BookSwell is producing the WeHo Reads 2022 literary season!

Great news! BookSwell has been selected by the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division to produce the 2022 WeHo Reads season. BookSwell founder and managing editor Cody Sisco proposed a series of eight online events on the theme of creating joy in the midst of sorrow that will take the audience on a memorable journey throughout 2022.

Literary communities have continued to struggle through difficult times and yet many writers are not only confronting sources of pain and injustice but also creating paths toward healing, lightness, and joy. We aim to recognize the contribution of writers and lift up their voices.

Stay tuned for more info!


You can sign up to receive email updates here:

.

If you missed our events in 2020 and 2021, catch up on our YouTube channel or check out the highlights below:

  • WeHo Reads: Through a Lens Queerly

    Wednesday, December 11, 2024 | 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. PT What makes a memory? What makes an idol? Through what lens do we examine ourselves and our community?  Join us for a discussion about queer lives, the stories we tell both in words and images, and how we see each other.


  • WeHo Reads: Imagining and Building Restorative Communities 

    Wednesday, November 20, 2024 | 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. PT 2024 is a year of possibilities and perils, and it’s more important than ever for writers to share their thoughts on imagining and building restorative communities.


  • WeHo Reads: Creating Queer Families and Communities 

    Wednesday, October 9, 2024 | 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. PT Let’s celebrate National Coming Out Day with an exploration of queer families by Meliza Bañales, Lane Igoudin, and Hazel Kight Witham!   


  • WeHo Reads: Asian Pacific Diaspora Talk Story

    Wednesday, May 8, 2024 | 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. PT Hear from a panel of poets and writers as they share their stories and discuss what it means to be Asian American during AAPI Heritage Month


  • WeHo Reads: Poetry Spa 2024

    Wednesday, April 17, 2024 | 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. PT Celebrate National Poetry Month and lounge with a poet at the City’s 2nd annual Poetry Spa Day!


  • WeHo Reads: Inspirations and Intersections

    Wednesday, February 7, 2024 | 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. PT We explore authors’ creative inspirations and intersections during Black History Month.


  • WeHo Reads x Literary Death Match

    Wednesday, November 8, 2023 | 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. PT The City of West Hollywood and WeHo Reads are partnering with Literary Death Match for what promises to be a blazingly-bright night of lit, wit, silliness and belly laughs, to boot. This is Literary Death Match’s first-ever show in West Hollywood!


  • WeHo Reads: Creating Hope in Times of Trouble

    Wednesday, October 18, 2023 | 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. PT


16 Yodassa Williams interview

Cody Sisco interviews Yodassa Williams about her debut fantasy novel, The Goddess Twins, coming of age and finding one’s voice, black girl magic and creativity, and the revelatory experience of going to Burning Man.

Yodassa Williams shows off her new novel, The Goddess Twins, in the magical locale of Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA

Yodassa Williams is a powerful conjurer of black girl magic (70 percent Jedi, 30 percent Sith). A Jamaican American writer, speaker, and award-winning performing storyteller, an alumna of the VONA/Voices Travel Writing program and the Fortify Writer’s Retreat, and the creator of the podcast The Black Girl Magic Files, Yodassa (Yoda) launched Writers Emerging, a wilderness writing retreat for women of color and non-binary people of color, in 2019. She grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and currently resides in the Bay Area. The Goddess Twins is her debut novel.

Listen Now

Link to BookSwell Intersections Podcast on Spotify