A night of readings and revelry with six authors of bestselling and critically acclaimed queer novels redefining what the form can do.

Free RSVP required for entry. 21+ with valid ID
Doors at 7:30, readings begin at 8
The venue is located up one flight of stairs. More detailed accessibility info is here
All books will be for sale by local indie bookstore The Head & the Hand Books

FRIDAY, JUNE 6TH
DOORS @ 7:30PM + SHOW @ 8PM
NO COVER // FREE FUN
RSVP: EVENTBRITE

About the readers:

Kristen Arnett (@kristen_arnett) is the queer Floridian author of With Teeth: A Novel (Riverhead Books, 2021) which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction and the New York Times bestselling debut novel Mostly Dead Things (Tin House, 2019) which was also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction and was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Her third novel, Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One, was published in March 2025 by Riverhead Books, who will also publish an untitled collection of her short fiction. She has a Masters in Library and Information Science from Florida State University and lives in Orlando, Florida.

Lydi Conklin (@lydiconklin) is the author of the novel Songs of No Provenance and the story collection Rainbow Rainbow. They are an Assistant Professor of Fiction at Vanderbilt University and have received a Stegner Fellowship in Fiction at Stanford University, a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award, four Pushcart Prizes, a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, a Creative & Performing Arts Fulbright to Poland, work-study and tuition scholarships from Bread Loaf, and fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Djerassi, Hedgebrook, the James Merrill House, the Vermont Studio Center, VCCA, Millay, Jentel, Lighthouse Works, Brush Creek, the Santa Fe Art Institute, Caldera, the Sitka Center, and Harvard University, among others.

Emma Copley Eisenberg (@frumpenberg) is the author of the novel Housemates, which was a national bestseller and named a best book of the year by The Boston Globe, People, NBC, Them.Us, Autostraddle, Electric Literature, and Kirkus Reviews. Housemates was longlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and won the Athenaeum of Philadelphia’s Literary Prize for Fiction. Her narrative nonfiction book, The Third Rainbow Girl, was a New York Times Notable Book as well as a finalist for an Edgar Award and a Lambda Literary Award. She lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts.

Alejandro Heredia (@aleherex) is a queer Afro-Dominican writer from The Bronx. His debut novel LOCA was published in February 2025 by Simon and Schuster. He has received fellowships from Lambda Literary, VONA, the Dominican Studies Institute, Kenyon Review, and Trinity College. In 2019, he was selected by Myriam Gurba as the winner of the Gold Line Press Fiction Chapbook Contest. His chapbook of short stories, You’re the Only Friend I Need (2021), explores themes of queer transnationalism, friendship, and (un)belonging in the African Diaspora. Heredia’s work has been featured in Teen Vogue, Lambda Literary Review, The Offing, and elsewhere. He received an MFA in fiction from Hunter College.

Melissa Mogollon (@melissamogollonwriter) holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a BA from the George Washington University. Originally from Colombia and raised in Florida, she now teaches at a boarding school in Rhode Island, where she lives with her partner and dog. Oye, which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, is her first novel.

Torrey Peters (@torreyadora) is the author of the novel Detransition, Baby, which won the 2021 PEN/Hemingway award for debut fiction and was named a Best Book of the Century by The New York Times. Her second book, Stag Dance, was published in March 2025 and was an indie bestseller. She is an amateur sauna builder, rides a pink motorcycle, and splits her time between Brooklyn and Santa Marta, Colombia.

***

What’s Up at TMoms:

• Daily Happy Hour | All drafts are just $4 every day from 4-6pm!

• Daily Menu | Tattooed Mom will also be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.

• Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

• Accessibility at TMoms | Due to the construction of our historical building, Tattooed Mom is only partially accessible. Our event space is on the second floor, which is only accessible via a flight of stairs (20 steps, 3 feet wide, railing on the left side only). For more information, please visit our Accessibility page.

Congregate for drinks and conversation with those who either create or enjoy reading
sensual, sexual, romantic, erotic writings. Come early at 6 p.m. to take advantage of the
affordably priced Hemingway Happy Hour for good drinks and good food, including the
famous Smash Burger Wednesday special! After a few libations, if you are an erotica
writer of short stories or novellas or novels or poems or any other form – whether
amateur or professional or somewhere in between – feel free to take the stage around
7ish p.m. to read and share with all attendees your titillating creativity. Or indulge as an
audience member by listening to the impassioned words of others. Expect to hear some
steamy stories and poems on a September evening. This is a 21+ event. Showing valid
ID will be required to enter and participate.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25TH
6-9PM
NO COVER // FREE FUN

***

What’s Up at TMoms:

• Wednesday, 4-10pm | Burger Wednesday is BACK y’all! Come slam some Smash Burgers (classic or vegan) every Wednesday for just $6!! Plus $3 PBR! Recently named one of the top burgers in the city by The Philadelphia Inquirer!

• Daily Happy Hour | All drafts are just $4 every day from 4-6pm!

• Daily Menu | Tattooed Mom will also be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.

• Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

• Accessibility at TMoms | Due to the construction of our historical building, Tattooed Mom is only partially accessible. Our event space is on the second floor, which is only accessible via a flight of stairs (20 steps, 3 feet wide, railing on the left side only). For more information, please visit our Accessibility page.

SUNDAY, JUNE 29TH
DOORS @ 6PM + SHOW @ 7PM
NO COVER // FREE FUN

Follow @scribesonsouth on Instagram.

***

What’s Up at TMoms:

• Sundays, All Day Long | Craft Sundays at TMoms? BACK. Googly eyes? BACK. Coloring pages? BACK? Your creative spirit? BACK. Come thru every Sunday for FREE arts & crafts upstairs and downstairs at Tattooed Mom!

• Daily Happy Hour | All drafts are just $4 every day from 4-6pm!

• Daily Menu | Tattooed Mom will also be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.

• Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

• Accessibility at TMoms | Due to the construction of our historical building, Tattooed Mom is only partially accessible. Our event space is on the second floor, which is only accessible via a flight of stairs (20 steps, 3 feet wide, railing on the left side only). For more information, please visit our Accessibility page.

SCRIBES GALA IS COMING TO @tmoms ONE NIGHT ONLY. FOR THE SECOND ANNUAL SCRIBES GALA WE WILL DRESS OUR MOST EXTRA. OUR POEMS WILL BE BOMBASTIC & OUR EXPRESSION WILL BE FREE. DRESS CODE WILL BE ANNOUNCED SEPARATELY.

FRIDAY, JULY 11TH
6-10PM
NO COVER // FREE FUN

FEATURING:

Z PAIGE
JULIA GWIAZDOWSKI
MICHAEL IVORY, JR.
ALICE CROWELL

TABLING:

THIRTY WEST
WOODEN SHOE
HOMIES HELPING HOMIES
GRO PROJECT RO
DOG BOWL ZINES
FERAL DOVE BOOKS

MORE SCRIBES GALA FEATURES:

-ALL OF U DRESSING EXTRA
-AN OPEN MIC FOR POETS
-LOCAL PRESSES TABLING
-A LONGER EVENT THAN THE USUAL SCRIBES

STANDARD SCRIBES GROUNDRULES APPLY

Follow Scribes on South on Instagram.

***

What’s Up at TMoms:

• Daily Happy Hour | All drafts are just $4 every day from 4-6pm!

• Daily Menu | Tattooed Mom will also be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.

• Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

• Accessibility at TMoms | Due to the construction of our historical building, Tattooed Mom is only partially accessible. Our event space is on the second floor, which is only accessible via a flight of stairs (20 steps, 3 feet wide, railing on the left side only). For more information, please visit our Accessibility page.

SUNDAY, JULY 27TH
DOORS @ 6PM + SHOW @ 7PM
NO COVER // FREE FUN

Lauren Yates (she/her)is a Philadelphia-based poet and burlesque performer. Lauren earned her B.A. in English with a Creative Writing Emphasis from the University of Pennsylvania and is a graduate of the Philadelphia Burlesque Academy. Lauren’s poetry has been featured in APIARY, Bettering American Poetry, bedfellows, and more. She is known for critiquing pop culture with a wry sense of humor and Frankenstein-ing together concepts that should not work, but, somehow, do.

Follow @scribesonsouth on Instagram.

***

What’s Up at TMoms:

• Sundays, All Day Long | if u didn’t get glitter in ur drink did you even craft sunday? Craft Sundays at TMoms every sunday, play both upstairs and downstairs. u heard me, both.

• Daily Happy Hour | $4 drafts every day from 4-6pm, everybody cheered!

• Daily Menu | Tattooed Mom will also be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.

• Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

• Accessibility at TMoms | Due to the construction of our historical building, Tattooed Mom is only partially accessible. Our event space is on the second floor, which is only accessible via a flight of stairs (20 steps, 3 feet wide, railing on the left side only). For more information, please visit our Accessibility page.

Congregate for drinks and conversation with those who either create or enjoy reading
sensual, sexual, romantic, erotic writings. Come early at 6 p.m. to take advantage of the
affordably priced Hemingway Happy Hour for good drinks and good food, including the
famous Smash Burger Wednesday special! After a few libations, if you are an erotica
writer of short stories or novellas or novels or poems or any other form – whether
amateur or professional or somewhere in between – feel free to take the stage around
7ish p.m. to read and share with all attendees your titillating creativity. Or indulge as an
audience member by listening to the impassioned words of others. Expect to hear some
steamy stories and poems on a September evening. This is a 21+ event. Showing valid
ID will be required to enter and participate.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 30TH
6-9PM
NO COVER // FREE FUN

***

What’s Up at TMoms:

• Wednesday, 4-10pm | they’re a smash hit for a reason. Smash Burgers (classic or vegan) every Wednesday for just $6!! u heard that right! + $3 PBR! RUN!!!

• Daily Happy Hour | $4 drafts every day from 4-6pm, everybody cheered!

• Daily Menu | Tattooed Mom will also be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.

• Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

• Accessibility at TMoms | Due to the construction of our historical building, Tattooed Mom is only partially accessible. Our event space is on the second floor, which is only accessible via a flight of stairs (20 steps, 3 feet wide, railing on the left side only). For more information, please visit our Accessibility page.

The Philadelphia launch of Book of Flowers, the debut poetry collection by writer Delilah McCrea. With Alex DiFrancesco.

MONDAY, AUGUST 4TH
8PM
NO COVER // FREE FUN

Follow Alex DiFrancesco and Delilah McCrea on Instagram.

***

What’s Up at TMoms:

• Mondays, 4-11pm | mom’s marvelous meatless mondays?? Say it 3 times fast and see what happens. we dare u. Meatless Monday is here at TMoms from open ’till close. See what’s on special this month!

• Mondays, Upstairs 6-11pm | cue ball as bright as ur future. Free Pool Mondays upstairs at TMoms continues!

• Daily Happy Hour | $4 drafts every day from 4-6pm, everybody cheered!

• Daily Menu | Tattooed Mom will also be serving tasty eats and ice cold drinks all evening.

• Upstairs dining, bar access, and event entry is 21+ w/ valid ID.

• Accessibility at TMoms | Due to the construction of our historical building, Tattooed Mom is only partially accessible. Our event space is on the second floor, which is only accessible via a flight of stairs (20 steps, 3 feet wide, railing on the left side only). For more information, please visit our Accessibility page.