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Thursday, June 1, 2023

First Thursdays Arts Walk

“Paths to Publishing: Agents and Other Routes”

with Jo Scott-Coe, James Luna, and Becca Spence Dobias

6:30-8:00 PM; doors open at six.

Free and open to the public. No registration required.

Riverside Main Library

Community Room & Arcade

3900 Mission Inn Blvd

Riverside, CA 92501

6:30-7:00 – Open mic readings – Community Room

7:00-8:00 – Author roundtable – Community Room

Join Inlandia and Riverside Public Library on June 1 for a First Thursdays Arts Walk event for writers, "Paths to Publishing: Agents and Other Routes.” The program will include a roundtable discussion with local authors Jo Scott-Coe, James Luna, and Becca Spence Dobias. Learn about their various paths to publication, including a step-by-step guide to submitting your work to a literary agent – and other means to a publishing end. The conversation will begin at 7:00, but come early if you can! A writers’ open mic is planned from 6:30-7:00.

For the open mic, you are welcome to read poetry, flash fiction, or an excerpt from a work in progress. And while you’re there, explore the month’s topic of books available for checkout in the Community Room. Don’t have a library card? Apply for one at the event!

Jo Scott-Coe’s essays and stories have been published widely, for literary as well as academic audiences. Her third book, Unheard Witness: The Life and Death of Kathy Leissner Whitman, is forthcoming in Fall 2023 from the University of Texas Press.

James Luna is the author of three books, all published by Arte Publico Press/Pinata Books: The Runaway Piggy/El Cochinito Fugitivo, A Mummy in Her Backpack/Una momia en su mochila and The Place Where You Live/El lugar donde vives. His fourth book published by Arte Público, Growing Up on the Playground, was released in 2018. Piggy was awarded the 2012 Tejas Star Award as chosen by the students of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

Becca Spence Dobias is a 2022 KissPitch mentee, working under the guidance of Jen Deluca, author of the Well Met series. She is the author of On Home (Inkshares, 2021) and has a book under contract with WVU Press about the North Central WV punk scene of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Her work also appears in Inlandia: A Literary Journey, two Writing Bloc anthologies, https://lgbtqreads.com/, and https://diymfa.com/ among other places. She reviews books for Southern Literary Review and co-hosts Writing Bloc’s Indie Writer Podcast. She grew up in West Virginia and now lives in Southern California with her husband and two children.