Join us for a special Tuesday Talk featuring alum Tom Comitta and Lizzie Davis in an intimate conversation about the creative, editorial, and collaborative journey behind publishing a book. This event offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the relationship between author and editor—from early drafts to final publication.

Tom Comitta is the author of The Nature Book and two fiction books published in 2025: People’s Choice Literature: The Most Wanted & Unwanted Novels (Columbia University Press) and Patchwork (Coffee House Press). Their fiction and essays have appeared in WIRED, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Believer, and BOMB. Comitta lives in Los Angeles with their partner and child.

Lizzie Davis is Comitta’s editor. A translator whose recent works include Juan Cárdenas’s The Devil of the Provinces (longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature) and Ornamental (finalist for the 2021 PEN Translation Prize), she is also an executive editor at Transit Books, following nearly a decade at Coffee House Press. Lizzie has also translated work by Valeria Luiselli, Daniela Tarazona, Begoña Gómez Urzaiz, and Elena Medel.

Together, Tom and Lizzie will explore the editor-author relationship, the mechanics of bringing unconventional books into the world, and how trust and vision shape both artistic experimentation and editorial strategy.

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This event is part of CCA MFA Writing’s 25-Year Anniversary programming, a yearlong celebration of the people and practices that have shaped the program since its founding in 2000.

All Tuesday Talks conclude with a post-event mingle featuring cookies, tea, and kombucha.