Events Info

APRIL 28 through MAY 1

All events held on the Grossmont College campus at the Performance and Visual Arts Center (PVAC). Events are free of charge and open to the public. For directions to Grossmont College and a campus map showing the location of the LAF venues, see "Directions" or visit the LAF homepage.

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LAF 29 Calendar At-a-Glance

Click the dates or events in the calendar below to link to more information about each, or scroll further down the page. 

 

Apr 28		Robin Gow 2pm, PVAC		New Voices 6pm, PVAC
Apr 29		Lisa Teasley 2pm, PVAC
Apr 30		Why Lit Matters 12:30pm, PVAC		antmen pimental mendoza 3:30pm, PVAC
May 1		Ella deCastro Baron 6:30pm, PVAC

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MONDAY, APRIL 28

2-3:20 PM • Performance & Visual Arts Center (PVAC) 

^{poet/essayist} ROBIN GOW

An autistic bisexual genderqueer person passionate about queer and disability justice, poet and educator, Robin Gow (it/she/they), grew up in rural Pennsylvania and lives with queer family on unceded Lenape land in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Their most recent collection of poetry, Lanternfly August (Driftwood Press 2023), explores the emotional geographies of home and queer identity through the lens of an often-demonized species of insect, the lanternfly, which feed and kill local vegetation, after which they, themselves, soon perish.

 

Gow's chapbooks include Honeysuckle (Finishing Line Press, 2019), Backyard Paleontology (Glass Poetry, 2022), and A Museum for That Which No Longer Exists (Alternating Current Press, 2024). Other written collections include Our Lady of Perpetual Degeneracy (Tolsun Books, 2020), The Moon Crawls On All Fours (Fenris Press, 2020), and an essay collection, Blue Blood (Nasiona Publishing House). Gow's poetry has recently been published in POETRY, Southampton Review, and Yemassee, and elsewhere. In addition to writing poetry, Gow has recently authored several YA novels in verse, including A Million Quiet Revolutions and Ode to My First Car (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2022), and Dear Mothman (Abrams Books, 2024), Gooseberry (Amulet, 2024) His next YA book, Sabertooth, is forthcoming in 2026, also from Amulet Paperbacks.

 

Over the last five years, Robin has trained over 3,000 people on LGBTQIA2+ Inclusion and Equity and Neurodiversity/Disability Justice topics. He has given presentations at national conferences including the Philly Trans Wellness Conference and Youth Rise Up Conference and to organizations like Arts Quest, Bethlehem School District, Rutgers University, and Allentown City Hall. He serves on the Board of Eastern PA Trans Equity Project and Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living and is a founding organizer of Queer and Trans Lehigh Valley.

Resources

• author's website: robingow.com
• Poetry Foundation: poetryfoundation.org/poets/robin-gow
• Instagram: robin_gow_poet  

Books

• Backyard Paleontology (Glass Poetry, 2022)
• Blue Blood: Essays and Poems (The Nasiona, 2021)
• Dear Mothman: A Novel in Verse (Harry N. Abrams, 2023; Lambda Awards 2024 Winner)
• Gooseberry (Amulet Books, 2024)
• Honeysuckle (Finishing Line Press, 2019)
• Lanternfly August (Driftwood Press, 2023)
• Monstrous Cartography (New Words, 2024)
• The Moon Crawls On All Fours (Fenris Press, 2020)
• A Museum for That Which No Longer Exists (Alternating Current Press, 2024)
• Ode to My First Car (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2022)
• Our Lady of Perpetual Degeneracy  (Tolsun Books, 2020)
• [Speculum] Envy (Lupercalia Press, 2023)

Selected Interviews

• "Interview and Reading with Transgender Poet Robin Gow | Poets’ Pause." BCTV 14 December 2023.https://www.bctv.org/video/interview-and-reading-with-transgender-poet-robin-gow-poets-pause/
• "Interview with Robin Gow, Author of Ode to My First Car."Geeks Out 11 September 2024.https://www.geeksout.org/2024/09/11/interview-with-robin-gow-author-of-ode-to-my-first-car/
• "Meet Robin Gow." Canvas Rebel 8 April 2024.https://canvasrebel.com/meet-robin-gow/  

Selected Works by the Author

• "Chasing Helicopters on the Way Home from a Bowl of Spaghetti,"  Split This Rockhttps://www.splitthisrock.org/poetry-database/poem/chasing-helicopters-on-the-way-home-from-a-bowl-of-spaghetti
• "Do I Want to Decompose Like This?" American Literary Review 30 October 2022.https://americanliteraryreview.com/2022/10/30/robin-gow-2/ 
• "Invasive," Poets.org https://poets.org/poem/invasive 
• "Yard Sale," Shenandoah Literary vol. 72, no. 2 (Spring 2023).https://shenandoahliterary.org/722/yard-sale/ 
• Two Poems: “Lanternfly August Ghazal” and “Medicinal Uses of the Lanternfly.” New Delta Review issue 13.1 (Winter 2022).http://ndrmagarchive.org/poetry/2022/12/2-lanternfly-poems-by-robin-gow/ 
• Two Poems: "Ode to Drag Queen Jesus" and "Neighbor Poppets," Diode Poetry vol. 15, no. 3 (10 December 2022). https://www.birdcoatquarterly.com/post/robin-gow 

Selected Media

• "The Cryptid, The Witch, and The Poet - A Conversation with Robin Gow (Author of Dear Mothman)." Lehigh Valley Arts Podcast 23 February 2025. Runtime: 51:05.
• "Interview and Reading with Transgender Poet Robin Gow | Poets' Pause." Berks Community Television 14 December 2023. Runtime: 30:12.

• "Robin Gow for LGBTQ Writers in Schools." Monica Carter 16 August 2022. Runtime: 07:41.

 

 

6:30-8 PM • PVAC

NEW VOICES ^{student reading}

In this consistently crowd-pleasing semesterly event, standout students from this semester’s Creative Writing Program courses and workshops take the mic to perform their original works of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, drama, and hybrid forms. Learn more about the Grossmont College Creative Writing Program at grossmont.edu/cwp.

 

 

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TUESDAY, APRIL 29

2-3:15 PM • PVAC

^{fiction author & essayist} LISA TEASLEY

^{Photo credit: John Vlautin}

Lisa Teasley is a graduate of UCLA and a native of Los Angeles. Her critically acclaimed debut, Glow In The Dark, is winner of the Gold Pen Award and Pacificus Literary Foundation awards for fiction. She has also won the May Merrill Miller and the National Society of Arts & Letters Short Story awards. Teasley’s latest book is the story collection, Fluid, which was released on Cune Press, September 26, 2023.

 

Her novels Heat Signature and Dive published by Bloomsbury have been praised in publications such as the New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times, the Library Journal, and San Francisco Chronicle. Teasley’s work has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Swedish, Chinese and Arabic; her stories and essays have been much anthologized including in the Flash Fiction America (W.W. Norton 2023) and The Passenger: California (Europa Editions, 2022). A graduate of UCLA and a native of Los Angeles, Teasley's critically acclaimed debut, Glow In The Dark, is winner of the Gold Pen Award and Pacificus Literary Foundation awards for fiction. She has also won the May Merrill Miller and the National Society of Arts & Letters Short Story awards. Teasley’s latest book is the story collection, Fluid, which was released on Cune Press, September 26, 2023.

 

Her novels Heat Signature and Dive published by Bloomsbury have been praised in publications such as the New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times, the Library Journal, and San Francisco Chronicle. Teasley’s work has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Swedish, Chinese and Arabic; her stories and essays have been much anthologized including in the Flash Fiction America (W.W. Norton 2023) and The Passenger: California (Europa Editions, 2022).

 

Lisa Teasley is the writer and presenter of the BBC Television documentary, High School Prom, and the librettist for the coming Long Beach Opera 2025 premiere, The Passion of Nell.

Resources

• author's website: lisateasley.com 
• X (Twitter): @thelisateasley
• Instagram: @lisateas

Books

• Dive (Bloomsbury, 2006)
• Dive, Cloth (Bloomsbury, 2004)
• Fluid: Stories (Cune Press, 2023)
• Glow in the Dark, Cloth (Cune Press, 2002)
• Glow in the Dark (Bloomsbury, 2006)
• Heat Signature (Bloomsbury, 2006)

Anthologiezed Stories, Essays, and Poems

• Because I Said So (HarperCollins, 2005)
• Beyond the Frontier (Black Classic Press, 2002)
• Brown Sugar 1 (Atria, 2001)
• Brown Sugar 3 (Simon & Schuster, 2004)
• Brown Sugar 4 (Simon & Schuster, 2005)
• An Ear to the Ground (Cune Press, 1997)
• In The Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers (Harlem River Press, 2000)
• Shaking the Tree (Norton, 2003)
• Step Into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature (Wiley, 2000)
• Women on the Edge (Toby Press, 2005)

Selected Works by the Author

• "The Numerologist." Eco Lit 4 January 2023. https://redcanarycollective.org/magazine/the-numerologist-lisa-teasley/ 
• "Wendy Carmel, Carmel Wendy." Fiction. Alto Online 24 June 2024. https://www.altaonline.com/culture/fiction-and-poetry/a61043574/fiction-wendy-carmel-carmel-wendy-lisa-teasley/

Interviews

• Crew, Adrienne. "LAist Interview: Lisa Teasley." LAist 5 September 2005. https://laist.com/news/laist-interview-lisa-teasley 
• "5 Questions with Lisa Teasley, Author of Fluid: Stories." City Lights 2 October 2023. https://citylights.com/5-questions-with-lisa-teasley-author-of-fluid-stories/ 
• "Life & Work with Lisa Teasley." VoyageLA 24 July 2023. https://voyagela.com/interview/life-work-with-lisa-teasley-of-los-angeles/ 
• "Meet Lisa Teasley." Bold Journey 14 August 2024. https://boldjourney.com/meet-lisa-teasley/ 
• Thao Worra, Bryan. "Voices and Views: An Interview with Lisa Teasley." SAHTU Press February 2023. https://sahtu.press/articles/voices-lisa-teasley 

Selected Media

• "Book Banter with Lisa Teasley." Blue Cypress Books 26 October 2023. Youtube. Runtime: 32:24.

• "CITY LIGHTS LIVE! Lisa Teasley in conversation with Steven Reigns." CityLightsBooks 27 November 2023. Runtime: 50:36.

• "FIVE PLACES L.A. | E05 | Lisa Teasley." FIVE PLACES Los Angeles 27 Oct. 2022. Runtime: 45:04.

 

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30

12:30-1:50 PM • PVAC 

WHY LITERATURE MATTERS ^{student / faculty panel}

This annual, student-favorite event features a panel of Grossmont College students and faculty sharing moving and powerful personal accounts of the role literature has played in their journeys, advocating the relevance of literature and its potential to inspire change, cultivate humanity, and serve us in, both, personal and global ways. Learn more about Grossmont College’s English degrees and workshops at grossmont.edu/english.

 

 

3:30-4:45 PM • PVAC 

^poet antmen pimental mendoza

^{Photo credit: Paul Goudarzi Fry}

antmen pimentel mendoza (she, he, they) is the author of the chapbook My Boyfriend Apocalypse (Nomadic Press / Black Lawrence Press, 2023). antmen's work has been published in Apogee, Cosmonauts Avenue, Gigantic Sequins,  Homology Lit, Lantern Review, Peach Mag, Split Lip Underblong, and A Velvet Giant, as well as anthologized in Best New Poets 2023 (UVA Press, 2023).

 

Their poem, “Figure 1, Before you wake up…,” is a 2024 Best of the Net nominee. In 2020, antmen was selected as an IWL fellow by Kearny Street Workshop, and they are currently Director of the Multicultural Community Center at UC Berkeley, as well as a student at the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University.

Resources

• author's website: antmenpm.com 
• X / Instagram: @antmenismagic 

Books

• My Boyfriend Apocalypse (Nomadic Press, 2023; reprinted by Black Lawrence Press)

Selected Interviews

• Radar Productions. "Queer Poetry Feature: antmen pimentel mendoza." Glow Blog 10 August 2020. https://www.radarproductions.org/blog/category/glow/2 
• Esquinca, Maria. "'I Need to Feel Safe More Than I Need Forever': Poet Antmen Pimentel Mendoza." KQED 21 April 2023. https://www.kqed.org/news/11947152/heartbreak-the-apocalypse-and-queer-love-national-poetry-month-with-antmen-pimentel-mendoza

Selected Poems by the Author

• "Eau D’Bedroom Dancing (I Learn from You)." Diode Poetry vol. 15, no. 3. http://diodepoetry.com/mendoza_antmen-pimentel/ 
• "Figure 1, Before you wake up... (after Björk)." A Velvet Giant no. 8 (Fall 2022). https://www.avelvetgiant.com/antmen-pimentel-mendoza 
• "A Hookup Explains His Planned Ouroboros Tattoo as I Contemplate Deleting All Photos of My Ex from My Phone." ANMLY no. 38 (Spring 2024). https://anmly.org/ap38/antmen-pimentel-mendoza/ 
• "Ode to the Moon, the Earth’s Only Satellite, with Years of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy." Lantern Review issue 8.2. https://www.lanternreview.com/issue8_2/mendoza.html 
• "A Stroll Through the Museum of My Gender Ending with a Minor Capitulation to Commodity Fetishism." Split This Rock 8 August 2023. https://www.splitthisrock.org/poetry-database/poem/a-stroll-through-the-museum-of-my-gender-ending
• "The Takoyaki Vending Machines and I." Pine Hills Review 2 December 2020. https://pinehillsreview.com/2020/12/02/antmenpimentelmendoza/ 
• Two Poems: "Ode to the Durian Emoji, Though it is Yet to Exist" and "Olfactory Ode." Mayday Magazine 30 March 2023. https://maydaymagazine.com/two-poems-by-antmen-pimentel-mendoza/ 

Selected Media

• "Hear a sample from My Boyfriend Apocalypse by antmen pimentel mendoza." Nomadic Press 17 October 2022. Runtime: 01:00.

• "The Gay Dads in the Milk Ad..." by antmen pimentel mendoza | Poetry | PEACH BITES." Peach Magazine 2 Sepember 2021. Runtime: 02:10.

• "Nat'l Poetry Month (Feat. Kimberly Alidio, antmen pimentel mendoza, S. Brook Corfman, & more)." Apogee Journal 20 April 2021. antmen pimental mendoza reading runtime: 02:30. 

 

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THURSDAY, MAY 2

6:30-8PM • PVAC

^memoirist ELLA deCASTRO BARON

Ella deCastro Baron is a second-generation Filipina American with roots in Pampanga and Cavite, Philippines. She was born on Ohlone territory (Oakland, CA) and raised on the lands of the Coastal Miwok, Patwin, and Muwekma (Vallejo, CA). 

 

She has a BA in English Literature from UC Berkeley, a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from SDSU and is an ordained pastor for Wellspring Collective San Diego. Ella is a VONA alum. She lives and loves with her family on Kumeyaay territory (San Diego, CA) where she teaches English and Creative Writing at the San Diego City College District, Corporeal Writing, and U Mass (online). She also bridges and builds community by designing and co-facilitating in-person and virtual salas (thematic workshops, creative and embodied writing circles, fundraisers for justice causes). Locally, Ella is a Co-Director of wellness events (e.g. community acupuncture, guided corporeal journaling, writing in community) with the Luib Health Center. 

 

Her published writing is included in award-winning Nonwhite and  Woman anthology (Woodhall Press), (Her)oics: Women’s Lived Experiences During the Coronavirus Pandemic (Pact Press), The Rumpus, Fiction International, ANMLY Magazine, Sunshine Noir, Lavanderia, Mamas and Papas, and City Works Literary Journal. She is co-editor of the anthology, Hunger and Thirst and From Glory to Glory. Her first book, the non-fiction collection Itchy, Brown Girl Seeks Employment (City Works Press, 2009), was a finalist for the San Diego Book Awards. In her follow collection, Subo and Baon: a Memoir in Bites (City Works Press, 2024), the subo (handfed bites) and baon (food to go) she serves are kitchen counter-stories marinated in Filipino American identity, faith, family, chronic illness, and the complex fullness of being, becoming. DeCastro Baron is currently finishing an early draft of a Young Adult novel.

Resources

• author's website: elladecastrobaron.com 
• Instagram: /elladbaron

Books

• Subo and Baon: A Memoir in Bites (City Works Press, 2024)
• Itchy Brown Girl Seeks Employment (City Works Press, 2009)

Selected Interviews

• Mayhew, Kelly. "An Interview with Ella deCastro Baron on Her New Book, "Subo and Baon: A Memoir in Bites." The Jumping-Off Place 24 October 2024. https://thejumpingoffplace.substack.com/p/an-interview-with-ella-decastro-baron 

Selected Poems by the Author

• "Aswang as a Second Language." The Rumpus 28 October 2019. https://therumpus.net/2019/10/28/aswang-as-a-second-language/ 
• "A Checklist for Dark S(Kin) Care." ANMLY issue 37. https://anmly.org/ap37/ella-decastro-baron-2/ 
• "Following Water." Last Exit issue 1. https://lastexit.org/one/following-water/ 
• "Ghost Story." ANMLY issue 31. https://anmly.org/ap31/citizenship-discontents-31/ella-decastro-baron/ 
• "Hymen Bike." Khôra issue 42 (Feb 2025). https://khora.substack.com/p/issue-42-hymen-bike-by-ella-decastro 
• "Thou Shalt Sabbath." Khôra issue 43 (March 2025). https://www.corporealkhora.com/issue/43/thou-shalt-sabbath 

Selected Media

• "Coffee Talk #42 Unlisted." Ella deCastro Baron 8 Janunary 2023. Ella deCastro Baron's reading runtime: 12:30. (Total program runtime: 55:00.)

• "Ella Baron." So Say We All 9 March 2015. Runtime: 09:42.

• "Washed and Worn | Ella deCastro Baron and Chris Baron." Filipinx American History Month 21 October 2020. Runtime: 14:29.