5TH ANNUAL

2025 LPC LITERARY ARTS FESTIVAL

FREE TICKETS HERE!
Get your seats before they're gone!

SATURDAY, MAY 10TH
Mertes Center for the Arts, Bldg. 4000

Click Here for a Full Schedule

International Best Seller (60 Million Copies in 41 Languages):
Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) in Conversation
& Writing Workshop (limited seating)
Best-Selling Keynote AAPI Presidential Speaker:
Thrity Umrigar in Conversation with Meghan Swanson-Garoupa
 & Writing Workshop (limited seating):
Character Development: Building Your Character's Character
Best-Selling Mexican-American Author:
 Julissa Arce: You Sound Like A White Girl
Award Winning One-Act Plays:
Steve Budd: Seeing Stars and Oy, What They Said about Love
Dating Sociologist Podcasters:
Yue Xu & Julie Krafchick: How to Be Datable
Pushcart Prize Nominated Palestinian-American Poet:
Deema Shehabi: Poetry Reading
Storytelling and Crafts for Kids
Livermore Public Library and Storytelling by Miriam
How to Get Published Workshop with Dera R. Williams
Correspondent for Oakland Voices & Black Gold Storytellers 
LPC Professor and Punk Rocker Michelle Gonzales::
 Marisolandia: A story of political resistance through a near-future dystopia.
Northern California Book Award Winner:
Tamim Ansary: Truther: Conspiracy Theories & a Writing Workshop
Chocolate and Wine Tasting and Writing
Poetry Slam with j rice
Havik LPC's Literary Arts Magazine Publication Ceremony
Music and Food Trucks!

GET YOUR TICKETS BEFORE WE FILL UP

AUTHORS AND SESSIONS

KEYNOTE CONVERSATION 
AAPI and Presidental Speaker Series
& Character Development: Building Your Character's Character

Thrity Umrigar
The Museum of Failures

Thrity Umrigar is the best-selling author of the novels Bombay Time, The Space Between Us, If Today Be Sweet, The Weight of Heaven, The World We Found, The Story Hour, Everybody’s Son and The Secrets Between Us, Honor, and The Museum of Failures, which many of you have been reading. Umrigar is also the author of the memoir, First Darling of the Morning and three children's picture books, When I Carried You in My Belly, Sugar in Milk and Binny's Diwali. Her books have been translated into several languages and published in over fifteen countries. She is a Distinguished University Professor of English at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.  More info at Thrity Umrigar.com

International Best Selling Author
DANIEL HANDLER
(aka Lemony Snicket) 
Book Talk and Writing Workshop

 

(photo credit: Meredith Heuer)

As Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler has written  the best-selling series All The Wrong Questions as well as A Series of Unfortunate Events, which has sold more than 60 million copies. A Series of Unfortunate Events was the basis of a 2004 feature film starring Jim Carrey and Meryl Streep, with Jude Law as Lemony Snicket. In 2017 Netflix produced a critically acclaimed, Peabody Award-winning, series based on A Series of Unfortunate Events, starring Neil Patrick Harris. Daniel Handler is the author of the novels The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth, Adverbs, We Are Pirates, All the Dirty Parts and Bottle Grove. He worked with Maira Kalman on the books Girls Standing on Lawns, Hurry Up and Wait, Weather Weather, and Why We Broke Up, which won the Michael J. Printz Honor. Handler also edited The Best Nonrequired Reading of 2014,which includes an introduction by Lemony Snicket. His newest memoir is titled And Then? And Then? What Else? (Liveright, May 21, 2024), and he will be holding a writing workshop called "How to Write Like a Burglar."

Dating Advice w/Q&A
Yue Xu & Julie Krafchick

National Best-Selling Author:
Julissa Arce
You Sound Like a White Girl

 "You sound like a white girl.”  These were the words spoken to Julissa by a high school crush as she struggled to find her place in America…

Julissa Arce is a national best-selling author, speaker, and social justice advocate who rose to prominence as a former Wall Street executive while undocumented. Her work focuses on immigrant rights, education equality, and social justice. Arce Julissa has contributed to The New York Times, TIME, Buzzfeed News, Crooked Media, CNBC, and serves on the board of the National Immigration Law Center. She co-founded the Ascend Educational Fund, providing scholarships for immigrant students. Sworn in as a U.S. citizen in 2014, she now uses her platform to reshape the narrative around immigration.

Steve Budd
Seeing Stars and Oy, What They Said about Love
One-Man Comedies about Family Dysfunction Mental Illness, and Love

About the Shows

Seeing Stars: Ever wish that someone you love would change overnight? Be careful what you wish for! At 31, Steve moves back in with his parents. But when his gruff, distant dad transforms before his very eyes, Steve is in for the ride of a lifetime. “Seeing Stars” is a heartfelt and hilarious exploration of family dysfunction, mental illness, and a son’s desire to connect with his dad.
Oy, What They Said about Love: Steve Budd wonders why other people can tie the knot and he can’t. Oy, does he wonder! So he asked a bunch of couples what brought them together and keeps them from pulling apart. Meet a Jewish couple who met on Craigslist, an interfaith pair who hooked up at a Halloween party, and more.
Steve Budd is an actor, writer, storyteller, and award-winning solo performer living in Oakland, California.  His solo show “What They Said About Love” ran for three months at The Marsh in 2018 and was a Theatre Bay Area Top 5 Solo Show. 

Michelle Cruz Gonzales
Marisolandia

Michelle Cruz Gonzales writes about the intersections between race, class, and gender. Her memoir The Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band (PM Press) documents her experiences traveling with Spitboy as the drummer, lyricist, and the one woman of color. She and the band are featured in the movie Turn It Around: Story of East Bay Punk. She has published in literary journals such as The Los Angeles Review of Books, anthologies, including Listen To Your Mother: What They Said Then, What They’re Saying Now (Penguin Random House), and online publications such as Latino Rebels, Longreads, Razorcake, and Alta Journal. Gonzales holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College and has been on the English faculty at Las Positas College since 2005. In Marisolandia, Gonzales explores cultural erasure, forced assimilation, and political resistance through a near-future dystopia. 

Kids Storytelling and Crafts
Livermore Public Library 11 am-12 pm
Storytelling with Miriam 1:00-3:00 pm

Bring your kids to the upstairs lobby to enjoy stories and crafts. 
Crafts offered on and off from 11-12 by the Livermore Public Library.
Storytelling and Coloring with Miriam 1:30-3:30 pm

Spellbinding entertainment! Miriam's storytelling weaves traditional fairy tales and folk tales into a tapestry of entertainment to enchant both children and adults. She uses stories as a medium for building cross-cultural understanding, creating personal transformation, and of course, creating fun and laughter. Let her show you the power of story!

Northern California Book Award Winner
Tamim Ansary:
Truther: Conspiracy Theories Book Talk
and Non-Fiction v Fiction Writing Workshop

Tamim Ansary is an Afghan-American writer of fiction, memoir, and history.  He became famous after 9/11 for a viral email condemning the Taliban but also warning of the dangers of a full-scale war in Afghanistan.  He also facilitated the SF Writers Workshop for over 20 years.  His work has won the 2010 Northern California Book Award, been selected for San Francisco’s One City One Book read, and broadcast on NPR. Among his many books are The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000 Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection; Games without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan; West of Kabul, East of New York; and Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. Ansary also edited and published a group of essays by young Afghans entitled, Snapshots: This Afghan American Life. For more information, visit MirTamimAnsary.com.

 

How to Get Published!
by Author and Correspondant Dera R. Williams

Dera R. Williams is an Oakland resident whose family was a part of the Great Migration. She is an author, family historian, and children’s editorial mentor. She has published numerous stories in the fiction, memoir, essays, academic articles, and journalism genres. She has published two volumes of her childhood collection. The second volume In My Backyard: More Stores of Growing Up In Oakland was released March 2025 following the first volume published in 2020. She is preparing to release her novel,  Serving Tea at Miss Belle’s in late 2025. Dera is a correspondent for the Oakland Voices and Black Gold Storytellers platforms. Exploring the relationship between myth, oral and family history, Dera honors the voices of her ancestors.   

 

Deema Shehabi
Poetry of the Palestinian Diaspora

Deema Shehabi (Arabic: ديمة الشهابي) (born 1970) is a Palestinian poet and writer. She has widely published in journals and wrote her first book of poetry in 2011. It was followed by an anthology which she co-edited in 2012 in response to the bombing of Baghdad's historic literary district and in 2014 a collaboration with another exiled poet of a collection of renga-style poems. 

 

LPC Poetry Slam with j rice

J.R Rice is the award-winning author of the novel, Broken Pencils (June 11, 2024), the poetry collection, I WAS, AM, WILL BE, and the poems, "Who We Are (Remains)" published in the Poets For Harris: Poetry Anthology, and “Righteous Rage (P.T.S.D)” published in the poetry collection, The Town: An Anthology of Oakland Poets by Nomadic Press.J.R Rice has been a featured performer at various Bay Area events including Oakland First Fridays, Cal State San Marcos, Oakland Public Library, Beast Crawl Literary Festival, Contra Costa Crisis Center Poetry Fundraiser, UCSF Black Caucus, Cobiz Creative Art Expo, Literary Speakeasy, Hayward Lit Fest, and Ruckus And Revival/Tourettes without Regrets. He won 1st place at the 27th Annual Las Positas College Poetry Slam and 2nd place at the Gold.Beams Second Mondays competition in March 2023 and June 2024. He was a semi-finalist in the 2023 Berkeley Poetry Slam Finals. He is also the host and curator of Social Saturday's event, a monthly poetry showcase in Oakland, CA.

Publication and Awards Ceremony
Havik:
The Las Positas College Journal of Arts & Literature

Havik, the Las Positas College Journal of Arts & Literature, celebrates the release of its 2024 edition with live readings and presentations by contributors, as well as awards in the categories of poetry, prose, visual art & photography, experimental work, and academic nonfiction. Founded by David A. Wright, the anthology has been published annually in various forms since 1978. Havik has received 1st place Best of Show in Literary Arts Magazines the past three years at the annual Associated Collegiate Press national conventions. The in-person ceremony is open to all and will be streamed live online. For more information, visit the Havik website.

 

 

Thank you to Our Sponsors and to Donors like You!

 

The City of Livermore

The Livermore Commision for the Arts 

The Las Positas College President’s Speakers Series
and Dr. Dyrell Foster, LPC President

 The Independent newspaper

The Las Positas College Foundation

THANK YOU!

 

The Independent