Writers Workshops at Baldwin Hills Branch Library
Writing a book and looking for feedback? Need deadlines to help you reach your writing goals? Then this is the group for you!
Each meeting, you bring 5-10 double-spaced pages of writing to share with the group. Every member will have time to present their writing and receive constructive feedback. Please call the information desk at 323-733-1196 with questions, and to RSVP for the workshop.
Where: Baldwin Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm
Address: 2906 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/writers-workshop-0
Read a Dickinson Poem at North Hollywood Library
As part of National Poetry Month and The Big Read, actors, poetry lovers, students, and families of all ages are invited to read a poem by Emily Dickinson. This event will take place at 3 pm every day during the month of April. Call 818-766-7185 to schedule your reading.
Where: North Hollywood Amelia Earhart Regional Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 15211 Tujunga Ave., North Hollywood, CA 91601
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/read-emily-dickinson-poem
Ghostwriting Author at Westwood Branch Library
Author’s Club presents Steven Weiss-Smith and The Ghastly Art of Ghostwriting. From writing over twenty years’ worth of screenplays, to authoring the Pond Pals children’s book series, the author will explain how he transitioned into ghostwriting specialized memoirs for the everyday person…with a twist.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/authors-club-steven-weiss-smith
LA Made: Poetry with Get Lit Players at Pacoima Library
Get Lit fuses classic and spoken poetry to empower youth and inspire communities! Join us for 40 minutes for performances by the most watched youth poets on the internet, followed by a Q&A.
Where: Pacoima Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 13605 Van Nuys Blvd., Pacoima, CA 91331
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/la-made-poetry-get-lit
Holocaust Panel, with Mona Simpson, at Diesel Bookstore
Join us to hear a panel discussion for How We Survived: 52 Stories, moderated by Mona Simpson, and featuring some children survivors of the Holocaust: Eva Chava Brettler, Henry Slucki, and Marie Kaufman. This volume was first printed in 2011 by the Child Survivors of the Holocaust Los Angeles, a group of women and men who were some of the youngest living witnesses to the Holocaust, as a legacy gift for all readers, especially young people in these complex times. Now in its second printing, this book stands as a communal gathering for all time.
Where: Diesel Bookstore, Brentwood
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 25th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Harold Bronson at Book Soup
Co-founder of Rhino Records, Harold Bronson, tells his story in My British Invasion. A passionate music fan who explored the British music scene, he gives an insider’s account of it and the performers he met and befriended in London in the 1960s and 1970s
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/harold-bronson-discusses-and-signs-my-british-invasion
Angela Palm and Elizabeth Powell at Chevalier’s Bookstore
Join us to hear memoirist Angela Palm and poet Elizabeth Powell, to share new work in their chosen forms. Palm’s Riverine: A Memoir from Anywhere But Here, and Powell’s new collection, Willy Loman’s Reckless Daughter, are each imaginative maps of family and self and their themes touch and spark in fascinating ways. Each gives us a distinct voice as much as they create with story and language, for a rare auditory pleasure.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: http://chevaliersbooks.com
Amina Kahn Reading at the Last Bookstore
Please join us to hear Amina Kahn read and discuss her new book, Adapt: How Humans Are Tapping into Nature’s Secrets to Design and Build a Better Future. Learn more about how humans are looking to animals, plants and even slime molds for tips on how to create smarter materials, more agile robots, more efficient planes, truly renewable fuels, and cleaner cities.
Amina Kahn is a science writer at the Los Angeles Times, and has appeared on national TV on issues of health and science.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
David Owen on Colorado River at ALOUD Reading Series
Join us to hear New Yorker staff writer and author of more than a dozen books, David Owen, in conversation with Judith Lewis Mernit, discuss and sign Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River. This book explores the complexities of this vast man-made ecosystem and illuminates the high-stakes of the water wars of the West.
See website for reservation guidelines for free programs.
Where: Mark Taper Auditorium, Central Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 7:15 pm (Stand-by seating at 7 pm)
Address: 630 West 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: http://lfla.org/event/water-goes-life-death-along-colorado-river/
Eric Jerome Dickey Booksigning (Finding Gideon)
A professional job turns personal for jet-setting contract killer Gideon in this sexy, thrilling page-turner by New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey.
Eric Jerome Dickey (born July 7, 1961) is a New York Times best-selling American author best known for his novels about contemporary African-American life. He is also known for writing several crime novels involving drifters, ex cons, and assassins, the latter novels having more diverse settings, moving from Los Angeles to the UK to the West Indies, each having an international cast of characters.
Where: Eso Won Books
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 4327 Degnan BLVD., LA, CA 90008
Website: http://www.esowonbookstore.com/event/eric-jerome-dickey-booksigning-finding-gideon
Selfish Issue Five at Skylight Bookstore
Join us to hear a panel discussing the importance of feminist art, followed by a party celebrating two years of life and the magazine’s newest issue: Selfish Issue Five: Void of Course.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: http://www.skylightbooks.com/event/selfish-launches-issue-five-void-course
Jo Haldeman at Chevalier’s Bookstore
Join us to hear Jo Haldeman personalize the Watergate experience in her new memoir, In the Shadow of the White House, a true-life period piece. The author shares her experience as the wife of H.R. Haldeman, Nixon’s Chief of Staff, as well as personal photographs, in this fascinating work of nonfiction that reads like a novel.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
David Owen at Pages Bookstore
Join us to hear David Owen, author and New Yorker staff writer, discuss and sign Where the Water Goes: Life and Death Along the Colorado River, a close look at a vast man-made ecosystem that is far more interesting and complex than we realize.
RSVPs are greatly appreciated
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: http://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/david-owen-author-event
David L. Ulin at Otis College of Art and Design
Please join us to hear David L. Ulin, as part of the Otis MFA Visiting Writers Series. Ulin’s most recent novel, Ear to the Ground, was written with Paul Kolsby. A 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, his other books include: Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles, and Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award. His writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, where he spent ten years as book editor and book critic, The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times, and many other publications and venues.
Where: Otis College of Art and Design, The Forum, Goldsmith Campus
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 9045 Lincoln Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: http://www.otis.edu/mfa-writing/visiting-writers-series
Poets & Writers Literary Roundtable at House of Writers
Join us for a Poets & Writers Bilingual Literary Roundtable meeting to exchange ideas, news and resources. Guest speaker Tanya Ko Hong will talk about the importance of building bridges between different cultures and languages.
Where: House of Writers Art Hall, Koreatown
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Address: 2410 James M. Wood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90006
Lisa Dickey and A Changing Russia at Chevalier’s Bookstore
Join us to hear author Lisa Dickey discuss and sign Bears in the Streets: Three Journeys Across a Changing Russia. Over the course of twenty years, journalist Lisa Dickey travelled across Russia, meeting and re-connecting with a spectrum of people and finding out how they view their lives. As a bonus, Jill Sobule co-wrote a song with Lisa about this, and they will sing it for us.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Tufts Poetry Awards at Central Library, LAPL
Join us for the 25th Anniversary Celebration and Reading by the 2017 winners of the Claremont Graduate University’s Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Awards, hosted by Alice Quinn, Executive Director of the Poetry Society of America, and honoring awardees: Vievee Francis and Phillip B. Williams.
Where: Mark Taper Auditorium, Central Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 630 West 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: http://lfla.org/event/kingsley-kate-tufts-poetry-awards/
Craig Carlson at Santa Monica Library
Join us to hear Craig Carlson, founder of the restaurant Breakfast in America, share his rollicking experience of moving to Paris, opening the first American diner in France, and finding true love. Afterwards, there will be a book sale and signing of Pancakes in Paris: Living the American Dream in France.
Where: Santa Monica Main Library, Martin Luther King, Jr. Auditorium
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401
Website: http://calendar.smgov.net/library/eventsignup.asp?ID=23194
Boris Fishman at the Skirball Cultural Center
In his latest novel, Boris Fishman, the Jewish, Belarus-born author of the critically acclaimed award winner The Replacement Life, turns to a different kind of story: an evocative, nuanced portrait of marriage and family centered on Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo is a tale of a woman reckoning with what she’s given up and with who she is.
Free, but RSVP at website.
Where: Skirball Cultural Center
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: http://www.skirball.org/programs/words-and-ideas/boris-fishman-dont-let-my-baby-do-rodeo
Say Word Poetry Slam Finals at dA Center for the Arts
Join us for the Say Word Poetry Slam Finals, with celebrity judges, guest poets and more. Say Word, a non-profit dedicated to empowering, enlightening and activating youth through spoken word presents the 9th Annual Slam Finals. The top nine poets will compete to travel to Brave New Voices International Poetry Festival in San Francisco.
Check website for costs, details.
Where: dA Center for the ArtsdAcenter for the Arts
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 252 S. Main St., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: http://losangeles.eventful.com/events/say-word-poetry-slam-finals-/E0-001-101744969-4
L.A. Times Book Prizes at Festival of Books, USC
Join us to see and hear the awarding of the 2017 L.A. Times Book Prizes in multiple genre categories, to be held in Bovard Auditorium.
The categories are:
The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
Biography
The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose
Current Interest
Fiction
Graphic Novel/Comics
History
Mystery/Thriller
Poetry
Science & Technology
Young Adult Literature
Innovator’s Award
Robert Kirsch Award
Where: Bovard Auditorium, USC
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: USC, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Website: http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/the-festival/info/
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 8 pm
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books began in 1996, is a FREE event gifted to the community by the Los Angeles Times, and is the largest festival of its kind in the U.S. This two day event hosts many authors, panels, performances, plus a poetry stage, cooking stage, children’s stage, and much more!
Among today’s many guest authors and celebrities: L.A. Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez, crime fiction author Michael Connelly, literary fiction author George Saunders, athlete and author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Congressman John Lewis, actor Bryan Cranston, lauded author Joyce Carol Oates, journalist and author Roxane Gay, author and LATimes-Kirsch Award winner Thomas McGuane, L.A. poet Amy Uyematsu, novelist Noel Alumit who grew up in Historic Filipinotown, and San Ferando Valley native and mystery writer Steph Cha.
Check extensive schedule and information at website.
Where: USC, various locations
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 10 am – 6 pm
Address: USC, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Website: http://latimes.com/festivalofbooks
Stories & Performances at Northridge Branch Library
Join us for four one-act plays written by Vic Cabrera, and starring Vic and his cast, They’re My Stories and I’m Sticking to ‘Em. This will be followed by a discussion on writing entitled Finish What You Started!
Where: Northridge Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 1 pm
Address: 9051 Darby Ave., Northridge, CA 91325
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/theyre-my-stories-and-im-sticking-em-0
Book to Action at Studio City Library
Join us as part of the Book-to-Action program as New Times best-selling author Vanessa Diffenbaugh visits and discusses her 2011 book The Language of Flowers. She will be joined by experts in the field of foster care to provide information about their programs and volunteer opportunities. Free copies of the book will be available, while they last.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-action-vanessa-diffenbaugh-library
Poetry Reading with Suzanne Lummis at Avenue 50 Studio
Join the Institute for the Study of Los Angeles (ISLA) as we celebrate the culmination of six weeks of workshops with the ISLA Poet in Residence, Suzanne Lummis. Members of Occidental College and the community attended these workshops to learn more about the craft of poetry from the past and present. Featured poets include:
Angelina Coppola
Art Currim
Peggy Dobreer
Alan Freeman
Elline Lipkin
Laura L. Longoria
Julia Macias
Ariadne Makridakis
Ebram Naftzger
Luis Ordaz
Emma Robitaille
Hovsep Van Hanovnikian
FREE and open to the public.
Where: Avenue 50 Studios
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 131 N. Avenue 50, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/406534986372465/
Las Lunas Locas Present Water is Life at Cielo Galleries
Join us to honor Earth Day with a poetry reading and help raise funds and awareness for the many afflicted communities of Flint Michigan who have been without clean water for the past two years. Joining us and our efforts will be middle school students from Children of Promise Preparatory Academy who have been diligently advocating on behalf of Flint residents.
The event is hosted by Karineh Mahdessian.
Where: Cielo Galleries/Studios
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 3210 Maple Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90011
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/281012038998507/ .
Articulate Scars Launch at Clayton Library & Museum
Still Waters Publishing invites you to Derek Brown’s debut book release and signing of Articulate Scars: Comfortable Silences and Reluctant Tears. This work chronicles the journey of a grown man going back to the limitlessness of his boyhood to address the wounds that have not healed properly. These poems are living testaments to love’s losses and wins, adult growing pains, and dreams realized and deferred.
Where: Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 4130 Overland Ave., Culver City, CA 90240
Josh Emmons, with Andrew Winer, at the Last Bookstore
Josh Emmons discusses A Moral Tale, and Other Moral Tales, with Andrew Winer, the winner of the 2016 Dzanc Books Short Story Collection. Provocative, funny, and precisely observed, this debut collection examines the way we view sex, the environment, friendship, aging, love and honesty. Join us for food, drinks and a Q&A at this launch party.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival at the dA Center for the Arts
Join us for our regular reading this month, and check out what some of the best local writers are doing in our area: Chad Sweeney, Alex Avila, Tim Hatch, George Hammons and You!
This event is hosted by John Brantingham.
Where: The dA Center for the Arts
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm – 10 pm
Address: 252 S. Main St., Ste. D, Pomona, CA 91766
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/1878811125666369/
Morgan Parker & Harmony Holiday
Morgan Parker is the author of There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé and Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night. Her poetry and essays have been published and anthologized in numerous publications, including The Paris Review, The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, Best American Poetry 2016, The New York Times, and The Nation. Parker is the recipient of a 2017 National Endowment of the Arts Literature Fellowship, winner of a 2016 Pushcart Prize, and a Cave Canem graduate fellow. She is the creator and host of Reparations, Live! at the Ace Hotel in New York. With Tommy Pico, she co-curates the Poets With Attitude (PWA) reading series, and with Angel Nafis, she is The Other Black Girl Collective. Parker lives with her dog Braeburn in Brooklyn.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Address: 951 Chung King Rd., Chinatown, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/1878811125666369/
6th Annual Book Drop Bash at the Central Library
Join us for the largest library party of the year, the 6th Annual Book Drop Bash. Members of the Library Foundation join authors from the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books after dark. Come and bring a book with you, swap it out for a new one to take home. Enjoy complimentary snacks, desserts, local brews, and coffee while listening to our live DJ. Go home safely with a Lyft discount code!
RSVP now to throw out all of the Library rules and celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.
Where: Los Angeles Central Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 8 pm
Address: 630 West 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books began in 1996, is a FREE event gifted to the community by the Los Angeles Times, and is the largest festival of its kind in the U.S. This two day event hosts many authors, panels, performances, plus a poetry stage, cooking stage, children’s stage, and much more!
Among today’s many guest authors and celebrities: authors Viet Thanh Nguyen and Laila Lalami, NPR reporter and author Scott Simon, award-winning author Marlon James, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, actor & comedian Cheech Marin, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood, crime fiction author Paula Woods.
Check detailed schedule and information at website.
Where: USC, various locations
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 10 am – 5 pm
Address: USC, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Website: http://latimes.com/festivalofbooks
Expressions Poetry at the Hollywood Library
Please join hosts Dori Marler and James Maverick with surprise guests and an Open Mic. Today’s event features Peter Coca and Alex M. Frankel.
Where: Hollywood Regional Library
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 1623 N. Ivar Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90028
Website: http://http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/expressions-la-frances-howard-goldwyn-regional-library
La Palabra Reading Series at Avenue 50 Studio
National Poetry Month is here and we are celebrating all things about writing, and welcoming our features:
Alexandra Hohmann is a high school English teacher and current facilitator of In the Words of Womyn, a writing circle in Sylmar, Ca. She is working on a follow up to her book Wild Heart (2013).
Brian Dunlap is a native of Los Angeles who writes stories about L.A. that are hidden in plain sight. He is completing his first chapbook, and his work has been published in Angel City Review, Entropy, Muse, California Quarterly and Statement magazine. He curates the literary resource and blog losangelesliterature.wordpress.com.
Dorothy Randall Gray, author of the bestselling Soul Between the Lines: Freeing Your Creative Spirit through Writing, is a renowned teacher, artist, and global activist. She has been featured on radio and TV, at universities and cultural centers throughout the world.
Beverly M. Collins is the author of the books Quiet Observations: Diary Thought, Whimsy and Rhyme and Mud in Magic. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, and she was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2015.
As always, there is an Open Mic too.
Hosted by Karineh Mahdessian.
Where: Avenue 50 Studio
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 131 N. Avenue 50, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/1870719189842270/
Poetry Readings at MOCA
Join us for poetry readings by Marie Buck and Anna Vitale.
Buck is the author of Portrait of Doom and Goodnight Marie, May God Have Mercy on Your Soul. Vitale is a writer and performer interested in psychoanalysis, music and improvisation. Her most recent book is Detroit Detroit.
Free with museum admission.
Where: Museum of Contemporary Art
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 250 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: http://www.moca.org/program/marie-buck-and-anna-vitale
Poetry Authors at Flintridge Books
Join us for a poetry reading with Lin Nelson Benedek, Elline Lipkin, and Lynn Thompson.
Where: Flintridge Books
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 4 pm
Address: 1010 Foothill Blvd., La Canada, CA 91104
Website: http://www.flintridgebooks.com
Mike Sonksen & Four Generations at Beyond Baroque
Join us to hear Mike Sonksen present four generations of poets and writers on the stage at the same time to share their work.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html
Peg Alford Pursell, with Marisa Silver, at the Last Bookstore
Please join us to hear Peg Alford Pursell, in conversation with Marisa Silver (Little Nothing), present Pursell’s new book Show Her a Flower, A Bird, A Shadow, a collection of hybrid prose and micro-fictions.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90015
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
Los Angeles Literature 