04/29/2026
Join us this Sunday May 3rd at Drake’s Barn for a meet & greet/signing with the phenomenally talented writers behind “Sacramento Noir”: editor John Freeman, Maureen O’Leary, Luis Avalos (whose story won the Robert Fish memorial award from the Edgars’!), Nora Rodriguez Camagna, Naomi J Williams, Shelley Blanton-Shroud, Janet Rodriguez
& Jen Soong!
“John Freeman is the editor of Freeman’s, a literary annual of new writing, and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf.”
“Maureen O’Leary’s work will be included in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2026, and her novel The Ones Who Love You will come out in January 2027 from Counterpoint Press.”
“Nora Rodriguez Camagna grew up in the California migrant camps, and graduated from UC Berkeley. Her work has been featured in The Common’s Farmworker Portfolio, the Bay Area Book Festival, CapLit, and Litquake.”
“Naomi J. Williams is the author of the novel Landfalls and numerous short stories and essays.”
“Shelley Blanton-Stroud writes historical fiction about women, power, and overlooked California stories. Her Jane Benjamin mystery series—Copy Boy, Tomboy, and Poster Girl—and her standalone novel, An Unlikely Prospect, follow journalism and moral conflict in twentieth-century California”
“Janet Rodriguez is a writer, teacher, and editor living in Northern California. She is the author of the memoir, Making an American Family, A Recipe in Five Generations. Her work has appeared in Eclectica, Pangyrus, The Rumpus, andHobart, engaging themes of morality in faith communities and the mixed-race experience in a culturally binary world”
“Luis Avalos is a Salvadoran-American fiction writer and essayist who earned an MFA in Creative Writing at UC Davis. His writing interlaces social, political and theoretical thoughts to move beyond one-dimensional narratives of marginalized people.”
“Jen Soong is a writer, artist and educator. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Rumpus, The Audacity and Best Small Fictions”
