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Feb 05, 2026, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PMVroman's Bookstore
695 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA
About the event:
Spoken word artist and publisher David A. Romero releases his debut novel, The Enemy Sleeps, a supernatural thriller. Readings followed by Q&A with Gustavo Arellano.
About the book:
Who killed Eliza Vazquez? As a Mexican-American family moves from Boyle Heights, Los Angeles into the sleepy suburban town of Harper, they are met with suspicion. Who is the so-called "Harper Murderer?" Is it Michael Martinez, a construction supervisor with a quick temper and an anti-immigrant bias, Robert Parsons, a known racist with a number of secrets kept from his family and community, or Kenton Weaver, a disgraced former teacher who is haunted by the ghost of one of his former students? Grievances both new and old emerge as members of the Martinez family, the Parsons family, and Weaver become tangled in a disastrous chain of events before a shocking conclusion.
Original cover art by Art Carrillo. Advance reviews from Bram Stoker Award-winning author Pedro Iniguez, Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author Naomi Hirahara, American Book Award-winning author Tim Z. Hernandez, American Book Award-winning author Lorna Dee Cervantes, Sergio Troncoso Award-winning author Marisol Cortez, Louis Meriwether Award-winning author Claudia D. Hernández-Warwas, McAllen, TX Poet Laureate Edward Vidaurre, and Pomona, CA Poet Laureate Natalie Sierra.
About the interviewer:
Gustavo Arellano is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, covering Southern California everything and a bunch of the West and beyond. He was a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Commentary and the Mike Royko Award for Commentary and Column Writing and was part of the team that won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News for reporting on a leaked audio recording that upended Los Angeles politics. Arellano previously worked at OC Weekly, where he was an investigative reporter for 15 years and editor for six, wrote a column called ¡Ask a Mexican! and is the author of Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. He’s the child of two Mexican immigrants, one of whom came to this country in the trunk of a Chevy.
About the author:
David A. Romero is a Mexican-American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of El Martillo Press. Romero is the author of My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press, 2020) and Diamond Bars 2 (Moon Tide Press, 2024). Romero has received honorariums from nearly a hundred colleges and universities in thirty-four different states in the USA and has also performed live in Mexico, Italy, and France. His poem, "You Were Born a Tree" was sent to the Moon by NASA in 2025 as part of the Lunar Codex. Romero's work has been published in literary magazines and anthologies in the United States, Mexico, England, Cuba, Scotland, Canada, and Hungary. Romero has opened for Latin Grammy winning bands Ozomatli and La Santa Cecilia. Romero's work has been published in anthologies alongside poets laureate Joy Harjo, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Luis J. Rodriguez, Jack Hirschman, and Tongo Eisen-Martin. Romero has won the Uptown Slam at the historic Green Mill in Chicago; the birthplace of slam poetry. Romero's poetry deals with family, identity, social justice issues, and Latine culture. The Enemy Sleeps is his debut novel.
El Martillo Press:
Founded by Matt Sedillo and David A. Romero, El Martillo Press publishes writers whose pens strike the page with clear intent; words with purpose to pry apart assumed norms and to hammer away at injustice. El Martillo Press proactively publishes writers looking to pound the pavement to promote their work and the work of their fellow pressmates. El Martillo is the builder of bridges and the destroyer of walls.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Vroman's Bookstore, 685 E Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91101-2116, United States
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