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SUMMARY:WeHo Reads: Writing Together—Pomodoros\, Marinara\, and Friendship
DESCRIPTION:Five women of color reflect on what it meant to build a creative practice rooted in friendship.\n\n\nWeHo Reads: Writing Together—Pomodoros\, Marinara\, and Friendship will take place on Wednesday\, March 11\, 2026\, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.\, online. Writing a book is often imagined as a solitary act: thousands of quiet hours\, alone with a blinking cursor. But for five friends—Jade Chang\, Angela Flournoy\, Aja Gabel\, Jean Chen Ho\, and Xuan Juliana Wang—that myth unraveled in a corner booth at Little Dom’s\, an Italian American restaurant in Los Feliz where they gathered week after week to write together. \nUsing an adapted Pomodoro method—40-minute stretches of focused work followed by breaks over meatballs\, marinara\, potatoes\, and salad—the group wasn’t there to workshop pages or critique drafts. All of them were working on second books. While productivity and accountability were factors\, the main point was companionship. \nThis moderated literary conversation brings these five women of color together to reflect on what it meant to build a creative practice rooted in friendship. They’ll talk about skepticism and structure\, motherhood and momentum\, finishing hard books\, and how showing up—at the same restaurant\, at the same time\, with the same people—changed their relationship to writing itself. With several new novels published this fall\, the group looks back on the communal labor and friendships that made these books possible. \nAt its core\, this is a conversation about art\, discipline\, and the sustaining power of community—and a reminder that sometimes the most radical thing a writer can do is not write alone. \nThis event will feature: Jade Chang\, author of two critically acclaimed novels\, What a Time to Be Alive and The Wangs vs. the World\, which won the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award; Angela Flournoy\, author of The Wilderness\, a national bestseller that was long-listed for the National Book Award; Aja Gabel\, author of the novel Lightbreakers and The Ensemble and a screenwriter; Jean Chen Ho\, author of Fiona and Jane; and Xuan Juliana Wang\, author of the short story collection Home Remedies\, winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction. \nWeHo 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.
URL:https://www.bookswell.club/event/weho-reads-writing-together-pomodoros-marinara-and-friendship/
CATEGORIES:Discussion
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SUMMARY:WeHo Reads: Telling Family Secrets
DESCRIPTION:What happens when writers dare to expose family secrets through stories and memoir?What happens when writers dare to expose their family secrets through stories and memoir? 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.
URL:https://www.bookswell.club/event/weho-reads-telling-family-secrets/
CATEGORIES:Discussion
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