January Third Thursday: “Writing Toward Hope: Creativity in 2026”
January 15 2026 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM CST
Free
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For our first Third Thursday program of 2026, join us for a conversation about how to foster and prioritize creativity despite all that would have us despair.
For many writers, the new year offers a fresh well of determination for the writing life. Whether we’re setting out to start a new project, returning to a work in progress, or even trying out something new entirely, January is the time for us to commit or recommit to our creative selves.
During this panel discussion, we’ll dive into sources of inspiration, how to work with and through the challenges of our time, how to tap into networks of support, and more. We’ll be joined for this conversation by three authors—Ashley Robin Franklin, Tayyba Kanwal, & Bo Hee Moon—whose work doesn’t shy away from our individual and shared struggles, but dares instead to hope for a better tomorrow. Join us for insights you can use to fill your own wells of hope and creativity this year.
Buy our panelists books and support indie bookstores! You can find our January Third Thursday booklist here.
Featured Presenter(s)
Ashley Robin Franklin is a queer cartoonist and illustrator. They're based in Austin, Texas, where they live with their partner and their goofy tiny dogs. Ashley Robin makes sweet and spooky comics with horror and fantasy elements. Their debut YA graphic novel, The Hills of Estrella Roja, was published by Clarion Books/Harper Collins in August of 2023. In 2024, they released their adult horror comics collection, The Skin You're In, with Silver Sprocket. They’re currently working on a series of Middle Grade graphic novels, the first titled The Girl Who Loved Monsters, made in collaboration with writer Insha Fitzpatrick.
Ashley Robin in was born in 1990 in the Rio Grande Valley, (that's south South Texas) where they grew up and attended the University of Texas Pan-American. Ashley currently co- hosts Inky Eyes, a quarterly indie comic reading series and mixer, that takes place at Alienated Majesty Books.-
Tayyba Kanwal is a Pakistani-American writer from Houston, TX, and author of the short story collection, Talking with Boys (Black Lawrence Press, 2026). Her award-winning work has appeared in journals such as Witness, Gulf Coast, and Meridian. She holds an MFA from the University of Houston where she was an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow, and an MS from the University of Oregon. She serves as Literary Director at Inprint, Houston’s premier literary arts organization, Associate Fiction Editor at Cutleaf Journal, and Senior Editor at Conjunctions. -
Bo Hee Moon is a South Korean adoptee. Born in South Korea, she was adopted at three-months-old. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, Poetry, swamp pink, The Margins, and others. Omma, Sea of Joy and Other Astrological Signs, published by Tinderbox Editions, is her debut collection of poems. She previously published under a different name. Her second collection of poems, Birthstones in the Province of Mercy, won the 2024-2025 Jake Adam York Prize. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Houston and has received the Inprint Brown Foundation Fellowship.
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