Wednesday, February 18, 2026 | 6:30–8 p.m. (PT)
What happens when writers dare to expose their family secrets through stories and memoir?
WeHo Reads: Telling Family Secrets
Online Via Zoom and YouTube
Free, RSVP Requested
To write is an act of exploration, revelation, and reckoning with the consequences of silence and speaking up. The first event in the WeHo Reads 2026 series brings together four acclaimed writers whose work dares to share what is often kept in the dark. Through fiction, memoir, and hybrid forms, these authors explore how telling family secrets can be a powerful and vulnerable creative act.
The event will feature: Toni Ann Johnson, author of the Arrington family saga, which includes her novella Homegoing, the Flannery O’Connor Award-winning Light Skin Gone to Waste, and her newest linked collection, winner of the Screen Door Press Prize, But Where’s Home?; Aimee Liu, bestselling author of the novels Glorious Boy, Flash House, Cloud Mountain, and Face, as well as the memoirs Solitaire and Gaining; Juanita E. Mantz (JEM), author of the memoir Tales of an Inland Empire Girl, who is also a lawyer/deputy public defender, a performer, and the host of the Life of JEM podcast; and Hannah Sward, award-winning author of Strip: A Memoir whose work has appeared in publications such as the LA Times, HuffPost, and NY Times (Tiny Love Stories).
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 season 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.
RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weho-reads-telling-family-secrets-tickets-1981060604597?aff=web
Authors
Toni Ann Johnson
Toni Ann Johnson won the Flannery O’Connor Award for her linked story collection, Light Skin Gone to Waste, which was selected for the prize and edited by Roxane Gay. Homegoing, a novella about the same family in Light Skin Gone to Waste, was released in 2021 after winning Accents Publishing’s inaugural novella contest, judged by Katerina Stoykova. Her new linked collection, a continuation of the Arrington story, But Where’s Home? (February 2026) was selected by Crystal Wilkinson for the 2024 Screen Door Press Prize.
Connect with her online at www.toniannjohnson.com.
Aimee Liu
Aimee Liu is the author of the novels Glorious Boy, Flash House, Cloud Mountain, and Face. Her nonfiction includes Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders and Solitaire. These books include a Literary Guild Super Release and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Aimee’s literary work has been recognized by the Pushcart Prize, Sewanee Review, Bosque Press, and Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers. She received her MFA from Bennington Writing Seminars and taught for many years in Goddard College’s MFA in Creative Writing Program at Port Townsend, WA.
To learn more about Aimee, visit her website: www.aimeeliu.net
Juanita E. Mantz
Juanita E. Mantz (“JEM”) is a USC Law educated lawyer, writer, performer, and podcaster. She is a deputy public defender with Riverside County.
Juanita has 2 books, a memoir titled “Tales of an Inland Empire Girl” (2nd edition, Pelekinesis, 2025) which won bronze at the 2024 Latino Books to Movies Awards and a hybrid chapbook titled “Portrait of a Deputy Public Defender, or how I became a punk rock lawyer” (Bamboo Dart Press, 2021), about the intersections of punk rock and public defense, which won a gold medal at the 2022 International Latino Book Awards.
Juanita’s stories have been published in journals, newspapers & anthologies and she is an alumni of VONA and Macondo.
Juanita has performed/presented on stages all over California and beyond, including at the Colony Theater, AWP, UCR Writers’ Week, the UCR Punk Conference, LitFest & she curated a punk rock social justice festival at Beyond Baroque. Juanita gave the keynote at the 2025 Latinas Rising conference at CSUSB. She was recently awarded a Cal Arts grant at the established artist level. She is in the low res MFA program at the University of New Orleans.
On her video podcast, “Life of JEM”, she does live interviews with writers.
To learn more about JEM, visit her website: www.juanitaemantz.com.
Hanna Sward
Hannah Sward is the IPPY gold winning author of Strip: A Memoir.
For the past 25 years, Sward’s work has been widely published in literary journals in the US, Canada, and the UK. Her work has also appeared in more mainstream publications such as the LA Times, HuffPost and NY Times (Tiny Love Stories).
She lives in Los Angeles where she is writing a series titled “Summer of Men” on Substack.
Connect with her at www.hannahsward.com.
Special Guest: West Hollywood Poet Laureate
Jen Cheng
Jen Cheng is a multi-disciplinary storyteller, weaving her skills as a poet, writer, musician, improvisor, and artist. She helps create your story and amplify under-represented stories. Jen is a community curator and cross-pollinator.
Find out more about Jen at: jencvoice.com.
