclaimed Sidekick Squad series.
Shelly Page, the author of Brewed with Love and Charmed and Dangerous, writes young adult fantasy romance and horror, and practices immigration law.
WeHo Reads is a literary series presented by the City of West Hollywood. For more information and events, visit www.weho.org/wehoreads. The 2026 program is produced by BookSwell, a literary media company amplifying historically excluded voices. Additional support is provided by media partnerships with Book Soup and Los Angeles Review of Books. Attendees are advised that the program may include mature language and themes.
Authors
Georgia K. Boone
Photo by Carrie Truong
Georgia K. Boone is the author of the critically acclaimed YA novel And Other Mistakes and When We Almost Came Undone, both of which are Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections. She’s also the author of the forthcoming horror anthology Can’t You See It’s Coming? When not writing about women who defy expectations, she plays video games and annoys her dogs. She lives with her family in Los Angeles.
Kiri Callaghan is an author of fantastical sapphic fiction, performer and poet. Existing work consists of The Hemlock Saga, The Terra Mirum Chronicles, The Seek Anomalie Podcast and a collection of original poems performed live at the Los Angeles Poetry Brothel.
Lizzy Ives (she/her) is the author of Fat Witch Summer and Thick Witch Travels. A lover of magic and whimsy, she grew up in the fog of the San Francisco Bay Area and now burns in the sun of Los Angeles with her husband, her cats, and their massive board game collection. Lizzy is currently working on Big Witch Energy, the third book in The Thirteen States series, and the upcoming cozy bookshelf board game Bookwyrm.
C.B. Lee is a New York Times bestselling author of young adult and middle grade fiction, including the Lodestone Award for Best Young Adult Book–winning Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe, A Clash of Steel, and the acclaimed Sidekick Squad series. Their works have received seven starred reviews and been finalists for multiple awards, including the Lambda Literary Award.
Shelly Page is a young adult contemporary fantasy romance and horror writer. By day, she’s a practicing immigration attorney. By night, she’s writing stories about love, magic, and mystery—all with the hope of providing genuine representation for queer readers of color. Shelly lives in Los Angeles with a collection of half-dead plants. Brewed with Love is her first solo novel. Charmed and Dangerous is her second.
