By Lookout Staff

February 1, 2024 -- Santa Monica College this month will present its SMC Library’s Pearls & Insights series featuring "a noteworthy spectrum" of writers reading and discussing their works.

The free online and on-campus presentations include a sports romance, a look at writing contemporary Black fiction by a National Book Award winner and tips on how to be a "kick-ass" boss.

The series starts on Tuesday at 1 p.m. with “Spice, Spirit, and Swoon -– A Guaranteed Happily Ever After with Rom-Com Author Tessa Bailey.”

A New York Times bestselling author, Bailey will talk about the launch of her new book “Fangirl Down,” a "super hot sports romance duology with a rom-com about a bad boy professional athlete who falls for his biggest fan," event organizers said.

A romance fiction writer, Bailey's works include the New York Times bestselling novels “Hook, Line and Sinker” (Avon, 2022) and “Unfortunately Yours” (Avon, 2023).

Bailey is also the author of “Fix Her Up” (Avon, 2019), which received a Publishers Weekly starred review, and “It Happened One Summer” (Avon, 2021), which received a Kirkus starred review.

The event is sponsored by the SMC Library and Library Speakers Consortium.

The series resumes Tuesday, February 20, at 1 p.m. “Exploring Identity, Love, and Being Black in America in Fiction Writing” with New York Times bestselling author Jason Mott.

Mott will talk about his novel “Hell of a Book,” a "deeply honest, at times electrically funny" story of an author on a cross-country publicity tour.

The book -- which won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction and the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction -- "goes to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon Black Americans and America as a whole," organizers said.

The novel won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction and the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction, and was a Carnegie Medals for Excellence Longlist nominee.

Mott is the author of two poetry collections and four novels. His first novel — “The Returned” — was adapted for television and aired on ABC under the title “Resurrection.”

A brief discussion and audience Q&A follow the talk, which is sponsored by the SMC Library and Library Speakers Consortium in collaboration with the SMC Associates.

This month's lineup concludes on Wednesday, February 28 at 11 a.m. “Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity” with bestselling author Kim Scott.

Scott will explain the "Radical Candor feedback framework" and "offer practical, tactical tips for how to solicit criticism, give praise and criticism, gauge how what you’re saying is received, and build a culture of Radical Candor," organizers said.

Scott is co-founder of a company that helps leaders put her ideas into practice, and has been a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and other tech companies.

She is also on the faculty at Apple University; a leader of AdSense, YouTube, and DoubleClick teams at Google, and an analyst at the Soviet Companies Fund.

The event is sponsored by the SMC Library and Library Speakers Consortium in collaboration with the SMC Associates.

All the talks are online and free, but pre-registration is required. For details visit smc.edu/events and check the event's date.