WeHo Reads: Reimagining History

Five Los Angeles writers return to the past, through fiction and poetry, to understand where we came from.

Why do we keep returning to history? And what changes when we recover what was buried, silenced, or forgotten?

WeHo Reads returns in September with five acclaimed Los Angeles writers whose work reaches back into personal, political, and civic histories and reshapes how we see it. Through historical fiction and poetry, they explore why the past still shapes the present, and what we can learn from seeing it through new lenses. In an evening of reading and discussion, they ask how memory, imagination, and the craft of writing become tools for reimagining where we've been, where we are, and where we're going.

Featuring:

• Kate Maruyama is a professor of writing and an author of realist and fabulist  novels, short stories and essays set in and about Los Angeles.
• Novelist Rasheed Newson is the author of the national bestseller My Government Means to K*ll Me and the critically-acclaimed There's Only One Sin in Hollywood.
• Steven Reigns is a poet, educator and was appointed the first Poet Laureate of West Hollywood.
• Mike Sonksen, aka Mike the PoeT, is a poet, professor, journalist, historian & tour guide with work in publications like the Academy of American Poets, Alta, PBS, Poetry Foundation & Westways.
• Désirée Zamorano, author of the historical fiction novel Dispossessed and the collection of short stories, Amarisa's Cooking Pot, delights in writing about the ordinary and the extraordinary.

WeHo Reads is a literary series presented by the City of West Hollywood. The 2026 program 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. Free; RSVP requested. Free parking is available in the 5-story Public/Park Parking Structure at 625 N. San Vicente Blvd. Attendees are advised that the program may include mature language and themes.

Additional information:

• Free Parking. Attendees may park in the 5-story Public/Park Parking Structure at 625 N. San Vicente Blvd
• Content warning: This program may contain explicit language or content.