The 42nd Annual Writers Week Conference at UC Riverside
Join us for the second week and first full-day of events of the annual Writers Week at UCR, the longest-running, free literary event in California, featuring renowned authors of the day alongside those at the start of promising careers. Tom Lutz is Writers Week director.
All events are free and open to the public, and parking is free (permits available at the Kiosk).
11 am: Aimee Bender is the author of five books of fiction, including The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, and most recently The Color Master. She lives in Los Angeles and teaches at USC.
1 pm: Arthur Sze is the author of ten books of poetry, including the forthcoming Sight Lines from Copper Canyon Press in 2019. He is also a translator and released The Silk Dragon: Translations from the Chinese in 2001. He is professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts and was first poet laureate of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives.
2:30 pm: Yxta Maya Murray is a novelist, art critic, and law professor at Loyola Law School. Her latest, Advise and Consent, will be published this year by LARB Books.
4 pm: Quincy Troupe (Steven Minot Lecturer)
Where: UC Riverside, CHASS Interdisciplinary Building, South-
Screening Room, INTS 1128
Date: Monday the 11th
Time: 11 am – 5 pm
Address: 900 University Ave., Riverside, CA 92521
Website: http://writersweek.ucr.edu/schedule/
Pitzer Literary Series: Myriam Gurba at Pitzer College in Claremont
Myriam Gurba’s most recent book, Mean, a work that is part true-crime, part ghost story, and part personal history, was a finalist for the 2018 Judy Grahn Award as well as a New York Times editors’ choice. Her first book, Dahlia Season, won the 2008 Edmund White Award. Her personal essays have been published in TIME and the Paris Review and she has written art criticism and historical monographs for KCET. She is too superstitious to share what she is currently working on.
Where: Broad Performance Space, Broad Center, Pitzer College
Date: Monday the 11th
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 1050 N. Mills Ave., Claremont, CA 91711
Website: http://www.pitzer.edu/event/pitzer-literary-series-myriam-gurba/
Joan Rosenberg & 90 Seconds to a Life You Love at Book Soup
Join us to welcome Joan Rosenberg, who will discuss and sign, 90 Seconds to a Life You Love: How to Master Your Difficult Feelings to Cultivate Lasting Confidence, Resilience, and Authenticity.
In 30 years as a practicing psychologist, the author has targeted 8 unpleasant feelings that block us from true success, and her she offers a guide to building core emotional strength.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
The 42nd Annual Writers Week Conference at UC Riverside
Join us for the second week and second full-day of events of the annual Writers Week at UCR, the longest-running, free literary event in California, featuring renowned authors of the day alongside those at the start of promising careers. Tom Lutz is Writers Week director.
All events are free and open to the public, and parking is free (permits available at the Kiosk).
1 pm: Trisha Thomas writes contemporary fiction, and her first novel, Nappily Ever After, was finalist for the 32nd NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, among other awards. Universal Pictures optioned her debut novel which resulted in a Netflix Original film starring Sanaa Lathan. She lives in Riverside with her family.
2:30 pm: Siel Ju lives and writes in Los Angeles. Her novel-in-stories, Cake Time, won the Red Hen Press Fiction Manuscript Award in 2017. She is also the author of two chapbooks, and her work has appeared in numerous journals. She holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from USC.
4 pm: Anthonia C. Kalu is a professor in the Departments of Comparative Literature & Foreign Languages and Gender & Sexuality Studies at UC Riverside. She is completing work on an anthology titled Women in Contemporary African Literature, and is co-editor of Reflections: An Anthology of New Works by African Women Poets and Chinua Achebe: A Tribute (1930-2013). She also has published a volume of fiction, Broken Lives and Other Stories.
7 pm: Chris Kraus is the author of four novels, most recently Summer of Hate, and three books of art and cultural criticism, most recently Social Practices. After Kathy Acker, her literary biography of the late writer, was selected as a New York Times Art Book of the Year. The author now holds the Mary Routt Endowed Chair of Writing at Scripps College.
Where: UC Riverside, CHASS Interdisciplinary Building, South-
Screening Room, INTS 1128
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 1 pm – 8 pm
Address: 900 University Ave., Riverside, CA 92521
Website: http://writersweek.ucr.edu/schedule/
Kwame Dawes at Poetry Series at CSU Los Angeles
Join us for the 2019 Jean Burden Poetry Series featuring Kwame Dawes, the author of 20 books of poetry and numerous other books of fiction, criticism and essays. He is Glenna Luschie Editor of Prairie Schooner and traches at the University of Nebraska and the Pacific MFA Program. He is director of the African Poetry Book Fund and artistic director of the Calabash International Literary Festival.
Where: Golden Eagle Ballroom, Cal State LA Student Union
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 5:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 5151 State University Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90032
Website: http://www.calstatela.edu/event/2019-jean-burden-poetry-series-featuring-kwame-dawes
Poetry Open Mic at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Please join us for our monthly Poetry Open Mic, hosted by poet and author Wyatt Underwood. Come and share your work or enjoy listening to the work of others.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, Community Room
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/243361113276965/
Wally Rudolph Event at Annenberg Beach House
Join us to hear Writer-in-Residence Wally Rudolph in his second of three public conversations, Creating art in Times of Strife, with artist Neha Chocksi. They will discuss how the current state of socio-political polarization and environmental crisis affect and inform each artist’s respective process and practice.
NOTE: This is a ticketed event so see website to reserve your space.
Where: Annenberg Community Beach House
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 415 Pacific Coast Hwy., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/323405435182490/
Elizabeth Letts & Finding Dorothy at Vroman’s Bookstore
Join us to hear author Elizabeth Letts discuss and sign her book, Finding Dorothy, the result of the author’s journey into the amazing lives of Frank and Maud Baum. Written as fiction but based closely on the truth, this book tells a story of love, loss, inspiration, and perseverance, set in America’s heartland.
Set in Hollywood in 1938, it tells a story of the making of The Wizard of Oz, nineteen years after Frank Baum’s passing, when his elderly widow recognizes the yearning in the singing of Judy Garland that defined her own life story.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/elizabeth-letts-discusses-and-signs-finding-dorothy
Esme Weijun & The Collected Schizophrenias at Skylight Bookstore
Join us to hear Esme Weijun, in conversation with Karolina Waclawiak, discuss her essay collection, The Collected Schizophrenias.
This book details the author’s journey toward her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder and provides insight into a condition long misunderstood. These essays range from exploring the depths of a rare form of psychosis to how she uses fashion to present as high-functioning; from the failures of the higher education system to the medical community’s own disagreement about labels and procedures for diagnosing mental illness.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Reema Zaman & I Am Yours at the Last Bookstore
Join us to welcome Reema Zaman who will present her book, I Am Yours, on her To Speak Is A Revolution Tour.
This story is a lyrical, politically incisive critique of the wounds our world has inflicted on a woman’s body, an immigrant body, a brown body. It is about her fight to protect and free her voice from those who sought to silence her. To speak is a revolution.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
un::fade::able Reading Series for Sandra Bland at Art Share- LA
Please join us for un::fade::able, a reading series honoring the legacy of Sandra Bland, hosted by F. Douglas Brown. This ongoing series is an effort to keep Sandra Bland’s voice and legacy alive through education, music and poetry, all revolving around the topics of: the safety of black lives, the criminal justice system, and police brutality. Since 2016 the series and workshops have been curated by F. Douglas Brown, Rocio Carlos, and BA Williams, with assistance from a team of educators, community organizers, poets and musicians.
Where: Art Share-LA
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm
Address: 801 E. 4th Place, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/255900858669745/
Redondo Poets Open Mic at Coffee Cartel
Please join us for Redondo Poets, to welcome our featured poet, Amber, and participate in our weekly Open Mic.
Where: Coffee Cartel
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 1820 S. Catalina Ave., Redondo Beach, CA 90277
Website: http://www.facebook.com/RedondoPoets
The 42nd Annual Writers Week Conference at UC Riverside
Join us for the second week and third full-day of events of the annual Writers Week at UCR, the longest-running, free literary event in California, featuring renowned authors of the day alongside those at the start of promising careers. Tom Lutz is Writers Week director.
All events are free and open to the public, and parking is free (permits available at the Kiosk).
11 am: Katie Ford is the author of Deposition, Colosseum, Blood Lyrics and If You Have to Go (2018), all published by Graywolf. Her poems have been widely published, in many journals as well as in The Norton Introduction to Literature. She is Professor of Creative Writing at UCR.
1 pm: Evolve Benton is the assistant director to both the Multicultural and LGBT Resource Centers at UC San Francisco, and identifies as a black, queer, boi (born absolutely incredible). In 2018 Evolve published a debut poetry collection, SIR: poetry dedicated to boyhood & blackqueer love.
4 pm: Michael Nava is the author of an acclaimed series of eight novels featuring gay, Latino criminal defense attorney Henry Rios and the historical novel The City of Palaces, set in Mexico at the beginning of the 1910 Mexican revolution. His 2016 novel, Lay Your Slepeping Head, was adapted for the Henry Rios Mysteries Podcast of 18 episodes, and his new Rios novel, Carved in Bone, will be published in 2019 by Persigo Press, his fledgling publishing company. He practiced law for 35 years, and divides his time between San Francisco and Palm Springs.
Where: UC Riverside, CHASS Interdisciplinary Building, South-
Screening Room, INTS 1128
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 11:30 am – 5 pm
Address: 900 University Ave., Riverside, CA 92521
Website: http://writersweek.ucr.edu/schedule/
Roxane Gay & Amanda Nguyen at USC’s Doheny Library
Join us to hear a conversation between acclaimed author Roxane Gay (Hunger: A Memoir of My Body) and Amanda Nguyen, activist working to enact “Survivors Bill of Rights” through the organization she founded, Rise.
USC cinematic arts professor Tara McPherson will join these visionary thinkers for a conversation about power, survival, and the many different ways we can work to create a world free of violence.
NOTE: This is a ticketed event so check website for details.
Where:
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 3551 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Website: http://visionsandvoices.usc.edu/events/listing.php?event_id=1299775
Jill Ward & The Feminine Revolution at Pages Bookstore
Join us to hear local author Jill Ward (Intuitive Being) in a lively discussion with the co-authors of The Feminine Revolution, Amy Stanton & Catherine Connors.
Each chapter starts with a story about the authors’ experiences in confronting a feminine quality or trait traditionally perceived as weak and then digs into the history and contemporary assumptions before re-framing the quality or trait in question. They provide tools and ideas for how to integrate the feminine quality in your life, and tap into your superpowers for a happier, more authentic life.
NOTE: This is a ticketed event so check website for costs and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Tosh Berman, with Lisa See, at Book Soup
Join us to hear Tosh Berman, in conversation with Lisa See, discuss his memoir, Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman’s World. T
This is a memoir of growing up as the son of an enigmatic, much-admired, hermetic, and ruthlessly bohemian artist during the waning years of the Beat Generation and the heyday of hippie counterculture. Wallace Berman was known as “the father of assemblage art,” and was creator of the legendary mail-art publication Semina.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Melissa Broder at Otis Visiting Writers Series
Join us to hear Melissa Broder, fiction writer, essayist, and poet, discuss her work. She the author of the novel, The Pisces, the essay collection, So Sad Today, and several poetry collections, including, Last Sext, Scarecrone, and When You Say one Thing but Mean Your Mother. She is the winner of a Pushcart Prize for poetry.
Where: Otis College of Art and Design, The Forum, Goldsmith Campus
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 9045 Lincoln Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: http://www.otis.edu/mfa-writing/visiting-writers-series
Sally Wen Mao & Oculus at Skylight Bookstore
Please join us to hear author Sally Wen Mao, with Muriel Leung, present and discuss her collection of poetry Ocullus. In this book the author explores exile not just as a matter of distance and displacement, but as a migration through time and a reckoning with technology. These powerful poems confront the paradoxes of seeing and being seen, and the many roles and representations women of color are made to endure in order to survive a culture that seeks to consume them.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: http://www.skylightbooks.com/event/sally-wen-mao-reads-her-new-collection-poetry-oculus-muriel-leung
Armine Iknadossian at the Ugly Mug
Join us to hear Armine Iknadossian, author of the collection, All That Wasted Fruit, read and perform her work.
$3 cash cover charge
Where: The Ugly Mug
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/604606096653704/
The 42nd Annual Writers Week Conference at UC Riverside
Join us for the second week and fourth full-day of events of the annual Writers Week at UCR, the longest-running, free literary event in California, featuring renowned authors of the day alongside those at the start of promising careers. Tom Lutz is Writers Week director.
All events are free and open to the public, and parking is free (permits available at the Kiosk).
11 am: Sara Borjas is a Xicana pocha and a Fresno poet. Her debut collection of poetry, Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff , is forthcoming from Noemi Press in 2019. She co-hosts and produces the Lovesick Poetry Podcast, launched in 2019 with poet Joseph Rios.
12:30 pm: Angel Garcia is the author of Teeth Never Sleep, winner of the 2018 CantoMundo Poetry Prize. Currently a doctoral student I English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, he earned his MFA from UCR, and his work has been published in numerous journals. He is also the cofounder of Gente Organizada, a grassroots non-profit.
2 pm: Alex Espinoza is the author of Still Water Saints, and The Five Acts of Diego Leon, both published by Random House. His latest book, Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pasttime, is forthcoming in June 2019. He has written for the New York Times Sunday Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Virginia Quarterly Review, LARB, and for NPR’s All Things Considered.
3:30 pm: Isabel Quintero is a writer who lives and writes in the Inland Empire. She is the author of Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, a YA novel that received several awards, and has written a chapter book series for young readers, Ugly Cat and Pablo and an award-winning non-fiction YA graphic biography, Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide (Getty Publications, 2018). She also writes poetry and essays.
Where: UC Riverside, CHASS Interdisciplinary Building, South-
Screening Room, INTS 1128
Date: Thursday the 14th
Time: 11:30 am – 5 pm
Address: 900 University Ave., Riverside, CA 92521
Website: http://writersweek.ucr.edu/schedule/
CTG Literary Tour Event at Stevenson Branch Library, LAPL
You are invited to attend a ply reading and listen to actors bring stories to life. Each reading will be followed by a Spanish/English bilingual discussion, so you can share your thoughts about the play.
This is part of a series of readings, and tonight’s play is The Big Circus (a clown piece), by Raquel Gendry and Mario Flores.
Where: Robert Louis Stevenson Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 14th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 803 Spence St., Los Angeles, CA 90023
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/center-theatre-group-literary-tourlecturas-de-obras-6
The 42nd Annual Writers Week Conference at UC Riverside
Join us for the second week and fifth full-day of events of the annual Writers Week at UCR, the longest-running, free literary event in California, featuring renowned authors of the day alongside those at the start of promising careers. Tom Lutz is Writers Week director.
All events are free and open to the public, and parking is free (permits available at the Kiosk).
11 am: Casandra Lopez is a California Indian and Chicana writer and the author of the poetry collection, Brother Bullit. Her memoir-in-progress, A Few Notes on Grief, was awarded a 2019 James W. Ray Venture Project Award. She’s a founding editor of As/Us and teaches at Northwest Indian College.
12:30 pm: Desiree Zamorano is an award-winning short story writer and the author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Amado Women. He many publications of essays and short stories include the LA Review of Books, Cultural Weekly, Catapult, Huizache and the Kenyon Review.
2 pm: Lucille Lang Day has published ten poetry collections and chapbooks, including Becoming an Ancestor and Dreaming of Sunflowers: Museum Poems. She is co-editor of Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California and Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California, as well as the author of two children’s books and a memoir, Married at Fourteen: A True Story.
Ruth Nolan, professor of English and Creative Writing at College of the Desert, is the author of the poetry book, Ruby Mountain, editor of No Place for a Puritan: The Literature of California’s Deserts, and co-editor of Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California. Her collection, Badwater placed as a finalist in the 2018 Hilary Gravendyk poetry book contest. Her forthcoming book, Fire on the Mojave: Stories from the Deserts and Mountains of Inland Southern California has won several awards. She serves on the advisory board for Poets & Writers West, is co-founder of the Inlandia Institute Writing Workshop Program, and facilitates workshops for other organizations.
3:30 pm: Elise Paschen is an enrolled member of the Osage Nation, and the author of The Nightlife (2017), as well as Bestiary, Infidelities and Houses: Coasts. Her poems have been published in The New Yorker and Poetry Magazine, among others, and in the anthology The Best American Poetry 2018. She is a co-founder of Poetry in Motion, edited anthologies including Poetry Speaks and The Eloquent Poem (forthcoming), and teaches in the MFA Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Where: UC Riverside, CHASS Interdisciplinary Building, South-
Screening Room, INTS 1128
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 11:30 am – 5 pm
Address: 900 University Ave., Riverside, CA 92521
Website: http://writersweek.ucr.edu/schedule/
Mark Arax & The Dreamt Land at Pitzer College
The Sullivan Memorial Lecture will host investigative journalist and author Mark Arax, who will discuss his forthcoming book, The Dreamt Land: Dust and Water Across California. Arax left the Los Angeles Times in 2007 after a public fight over censorship of his story on the Armenian Genocide. He has taught literary nonfiction at Claremont McKenna College and Fresno State University and served as policy director for the California Senate Majority Leader.
Where: Benson Auditorium, Pitzer College
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1050 N. Mills Ave., Claremont, CA 91711
Website: http://www..pitzer.edu/event/lecture-the-dreamt-land-chasing-dust-and-water-across-california/
Jill Santopolo & More Than Words at Book Soup
Please join us to hear author Jill Santopolo, in conversation with Taylor Jenkins Reid, discuss and sign her novel, More Than Words. Nina Gregory has always been a good daughter. When her father, owner of the glamorous Gregory Hotels, dies, her world falls apart and she begins to see the men in her life in a new light. This is a romantic novel about grief, loss, love and self-discovery.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Judges Frederick Weisberg & Michelle Ahnn & Tough Cases at Vroman’s Bookstore
Join us to hear Judges Frederick Weisberg & Michelle Ahnn present and sign their book, Tough Cases: Judges Tell the Stories of Some of the Hardest Decisions They’ve Ever Made.
This is a rare and illuminating view of how judges decide dramatic legal cases, including the Elian Gonzalez, Terri Schiavo, and Scooter Libby cases. They offer insights into the processes behind the decision-making.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Samantha Bounkuea, Kristen Nelson & Wendy C. Ortiz at Poetic Research Bureau
Please join us to hear three authors and writers read and discuss their work:
Samantha Bounkuea is an artist and musician, gone rogue. She is founding member and songwriter of the blues-rock band Half-Broke Town, as well as other Tucson musical projects.
Kristen Nelson is a queer writer and performer, and the author of the length of the gap (Damaged Goods, August 2018) and two chapbooks: sometimes I get lost and is grateful for the noises in the dark (2017) and Write, Dad (2012). Kristen is founder of Casa Libre en la Solana, a non-profit writing center in Tuscon, Arizona, where she has worked as executive director for 14 years.
Wendy C. Ortiz is an essayist, creative nonfiction writer, fiction writer, psychotherapist, and poet. She is the author of three books: Excavation: A Memoir (2014), Hollywood Notebook (2015) and Bruja (2016). These books have all appeared on a number of new books, best books, and other literary lists, and all three are taught around the U.S. in various undergraduate and graduate creative writing programs.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Address: 951 Chung King Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: http://poeticresearchbureau.com
Keith Scribner, with Ivy Pochoda at Skylight Bookstore
Please join us to hear Keith Scribner, in conversation with Ivy Pochoda (Wonder Valley) present and discuss his new novel, Old Newgate Road. This is the story of a father’s return to his childhood home, the site of unspeakable tragedy, and the complex and often warring obligations we have to our family, our friends, and to our past.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: http://www.skylightbooks.com/event/keith-scribner-reads-his-new-novel-old-newgate-road-ivy-pochoda
Grateful Conversations Event at Beyond Baroque
Join us for the portrait of a group of female poets from California, who come together each month to hone their craft and share their verse. With guests: Millicent Borges Accardi, Madeleine S. Butcher, Georgia Jones Davis, Lois P. Jones, Susan Rogers, Kathi Stafford, Sonya Sabanac, Ambika Talwar and Maja Trochimczyk.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html
Friday Night Poetry & Open Mic Event at Book Show LA
Join us for Friday Night Poetry: They’re Just Words, hosted by Ingrid M. Calderon-Collins, and featuring poets TBA and an Open Mic.
Where: Book Show LA
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 5503 Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: http://bookshowla.com/event/friday-night-poetry-theyre-just-words-6/
Matriarch Event at Roots and Wings Project
Join us for Matriarch, hosted by the Roots and Wings Project, for a full four-week run, February 15 – March 10, an unorthodox and intersectional theatrical exploration of the roles women play in a patriarchal society and the urgent need to transform the dynamic, while bringing you a night that will empower , provoke and uplift your spirit.
Written by: Jesse Bliss, Sigrid Gilmer, Tamar Halpern, Diane Rodriguez, Roger Q. Mason, Patricia Zamorano.
Performed by: Lauren Ballesteros, Jesse Bliss, Jamal Douglas, Ramy El-Etreby, Hillaria Lariva, Rose Portillo, Tamika Simpkins.
Vocalists, poets and dancers: Ebony Anne Blaze, Sheila Govindarajan, Laura Davila, Nicole Mae Vizconde Martin.
NOTE: Tickets are $20 at Eventbrite link. See link for show times and details.
Where: Roots and Wings Project
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 2009 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/2197437173856678/
Janet Fitch, with Sophia Shalmiyen, at Stories Books & Cafe
Come join us to hear authors Janet Fitch and Sophia Shalmiyev, read and discuss their work.
Janet Fitch is the bestselling author and literary icon of White Oleander, translated into 24 languages, and Paint It Black, both of which were made into feature films, and most recently The Revolution of Marina M.
Sophia Shalmiyen emigrated from Leningrad in 1990, and lives and writes in Portland, OR. The highly anticipated book Mother Winter is her first book.
Where: Stories Books & Cafe
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/525587267962981/
Chinese New Year Storytime at Children’s Book World – Kids Event
Celebrate Chinese New Year with Michelle Wong McSweeny, author of My First Mandarin Words with Gordon and Li Li! (for ages 2-6). You will learn some Mandarin words and do a fun art project. When two cousins, who live in New York and in Beijing, finally meet for the first time they must learn to communicate using simple, everyday words, and this colorful, sturdy book allows readers to follow along and practice their pronunciation,
Where: Children’s Book World
Date: Saturday the 9th
Time: 10:30 am
Address: 10580 ½ W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064
Website: http://www.childrensbookworld.com/author-events/
Megan Griswold & The Book of Help at Book Soup
Join us to hear author Megan Griswold present her book, The Book of Help: A Memoir in Remedies. This book traces one woman’s life-long quest for love, connection, and peace of mind, and it is a tragically funny memoir-in-remedies. as she spends four decades traveling six continents in search of personal growth.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Saturday the 16th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/megan-griswold-discusses-and-signs-book-help-memoir-remedies
Dan Parks & Mercy Not Sacrifice at Gatsby’s Bookstore
Please join us to hear author Dan Parks present and sign Mercy Not Sacrifice, a literary work written with the working class essence of John Steinbeck and the tension reminiscent of the work of Gillian Flynn. Set in a small mid-western riverside town, a man battles with addiction, depression, and self-harm. He is at the brink of suicide, when the answer he’s needed all along becomes known to him.
Where: Gatsby’s Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 16th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 5535 E. Spring St., Long Beach, CA 91104
Website: http://gatsbybooks.com/events-3/#/mercy-not-sacrifice-author-dan-parks/
Saturday Afternoon Poetry Reading & Open Mic at Santa Catalina Library
Please join us for the Saturday Afternoon Poetry Reading, and Open Mic, hosted by Don Kingfisher Campbell and featuring an Open Reading and guest poets:
Penelope Moffet, Mauro Monteiro & Thomas R. Thomas.
Where: Santa Catalina Library, Pasadena
Date: Saturday the 16th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 999 Washington Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91104
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Audra Lorde Event at Jenny Oropeza Community Center, Cesar E. Chavez Park
In celebration of Black History Month, please join us for the program on the acclaimed poet and writer Audre Lorde: Catalyst for Change. We will show a film by Jennifer Abod, and have poetry, music and refreshments.
NOTE: See Eventbrite link at website to find tickets for this free event.
Where: Jenny Oropeza Community Center, Cesar Chavez Park
Date: Saturday the 16th
Time: 4 pm – 7 pm
Address: 401 Golden Ave., Long Beach, CA 90208
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/2247360718837857/
Sophia Shalmiyev & Mother Winter at Skylight Bookstore
Join us to hear Sophia Sahlmiyev present her memoir, Mother Winter, with Sara Benincasa. This book is a haunting and personal story of fleeing the Soviet Union, where the author was forced to abandon her mother, and her subsequent years of searching for surrogate mothers—whether in books, art, lovers, or other lost souls.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 16th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Final 2019 UCR Annual Writers Week Event & Ayesha H. Attah at View Park Windsor Hills Location
Join us for the final event of the annual Writers Week at UCR, the longest-running, free literary event in California. Our final event of the year is An Evening with Ayesha H. Attah, hosted by the Los Angeles Review of Books.
NOTE: All events are free and open to the public, but you must confirm and RSVP at website link for admission and details of this free event. The address will be provided with tickets.
Ayesha H. Attah is the author of three novels: Harmattan Rain (nominated for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize), Saturday’s Shadows (shortlisted for the Kwani Manuscript Project in 2013) and The Hundred Wells of Salaga (2018). This event is in celebration of the publication of The Hundred Wells of Salaga, and the author will be in conversation with Nana-Ama Danquah.
Educated at Mount Holyoke College, Columbia University, and NYU, Attah was a 2015 Africa Centre Artists in Residency Award Laureate and Sacatar Fellow, and received the 2016 Miles Morland Foundation Scholarship for non-fiction. She currently lives in Senegal.
Where: View Park Windsor Hills Location, Los Angeles, CA 90043
Date: Saturday the 16th
Time: 7 pm
Address: View Park/Windsor Hills, Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: http://writersweek.ucr.edu/schedule/
V the Anthology Poetry Party at Gatsby’s Bookstore
Please join us for the poetry party and reading for V the Anthology, a powerful anthology that contains poems that primarily explore naming, love, #metoo, wordplay, and nostalgia.
Where: Gatsby’s Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 16th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 5535 E. Spring St., Long Beach, CA 91104
Website: http://gatsbybooks.com/events-3/#/v-the-anthology-poetry-party-sat-feb-16th-7pm/
Queer Poetry Reading at Avenue 50 Studios
Join us to celebrate queer poetry presented in Influx Collectiv’s new Queer Reading Series, featuring:
Kelsey Jones is a former award-winning journalist, now working at Peace Over Violence, dedicated to ending sexual and domestic violence. She is the author of a Zine series titled That Angry Bitch, a producer of That Angry Bitch the short film, and current OutFest film fellow. Her stories are about the intersection of gender, race, class and sexuality.
Bekah Fly is a poet, musician, and multimedia artist. Much of her work is enmeshed in the spiritual/healing journey of auto-immune illness and having lived outside in the Mojave desert for two years.
Sari Rachel is “tornado on the daily, beacon in a crisis, bonafide poet, anti-tape activist, bi fat femme, spoonie.”
Alex Gray is a South American genderfluid performance poet, reflecting experiences as a queer first-generation and neuro-divergent femme. As a stand-up comedian, a spoken word and slam poet, a singer, a folkloric dancer, and emcee, performance and people are two of their passions.
Where: Avenue 50 Studios
Date: Saturday the 16th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 131 N. Avenue 50, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/605390766551402/
Lin Benedek, Alexis Rhone Fancher & Susan Hayden at Beyond Baroque
Join us to hear Lin Nelson Benedek read from her new poetry collection, I Was Going to Be a Cowgirl. She is joined by her guests, extraordinary poet Alexis Rhone Fancher and Susan Hayden of Library Girl.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday the 16th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html
Michelle Wong McSween & My First Mandarin Words at Chevalier’s Bookstore – Kids Event
Celebrate Chinese New Year with Michelle Wong McSween, a mom, fashion designer, author and fourth generation Chinese American whose book provides appropriate Mandarin bedtime reading for those who are looking for children’s books reflecting Chinese language and culture.
Join us to hear author Michelle Wong McSween present her book, My First Mandarin Words with Gordon and Li Li! (for ages 2-6). When two cousins, who live in New York and in Beijing, finally meet for the first time they must learn to communicate using simple, everyday words, and this colorful, sturdy book allows readers to follow along and practice their pronunciation,
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 10 am
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: http://www.chevaliersbooks.com/michelle-wong-mcsween
Dr. Robert Hamilton & 7 Secrets of the Newborn at Flintridge Bookstore
Please join us to meet the pediatrician who became an internet sensation with the “Hamilton Hold” about how to calm a crying baby. Dr. Robert Hamilton presents his book, 7 Secrets of the Newborn, a one-of-a-kind resource to guide you through the earliest times in a new baby’s life and help you to parent with common sense and confidence.
Where: Flintridge Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 1 pm – 3 pm
Address: 1010 Foothill Blvd., La Canada-Flintridge, CA 91110
Website: http://www.flintridgebooks.com/instore-events/2019/2/1/22/7-secrets-of-the-newborn
February Poets Group Meeting at Panera Bread
Please join the Whittier Poetry Group, a membership group that meets monthly to share information about local poetry events. We then share our poems, and give each other helpful feedback. Although members have priority, we often have time to read and critique guests’ poems as we. Please RSVP so we can anticipate attendance.
Where: Panera Bread
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 1 pm – 3 pm
Address: 15620 Whittwood Lane., Whittier, CA 90603
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/677876005943996/
Mei Ling in China City Authors at Huntington Museum – Kids Event
Join us to hear writer Icy Smith and illustrator Gayle Garner Roski discuss their book, Mei Ling in China City, based on a true story set in LA during World War II.
Where: Rothenberg Hall, Huntington Museum
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino, CA 91108
Website: http://www.huntington.org/events/grid/month
Writing Workshop with Ryka Aoki at Beyond Baroque
Join us for The After School: A Writing Workshop with Ryka Aoki, which will be offered on three different dates: February 17, March 17, and April 21, 2019. This is a monthly work space and test platform for writers who are self-identified queers and people of color. Our goal is to subvert or repurpose how literature is made and read, to foster modes of writing that creatively respond to expectations, limitations, and exclusions of literary machinery.
Ryka Aoki is the author of Seasonal Velocities and Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul. She is a professor of English at Santa Monica College.
NOTE: This event is free, but tickets are required and available at Eventbrite link.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/754778831573762/?event_time_id=754778844907094
Dani Shapiro & Inheritance at Diesel Bookstore
Join us to hear author Dani Shapiro, in conversation with actress/author Jamie Lee Curtis, present her book, Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love, which is a memoir about identity, paternity and family secrets. This is a real time exploration of the staggering discovery the author recently made about her father, and her struggle to piece together the hidden story of her own life.
Where: Diesel Bookstore, lower outdoor courtyard
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Robbi Nester & Narrow Bridge at Gatsby’s Bookstore
Please join us to meet poet and author Robbi Nestor, in conversation with Armine Iknadossian (All That Wasted Fruit), present and launch Nester’s book of poetry, Narrow Bridge.
The author is also the author of a chapbook, Balance (White Violet, 2012) and a collection of poems titled A Likely Story (Moon Tide, 2015), and is the editor of two anthologies: The Liberal Media Made Me Do It (2014) and Over the Moon: Birds, Beasts and Trees.
Where: Gatsby’s Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 5535 E. Spring St., Long Beach, CA 91104
Website: http://gatsbybooks.com/events-3/#/poets-robbi-nester-armine-iknadossian/
Moonday Poetry Series with Brendon Constantine & CE Jordan at Flintridge Bookstore
Please join us for our Moonday Poetry Series to hear:
Brendon Constantine is the author most recently of Dementia, My Darling (2016) and Bouncy Bounce (Blue Horse Press, Fall 2018). He has served as a teacher of poetry in local schools and colleges since 1995, has presented his work throughout the U.S. and Europe, and has appeared on NPR”s All Things Considered, KPFK’s Poetry Café, numerous podcasts, and YouTube. He currently teaches creative writing at Windward School.
CE Jordan (to be posted by venue)
Where: Flintridge Bookstore & Coffee House
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 1010 Foothill Blvd., La Canada-Flintridge, CA 91110
Website: http://www.flintridgebooks.com/instore-events/2019/2/17/moonday-poetry-series
Amnesty International Reading Goup & Radio Free Vermont at Vroman’s Bookstore
Please join us for our Amnesty international Reading Group event, when we will discuss Radio Free Vermont, by Bill McKibben.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/amnesty-international-reading-group-4
Los Angeles Literature 