Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Michelle Huneven Returns to Altadena to Talk About the Town That Shapes Her Fiction

Friday’s “Altadena Revealed” lecture brings the novelist together with historian Michele Zack at the Eaton Fire Collaboratory

The novelist Michelle Huneven lost two Altadena homes in the Eaton Fire last January. Her sixth novel, “Bug Hollow,” published last June with a dedication that reads simply “To Altadena,” instantly seduced reviewers and readers. On Friday, May 29, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., Huneven returns to her hometown for a conversation about both the book and the place, in conversation with her longtime friend, journalist and historian Michele Zack.

The event is the latest in the Altadena Revealed Lecture Series, presented by the Foothill Catalog Foundation in collaboration with Pasadena Heritage, Altadena Heritage, the Bungalow Heaven Landmark District and the Altadena Historical Society. The talk is titled “Writing Underfoot — Or, why Michelle Huneven sets her novels in Altadena.”

“Bug Hollow” follows the Samuelsons, a middle-class Altadena family, across five decades. Reviewers in The New York Times and the Washington Post praised its “lovely, lucid prose” and the way it captures the unpredictability of family life. The book had already gone to galleys before the fire; Huneven changed the dedication after.

Huneven, a continuing lecturer in UCLA’s English department who teaches creative writing, has written six novels, all set in Southern California and many in Altadena. Her honors include a Whiting Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a James Beard Award and a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Zack is the author of “Altadena: Between Wilderness and City,” the historical society’s commissioned history of the community.

The event is free with a $10 suggested donation requested at registration.

Writing Underfoot — Or, why Michelle Huneven sets her novels in Altadena” will run on Friday, May 29 from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Eaton Fire Collaboratory, 540 W. Woodbury Road, in Altadena. Admission is free. $10 suggested donation. Registration required.