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A novelist whose work has been shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Edgar Allan Poe Award will discuss her dystopian bestseller about dream surveillance at a free public event in Pasadena on March 21.<\/p>\n
Laila Lalami, a distinguished professor of creative writing at UC Riverside and a Los Angeles resident, will talk about her novel \u201cThe Dream Hotel\u201d in conversation with Pasadena Public Library Director Tim McDonald at 2 p.m. at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 E. Colorado Blvd. The event is the centerpiece of the library\u2019s 24th annual One City, One Story program, which each year asks the city to read and discuss a single book. A question-and-answer session will follow, and copies of the novel will be available for purchase and signing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Dream Hotel,\u201d published in March 2025 by Pantheon Books, imagines a near future in which a government agency called the Risk Assessment Administration uses data harvested from citizens\u2019 dreams \u2014 processed through an algorithm \u2014 to detain people for crimes they have not committed. The protagonist, Sara, is held at a retention center where her stay is extended with every deviation from the facility\u2019s shifting rules. The novel became a national bestseller, according to its publisher, and was named a best book of 2025 by The New Yorker, NPR, The Washington Post, People, and TIME Magazine.<\/p>\n
A 19-member volunteer committee led by Senior Librarian Christine Reeder selected Lalami\u2019s novel from more than 100 candidates, according to the Pasadena Weekly.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne City, One Story has always been about fostering meaningful dialogue within our community, and \u2018The Dream Hotel\u2019 is the perfect vehicle for that conversation,\u201d Reeder said in a statement released by the library. The novel, she said, \u201cresonates with today\u2019s concerns about privacy, autonomy, and the implications of an increasingly surveilled society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reeder told the Pasadena Weekly that the committee seeks authors based in the Los Angeles area or whose work reflects California. \u201cShe\u2019s an excellent speaker, and we\u2019re looking for something that\u2019s going to create conversation,\u201d Reeder said.<\/p>\n
Lalami is the author of five books. Her novel \u201cThe Moor\u2019s Account\u201d won the American Book Award, the Arab-American Book Award, and the Hurston\/Wright Legacy Award, and was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Her novel \u201cThe Other Americans\u201d won the Simpson\/Joyce Carol Oates Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. \u201cThe Dream Hotel\u201d was nominated for the 2026 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel and was longlisted for the 2025 Women\u2019s Prize for Fiction. Lalami has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright Program, the British Council, and the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. Her books have been translated into 20 languages.<\/p>\n
Born and raised in Rabat, Morocco, Lalami came to the United States in 1992, according to UC Riverside. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Harper\u2019s, The Guardian, and The Nation.<\/p>\n
The March 21 conversation is the culminating event in a month of free programming tied to the book. Events have included community book discussions at library branches across Pasadena, a lecture on artificial intelligence and emerging science at the Huntington Medical Research Institute, a presentation on dream interpretation at Vroman\u2019s Bookstore, a session on generative AI at the Linda Vista Branch Library, and a film series at the Lamanda Park Branch Library featuring movies that explore surveillance and technology themes.<\/p>\n
The novel is available for checkout in print, large type, eBook, and eAudiobook formats at all Pasadena Public Library branches, and for sale at local bookstores.<\/p>\n
The conversation with Lalami takes place Saturday, March 21, at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 E. Colorado Blvd. Doors open at 1:45 p.m. for a prelude; the conversation begins at 2 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Pasadena Public Library at (626) 744-4066 or visit CityOfPasadena.Libguides.com\/OneCityOneStory<\/a>.<\/p>\n One City, One Story began in 2002 with the selection of \u201cPeace Like a River\u201d by Leif Enger, according to the Pasadena Star-News. Twenty-four years later, the program still draws the city into a single shared reading experience \u2014 though the questions the books raise keep changing.<\/p>\n ONE CITY ONE STORY: CONVERSATION WITH LAILA LALAMI Date & Time: Saturday, March 21, 2026, 1:45 PM \u2013 4:00 PM (Conversation begins at 2:00 PM). Venue: Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101. Phone Number: Pasadena Public Library \u2014 (626) 744-4066. Website: https:\/\/CityOfPasadena.Libguides.com\/OneCityOneStory<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A novelist whose work has been shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Edgar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2376,1955,1610,9274,11475,11564,182,34813,34818,34823,34824,25431,34820,34816,34814,34822,34817,34819,34821,128,130,129,34815],"class_list":["post-143529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-breaking-news","tag-calendar","tag-community-news","tag-food-and-drink","tag-latest-news","tag-lifestyles","tag-local-news","tag-los-angeles-county-news","tag-nonprofit-news","tag-official-events-calendar","tag-old-town-pasadena-news","tag-pasadena","tag-pasadena-arts-and-culture","tag-pasadena-city-guide","tag-pasadena-events","tag-pasadena-living","tag-pasadena-restaurants","tag-pasadena-shopping-news","tag-popular-things-to-do-in-pasadena","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-things-to-do-in-pasadena"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}