Pride on the Page is a FREE full day festival featuring LGBTQIA+ and affirming authors and allies in conversation about their books and dynamic topics, book signings, a local authors table, LGBTQIA+ presses, updates about the Palm Springs Public Library Renovation, and much more!
Evening Fundraiser
Join actor/author CHRIS COLFER as he discusses his new young adult book Roswell Saves the Galaxy! in conversation with Meredith Fine.
Chris Colfer
Meredith Fine
-
Chris Colfer is a Golden Globe-winning, Emmy and SAG Award-nominated actor, screenwriter, producer, and author of twenty books including the #1 New York Times bestselling series The Land of Stories. He received a Golden Globe, two consecutive Emmy nominations, three People's Choice Awards, a SAG nomination, and two Teen Choice Awards for his work as Kurt Hummel on the worldwide television phenomenon GLEE. He wrote, produced, and starred in his first film, Struck by Lightning, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival. He has been named to the TIME 100, Time magazine's distinguished annual list of the one hundred most influential people in the world and was honored by the National Coalition Against Censorship with their Free Speech Defender award.
-
Meredith Fine began her career in the entertainment industry 38 years ago at Coast to Coast Talent Group and started the talent agencies youth department in 1990 where she has developed and continues to guide the careers of young entertainment professionals. Her clients have included Chris Colfer and some of the best young actors in film and television resulting in three Academy-Award nominated performances among many other accolades. Meredith currently serves on the Palm Springs Parks & Recreation Commission and splits her time between Calabasas and Palm Springs. She stays actively involved in civic and artistic programs in her communities and is dedicated to her loving family.
Scheduled at a Glance
|
10:00 - 11:00 am |
Novel Conversations: Ryan O’Connell & Jonathan Parks-Ramage discuss their books in conversation with Byron Lane & Steven Rowley |
|
11:115 - Noon |
So Many Stars: Oral Histories Across the Gender Spectrum: Caro De Robertis in conversation with Lex Ortega |
|
Noon - 1:00 pm |
LUNCK BREAK |
|
1:00 - 1:45 pm |
Out Living/Outliving: New queer fiction from Marissa (Mac) Crane and Eric C. Wat in conversation with Steven Reigns |
|
2:00 - 2:45 pm |
The Great Black Hope: Rob Franklin discusses his debut novel in conversation with Will Dean |
|
3:00 - 3:45 pm |
Pleasure and Pain in Personal Stories and Poems: Melissa Febos & Donika Kelly in conversation with Meredith Maran |
|
4:00 - 4:45 pm |
Book It: The Ins and Outs of Getting Published and Promoted with Tara Madison Avery (Stacked Deck Press), Ian Henzel (Rattling Good Yarns Press) and Christine Svendsen (Saphire Books) in conversation with Eduardo Santiago (Palm Springs Writers Guild) |
Join us in the lobby of the Palm Springs Cultural Center and outside in the Pride on the Page Tent for book signings, local authors, publishers, non-profit organizations, updates about the Palm Springs Public Library Renovation, and much, much more.
PLUS…
Author Panels
Novel Conversations: Ryan O’Connell & Jonathan Parks-Ramage discuss their books in conversation with Byron Lane & Steven Rowley
10:00 - 11:00 am
Ryan O’Connell
Jonathan Parks-Ramage
Steven Rowley
Byron Lane
-
Ryan O'Connell is the Emmy-nominated creator, writer, and star of Netflix’s Special, which is based on his memoir, I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves. He is also the author of the novel Just By Looking at Him and has written for other TV shows like Will & Grace, Awkward, and Peacock’s Queer as Folk revival, which he also stars in. He lives, laughs, and loves in Los Angeles with his partner, Jonathan Parks-Ramage.
-
Jonathan Parks-Ramage is the author of the new book It’s Not The End of the World, which has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "a wild ride of a novel," and selected by The New York Times Style Magazine as a pick for Best Queer Summer Fiction. His debut novel Yes, Daddy was named one of the best queer books of 2021 by Entertainment Weekly, NBC News, The Advocate, Lambda Literary, Bustle, Goodreads and more. He is co-creator of the Off-Broadway musical The Big Gay Jamboree, which was nominated for five Lucille Lortel Awards, four Drama Desk Awards, and three Outer Critics Circle Awards.
-
Byron Lane is the author of the novels Big Gay Wedding and A Star Is Bored. The New York Times Book Review has called his writing "wildly funny and irreverent." He is a former assistant to actress and writer Carrie Fisher, a two-time Emmy Award winner for his work as a television news journalist, and the playwright behind the acclaimed show Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad On Craigslist. He's from New Orleans and lives in Palm Springs with his husband, The New York Times bestselling author Steven Rowley and their rescue dogs, Raindrop and Shirley.
-
Steven Rowley is the New York Times bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus, a Washington Post Notable Book of 2016, The Editor, named by NPR as one of the Best Books of 2019, The Guncle, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, The Celebrants, a TODAY Show Read With Jenna Book Club pick and the instant USA Today Bestseller The Guncle Abroad. His fiction has been published in twenty languages. Originally from Portland, Maine, he is a graduate of Emerson College and currently resides in Palm Springs with his husband, the writer Byron Lane, and two rescue dogs.
So Many Stars: Oral Histories Across the Gender Spectrum: Caro De Robertis in conversation with Lex Ortega
11:15 am - Noon
Caro De Robertis
Lex Ortega
-
A writer of Uruguayan origins, Caro De Robertis is the author of six novels, including The Palace of Eros, Cantoras, and more. Their books have been translated into seventeen languages and have received numerous honors, including two Stonewall Book Awards and the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, which they were the first openly nonbinary writer to receive. De Robertis is also an award-winning literary translator and a professor at San Francisco State University. They live in Oakland, California with their two children.
-
Lex Ortega calls the desert their forever home. After being raised in the Coachella Valley, Lex attended Stanford University as a first-generation college student and discovered their north star of working with and for LGBTQ+ community groups and spaces. Lex has served on community-based projects including the California Voting Rights Act Working Group for the City of Palm Springs, Palm Springs Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast Committee, the Palm Springs Dyke March, feminist collective Wyld Womxn, and even as a promoter and organizer of queer women’s events in Palm Springs. Lex is a past president of Leadership Coachella Valley, the 2023 Desert Fast Pitch winner, and selected as one of Palm Springs Life’s 40 Under 40. Lex currently serves as Vice Chair on La Mesa for Alianza Coachella Valley and serves on the Board of the LGBTQ+ History & Archives of the Desert. They are dedicated to queer and trans-centered spaces that are intersectional and rooted in power.
1:00 - 1:45pm
Out Living/Outliving: New queer fiction from Marissa (Mac) Crane and Eric C. Wat in conversation with Steven Reigns
Marisa (Mac) Crane
Eric C. Wat
Steven Reigns
-
Marisa (Mac) Crane is a sweatpants enthusiast, former college basketball player, and the author of the award-winning novel, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, and most recently, A Sharp Endless Need. They have received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, American Short Fiction, and Vermont Studio Center, and their short work has appeared in Literary Hub, The Sun, TriQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, Joyland, and elsewhere. Originally from Allentown, Pennsylvania, they currently live in San Diego with their family.
-
Eric C. Wat is the author of four books, including: Daddy Issues: Stories (University of Nebraska Press, 2025), winner of the Barbara DiBernard Prize in Fiction; Love Your Asian Body: AIDS Activism in Los Angeles (University of Washington Press, 2022), winner of Outstanding Book in History from the Association of Asian American Studies; the Los Angeles Times-bestselling debut novel SWIM (The Permanent Press, 2019), and The Making of a Gay Asian Community: An Oral History of Pre-AIDS Los Angeles (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002). His second novel manuscript, Drive, was a finalist in the Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series in 2022. You can learn more about his work at www.ericwatbooks.com
-
Steven Reigns is a Los Angeles poet and educator and was appointed the first Poet Laureate of West Hollywood. Alongside over a dozen chapbooks, he has published the collections Inheritance and Your Dead Body is My Welcome Mat. Reigns holds a BA in Creative Writing from the University of South Florida, a Master of Clinical Psychology from Antioch University, and is a sixteen-time recipient of The Los Angeles County’s Department of Cultural Affairs’ Artist in Residency Grant. He edited My Life is Poetry, showcasing his students’ work from the first-ever autobiographical poetry workshop for LGBT seniors. Reigns has lectured and taught writing workshops around the country to LGBT youth and people living with HIV. Currently he is touring The Gay Rub, an exhibition of rubbings from LGBT landmarks, and is the board president of the Anaïs Nin Foundation. His collection A Quilt for David was published by City Lights and is the product of over ten years of research regarding dentist David Acer’s life. His newest collection Outliving Michael is a memorial memoir in poetry, chronicling Reigns’s profound friendship with Michael Church, who died of AIDS in 2000. StevenReigns.com
2:00 - 2:45 pm
The Great Black Hope: Rob Franklin discusses his debut novel in conversation with Will Dean
Rob Franklin
Will Dean
-
Born and raised in Atlanta, Rob Franklin is a writer of fiction and poetry, and a cofounder of Art for Black Lives. A Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and finalist for the New England Review Emerging Writer Award, he has published work in New England Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Rumpus among others. Franklin lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches writing at the School of Visual Arts. Great Black Hope is his first novel.
-
Will Dean is a writer, editor and communications executive who lives in Palm Springs. He is a journalist with 26 years of experience. A highlight of his career was creating and launching with The Desert Sun in 2012 a monthly LGBTQ+ news and feature magazine, Desert Outlook, for the USA TODAY Network. Dean also co-founded the Desert Outbook Book Club which still meets monthly. He continues to write for various publications, co-facilitates a monthly men’s discussion group, and supports Brothers of the Desert as a board director (https://www.brothersofthedesert.org/) and other nonprofit efforts.
3:00 - 3:45 pm
Pleasure and Pain in Personal Stories and Poems: Melissa Febos & Donika Kelly in conversation with Meredith Maran
Melissa Febos
Donika Kelly
-
Melissa Febos is the national bestselling author of five books, including Girlhood - winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, Body Work, and, most recently, The Dry Season. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The Best American Essays, Vogue, and The New York Times Magazine. She is a Professor at the University of Iowa.
-
Donika Kelly is the author of The Natural Order of Things, The Renunciations, winner of the Anisfield-Wolf book award in poetry, and Bestiary, the winner of a the 2015 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and a Kate Tufts Discovery Award. A recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, she is a Cave Canem graduate fellow and Pushcart Prize winner. She is an associate professor at the University of Iowa.
-
Meredith Maran is the queer, septuagenarian, award-winning author of 14 books about how things are versus how they should be. A book critic and contributor to The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times,and many other publications, Meredith lives in a Los Angeles bungalow that’s even older than she is.
Meredith Maran
4:00 - 4:45 pm
Book It: The Ins and Outs of Getting Published and Promoted with Tara Madison Avery (Stacked Deck Press), Ian Henzel (Rattling Good Yarns Press) and Christine Svendsen (Saphire Books) in conversation with Eduardo Santiago (Palm Springs Writers Guild)
Tara Madison Avery
Ian Henzel
Eduardo Santiago
Christine Svendsen
-
Tara Madison Avery is a cartoonist, editor, illustrator, and the publisher of Stacked Deck Press, an imprint devoted to comics and prose of LGBTQAIU+ interest. Among her award-winning publications are We're Still Here: An All-Trans Comics Anthology, recipient of the 2019 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Anthology, and We Belong: An All-Black/All-Queer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Comics Anthology, recipient of the 2024 Kinnard Better Future Award. Avery is also a board member of the nonprofit organization Prism Comics which is dedicated to advocating for queer comics, queer comics creators, and queer fandom throughout the United States.
-
-
Eduardo Santiago is the author of Tomorrow They Will Kiss, a finalist for the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award and winner of the Latino Book Award for Best Historical Novel. His second novel, Midnight Rumba, won the New England Book Award for Best Fiction. His short stories have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Slow Trains, The Caribbean Writer, and most recently in the acclaimed anthology Palm Springs Noir. His nonfiction has been published in the Los Angeles Times, The Advocate, Out Traveler Magazine, The Platte Valley Review, Amy Ephron’s One for the Table, and others.
Proof Sheet, the film based on his screenplay (co-written with Richard Kilroy), premiered at the Dances With Films Festival at Hollywood’s historic Chinese Theater. It went on to receive five wins and fourteen nominations across various festivals. Unfortunately, despite the acclaim, Proof Sheet remains unreleased—meaning Mr. Santiago is still teaching creative writing at UCLA Extension instead of collecting Oscars. He is a two-time PEN Fellow, the founder and curator of the Idyllwild Author Series, and serves on the executive board of the Palm Springs Writers Guild.
-
All Day Activites
-
Authors appearing on panels will be signing books after their panels and additional Coachella Valley authors will be selling and signing their books throughout the day. Scheduled times will be posted soon:
BLAKE ALLWOOD
- Multiple Titles under Blake Allwood, Adam J. Ridley and Greyson McCoy
PETER BEDARD
- Convergence Healing, Healing Pain with Energetic Love
- Billy and the Anxiety Monster, How to Love Your Anxiety and Heal, A Grown-Up Book for Your Inner Child (Storybook)
- Billy and the Anxiety Monster, How to Love Your Anxiety and Heal, Activity and Coloring Workbook (Interactive Workbook)
DAK KOPEC
- Broken Boys Beyond Friendships
- Logan’s Legacy Beyond Blood
- Possessing Parker Beyond Truth
- Voices: Experience, Emotion, and Empathy
DALE ROWSE
- Foreign to Me
RICHARD S. SARGENT
- The Ultimate Chick Flick Cookbook, The Horror Movie Night Cookbook
DIRK SCHULZ
- Gay Gray & Fit After 50
- Rise and Align, 90-Day Holistic Fitness Journal
GARY SMITH
- The Play's the Thing (a novel)
- Hollywood and the Bible (film history)
- Cavemen vs. Dinosaurs and the Making of One Million Years B.C. (film history).
DAVID STERN
- Elevator Boy
-
The Center is the only Coachella Valley organization dedicated to meeting the diverse needs of all LGBTQ+ individuals. From The Center’s Palm Springs McDonald Wright Building to The Center Coachella, the Scott Hines Behavioral Health Clinic and the Community Food Bank, their mission and strategic initiatives come to life by making meaningful connections to resources and to community, that contribute to LGBTQ+ people’s health and happiness. Visit them to find out more about how you can get connected to community!
-
The Palm Springs Writers Guild (PSWG) encourages, develops and supports aspiring and established Coachella Valley writers. PSWG members will be available to discuss membership, critique groups, in-person workshops, on-line labs and other ways to participate in various Guild activities and programs. Book signings will also take place by members of the PSWG throughout the day.
-
Rattling Good Yarns Press is a local LGBTQ+ owned and operated independent publishing house specializing in LGBTQ fiction and non-fiction. Over 40 book titles will be available for purchase including those from authors Sukie de la Croix, Daniel M. Jaffe and Penelope Starr who will all appear in person.
-
Stacked Deck Press was founded in 2015 to cultivate diversity and excellence in LGBTQAIU comics publishing. Creators, cartoonists and illustrators will be in attendance to sign copies of their works including Tara Madison Avery and others TBA.
-
UCR Palm Desert Low Residency MFA is one of the premier writing programs in the world with alumni including national and international best-selling authors, Emmy Award winners, PEN USA finalist playwrights, acclaimed journalists and memoirists, award-winning poets, top television and film producers, and even a member of Congress. Students study fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, poetry, and screenwriting. Staff and volunteers will be available to provide information about the program and answer questions.
-
Sapphire Books Publishing, the gem in lesbian publishing was founded by Christine Svendsen in 2010. They produce and publish fiction, non-fiction and biographical lesbian literary works of art.
Sapphire Books is dedicated to quality outcomes that respectfully reflect the lives of the lesbian community. They publish and promote lesbian literature that embraces and reflects those diverse experiences. They value diversity of stories, experiences, and celebrate those diversities through lesbian literature.
They also believe in connecting our fans and Sapphire family to the greater community by building strong parterships within the world of lesbian business, travel, and entertainment.
Sapphire’s print books are conventionally produced and currently available worldwide through their website, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Ingram. Their titles are also available in both print and digital form and sold through their website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other third party retailers. They offer all of titles with a shorter production cycle to meet the demands of the print and eBook market.
UNDER THE BIG TENT
-
Check In and Information about all things associated with the Palm Springs Public Library, Palm Springs Public Library Foundation and Friends of the Palm Springs Library.
-
Best Bookstore in Palm Springs is a family owned bookstore serving Palm Springs, Coachella Valley and beyond! Book titles for participating authors appearing on panels will be sold throughout the day with author signings taking place after each panel. Additional authors will appear at Best Bookstore’s table including Rob Osler and others TBA.
