Power of the Pen: Creative Writing Workshops for Teens
Do you have a story to tell? Come enjoy an open space to find your voice as a writer. Explore different types of storytelling, poetry, journalism, and more! Attendance at all six sessions is preferred but not required.
RSVP: Please sign up by calling (818) 886-3640. Teens only!
Where: Northridge Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 27th
Time: 3 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 9051 Darby Ave., Los Angeles, CA 91325
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/japanese-culture-culture-taiko-drumming
Summer Reading Program for Kids: Marvelous Mondays
Join us for a fun-filled summer at the library! Free programs for elementary school age children every Monday at 4 pm, from June 13 – August 1. Check LAPL site for scheduling highlights on a specific date.
NOTE: Many LAPL branches have similar programs available, for all ages, so check the schedule for the branch library nearest you for details.
Where: Arroyo Seco Regional Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 27th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 6145 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/summer-reading-program-kids
Clara Bingham at Book Soup
Clara Bingham will discuss and sign, Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul, an electrifying story of the turbulent year when the sixties ended, form August, 1969 to August 1970. The nation witnesses nine thousand protests and eighty-four acts of arson or bombings at schools, the My Lai massacre investigation, the Cambodia invasion, Woodstock, and the Moratorium to End the War. The counterculture was challenging nearly every aspect of American society, and this unique oral history of that time seems even more relevant than ever.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday the 27th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Jessica Brown at Pages Bookstore
Jessica Brown, middle grade fiction author, discusses and signs The River Boy. In Brown’s new book, nine-year-old Clara is worried about the lonely summer ahead of her when she meets Josiah, a boy full of interesting ideas. Soon they’re traveling all over town and countryside to collect stories. This story of friendship and courage set in 1909 Montana teaches Clara how much gumption it takes to fight for an idea, and how much courage it takes to fight for a friend.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 3:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: http://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/jessica-brown-middle-grade-author-event
Scholastic Summer Road Trip at Vroman’s
To get kids ready to read this summer, Scholastic is hitting the road with the first-ever Summer Reading Road Trip. This free, traveling pop-up reading festival will include authors, fun reading activities, crafts, photo stations, a prize wheel, and more!
Book signings by: Susan Katz, Lucas Turnbloom, Todd H. Doodler, James Burks, Noah Z. Jones & Mike Yamada.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/scholastic-summer-reading-road-trip
Teen Summer Reading Club at Eagle Rock Library
All teens (ages 11-18) are invited to this summer reading program, held from June 13 – August 6, with the theme Read for the Win. Many extras and incentives to read this summer are part of the program, and times and specifics may vary by library branch.
Where: Eagle Rock Branch, LAPL
Dates: Tuesday, the 28th
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address: 5027 Caspar Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90041
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/teen-summer-reading-club-1
Stories on Tuesday
Pre-schoolers and Up are invited to come for stories every Tuesday afternoon at 5 pm.
Where: Will & Ariel Durant Branch, LAPL
Dates: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 7140 W. Sunset Blvd Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/storytime-tuesdays-0
Ralph Pezzullo at Book Soup
Join us to hear author Ralph Pezzullo discuss and sign Left of Boom: How a Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. On September 11, 2001, Doug Lax was a freshman in college with plans to be a doctor. After graduating, he joined the CIA, determined to get himself to Afghanistan and into the center of action. He was fast-tracked to clandestine operations, but frustrated by red tape, he confounded his peers by dressing like a native and mastering the local dialect while working with terrorist networks, with unprecedented success. But his double life was building to an explosive resolution, with far reaching consequences.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Lesley Blume at Book Soup
Join us to hear Lesley Blume discuss and sign Everybody Behaves Badly: the True Story Behind Hemingway’s Masterpiece The Sun Also Rises. Blume resurrects the explosive, restless landscape of 1920s Paris and Spain and reveals the inner circle of the Lost Generation and reveals how Hemingway helped create his own legend. Her vivid account reveals the inner circle as we have never seen it before, and shows how it still influences what we read and how we think about youth, sex, love and excess.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
The Marked Girl at Skylight Books
Join us to hear Lindsey Klingele discuss and sign her new young adult novel The Marked Girl. Worlds collide in this debut young adult novel, an exciting fantasy tale turned upside down. This novel has humor, heart and harrowing adventures, perfect for fantasy lovers and reluctant fantasy readers alike.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: http://www.skylightbooks.com/event/lindsey-klingele-reads-her-new-young-adult-novel-marked-girl
Anansi Writers Workshop at The World Stage
The Anansi Writers Workshop presents a featured author/reader each week as part of the program.
Join for the formal workshop, 7:30 – 8:30 pm, followed by our featured reader, 8:30 – 9 pm, and our Open Mic from 9:05 – 10 pm.
Where: The World Stage, Education & Performance Gallery
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: www.theworldstage.org/anansi-writers-workshop/
Thad Carhart at Vroman’s
Author Thad Carhart discusses and signs Finding Fontainebleau: An American Boy in France. This is the beguiling memoir of a childhood in the 1950s, when Fontainebleau was a sight both strange and majestic to a young American boy, home to a continual series of adventures: a different language to learn, weekend visits to Paris, family road trips to Spain and Italy, in addition to the amazing chateau itself. This is a chronicle of a time and place few have experienced.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Luis J. Rodriguez Lecture at Palms-Rancho Park Library
Join us for a lecture by Los Angeles Poet Laureate and author Luis Rodriguez, who has written 15 books in all genres, including the best-selling memoir Always Running, and its sequel It Calls You Back. He is founding editor of Tia Chucha Press, now in its 25th year, co-founder/president of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore, and co-convener of the Network for Revolutionary Change. He is dedicated to a clean, balanced, abundant, cooperative, healing world.
This event is for adults and teens.
Where: Palms-Rancho Park Branch, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2920 Overland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/lecture-poet-laureate-luis-rodriguez
D.J. McHale at The Last Bookstore
Please join us for D.J. McHale, in conversation with Maximilian Timm, presenting his young adult fantasy adventure The Wishkeeper. Join us to learn more about the writing and publishing worlds, attaining the perfect level of celebrity and success, and the book-to-film adaptation process, and in Timm’s experience the script-to-book adaptation process.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Ground Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
Kim Addonizio at Book Soup
Join us to hear Kim Addonizio discuss and sign Bukowski in a Sundress: Confessions form a Writing Life. In this utterly original memoir in essays, she opens up a chronicle the joys and indignities in the life of a writer wandering through the middle age. From the inspiration at the writing desk to adventures on the road, her crackling, unfiltered wit brings colorful life to writing and well as family members. Both an intimate and outrageous memoir!
Where: Book Soup
Time: 7 pm
Date: Thursday the 30th
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Angela Morales at Flintridge Books
Angela Morales, winner of the River Teeth Book Prize, will read and discuss The Girls in My Town, a collection of autobiographical essays about coming of age in Los Angeles, motherhood, and teaching. Morales, a graduate of the University of Iowa’s nonfiction writing program, currently teaches English and creative writing at Glendale Community College.
Where: Flintridge Books
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1010 Foothill Blvd., La Canada, CA 91011
Website: http://www.flintridgebooks.com/index
Tara Ison and Bernadette Murphy at Pages Bookstore
Welcome to two L.A. based authors, friends, who will discuss their new books:
Tara Ison, author of Ball: Stories, explores the darker edges of love and sex and death, how they are intimately and often violently connected, with bright vivid stories set mostly in contemporary Los Angeles.
Bernadette Murphy, author of Harley and Me, explores what happens when women in midlife step out of what’s predictable. It all starts with learning to ride a motorcycle at age forty-eight, which leads her to life as a woman on her own.
RSVPs appreciated. Call (310) 318-0900 or email info@pagesabookstore.com.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: http://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/tara-ison-and-bernadette-murphy-author-event
Thad Carhart at Diesel Bookstore
Thad Carhart will read and discuss his memoir, Finding Fontainebleau: An American Boy in France. Join us to hear about life as a young American boy in the 1950s, who goes with his family to a life in France, and specifically at the Fontainebleau. This intimate chronicle of a time and place few have experiences is crafted in warm, precise prose, and shows how one can fall in love with a place over and over again.
Where: Diesel Bookstore, Brantwood
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: http://dieselbookstore.com/event/thad-carhart-discusses-and-signs-finding-fontainebleau
Liz Pryor at Vroman’s Books
Author Liz Pryor, discusses and signs Look at You Now: My Journey from Shame to Strength. This is a riveting memoir about a lifelong secret and a girl finding strength in the most unlikely place. Told with tenderness and humor, this is a story about how a girl who is abandoned by her family when she is most vulnerable, can learn to trust herself and others. She learns we can permanently change who we are and how we see the world.
Where: Vroman’s Books
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Poets & Writers Connecting Cultures at Beyond Baroque
Join us for Poets & Writers sixth annual Connecting Cultures reading in Los Angeles, to celebrate the diversity of the literary community. Suggested donation is $10 for non-members and $5 for Beyond Baroque members, students and seniors, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Refreshments will be served.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://www.pw.org/calendar
Mystery Book Club at Diesel Bookstore, Brentwood
We welcome back our Mystery Book Club, on the first Friday of every month, and will be discussing Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze. Today many mystery and crime writers are admired in the literary canon, but one of the finest, Elliott Chaze, remains obscure. Now Chaze’s story of a doomed love on the run returns to print in a trade paperback edition. This story careens through a landscape of desperate passion and wild reversals, and it an unforgettable journey.
Where: Diesel Bookstore, Brentwood
Date: Friday the 1st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
First Fridays Book Club at Memorial Branch Library
We are summed up in our name, and reading books is our game! We read current novels and love to hear recommendations for future readings. Stop in and join our club, and you’ll meet some new friends and get some good reads.
Where: Memorial Branch Library
Date: Friday the 1st
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address: 4625 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90019
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/first-fridays-book-club
Read Along with LPAD at Vernon Square Library
Join us for exciting story time adventures read by LAPD officers! This program is offered to kids and pre-school age children.
Where: Vernon Square Branch Library
Date: Friday the 1st
Time: 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: 1201 W. 48th St., Los Angeles, CA 90037
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/read-along-lapd
STAR Reader at Robertson Branch Library
Join us to hear our STAR reader read stories to children. In turn, children may practice their reading skills with our wonderful volunteers!
Where: Robertson Branch Library
Date: Friday the 1st
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1719 S. Robertson Blvd.untington DrHuntington , Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website: http://http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/star-reader-28
Chris Morris at Stories LA
Chris Morris presents Together Through Life: A Personal Journey with the Music of Bob Dylan. Veteran journalist and critic Chris Morris looks back at his intense half-century long relationship with the music of Bob Dylan, viewing the role the singer-songwriter’s work has played in his own life. A candid album-by-album exploration of Dylan’s catalog through 2016’s Fallen Angels examines the powerful personal impact of the musician’s art.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Friday the 1st
Time: 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: http://storiesla.com/blogs/events
Scholastic Summer Reading Event at Children’s Book World–Children’s Event
Join the Scholastic Summer Reading Road Trip for signings with authors and illustrators, crafts and activities, giveaways, photo ops with children’s literary characters, and more!
Author signings by: Todd Doodler, DL Green, Dustin Nguyen, Lucas Turnbloom.
Where: Children’s Book World offsite at Virginia Avenue Park
Time: 10 am – 1 pm
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Address: 2200 Virginia Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website: http://www.childrensbookworld.com/Calendar/calendar.htm
Chuck Palahniuk at Book Soup
Some imaginary friends never go away…New York Times bestselling novelist Chuck Palahniuk and acclaimed artist Cameron Stewart have collaborated for one of the most highly anticipated comic books and literary events of the year—the return of Tyler Durden. This is the return of Fight Club 2.
This is a signing ONLY.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/chuck-palahniuk-signs-fight-club-2-graphic-novel
Storytime with Mr. Steve! at Vroman’s Bookstore
Storytime with Mr. Steve, held every Wednesday and Saturday, will be held at the main store at 10 am.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Saturday, the 2nd
Time: 10 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/story-time-mr-steve-july-2
Storytime at Flintridge Books
Join us for Storytime with Tyler, now changed to every Saturday at 10:30 am, for ages 2 and up.
Where: Flintridge Books
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 10:30 am
Address: 1010 Foothill Blvd., La Canada, CA 90291
Website: http://www.facebook.com/Flintridge-Bookstore-Coffeehouse-59728560543/
Watts Book Club at Alma Reeves Wood-Watts Library
Join the Watts Literary Book club to participate in this year’s The Big Read. We will meet every Saturday at 1 pm to read and discuss Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
All participants get free copies of the book.
Where: Alma Reeves Wood-Watts Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 2nd
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address: 10205 Compton Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90002
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/watts-book-club
Life Story Writing Class at Silver Lake Library
Turn your memories into vivid writing for inner exploration, to preserve family history, or to prepare for publication. Try your hand at memoir writing and fiction. No writing experience is necessary.
Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 2411 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039
Website: http://lapl.org/whats-on/events/life-story-writing-class-0
Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading at Studio City Library
Join us for the first and third Saturdays of each month at 3 pm for the Expressions Reading Series. Each session will consist of at least one featured artist, followed by an open poetry reading, where any participants can share their work for four to six minutes.
All events are free to the public.
Where: Studio City Branch Library
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: http://lapl.org/whats-on/events/expressions-la-poetry-reading-series
Saturday Afternoon Poetry at Santa Catalina Library
Emerging Urban Poets Writing Workshop led by Bill Friday.
All Saturday Afternoon Poetry programs are curated and hosted by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Santa Catalina Branch, Pasadena Public Library
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 999 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91104
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com
Wide Open Reading at Sunland-Tujunga Library
Please join us and bring poems, narratives and music to share. This event is coordinated and hosted by Elsa Frausto, Poet-Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga 2014-2016.
Where: Sunland-Tujunga Branch Library, LAPL
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 7771 Foothill Blvd., Tujunga, CA 91042
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/wide-open-reading-0
The Poetry Circus at Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round
The Poetry Circus is part workshop, community outreach, performance, ride, dance and creation. This community event blurs the line between performer and audience to allow everyone the chance to run away and join the circus.
We hope to host 40 poets and performers as well as many literary organizations and literary outreach programs. In an alternative venue the egalitarian characteristics of poetry are magnified. Poetry IS for everyone, and we all process and understand the world through metaphor.
Where: Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 6 pm – 9 pm
Address: 4668 Crystal Springs Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: http://www.nicelledavis.net/#/woods/ or http://www.pw.org/calendar
STAR Reader at West Los Angeles Library
Read with Cecile, our STAR volunteer reader, on Sundays, 3:00-5:00. Learn how your child can earn a free book to take home. (Limit of one book per year). Please call first: STAR-Story Telling and Reading.
Where: West Los Angeles Regional Library, LAPL
Date: Sunday the 3rd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 11360 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025
Website: http://lapl.org/whats-on/events/cecile-star-volunteer-reader
Special Open Mic Project in Filipinotown
Join us for a special open mic during the July 4th weekend, and happening the first Sunday of every month. For this special event we are featuring artists/poets/musicians/activists with collaborative sets representing: Tuesday Night Project, Our Mic, common ground, One Mic Collective, and The Definitive Soapbox.
More details to be announced. We are calling all poets, musicians and artists to sign up for the open mic at 4:45 pm.
Mark Maza of TDSB and Resident Host Eddy M. Gana Jr. will be co-hosting. Resident DJ Won will be spinning the turntables.
Express free speech!
Where: Kapistahan Grill, Luzon Plaza
Date: Sunday the 3rd
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 1925 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Los Angeles Literature 