Best American Series Launch

Join us at Village Well Books & Coffee for a celebration of the newest edition of HarperCollins' Best American series!

The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of print and online publications. A guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected—and most popular—of its kind.

About the participants:

Melissa Johnson is an Emmy-nominated and Academy Award Shortlisted writer and director. Her first-person essays have appeared in The New York Times, Outside Magazine, Longreads, The Rumpus, Narratively, Salon and The Guardian, among others, including the inspiration for her autobiographical animated film about her dating life as a 6’4” tall woman — which won at The Tribeca Film Festival and went on to be Shortlisted for the 2016 Academy Awards. Her documentary films have appeared on Showtime, ESPN, and MTV. Once voted “Most Likely to Live in a Log Cabin”, Melissa hopes to come back in her next life as a peregrine falcon.

Thomas Ha is a Nebula, Ignyte, Locus, and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated writer of speculative short fiction. You can find his work in Clarkesworld, Weird Horror Magazine, and The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, among other publications. Thomas grew up in Honolulu and, after a decade plus of living in the northeast, now resides in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.

Sammy Roth is the climate columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He writes the twice-weekly Boiling Point newsletter and focuses on clean energy solutions. He previously reported for the Desert Sun and USA Today, where he covered renewable energy and public lands. He grew up in Westwood and would very much like to see the Dodgers win the World Series again.

Francesca Lia Block is the author of more than thirty books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories, and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association, and from the New York Times Book Review and Publisher's Weekly. Currently she teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension, Antioch University, Pocket MFA, and numerous workshops across the country. Francesca also edits Lit Angels, a literary journal available on Substack. Her latest novel is House of Hearts, now out in paperback.

Host or Publisher Village Well Books & Coffee