Lauren Meshkin (Boutique Book Retreats)

Boutique Book Retreats is a women-led experiential brand based in Los Angeles that curates immersive events and retreats for romance readers and book lovers. From indie bookstore takeovers and themed book fairs to multi-day reading retreats across the U.S. and abroad, we create intentional experiences that bring stories off the page while fostering safe, joyful spaces for people to connect and enjoy fandom together.

Where to find me at the festival

Dan Alter

Dan Alter’s poems, reviews and translations have been published in journals including Field, Fourteen Hills, and Zyzzyva; his first collection My Little Book of Exiles won the 2022 Cowan Poetry Prize. A volume of translations Take a Breath, You’re Getting Excited, from the Hebrew of Yakir Ben-Moshe, was published by Ben Yehuda Press in September 2024, and Hills Full of Holes, a second collection of poems, by Fernwood Press in March 2025. He lives with his wife and daughter in Berkeley. He works at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley.

2025 Writers’ Workshops

Speaker A Compass in the Wilderness: Poetry in the Age of Environmental Crisis