BOOKS, FILMS & THEN SOME: Tod Goldberg /Gary Phillips /Maggie Downs

A conversation with two legendary and prolific writers of crime fiction discussing their most recent books - New York Times bestselling author Tod Goldberg and master of West Coast noir Gary Phillips. In Only Way Out, a luckless thief’s wrong turn becomes a crooked cop’s fortune in a a wild ride of a thriller. The Haul is an action-packed heist thriller in which a professional thief takes the chance of a lifetime when he agrees to mastermind the raid of a tech billionaire’s secret bunker set in the heart of contemporary Los Angeles. Event will include a fun crime writing activity.

Tod Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen books, including Only Way Out, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the acclaimed Gangsterland quartet — Gangsterland, Gangster Nation, The Low Desert: Gangster Stories and Gangsters Don’t Die — which have been published in a dozen countries and have won or have been a finalist for the Hammett Prize, the Southwest Book of the Year, the Strand Critics Award, the Reading the West Award, the International Thriller of the Year and many more. His previous books include Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, The House of Secrets, which he wrote with Brad Meltzer, and the anthology Eight Very Bad Nights, a finalist for the Anthony Award. His short fiction appears widely and has twice been honored with selection in Best American Mystery & Suspense (2022 & 2025), while his nonfiction has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Alta, and USA Today, among countless others, and have been selected for Best American Essays, awarded five Nevada Press Association Awards, and received distinction from the American Society of Journalists & Authors (2026). Tod is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside where he founded and directs the Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts. His next book, The Salton Sea, will be published by Counterpoint Press.

Son of a mechanic and a librarian with roots in the Texas Hill Country and the Mississippi Delta, Gary Phillips must keep writing to forestall his appointment at the Crossroads. He’s published novels, written comics for the likes of DC, Dark Horse and Boom! Studios, penned around a 100 short stories – one of them included in the Best American Mystery & Suspense 2025 edition, worked some in television, and edited several anthologies including the Anthony-winning The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir. The Wall Street Journal named his One-Shot Harry as one of the best 25 mysteries of the last 25 years. His latest novel, The Haul,about a heist involving a tech bro’s swank survival bunker under the new arena he’s built for his NBA team, received a starred review in Publishers Weekly.

Maggie Downs is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Palm Springs Life, and McSweeney’s, and has been anthologized in Lonely Planet’s True Stories From the World’s Best Writers and Best Women’s Travel Writing. She is the author of the memoir Braver Than You Think : Around the World on the Trip of My (Mother's Lifetime) and 50 Things to Do Before You're 5.

Event co-sponsored by the Palm Springs Cultural Center, Palm Springs Public Library and Palm Springs Public Library Foundation.