Oti
s Redding Biography at Vroman’s Bookstore
Join us to hear Jonathan Gould discuss and sign Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life, with Tom Vickers. In chronicling the story of Redding’s life and music, as the architect of the gospel-inflected rhythm and blues of Stax Records in Memphis, Gould also presents a social history of the time and place from which they emerged. This is an indelible portrait of the tangled history of race and music in America that resonates with the present day.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Monday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Zine Writers at the Last Bookstore
The Last Bookstore is pleased to present Rory Britt of Burn Black Zine and Elly Dallas of Tenderspeck & Friends. They will be reading from the brand new issue of Burn Black #6 and hosting a workshop on healing through words and the arts. Participants are encouraged to bring in old journals and pieces of writing to discuss how we turn trauma into triumph via art.
Let us know you’re coming at the website for space planning purposes.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Monday the 29th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
Cornelia Funke at the Manhattan Beach Library
Join us for the Cornelia Funke author event for ages 3 and up, with a special story-time. What if books want to be read as much as we want to read them? This is certainly true of our young hero in Funke’s The Book No One Ever Read. The books and illustrations pay tribute to some of her favorite authors, and the inspiration for the story is Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.
Where: Manhattan Beach Library (with Pages Bookstore)
Date: Tuesday the 30th
Time: 11 am
Address: 1320 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: http://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/cornelia-funke-author-event-manhattan-beach-library
Stacy Kravitz at Diesel Bookstore
Join us for a publication party to hear Stacy Kravetz discuss and sign She’s So Boss, which is packed with information on how entrepreneurs can execute their ideas into self-sustaining enterprises. The author also profiles some of history’s greatest “girl bosses.”
Where: Diesel Bookstore, Brentwood
Date: Tuesday the 30th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Wolf Hunt at Book Soup
Join us to hear translator Angela Rodel, with author David Ulin, discuss and sign Wolf Hunt, which was published in 1986, three years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and was the first novel to portray the human cost of Communist policies on Bulgarian villagers, forced by the government to abandon their land and traditional way of life. Darkly comic and tragic, the novel centers on an ill-fated winter hunting expedition of six neighbors whose history together is long and interwoven.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
How to Write Good at Barnes & Noble at the Grove
Join us to meet bestselling author Ryan Higa talk about Ryan Higa’s How to Write Good, an irreverent yet heartfelt memoir by one of the top creators on You Tube, with pictures and illustrations.
Note: This is a wrist-banded event, and this book needs to be purchased from the Barnes & Noble bookstore at The Grove to receive a wristband. For more information and guidelines, see website.
Where: Barnes & Noble Bookstore, The Grove
Date: Tuesday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 189 The Grove Dr., Suite K 30, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: http://stores.barnesandnoble.com/author/18631454
How to Kill a City at the Last Bookstore
Journalist Peter Moskowitz presents his book, How to Kill a City: Gentrification in LA and Beyond, where he explains the hundred-year-long quest to turn cities into gated communities for the rich at the expense of the lives of the poor and middle classes. Peter will be in conversation with Tracy Rosenthal of The Los Angeles Tenants Union in a vigorous, hard-hitting expose of who holds power in our cities, and how we can get it back.
Event is FREE. Please see website to RSVP for space planning purposes.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 30th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
Amelia Gray at Skylight Bookstore
Join us to meet author Amelia Gray, read from her new novel Isadora, the shocking and visceral portrait of a legendary artist and woman on the brink of destruction by the cruelty of life.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 31st
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: http://www.skylightbooks.com/event/amelia-gray-reads-her-new-novel-isadora
Redondo Beach Poetry Reading at the Coffee Cartel
Join us to hear Lydia Hirsch present her poetry at our weekly Tuesday reading in Redondo Beach. There is always an Open Mic, in addition to our featured reader.
Where: The Coffee Cartel
Date: Tuesday the 30th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 1820 S. Catalina Ave., Redondo Beach, CA 90277
Website: http://www.facebook.com/pg/RedondoPoets/about/?ref=page_internal
Tides with Jonathan White at the Manhattan Beach Library
Join author Jonathan White to hear him discuss Tides, a global journey through the science and wonder of oceans. Writer, sailor and surfer White shimmies under the ice with an Inuit elder to hunt for mussels, races a 25-foot tidal bore that crashes eighty miles up the Qiantang River in China, interviews monks at Mont Saint-Michel, investigates the growth of tidal generation in Chile and Scotland, and delves into the threats of sea level rise in Panama and Venice. Tides combines elements of lyrical prose, colorful travel adventure, and provocative scientific inquiry into the paradox that keeps our planet’s waters in constant motion.
Note: RSVPs are appreciated; see website for contact information.
Where: Manhattan Beach Library (with Pages Bookstore)
Date: Wednesday the 31st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1320 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90277
Website: http://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/jonathan-white-author-event-manhattan-beach-library
The Mighty Franks: A Memoir at Book Soup
Join author Michael Frank to hear him discuss The Might Franks: A Memoir, a psychologically acute memoir about an unusual and eccentric Hollywood family of two sets of screenwriters, made up of a brother and sister married to a sister and brother. These two families lived close to each other in Laurel Canyon, and even the author’s two grandmothers shared an apartment together. This story asks each of us where the boundaries of family life should be drawn, and who should draw them.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 31st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/michael-frank-discusses-and-signs-mighty-franks-memoir
Kurt Vonneguys Live Podcast at the Last Bookstore
Join hosts Alex Schmidt and Michael Swain for the first ever LIVE episode of the Kurt Vonneguys podcast, for hilarious banter about Palm Sunday (1981), the secret Kurt Vonnegut autobiography that’s the skeleton key of his life. It’s a fun, digressive trip through the Vonnegut canon, and premiered at #9 on the iTunes Comedy charts.
Note: RSVPs are appreciated; see website for contact information.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 31st
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
Anthology from PEN in the Community at the Last Bookstore
Join us to meet the students from the Police Orientation & Preparation Program (POPP), who will read from their anthology of poetry and creative non-fiction titled Stories Out of the Blue, which is the result of a ten-week PEN in the community residency taught by writer and teaching artist Carlos Castellanos. Please join us to hear students share their original work which reflects their communities, memories, origins and more.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
Romancing the Throne Party at Diesel Bookstore
Join us for a publication party to hear Jolie Courtney discuss and sign Romancing the Throne, a YA novel in which the Weston sisters are at the same boarding school, and in a social circle that happens to include handsome young Prince Edward, heir to Britain’s throne. There may be a rice to pay for romancing the throne, as well as more than one path to happily ever after.
Where: Diesel Books, Brentwood
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
The Sum of Small Things at Chevalier’s Bookstore
Please join us to hear author, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at USC, and scholar Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, in conversation with 2106 MacArthur Fellow and cultural scholar Josh Kun, read and discuss her book The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class. This is a fascinating in-depth excursion into a new angle on the economics of class, which demonstrates that today’s elites are spending less on flashy material goods and investing more in “subtle expenditures” to communicate their status.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Lily and the Octopus at Book Soup
Please join us to hear author Steven Rowley discuss and sign Lily and the Octopus, about a gay, single, struggling writer who is stuck, except for the steadfast companionship of his elderly dachshund Lily. When Lily’s health is compromised, her owner vows to save her by any means necessary. By turns hilarious and poignant, this adventure spins into magical realism and beautifully evoked truths of loss and longing.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/steven-rowley-discusses-and-signs-lily-and-octopus
Be Safe and Doug Weaver at Gatsby’s Bookstore
Join us to meet and hear author Doug Weaver read and discuss his new book Be Safe, which explores the changing lives of gay men now that the worst of the AIDS epidemic has passed. The lives of the gay characters, who are both drug addicts/sellers, are explored in a way that sheds light on Queerness, the nature of chronic disease, recovery, and revelation.
Where: Gatsby’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 5535 E. Spring St., Long Beach, CA 90808
Website: http://gatsbybooks.com/book-signings/
Prince Biography at Vroman’s Bookstore
Join us to hear Mayte Garcia read and sign her book, The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince, in which musician Prince’s first wife shares a uniquely intimate, candid, and revelatory look inside the personal and professional life of one of the world’s most beloved icons, at the one-year anniversary of his death.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/mayte-garcia-discusses-and-signs-most-beautiful-my-life-prince
Sweetbitter at Pages Bookstore
Join us to hear Stephanie Danler discuss and sign Sweetbitter, an instant bestselling novel of the senses and a coming-of-age tale, which follows a small-town girl into the electrifying world of New York City and the education of a lifetime at one of the most exclusive restaurants in Manhattan.
RSVPs are appreciated and can be made at website.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: http://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/stephanie-danler-author-event
Graham Chaffee & Sammy Markham at Skylight Bookstore
Join us to hear author Graham Chaffee, with Sammy Markham, discuss and sign their graphic novel, To Have and to Hold. Couched in the traditional trappings of a noir heist thriller, this book is a hard-boiled disquisition on the darker regions of married life and the American Dream. Set in October 1962, while the world holds its breath awaiting the climax of the unfolding Cuban Missile Crisis, the banality of everyday life goes on, and a couple confronts their own cold war.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Heart and Home Authors Panel at Vroman’s Bookstore
Please join moderator Danielle Davis as she leads a panel with fellow authors whose books for young readers are each filled with an inner journey and with main characters who must learn to trust their hearts, despite many challenges. These are stories that grapple with a sense of home and identity:
Sally J. Pla, Julie McLaughlin (illustrator), presents The Someday Birds.
Carter Higgins presents A Rambler Steals Home.
Jennifer Torres presents Stef Soto, Taco Queen.
Danielle Davis, Laura K. Horton (illustrator) presents Zinnia and the Bees.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Two Poets at Skylight Books
Please join us to hear poet Tommy Pico, the author of Nature Poem, together with Melissa Broder. Nature Poem follows Teebs—a young, queer American Indian (or NDN) poet—who can’t bring himself to write a nature poem. For the reservation-born, urban-dwelling hipster, this exercise feels stereotypical, reductive, and boring. He hates nature, and prefers city lights, but he gradually learns how to interpret through his own lens, along with human nature and Twitter, and how to have faith in his own voice.
Tommy “Teebs” Pico is also the author of the zine series Hey, Teebs. He now lives in Brooklyn where he co-hosts the reading series Poets with Attitude, and the podcast Food 4 Thot, and is a contributing editor at Literary Hub.
Melissa Broder is the author of four poetry collections, most recently, Last Sext. She lives in Venice, California.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Three Poets at Beyond Baroque
Experience an evening with Los Angeles poet Molly Bendall, (most recently, Watchful) and high-desert poets, L.I. Henley (These Friends These Rooms) and Jonathan Maule (Dogstar).
Regular admission.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 8 pm
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html
RAPP Saloon Reading Series First Fridays
Please join us to hear Writers Khadija Anderson, Brian Sonia-Wallace, and Abel Salas, with Music by Jacob Zuko. Share your words and music for the Open Mic! All voices and arts welcome.
After 18 years in Seattle, Khadija Anderson returned to her hometown of Altadena where she runs a social justice themed series, Poets & Allies for Resistance. Khadija’s poem “Islam forAmericans” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Brian Sonia-Wallace took a crazy challenge in 2014: to pay his rent using only the money he made writing poetry, for strangers, on an old typewriter. It worked. Since then, his journey has led him to write for everyone from Google to celebrity weddings, and to perform his work around the world. His first book of poetry, I Sold These Poems, Now I Want Them Back, came out in January 2016 through Yak Press.
Based in Los Angeles, journalist and poet Abel Salas has written for The Austin Chronicle, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine, LA Weekly and the New York Times, among others. His poems have been published in Zyzzyva, Beltway Quarterly, Cuthroat: A Journal of the Arts, Cipactli, Huizache and Americas Quarterly as well as the anthologies Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social Change (University of Arizona Press, 2016) and The Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising From the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles (Tia Chucha Press, 2016). He is the editor and publisher of Brooklyn & Boyle, a community, arts and cultural monthly.
Where: Rapp Saloon
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 8 pm
Address: 1438 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90401
Kiss Me Again, Paris at Beyond Baroque
Join us to hear Lambda Literary Award winner Renate Stendhal discuss her memoir, Kiss Me Again, Paris. Recently escaped from her German family and her student husband, Stendhal ekes out a living as a cultural journalist in Europe’s most cultured city. She walks Paris at night dressed as a boy, has friends and lovers among artists and writers. There are mysteries with and without clues: is sexual obsession a way to avoid the risk of love?
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 1 pm – 3 pm
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html
Words or Water Book Party at Work Education Labs
Join us for a celebration of Li Yun Alvarado’s poetry collection Words or Water, featuring readings by Li Yun Alvarado, Jessica Ankeny, Xochitl Bermejo, Amanda Hollander, and Tisha Reichie.
Reception including yummy picadera from Porto’s Bakery.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Membership Drive, Raffle benefiting the ACLU and a brief word from Connie Tcheng, president of ACLU Union Board of Southern California.
FREE and open to the public.
Where: Work Education Laboratories
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 235 E. Broadway, Suite 800, Long Beach, CA 90802
Michelle Stevens at Vroman’s Bookstore
Join us to hear author Michelle Stevens, discuss and sign Scared Selfless: My Journey form Abuse and Madness to Surviving and Thriving, a riveting memoir about how her childhood was stolen by a pedophile posing as her mother’s boyfriend, who abused her for six years, from the ages of eight to fourteen, and how she managed to work her way back from PTSD, anxiety and depression, suicide attempts and multiple personalities to a PhD in psychology and a productive life.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Emerging Poets Workshop at Santa Catalina Library
Join us for an Emerging Urban Poets Writing Workshop led by Cindy Rinne, at Saturday Afternoon Poetry, curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Santa Catalina Library, Pasadena Public Library
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 999 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91104
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
UC Irvine MFA Students Reading at Skylight Bookstore
Please join us as students from the MFA Program at UC Irvine read from their work. Readers include:
Jack Foraker is from Davis, Callifornia.
Corinna Rosendahl is most recently from Seattle and Portland and Corvallis.
William Hawkins grew up in Louisiana. he is a third year in fiction in the MFA Program at UC Irvine.
Megan Grant grew up in Reedley, California, and got her B.A. in Literature and Creative Writing and a minor in Jewish Studies form CSU Long Beach.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: http://www.skylightbooks.com/event/2017-06
Sally Kirkland & Natalie Ford at Beyond Baroque
Join us to hear Sally Kirkland in conversation with Natalie Ford. Check website for details.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 5 pm
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html
Baggage Review at Beyond Baroque
Join us to hear a collision of music and words as the all-improvisational band Baggage plays host to a revolving cast of singers and songwriters who not only play songs, but also read their poetry and lyrics. $5 donation, but no one is turned away for lack of funds.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html
Renate Stendhal at Book Soup
Join us to hear Renate Stendhal discuss her book, Kiss Me Again, Paris: A Memoir, which celebrates youth at the end of the 1970s, when women were in fashion and every woman, gay or straight, fell in love with women. Filled with sensuality, style, romance, and suspense, the author plays with the concept of memoir as a genre and transports the reader to another time and place.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/renate-stendhal-discusses-and-signs-kiss-me-again-paris .
Tania Del Rio at Vroman’s Bookstore
Join us to hear Tanai Del Rio, discuss and sign her sequel to Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye, her new middle reader mystery Warren the 13th and the Whispering Woods.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/tania-del-rio-discusses-and-signs-warren-13th-whispering-woods
Susan Silver, with Bruce Ferber, at Diesel Bookstore
Join us to hear Susan Silver in conversation with TV writer and producer Bruce Ferber, to discuss and sign Hot Pants in Hollywood, a show biz memoir and much more. Silver was one of the first female TV comedy writers, with credits like Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart Show, Maude, etc.
Where: Diesel Bookstore, Brentwood
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: http://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/susan-silver-discusses-and-signs-hot-pants-hollywood
David Clawson at Chevalier’s Bookstore
Join us to hear David Clawson debut his coming-of-age YA novel My Fairy Godmother is a Drag Queen. Two closeted gay teens and their almost star-crossed romance are just the central two of the vividly drawn characters in this funny and insightful new take on the Cinderella story.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
P&W Connecting Cultures Reading at Beyond Baroque
Please join us for a Poets & Writers seventh annual Los Angeles Connecting Cultures Reading to celebrate the diversity of our readings and workshops in the SoCal Literary community.
Co-curating this event are the following P&W-supported organizations:
826LA, Readers: Nadia Villegas and Ashia Chavez Razzano.
Beyond Baroque, Readers: Taoli-Ambika Talwar and Jessica Ceballos-Campbell.
Bittersweet: The Immigrant Stories, Readers: Jun C. Ki, Moon Hee Kim, So Hyun Chang.
The Boyle Heights Conservatory, Readers: TBA
Urban Possibilities, Readers: Norma L. Eaton and Keith Brown.
Refreshments will be served. Suggested donations, but no one turned away for lack of funds.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/372331723164429/?active_tab=about
Los Angeles Literature 