PEN Center USA’s Author Evening Series
On the 20th anniversary of their Emerging Voices Fellowship, Chevalier’s is honored to host PEN Center USA’s Author Evening Series to the public. These intimate evenings will feature authors discussing their books and the art and craft of writing. Featured are:
Viet Thanh Nguyen is the author of the academic book “Race and Resistance” and the forthcoming “Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War” He teaches English and American Studies at USC, and his novel “The Sympathizer” won the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction and is longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction and shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.
Geronimo Johnson is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ workshop, a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford, and has taught writing at UC Berkeley, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the Prague Summer Program, and San Quentin. His first novel, “Hold It ‘Til It Hurts,” was a finalist for the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award. His second novel, “Welcome to Braggsville,” was longlisted for the 2015 National Book Award and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.
FREE for members. See site for single or series tickets and pricing.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Monday the 25th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: http://www.http://chevaliersbooks.com/
Ian Rankin at Book Soup
Join author Ian Rankin to hear him discuss and sign “Even Dogs in the Wild” which brings back his greatest characters in a novel that explores the darkest corners of our instincts and desires. Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke joins forces with recently retired John Rebus to solve colliding cases, when a team of undercover detectives also compete to get what they want. It becomes a game of dog eat dog—in the city as in the wild. (Little Brown)
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday, the 26th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/ian-rankin-discusses-and-signs-even-dogs-wild
The WOMEN group at Stories LA
Join the 31st reading of the WOMEN group collective. This group is coeducational, feminist, unifying, provocative, nondiscriminatory, and optimistic in its goal of directing the feminist movement towards unity.
Where: Stories LA Books and Cafe
Date: Tuesday the 26th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: http://www. http://storiesla.com/
Warren Zanes at Book Soup
Warren Zanes, rocker and writer and friend, has authored a book about Tom Petty that is honest and evocative of Petty’s music and the remarkable rock and roll history he and his band helped to write. This book portrays an era embodied in one man’s story and shows what music can do and where it can take us. (Henry Holt)
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 27th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/warren-zanes-discusses-and-signs-petty-biography
Ioan Grillo at Vroman’s
Author Ioan Grillo discusses and signs “Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields, and the New Politics of Latin America,” the first definitive account of the crime wars now wracking Central and South America and the Caribbean, regions largely abandoned by the U.S. after the Cold War. Author of the critically acclaimed “El Narco”, Grillo has covered Latin America since 2001 and provides new understanding of a war that has spiraled out of control and across the political spectrum. (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 27th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Family Story Time – Children’s Event
Children with their favorite parent are welcome for longer stories and crafts.
Los niños con su padre favorito son bienvenidos para historias más largas y manualidades.
Where: Benjamin Franklin Branch of the LAPL
Date: Thursday the 28th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 2200 E. 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/family-storytime-17
US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera at CSU Los Angeles
The annual Jean Burden Reading Series, founded in 1986, celebrates its 30th anniversary by honoring USA Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera. Dinner reception from 5:30-6:30 pm. Poetry Reading starts at 6:30. Reading is followed by a Q&A, and book sales and signing.
Free of charge and open to all. Parking available on campus for a nominal fee.
Where: CSULA, Golden Eagle Ballroom
Date: Thursday the 28th
Time: 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90032
Two Debut Novelists at Skylight Books
Bette Adriaanse discusses her debut novel “Rus Like Everyone Else,” with Gallagher Lawson. Rus is a creature of habit. His mother left him an apartment and a credit card and every day he uses it to withdraw money to purchase a drink at Starbucks After he is told by the government he own taxes, he panics and his money is stolen. As Rus capitulates to the demands of the working world and surveys his neighborhood’s residents, the author weaves together interesting lives to create a mini-epic, one that charts a hidden resistance to corporate sameness and artificial relationships.
Bette Adriaanse is a writer and visual artist, born in Amsterdam in 1984. She has published fiction in magazines for literature and philosophy, and exhibits her visual work internationally. This is her first novel. She lives in London.
Gallagher Lawson is a graduate of U.C. Riverside’s Palm Desert MFA program. He lives in Los Angeles. “The Paper Man” is his first novel.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Thursday the 28th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Devin Johnson at Hammer Museum
The Hammer Readings features poet Devin Johnson, whose new collection of poems, “Far-Fetched” follows the contours of Appalachian hillsides, Missouri river bends, and remote Australian coastlines, turning language to landscape. It is poetry meant to be heard.
This series of readings is organized and hosted by author, poet and UCLA professor Stephen Yenser.
Complimentary coffee and tea is served. A book signing will follow the reading.
Where: Hammer Museum
Date: Thursday the 28th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: http://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2016/01/poetry-devin-johnston
Robin Coste Lewis & Claudia Rankine at USC
The USC Department of English presents a Reading with National Book Award winners Robin Coste Lewis and Claudia Rankine.
RSVP at: http://dornslife.usc.edu/RCL
Where: Doheny Memorial Library at USC
Date: Friday the 29th
Time: 4:30 – 6 pm
Address: 3550 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Website: http://lalitscene.entropymag.org
Author Greg Jobin-Leeds at Vroman’s
Greg Jobin-Leeds presents and signs “When We Fight, We Win!: Twenty-First-Century Social Movements and the Activists That Are Transforming Our World.” The many remarkable social movement that have blossomed in the past decade (same-sex marriage, #blacklivesmatter, the DREAM act, People’s Climate March, Occupy Wall Street, etc.) have provided a fertile and productive era of activism. In this inspiring book the leaders and activists of many successful social movements distill their wisdom, sharing lessons of what makes and hinders transformative social change. (New Press)
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Friday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Last Saturday of the Month Poetry
Open mic poetry. All are invited to participate. Read a classic poem or your own composition. Each reader will have six minutes. Let your voice be heard. Begin signing up at 1:30pm.
Where: Encino-Tarzana Library
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Date: Saturday the 30th
Address: 18231 Ventura Blvd, Tarzana, CA 91356
Website: http://www.lapl.org/branches/encino-tarzana
The Cahuenga Press Poets Reading
This popular and talented writing collective joins us for an evening of poetry. Featuring James Cushing, Phoebe MacAdams, Harry E. Northrup, and this year’s George Drury Smith Award Winner Holly Prado.
Regular Admission.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Time: 8 pm
Date: Saturday the 30th
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://www.http://beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html
Jake Gerhardt at Skylight Books
Join us to hear Jake Gerhardt read from his young adult novel “Me & Miranda Mullaly.” Most of us remember our first crush, but do we ever think about our classmates that may have been crushing on that very same person? This novel tells the hilarious story of three (awkward) races for one (oblivious) girl’s heart. (Viking)
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Saturday the 30th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: http://www.skylightbooks.com/event/jake-gerhardt-reads-his-young-adult-novel-me-miranda-mullaly
Byron Motley at Book Soup
Please join us for award-winning photographer and new artist in residence Byron Motley, who will present his most recent exhibit on Cuba. Byron will also present and sign copies of his new book, “Embracing Cuba.”
Byron Motley is a singer, songwriter filmmaker, lecturer and photographer, and was inspired to co-author “Rolling Over Monarches, Giants and Stars” after growing up listening to his father, Bob Motley, recount his adventures umpiring in the Negro Leagues. He lives in Los Angeles.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Saturday, the 30th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywod, CA 90069
Website: http://www.booksoup.com/book/9780813061153
Kalpna Singh-Chitnis at Beyond Baroque
Before she was 21, Kalpna Singh-Chitnis won the prestigious “Bihar Rajbhasha Award” (1986-87) given by the government of Bihar, India, for her first poetry collection, “Chand Ka Paivand” (Patch of Moon). She reads from her fourth collection, “Bare Soul.”.
Suggested donation $5.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Sunday the 31st
Time: 4 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html
Julie Weise at Book Soup
Julie Weise discusses and signs “Corazon De Dixie: Mexicanos in the U.S. South Since 1910.” Rooted in U.S. and Mexican archival research, oral history interviews and family photographs, this book is the first to comprehensively document the long history of Mexicans and Mexican Americans and their migration to the U.S. South, including their own expectations, strategies and dreams.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Sunday, the 31st
Time: 1 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Los Angeles Literature 