The panel will feature readings from authors that write about motherhood: Mothers and writers from diverse backgrounds writing stories about the often underrepresented parenting experience. We’d spend time considering our experience of motherhood and reflecting on how that understanding has changed and informed us, impacted us as writers, while considering how we portray motherhood in our work.

Amber Flame is an interdisciplinary creative, activist and educator whose work has garnered residencies with Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, and more. Gerda Govine Ituarte, Ed.D., poet, art curator, columnist and CEO of G. Govine Consulting, was born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and emigrated to New York City in the mid 50’s and California in the early 80’s. Luivette Resto is a mother, teacher, poet, and Wonder Woman fan was born in Puerto Rico but proudly raised in the Bronx. 2022-2024 Altadena co-poet laureate, Carla Sameth is the author of the memoir, One Day on the Gold Line and the poetry chapbook, What Is Left, and teaches creative writing to a variety of ages. Colette Sartor’s linked short story collection, Once Removed, won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the NYC Big Book Award for Short Story Collections, and the Juror’s Choice Award and the Short Stories Award from the National Indie Excellence Awards.

The event is free and you can watch via YouTube Live on the WeHo Arts channel. Learn more at www.weho.org/wehoreads/

WeHo Reads is a literary series presented by the City of West Hollywood. More information and events at www.weho.org/wehoreads. BookSwell, a literary events and media company dedicated to lifting up writers from historically excluded communities, is producing the WeHo Reads 2023 season. Additional support is provided by UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and Poets & Writers as well as media partnerships with Bookshop.org, Book Soup, and Los Angeles Review of Books.