Note: It’s back. Losangelesliterature.wordpress.com’s list of weekly L.A. literature events. L.A. is chock full of literary culture. With the events at your finger tips, it’s time to get out there and enjoy the city’s literary culture.
Cadence Collective’s Poetry Party
Murray Thomas is co-hosting a poetry party with Sarah Thursday every 2nd Monday of the month at Fox Coffeehouse! Come sign up to read your poems during our open reading and enjoy two featured readers, one of whom will always be a Cadence Collective contributor.
Murray Thomas has been an active part of the SoCal poetry scene for 20 years. He has two collections of poetry, “Cows on the Freeway,” and his most recent, “My Kidney Just Arrived,” published by Tebot Bach in 2011.
Sarah Thursday edits Cadence Collective, started Sadie Girl Press to support new poets, has published several chapbooks, and now has a poetry/story collection called “All the Tiny Anchors.”
Where: Fox Coffeehouse
Date: Monday the 11th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 437 W. Willow St., Long Beach, CA 90806
Website: http://www.localendar.com/public/CadenceCollective
Three Mystery Authors at Vroman’s Books
Join mystery authors James W. Ziskin, Terry Shames and Jennifer Kincheloe for a conversation, a reading, and signing of their latest books, followed by a slideshow on 1900s Los Angeles.
Anthony-Nominated author James W. Ziskin will read from “Stone Cold Dead” the third book in the Ellie Stone Mysteries. Set in the 1960s, Publishers Weekly says “Ellie is a refreshing, riotously funny amateur sleuth. Spot-on language and perceptions of the era are a plus.”
Terry Shames launches “The Necessary Murder of Nonie Blake,” fifth in the award-winning Samuel Craddock series, and an RT Reviews Top Pick. Shames was named one of the top five Texas mystery authors of 2015 by MysteryPeople.
Jennifer Kincheloe will read from her debut novel, “The Secret Life of Anna Blanc” set in 1907 Los Angeles among the police matrons of LAPD. RT Book Reviews says it’s “a fun novel with an I Love Lucie-meets—Agatha Christie adventure.”
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Tuesday, the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E.Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Judith Palarz Book Club: “Euphoria” by Lily King
Join professional book club facilitator, Judith Palarz, as she leads an exploration of Lily King’s “Euphoria,” a historical fiction novel that riffs on the life of anthropologist Margaret Mead.
Where: Palisades Branch LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 12 pm – 1:30 pm
Address: 861 Alma Real Dr., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/judith-palarz-book-club-euphoria
Crime Fiction Authors at The Last Bookstore
Enjoy an evening of conversation with five crime fiction authors from Seventh Street Books:
Jennifer Kincheloe (The Secret Life of Anna Blanc), Terry Shames (the Samuel Craddock Mystery series), James Ziskin (the Ellie Stone Mystery series), Robert Rotstein (the Parker Stern Novels), and Lynne Raimondo (the Mark Angelotti Novels).
Join us to learn more about what’s happening in the mystery, thriller and suspense scene, and meet some new authors you’ll love!
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Ground Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
SHOUT! Open Mic
Poetry Open Mic with Featured Readers, includes storytelling, music and much more. Come out to share or listen to some great poetry, and make it something to SHOUT! about.
Where: Half Off Books
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 6708 Greenleaf Ave., Whittier, CA 90601
Website: http://www.localendar.com/public/CadenceCollective
Montana Mystery Book Group
Mystery book club meets to discuss “The Burglar in the Library” by Lawrence Block.
Bookseller and burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr travels to New England to stay in a mansion where he hopes to steal a rare book. But his scheme is sidetracked by the murder of one of the guests and the burglar turns sleuth.
Where: Montana Branch SMPL
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1704 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90403
Website: http://calendar.smgov.net/library/eventsignup.asp?ID=19186
Dawn Anahid MacKeen at Book Soup
Dawn Anahid MacKeen discusses and signs “The Hundred-Year Walk: an Armenian Odyssey.” Part reportage, part memoir, this story alternates between the author’s grandfather Stepan’s tale of resilience during the mass deportation of Armenians during World War I and Dawn’s remarkable journey to find the lost home her family fled, giving us a rare eyewitness account of the twentieth century’s first large-scale genocide. (Houghton Mifflin)
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 14th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Translator Jessica Powell at Vroman’s
Translator Jessica Powell discusses and signs “Woman in Battle Dress,” by Antonio Benitez-Rojo.
In 1809, at the age of eighteen, Henriette Faber enrolled in medical school in Paris, and changed her name to Henri in order to matriculate. She would spend the next fifteen years practicing medicine and living as a man.
In this, his last published work, Antono Benitez Rojo takes the outline provided by historical events and weaves a backdrop for Faber, who becomes a vivid and complex figure grappling with the strictures of her time.
Where: Vroman’s Books
Date: Thursday the 14th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Black Dahlia: Poetry of Myth
On the 68th anniversary of her death, poets gather to read works inspires not only by the famous Black Dahlia, but by the short life of the woman behind the myth: Elizabeth Short.
Readers include: Carlye Archibeque, Amie Thompson, Pam Ward, and Brendan Constantine.
Regular Admission.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html
Author Ruth Wariner at Vroman’s
Ruth Wariner discusses and signs “The Sound of Gravel: A Memoir.” Ruth was the thirty-ninth of her father’s forty-two children, and growing up in rural Mexico, where authorities turned a blind eye to the practices of her community, living in a ramshackle house without indoor plumbing or utilities. After Ruth’s father, the founding prophet of the colony, is murdered by his brother in a bid for church power, her mother remarries, and she begins an even more complicated life in this gripping tale.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd.., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/ruth-wariner-discusses-and-signs-sound-gravel-memoir
“I Love Myself Golden” Release and Reading
This Roots and Wings Project publication, published by Mark Gonzalez, presented by Jesse Bliss & illustrated by Alfie Numeric, stems from a decade of teaching creative writing at Central Juvenile Hall. Miss Bliss created a book specifically to cultivate self-love and respect in the young women she encounters in the halls.
Performers and writers Gloria Basulto, Jesse Bliss, Laura Caustic, Romi Dias, Mike “The Poet” Sonksen and Patricia Zamorano will perform original work including excerpts from the chapbook.
See site for details.
Where: Espacio 1839
Time: 7 pm -11 pm
Date: Saturday the 16th
Address: 1839 E. 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: http://www.pw.org/calendar
Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Join us for the Deep Poetry Critique Workshop. We meet every Saturday in the back room of this branch library, and offer a variety of workshops, readings and open mic events.
Hosted by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Santa Catalina Branch, Pasadena Public Library
Date: Saturday the 16th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 999 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena, CA
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Hearts of Palm Reading Palace
Please join us for the fourth Hearts of Palm Reading Palace event to ring in the new year with Cathy Lihn Che, Melissa R. Sipin, and Harmony Holiday.
Cathy Lihn Che is the author of “Split” (Alice James Books), winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize and the Norma Farber First Book award.
Melissa R. Sipin won Glimmer Train’s Fiction Open and the Washington Square Review’s Flash Fiction Prize and co-edited “Kuwento: Lost Things” (Caravan Peress 2014). As the Poets & Writers McCrindle Fellow in Los Angeles, she is hard at work on a short story collection and novel.
Harmony Holiday bio coming soon!
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Saturday, the 16th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 951 Chung King Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: http://www.pw.org/calendar
Three Generations on a Stage
Join Mike “The Poet” Sonksen for a multi-generational reading. Featured readers include: Traci Kato-Kiriyama. Gia Scott-Heron, Jamie Fitzgerald-Lahey, Heidi Cuda, Luis Ordaz, a few of Mike’s students and several others.
Suggested donation $10.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html
Uptown Word in Long Beach
Featured readers this month include: liz gonzalez, Ruth Nolan, and Isabel Quitero.
Liz Gonzalez, host and organizer of Uptown Word is a fourth generation San Bernardinan and lives in Uptown/North Long Beach. She is widely published and her awards include an arts Council for Long Beach Professional Artist Fellowship. She is a writing consultant and teaches through the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.
Ruth Nolan, born in San Bernardino, writes for KCET LA, Riverside Press Enterprise and other publications. She teaches creative writing and literature at College of the Desert, and is writing a memoir on her work as a wildland firefighter during the 1980s.
Isabel Quintero is a fiction writer, poet, and adjunct instructor from the IE. “Gabi, A Girl in Pieces” (Cinco Puntos Press) is her first novel, the recipient of numerous awards and has been included on Booklist’s Best Books of 2014, among other lists.
Open mic follows the featured readers. Sign up early.
Where: North Neighborhood Branch Library-LBPL
Date: Sunday, the 17th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 5571 Orange Ave., Long Beach, CA 90805
Website: http://www..uptownword.lizgonzalez.com/pages/upcoming.html
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