An Inspirational Evening of Literary Fun

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of reading with Toni Ann Johnson and Désirée Zamorano at the first Cirque Salon Fiction Reading at Book Show in Highland Park.

The Cirque Salon Fiction Reading series was founded by Mandy Campbell Moore, who served as Ringmaster/MC for our reading, and Jen Hitchcock, owner of Book Show, which LA Weekly aptly dubbed “[a] wonderland of eclectic print art” when naming Book Show the Best Zine Shop of 2014 (as I noted in a previous post about great indie bookstores in LA).

It was an incredible experience to read with two such talented writers and performers as Désirée Zamorano and Toni Ann Johnson. Désirée read from her taut, fascinating novel, The Amado Women, and regaled the audience with the story of the novel’s winding path to publication. In a performance that was heartbreakingly funny, Toni Ann brought vividly to life the mother and daughter at the heart of Toni Ann’s debut novel, Remedy for a Broken Angel. I read from my short story “Dress Shoes,” which was originally published in Issue #70/71 of Quarterly West and was also published in audio form by The Drum. A video of my Cirque Salon reading is below.

Mandy and Jen’s efforts made the event a true pleasure for everyone. I can’t thank them enough for including me in what I think will be a long-running, exciting reading series that will help cement Highland Park as a fast-rising literary hotspot.

 

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