Hey all. Tomorrow I’m headed to the Association of Writing Programs conference in Los Angeles. I’m doing two events:

A reading

Thursday, March 31st
8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
The Last Projects Gallery, 6546 Hollywood Blvd #215 (an off-site reading)

2015 Emerging Writers Retreat Reading

Great short readings, rad Hollywood gallery space, free event with cheap drinks, music, dancing, and Justin Torres framing it all with his beautiful introduction to the anthology?

This is where you want to be at 8pm on Thursday the 31st.

The Lambda Literary Foundation presents a special AWP reading from the Emerge Anthology. Emerge: A Lambda Literary Fellows Anthology is a collection of work from the 2015 Lambda Literary Emerging Writers Retreat.

Justin Torres, author of We The Animals, will be joined by:

Rahul Kanakia
Dange Russ Price
Kayleb Rae Candrilli
Librecht Wanderlust
Annah Anti-Palindrome
Jess Pane
Jeffrey Wolf
Sara David
Mel King
Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela
Militza Jean-Felix
The reading will start at 8pm followed by a DJ set afterwards.

A panel

S260. Non-White Authors Also Worry About Getting It Wrong: Creating Diverse Characters in Children’s Literature

Room 510, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
Saturday, April 2, 2016
3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Half of America’s children are people of color, but only 10% of kids’ books are written by POC. Because of this gap, the kids’ book industry has struggled to find ways for white authors to write books that appeal to all children. However, authors of color also feel insecure about these issues. In this panel, four authors of color discuss the pressure to write characters that won’t alienate white readers and address their successes and failures in their attempts to write inclusive fiction.