From Spiritual Reflection to Poetic Insight, Featured Books Invite Readers Into Meaningful Discovery at LA Times FOB

A stirring blend of memoir, spiritual reflection, and poetry will greet festivalgoers at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books 2026 as Inks & Bindings showcases a distinctive collection of featured titles at the University of Southern California (USC) campus on April 18–19.

On display at Booth #978 in the Black Zone, this latest literary lineup brings together authors whose works examine human vulnerability, endurance, faith, memory, imagination, and the search for meaning in both ordinary and extraordinary life.

Among the featured authors is Robert W. Janek, whose deeply introspective works offer readers a moving exploration of physical difference, spiritual endurance, and the lifelong shaping of identity.

In “Polio: A Personal Spiritual Journey: How a Physical Difference Impacts One’s Life Trajectory in Challenging and Decisive Ways,” Janek recounts the intense impact of contracting bulbar polio at the age of eleven while growing up in the ranch country of west Texas. What began as a “normal” childhood was irrevocably altered by hospitalization, partial facial paralysis, and the lifelong social, emotional, and spiritual consequences of visible difference. Through deeply personal reflection, Janek speaks not only to fellow survivors and those living with disabilities or visible physical anomalies, but also to caregivers, clergy, educators, counselors, family members, and communities seeking to understand and support them with greater empathy. His book carries added relevance in light of contemporary concerns surrounding the re-emergence of polio, while also standing as a compassionate affirmation that those who feel marked by difference are not alone.

Complementing this work is “A Pensive Peregrination: Vignettes of a Spiritual Traveler,” a rich gathering of sixty-seven reflective pieces shaped by more than eight decades of experience, observation, and spiritual searching. Thoughtful, probing, and often gently humorous, the collection invites readers into Janek’s inner landscape as he wrestles with questions of humanity, love, God, and what it truly means to live faithfully. Janek’s remarkable life journey includes degrees from Texas Tech and Iliff School of Theology, military service as an Army officer in Vietnam, work as an Intelligence Analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency, ordination in two Christian denominations, years in parish ministry, and more than two decades serving as a VA Hospital Chaplain. His writing is informed by a lifetime of service, contemplation, and hard-earned wisdom.

Also featured is Alan V. Goldman’s “Reflections on Mountaineering,” presented in its latest English version, a distinctive volume of narrative-style poetry shaped by more than thirty years of mountaineering experience. A German-language edition of the work is also forthcoming and will be available soon.

In this fifth edition, Goldman offers 148 poems that transform the mountain landscape into a site of philosophical inquiry, emotional reckoning, and human self-discovery. Written in a variety of forms, including rhyming verse, prose poetry, and blank verse, the collection explores themes such as awe, fear, luck, fate, discipline, morality, perception, and the intimate dialogue between the climber and the natural world. Far from being limited to mountaineering enthusiasts alone, Goldman’s poems draw powerful parallels between the trials of the ascent and the challenges of everyday life, revealing the mountain as both physical terrain and spiritual metaphor.

A graduate of Horace Mann School, Harvard College, and Harvard Law School, Goldman practiced law for many years before retirement, all while cultivating a profound literary response to his adventures in the mountains. His larger body of work reflects a deeply considered engagement with both language and lived experience.

Bringing an imaginative and emotionally layered poetic voice to the collection is Waldron Collins with “Serafina,” a poignant and transformative volume born from journaling, observation, and the creation of inner worlds.

Described as a book of poetry rooted in countless ideas, invented characters, and personal impressions, “Serafina” centers on the title figure as the narrator’s closest fully realized character, a vessel through which reflections on emotion, identity, storytelling, and human experience unfold. Collins invites readers into a lyrical landscape that is at once intimate and inventive, shaped by thoughts that might otherwise remain unspoken.

A native of Texas who studied psychology, Collins draws on both introspection and imagination to create a collection that is designed to resonate personally while also entertaining and surprising its audience.

Completing the lineup is “Winter Afternoon and Other Poems” by Carlo Danese, an evocative and wide-ranging collection that captures flashes of beauty, violence, tenderness, absurdity, memory, and longing in language that is at once arresting and enigmatic.

Danese’s poems move fluidly through startling imagery and shifting emotional registers, inviting readers to engage with the unexpected and to linger in moments that are fragmented, sacred, or unsettling. His writing reflects a mind attuned to the contradictions of modern life, where betrayal and wonder, darkness and humor, coexist within the same breath.

Raised in New Jersey and New York and educated in architecture at North Carolina State, Danese brings an artist’s eye for structure and a poet’s sensitivity to atmosphere, form, and resonance. Now living in California’s high desert with his wife, Susan, and their rescue cats, Oliver and Bella, Danese continues to shape work that is visually vivid, emotionally layered, and deeply original.

As part of its ongoing commitment to amplifying diverse voices and bringing meaningful books to wider audiences, Inks & Bindings is proud to present this compelling featured collection during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books 2026 at the University of Southern California (USC) campus. Visitors are invited to stop by Booth #978 in the Black Zone throughout the April 18–19 festival weekend to discover these notable works in person, and readers who wish to explore more may also view the broader Inks & Bindings collection through the company’s website.

All featured titles are available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other leading online book retailers worldwide.

About Inks & Bindings:

Launching brilliant stars into the spotlight! Inks & Bindings is set to broaden horizons, revamp to perfection, and produce a masterpiece through the power of books.

Inks and Bindings is a premier self-publishing company located at the heart of the Golden State. Aptly based where fashion, entertainment, and culture thrive, the team goes all out in bringing independent authors into the sweet California spotlight.

Contact Information

JORELOU GABATO

Director

Inks and Bindings, LLC

Contact via E-mail