Join us in the Wanda Coleman Theater to celebrate various Pushcart Prize winners from Southern California. The 50th anniversary edition of the Pushcart Prize anthology features new work from second-time winner Lou Mathews. Reading alongside him are fiction writers Tommy Moore and Kim Samek, as well as poets Michael Mark and Melissa Mc Kinstry. Reception and book signings to follow.

Doors Open: 7:00 PM I Readings: 7:30 PM

About the authors

Lou Mathews is the author of the novels L.A. Breakdown, an L.A. Times Best Book, and Shaky Town , long-listed for 2022 Tournament-of-books, both from Tiger Van Books. He has received two Pushcart Prizes, A Katherine Anne Porter Prize and California Arts Commission and NEA Fellowships in Fiction. His new novel Hollywoodski, has just received a starred review from Kirkus. His short stories have been published in ZYZZYVA, New England Review, Short Story, Black Clock and more than 40- other literary magazines. He has taught in the UCLA Writer’s Program since 1989.

Tommy Moore was born in Santa Monica, California. He works as a producer and director, creating entertainment, documentary, and commercial content. In 2013, Tommy was one of six writers selected for the PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship. His writing has been published in Akashic Books’ Noir Series: Santa Cruz Noir and in Chicago Quarterly Review. In 2026, he won a Pushcart Prize for his short story “This Is You.”

Kim Samek is an Emmy-nominated writer who studied German Literature and creative writing at Stanford University. Her debut story collection I AM THE GHOST HERE will be published by Dial Press on February 24 and has been named a most anticipated 2026 book by Debutiful, The Seattle Times, and LitHub. Her fiction can be found in Guernica, Ecotone, Southern Humanities Review, Gulf Coast, Electric Literature, North American Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, The Threepenny Review, Story Magazine, ZYZZYVA, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, and others, and it has also received special mention in the Best American Short Stories. A native of Seattle, she lives in Los Angeles.

Michael Mark is the author of Visiting Her in Queens is More Enlightening than a Month in a Monastery in Tibet which won the 2022 Rattle Chapbook Prize. Some recent poems appear in Alaska Quarterly Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, Copper Nickel, New Ohio Review, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, 32 Poems and The Sun. His work appears in The Best New Poets, 2024. He received a Pushcart Prize in 2026. michaeljmark.com

Melissa McKinstry hosts quarterly poetry and jazz evenings and curates a community Poet Tree in San Diego. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in many journals including Beloit, Adroit, Narrative, and Best New Poets 2023 and 2025, and was selected for the 2025 New Ohio Review Literary Prize and a 2026 Pushcart Prize. An Adroit Djanikian Scholar and the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Millay House Rockland, she currently serves on the Alumni Council for Pacific University’s MFA program and the Board of the Millay House Rockland. You can also visit her at MelissaMcKinstry.com.

About Beyond Baroque

Beyond Baroque is one of the United States’ leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public’s knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with a large collection of new poetry books for sale.

Livestream: If you can’t join us in person the event will be livestreamed on Beyond Baroque’s YouTube channel at the scheduled time of the event. If you are tuning in this way, no ticket purchase is necessary.

If you are attending in person, ticket purchase is required. Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the event, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. Please arrive early.

Event attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.