Wednesday, February 7, 2024 | 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. PT
We explore authors’ creative inspirations and intersections during Black History Month.
Wednesday, February 8 · 6 – 7:30pm PST
RSVP on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weho-reads-inspirations-and-intersections-tickets-776516841777
How do breakthrough writers pave the way for a more inclusive publishing landscape? How do contemporary writers want their work to be received? Where do literary legacies and ambitions intersect? The series opener for WeHo Reads 2024 will feature authors celebrating their inspirations and examining how their work intersects with literary luminaries during Black History Month.
Participating writers will include: Rachel Howzell Hall, the bestselling author of multiple crime novels, including What Never Happened (Thomas and Mercer, 2023); Lisa Teasley, author of Fluid: Stories (Cune Press, 2023) and librettist of The Passion of Nell, commissioned by the Long Beach Opera; Jervey Tervalon, an award-winning poet, screenwriter, lecturer, and dramatist, who is the author of Monster’s Chef (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2014) and All the Trouble You Need (Atria Books/Washington Square Books, 2002); and Tamika Thompson, a writer, producer, and journalist, who is the author of the speculative fiction collection Unshod, Cackling, and Naked (Unnerving, 2023).
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.
Authors
Rachel Howzell Hall
Rachel Howzell Hall is the author of twelve novels, including the bestselling thrillers, What Never Happened, We Lie Here, and These Toxic Things. A Los Angeles native, Rachel is a former member of the board of directors for Mystery Writers of America and was a featured writer on NPR and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her shorter works have appeared in Alta Magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. A former member of the board for Mystery Writers of America, Rachel’s first fantasy novel, The Last One, will be published in April 2024, the first installment of her new series.
Lisa Teasley
Lisa Teasley is the author of FLUID Stories, the award-winning story collection GLOW IN THE DARK and the critically acclaimed novels, DIVE and HEAT SIGNATURE. Teasley’s writings have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Arabic and have been much anthologized including in W.W. Norton anthology Flash Fiction America, 2023 and Europa Editions The Passenger: California, 2022. She is the writer and presenter of the BBC television documentary “High School Prom,” and the librettist of The Passion of Nell commissioned by Long Beach Opera. A visual artist as well, Lisa Teasley has exhibited widely.
Jervey Tervalon
Jervey Tervalon was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but moved to the Jefferson Park/Crenshaw area of Los Angeles, California, with his family as a young boy. He attended the University of California at Santa Barbara where he graduated with a BA in Literature. He received his MFA from UC Irvine where he studied with Thomas Keneally and Oakley Hall. His thesis project became the novel Understand This for which he won the 1994 New Voices Award from Quality Paper Books was based on his experiences teaching at Locke High School.
Tamika Thompson
Tamika is a writer, producer, and journalist. She is author of speculative fiction collection Unshod, Cackling, and Naked, which Publishers Weekly calls “powerful,” “unsettling,” and “terrifying,” as well as author of horror novella Salamander Justice. She is co-creator of the artist collective POC United and fiction editor for the group’s award-winning anthology, Graffiti. Her work has appeared in several speculative fiction anthologies as well as in Interzone, Prairie Schooner, The New York Times, and Los Angeles Review of Books among others. You can find her online at tamikathompson.com.
