This is the kind of party where standing around with a book in your hand isn’t only acceptable, it’s expected. With a book in one hand and a flute of champagne in the other, writers, editors and readers alike filled the ballroom at the Westin Pasadena to celebrate Red Hen Press’s 20th Anniversary.

From the excitement and giddy laughter heard through out the ballroom, it would be all too easy to assume that this event is a rarity within the literary community, but in fact, Red Hen has been putting on annual fundraising luncheons to bring L.A.’s literary community together since the press’s inception in 1994. 

“We do a gala like this every year, but never like this,” says Red Hen publisher, Mark Cull, gesturing toward the hundreds of champagne flutes that fill the room and the miniature bookstore that Red Hen Press assembled earlier that morning. 

There are signed broadsides, raffle items and a curated selection of the thousands of Red Hen books. Given the press’s extensive publishing list—with over 300 works of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction—it’s no wonder that even the most diligent home-librarians can fight something worth delighting over. 

“We like to think that the work we publish has a distinctly Los Angeles perspective and aesthetic to it,” says Cull. “Los Angeles is on its way to becoming a western center for literature. It’s a place of reinvention, and Red Hen tells stories that are reinvented—novels told in verse, poets writing in verse, and writers working with illustration.” 

SEE ALSO: Beyond Baroque: The Modern Epicenter Of Literary L.A.

“L.A. didn’t really have much of a literary scene when I moved here [from New York],” adds managing editor, Kate Gale. “This was before there was Antioch or Riverside or any other MFA programs out here.”

While literary hubs like Skylight Books and Beyond Baroque certainly offer a sense of community for fledgling writers, it takes events of this scale to remind writers that L.A. doesn’t need to be New York, its literary scene is wonderful and vibrant in its own right. 

“What’s great is that L.A.’s really become an ecosystem of literature,” says Gale. “It really began to take off around 2000, but even now we’re still the only press operating on this kind of scale.”

Sharing the stage with beloved writers like the prolific Sharron Olds and innagural poet, Richard Blanco, were two young writers chosen to their own poems on behalf of Red Hen Press’s Writing in the Schools program.

 “The simple thing to say would be that we are hoping to cultivate the next generation of writers, but of course, as writers ourselves, we know that storytelling is more than that,” says Gale. “It’s a tool of liberation.”

SEE ALSO: Red Hen Press Celebrates Two Decades Of Flourishing Literary Culture 

“The poets have it so easy,” jokes author Pete Fromm as he takes the stage to read from his latest novel, “If Not For This.” “They just come up here and read a poem, but I have to pick out a piece of my novel—and it’s hard because it’s all so good.”

While jokes may be necessary to diffuse the pressure of reading in a room full of many of Los Angeles’s most distinguished poets and authors, one of the most beautiful aspects of morning is the profound air of mutual admiration. One must truly savor every moment when you have three generations of writers gathered before you, laughing in their suits and hoodies and cardigan sets.

“Is there a better way to spend a Sunday than being fed and read to?” asks poet Brendan Constantine, the Master of Ceremonies for the day. He’s answered with silence and smiles. For people whose livelihood forces them to bleed out onto the page, and then hope for someone else to care, there is nothing better than this. 

Contact Deputy Editor Sara Newman here and follow her on Twitter here.