Pride on the Page: A Book Festival You Can’t Miss!

November 1, 2025

The Pride on the Page Book Festival is a free all-day book festival from 10 am to 5:30 pm at the Palm Springs Cultural Center. Featuring six-panel discussions with over 25 LGBTQ+ authors and allies, the event dives into powerful topics, bringing you closer to the stories that inspire and challenge. From thought-provoking dialogues to fresh perspectives, this festival is an absolute must for book lovers, advocates, and curious minds alike.

Evening Fundraiser

Location: Palm Springs Cultural Center, 2300 E Baristo Road

Time: 7 pm

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Join actor/author CHRIS COLFER as he discusses his new young adult book, Roswell Saves the Galaxy!  

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 TIME 100, Time magazine's distinguished annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and was honored by the National Coalition Against Censorship with its Free Speech Defender award.

In Conversation with Meredith Fine.

Meredith Fine began her career in the entertainment industry 38 years ago at Coast to Coast Talent Group, where she started the talent agency's youth department in 1990. 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.

Author Panels Schedule-At-A-Glance

PLUS…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.

Author Panels

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, including "Will & Grace," "Awkward," and Peacock’s revival of "Queer as Folk," in which he also stars. 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.

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 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.

Gary Hunter has been writing poetry for 25 years.  Having written nothing before the year 2000, he was inspired by a love poem he heard read at a spiritual retreat. Since then, he’s developed his own style of poetry – connecting people and the world – in often quirky and humorous ways, usually with a gentle pen of love and friendship.  He writes for those who aren’t acquainted with poetry, to introduce them to its concise and direct style of communication and hopefully provide at least some small measure of pleasure.

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 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.

With over 40 years of writing experience, Doris Reed is a seasoned poet, writer, artist, recording artist, and motivational speaker. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies, magazines, and newspapers. She has performed across the country at weddings, retirement parties, birthday celebrations, and other venues, and has been a guest speaker on cable television and radio shows. Doris has published two books of poetry, a children’s book, and a CD. Additionally, a body of her work was performed in a theatrical production called Patches, and is regularly performed by others. Doris believes that a day without poetry is like a day without sunshine.

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 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 the life of dentist David Acer. 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.

Sweet Baby J’ai is an award-winning vocalist, writer, and producer whose artistry bridges music, poetry, and storytelling. Honored as a Living Jazz Legend, inducted into the California Jazz & Blues Hall of Fame, recipient of the Brothers of the Desert Legacy Award, and recognized with the HRC Advocate for Equality Award, she continues to inspire through art and advocacy. J’ai is also the author of Sing Your Life – A Step-by-Step Guide to Turning Your Voice Into Income, a powerful guide for turning passion into a career—available for purchase at tonight’s reading.

Lorenzo Taylor is a novelist, poet, playwright, and freelance journalist from Palm Springs, California.  He began his writing career after retiring in 2018 from careers in international affairs, social marketing, and public health.  Since then, he has authored a trilogy of gay romance novels, a volume of poetry and short stories about the turbulent year of 2020, two full-length stage plays about Black gay life, and two ten-minute plays.  He also often performs live storytelling for “Strong Words” and produced a live show in 2025 about pioneering drag queen William Dorsey Swann.

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 continues to meet monthly. He continues to write for various publications, co-facilitates a monthly men’s discussion group, and serves as a board director for Brothers of the Desert.

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.

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.

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 advocates for queer comics, queer comics creators, and queer fandom throughout the United States.

Christine Svendsen, also writing as Isabella– Owner/Founder and Publisher of Sapphire Books Publishing, LLC. How it all started — When publishers turned away Christine Svendsen’s first book, she launched her own publishing company. Now, fifteen years later, she has a house full of award-winning lesbian authors and her own award-winning books, 20 published books under the pen name Isabella via Sapphire Books. “Believe in yourself. Rejection isn’t the end of a story; it can be the beginning of a dream,” Svendsen said. “Looking back, I didn’t think in terms of what if this doesn’t work? I only thought of the possibilities.” Since then, Christine has won numerous awards for her books and has signed some impressive and talented award-winning authors, which has helped Sapphire rise on the list to be noticed. 

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