We are joined by award-winning anthology editor and author and blogger Jared Shurin, editor of the new, massive, absolutely sleek and dope-looking cyberpunk anthology book The Big Book of Cyber Punk! He has edited or co-edited over 12 anthologies in his life, and has been a finalist for the Hugo and British Science Fiction awards, and founded and led the geek culture website Pornokitch for many years.

Books recommended by Jared Shurin:

The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara

Sweet Harmony by Claire North

Desert Rain by Pat Murphy (unavailable)

Recommended by Art Nomura:

Mizuko: True Spirit by Art Nomura

SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at podcast@villagewell.com.

If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please leave us a review!

⁠Village Well Books & Coffee⁠ is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!

Samara Bay is a downright truth-giver. She is the author of Permission to Speak: How to Change What Power Sounds Like, Starting With You (Penguin Random House, 2023). Samara coaches rising business leaders, political hopefuls, and public figures. In Hollywood, Samara worked as a speech and dialect coach on Wonder Woman 1984 with Gal Gadot, American Crime Story: Versace with Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramirez, and Avengers: Infinity War. Her work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, TIME, Fast Company, Glamour, Entrepreneur Magazine.

Books recommended by Samara Bay:

Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes by Elizabeth Lesser

Women and Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell

Recommended by VW bookseller/co-host, Julia:

How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang

SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at podcast@villagewell.com.

If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please leave us a review!

Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!

Pearl AuYeung is the absolutely delightful author and illustrator of the 2022 children’s picture book The Best Kind of Mooncake (Page Street Kids). Based in Los Angeles, born in Hong Kong, and raised in Shanghai, China, Pearl works as a Mattel Toy Designer. She is the illustrator of the upcoming children’s picture book Nearly Almost Exactly Like Me (Simon and Schuster, 2025).

Books recommended by Pearl AuYeung:

Babel by R F Kuang

These Olive Trees by Aya Ghanameh

Recommended by VW bookseller, Akosa:

shima by sho yamagushiku

SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at podcast@villagewell.com. If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please leave us a review!

Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!

Brian Sonia-Wallace is a multifaceted author and poet raised in Culver City, California and Santiago, Chile. His memoir, The Poetry of Strangers (Harper Collins, 2020), details his experiences engaging with the world through poetry. Brian has contributed to notable publications like the Guardian, LitHub, and Rolling Stone. His latest publication is Maze Mouth (Moontide Press, 2023). Brian fosters LGBTQ+ voices through a poetry column for The Pride LA and teaches creative writing at UCLA Writers’ Extension and the nonprofit Get Lit—Words Ignite. Sonia-Wallace's impact on the literary community is further recognized by his role as the fourth poet laureate of West Hollywood.

Books recommended by Brian Sonia-Wallace:

A poem is a house by Linda Ravenswood

When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen

Gay Bar: Why We Went Out by Jeremy Atherton Lin

Recommended by VW community member, Buzzy Cohen:

Tenth of December by George Saunders

SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at podcast@villagewell.com.

Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!

An LA native mystery author of 20 novels and short story collections, a television writer on the acclaimed FX series Snowfall, Gary Phillips is the real deal. The sequel to his most recent novel, One Shot Harry (2022), will come out in April 2024, entitled Ash Dark as Night. Gary's classic 1994 LA-based Noir fiction novel Violent Spring has its 30th anniversary edition release in May of 2024.

Books recommended by Gary Phillips:

To Protect and To Serve: The LAPD's Century of War in the City of Dreams By Joe Domanick

City of Quartz by Mike Davis

Fire this Time by Gerald Thorn

Recommended by VW bookseller, Avery Weinman:

James by Percival Everett

SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at podcast@villagewell.com.

Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!

Kayla Min Andrews is the daughter of Katherine Min, author of The Fetishist, a book both the LA Times and Washington Post are calling “ahead of its time.” Katherine Min received a National Endowment of the Arts writer’s grant, a Pushcart Prize, and attended 8 different writers residencies. The Katherine Min MacDowell Fellowship exists in her name.

Kayla wrote the afterword to The Fetishist. Her forthcoming essay to be published in The Massachusetts Review.

Books recommended by Kayla Min Andrews:

Little Rabbit by Alyssa Songsiridej

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho

Holding Pattern by Jenny Xie

Recommended by community member and local author, Kim Purcell:

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarro

SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. We release a new episode every other week on Wednesdays. Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at podcast@villagewell.com.

Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!

Olivie Blake is the massively prolific and impressive New York Times best-selling fantasy and young adult author of The Atlas Six, and it’s sequel, The Atlas Paradox, Alone with You in the Ether, My Mechanical Romance, and many more books. Her newest book, The Atlas Complex, released on January 9th, concludes the Atlas trilogy.

Books recommended by Olivie Blake:

⁠I Never Promised You a Rose Garden⁠ by Joanne Greenberg

⁠An Impossible Thing to Say⁠ by Arya Shahi

Recommended by our bookseller Amri:

⁠Finding Fish⁠ by Antwone Fisher

SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. We release a new episode every other week on Wednesdays. Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at podcast@villagewell.com

Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!

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CJ LEEDE is a horror writer based in Los Angeles. Her debut novel, Maeve Fly, won this year’s Octavia E. Butler 2023 Golden Poppy Award. CJ has an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University, and a BA from NYU's Gallatin School, where she studied Mythology and the Middle Ages. When she is not driving around the country, she can be found in LA with her boyfriend and rescue dogs. 

Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book- and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book! Check out our events!

SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. We release bi-weekly. The hosts are Village Well booksellers Julia Elizabeth Evans and Jared Kassebaum.

Mentioned by CJ Leede in the episode:

Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille

Camp Damascus

Night's Edge by Liz Kerin  

Jeff Morrical as our Culver & Duquesne community member recommendation:

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

by Gabrielle Zevin