3:00 - 3:45 PM
Events with a red asterisk* contain mature themes and content that may not be suitable for younger audience members.
*A Circle of Seers: Women who survived childhood without Caller ID | feat. Deborah Mechele Bento, Tere Joyce, Sharon K. McClain, and Anya Connely-Howland
Four women share stories from girlhoods shaped by instinct, vigilance, and improvisation. Coming of age before cell phones, location sharing, and the expectation of constant contact, they navigated threatening situations involving men—sometimes strangers, sometimes family members—by reading rooms, decoding tone, and anticipating risk. Circle of Seers explores the near-clairvoyant survival skills young women developed to move through the world and into adulthood. Bookish (520 W. Olive Avenue)
Trio House Press Quartet | feat. Samina Najmi, Rhoni Blankenhorn, Leila Farjami, and Mai-Linh Hong
We are four Trio House Press writers from different parts of California—Fresno, Merced, San Francisco, and Los Angeles—who have published our debut books in the past year. We celebrate LitHop’s tenth anniversary with writings that draw on our various inheritances as Asian Americans, being first- or second-generation Americans from Pakistan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Iran. Our readings will focus on the body of the land, ancestral and adoptive; the maternal body; the migrating body, and the body in grief. We will read poems and prose from our debut books, allowing time for a brief conversation with the audience. Broadway Parque (940 N. Broadway Street)
*Humor, Wit, and Satire | feat. Peter Lechuga, Mike Bonifer, Betty Harbison, and Lisa Montagne
This panel explores how humor and satire show up in poetry. Not just for laughs, but to reveal truth in unexpected ways. Peter Lechuga brings sharp, activist-driven humor that often blends wit with cultural critique and lived experience. Mike Bonifer looks at how stories shape perception, using playfulness and narrative surprise to shift how we think. Betty Harbison brings warmth and perspective. She shares how humor can open space for learning. Lisa Montagne works with poetry and prose that move between reflection and irony. Together, they highlight how poetry can be funny, biting, and deeply human all at once. Hart's Haven Used Bookstore (950 N. Van Ness Avenue)
Family Folklore | feat. Alberto Saldaña Uribe, Michael Cantu, Andy Marin Contreras, and Cristina Sandoval
Moments become memories. Memories become heirlooms become inheritances. Passed down from generation to generation, stories taking shape, developing personalities of their own, integrating themselves into the fibers of the family. From their families to yours, four writers recite the stories, triumphs, failures, and tragedies that have shaped their lives. CellPros Tower District (812 E. Olive Avenue)
*Flash Resistance | feat. Venita Blackburn, Alison Mandaville, Michele Maldonado, and Brenna Womer
Bright words for dark times. Like dripping water, sometimes an accumulation of small actions can make a big difference. This will be a dynamic reading of flash prose by four Fresno writers chipping away at cruelty and facing grief with words of love and wonder. Summer Fox Brewing - Tower (1426 N. Van Ness Avenue) 21+ older only
Writing Across Cultures | feat. Melineh Ani Yemenidjian, Clara Ximena Roque-Wagner, Ely Lupe, and Sammy Herrera
This panel invites poets whose work engages culture, language, migration, and the experience of living between communities. They will share how heritage, bilingualism, family history, displacement, and community shape artistic voice. Poetry is explored as a tool that preserves memory, navigates identity, and articulates experiences often left unspoken. Panelists will provide a bridge between carrying multiple identities, using poetry to honor ancestry, challenging stereotypes, and maintaining traditions in a place that doesn’t always support them. Spectrum Art Gallery (608 E. Olive Avenue)
Earth, Water, Air, and Fire | feat. Jackie Ryle, Charles Hensley, Paul E. Pierce, and Tino Agustin De Guevara
Jackie Ryle, Charles Hensley, Tino Agustin De Guevarra, and Paul E Pierce are four Fresno writers who have known each other for decades, worked together in various situations, and regularly get together to support each other’s writing. In this reading, they poetically explore the four elements. Tower Yoga Lotus Room (626 E. Olive Avenue)
The Grotesque Ordinary | feat. Blanca Nino, Allyssa Gaines, Michael Maldonado, and Alex Taylor
This reading brings together four writers working through different forms of contemporary horror. The set moves between satire, family trauma, body horror, and the quiet dread embedded in suburban life. Through poetry and lyric nonfiction, these pieces examine failing systems, unfamiliar bodies, and the lingering effects of violence and memory. Some works are surreal or grotesque, while others remain grounded in everyday life. Together, the reading approaches horror not as fantasy, but as something lived, domestic, and deeply human. Goldstein's Mortuary & Delicatessen (1279 N. Wishon Avenue) 21+ older only
*Narrow Escapes | feat. Linnea Alexander, Jack Chavoor, Will Freeny, and Danielle Potter
You know the feeling. Maybe it’s a split second. Maybe it’s a quandary you’ve pondered for weeks. There’s no move that’s right, no way to save yourself. Then suddenly, the car swerves around you, you see a door open you hadn’t noticed, help arrives unexpectedly. You’ve escaped. You’re alive. You made the right decision. Your body reacts first and slowly your mind takes it in. You might tell the first person you see. You may never tell anyone. But now you have felt the width of a narrow escape. Teazer World Tea Market (645 E. Olive Avenue)