Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/26/20 – 11/01/20
Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
Magical Feminism: An Editorial Discussion via Electric Literature – Zoom Online Event
Halimah Marcus, executive editor of Electric Literature talks to Marie-Helene Bertino (Parakeet, 2 a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas, Safe as Houses) and Elissa Washuta (White Magic, My Body Is a Book of Rules,, Shapes of Native Nonfiction) about coping with trauma and subverting expectations at the intersection of magic and reality. They will discuss how magic works in practice and as a rhetorical device in fiction. Q&A will follow.
Where: Electric Literature – Online Event (see site for further details)
Date: Monday the 26th
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm PST
Address: Electric Literature – Online event
Website: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/acqg3qqk or contact Halimah Marcus, halimah@electricliterature.com
In Conversation: Alicia Garza via California African American Museum – Zoom Online Event
Alicia Garza, one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter, in conversation with attorney and political commentator Bakari Sellers, presents a new paradigm for the next generation of changemakers. Her debut book, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart, is a 21st century organizer’s manifesto that draws on this generation’s particular strengths. Purchase the book via Eso Won Books .
NOTE: Tickets available at Eventbrite link at site.
Where: CAAM & Eso Won Books – Online Event (see site for further details)
Date: Monday the 26th
Time: 5 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: CAAM – Online event
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/366744854506800
Halloween Stories – YouTube Online Event
Join us for Halloween Stories, hosted by The Bakers Show on YouTube.
Where: YouTube – Online Event (see site for further details)
Date: Monday the 26th
Time: 5 pm
Address: YouTube – Online event
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/359908831658246
Virtual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas 2020 – Online Fiction Event
Join the 25th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas, postponed from April 2020, and offered virtually during October and November. A total of 25 literary events will take place from October 18- November 13, and tickets are FREE!
Today’s program features a Science Fiction Panel and a discussion between American Book Award and Man Booker Prize winning author Marlon James (A Brief History of Seven Killings, The Book of Night Women, and John Crow’s Devil), in conversation with award-winning author and UCLA instructor of Black Horror and Afrofuturism Tananarive Due, who will discuss Marlon James’ new book, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, as well as his other works and awards.
Bookseller: Marlon James or Skylight Bookstore
Where: Los Angeles Times – Online events (see details & tickets available at Eventbrite link)
Date: Monday the 26th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online events (see site)
Website; https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-los-angeles-times-festival-of-books-stories-and-ideas-2020-tickets-121490518411 or https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/marlonjames
Vroman’s Live: Local Author Day: Gayle Brandeis, Katherine Coldiron, Jennifer Calkinsvia Vroman’s – Crowdcast Online Event
Join authors Gayle Brandeis, Katherine Coldiron and Jennifer Calkins, who will present and discuss their latest works.
Gayle Brandies will present and discuss her book, Many Restless Concerns, which illuminates the horror of absolute control over others, and shines a beacon on the strength of women sharing their truths one by one, of spirits joining together to topple the seemingly untouchable.
Katherine Coldiron will present and discuss Ceremonials, a twelve part lyrical novella inspired by Florence + the Machine’s 2011 album of the same name. It’s a poem in prose, a keening in words, and a song etched in ink.
Jennifer Calkins will present and discuss Fugitive Assemblage, a lyric noir pieced together from remnant words and the blind turns of Highway 1.This haunted and haunting novel renders sensation through images and evokes grief in a dis/harmony of ghostly voices conjured from women’s diaries of the “westward journey.”
NOTE: Details available at website.
Where: Vroman’s Live – Crowdcast Online Event
Date: Monday the 26th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Crowdcast Live
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/vromans- local-author-day-crowdcast-edition-october
Sherman Oaks Book Club & The Nickle Boys via Sherman Oaks Branch Library. LAPL – Online Event
The Sherman Oaks Book Club will read and discuss the novel, The Nickle Boys, by author Colson Whitehead, which was inspired by stories of abuse at a now closed Florida boys reformatory. New members are welcome.
Email shmno@lapl.org for Zoom meeting invitation.
Where: Sherman Oaks Library, LAPL – Zoom Online (see site)
Date: Monday the 26th
Time: 6:30pm – 7:30 pm
Address: LAPL – Online event
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/virtual-book-club-0
Seth Greenland, with Tom Lutz, & A Kingdom of Tender Colors via Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online Event
Join playwright, screenwriter, and author of five novels, Seth Greenland, in conversation with author and publisher Tom Lutz, to hear him discuss his new book, A Kingdom of Tender Colors, the story of how the author found himself, at the age of 37, in everyone’s nightmare—a diagnosis of an aggressive form of lymphatic cancer.
The story is a book about the funny side of cancer. There are no pat answers or inspirational revelations here, just one man confronting hioes and fears recognized to us all—and triumphing.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online event (see site)
Date: Monday the 26th
Time: 7pm – 8 pm
Address: Chevalier’s webinar event
Website: https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/seth-greenland-102620
Monday Night Fiction Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Zoom Online
The free Monday Night Fiction Workshop led by Jessica Dolby focuses on generating creativity and writing fiction, including narrative technique, language, characterization, plot, POV, and the realization of an idea. Bring copies of 2-3 pages of fiction for critique and discussion.
Where: Beyond Baroque online (tickets at Eventbrite)
Date: Monday the 26th
Time: 7:30pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online
Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html
HH@Home: Marie Tozier, Erin Coughlin Hollowell, Mia Heavener, Peggy Shumaker via RHP Fall Book Tour – Online Event
Red Hen Press will host the RHP Virtual Fall Book Tour series, a virtual reading and conversation series, celebrating the releases of the RHP Fall 2020 season. Check site for details.
This event will feature Boreal Editor Peggy Shumaker, and Boreal authors Marie Tozier, Mia Heavener, and Erin Hollowell. All books are available for 30% off.
Marie Tozier is an Inupiaq poet whose work has been published in Yellow Medicine Review and Cirque, and she focused on identity in poetry during her MFA studies at University of Alaska, Anchorage. She is the author of the book Open the Dark, and exquisite collection representing a generational tapestry woven with the shared ebb and flow of land and sea and time. She lives in Anchorage with her husband, seven children, and tree huskies.
Erin Coughlin Hollowell is a poet and writer, and an adjunct professor at the University of Alaska. Prior to landing in Alaska she lived on both coasts, pursuing many professions, form tapestry weaving to arts administration, and earned her MFA from Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University in 2009. She is the author of the collection EVERY ATOM, poems which wrestle with the way her mother’s loss of memory changes the narrative between them.
Mia Heavener is of Norwegian, Polish, and Yup’ik heritage. After graduating from MIT with a degree in civil engineering, she returned home to Alaska to design wastewater systems in Alaskan Native villages. During summers, she commercial fishes with her family. She has an MFA from Colorado State University, and her fiction has appeared in Cortland Review and Willow Springs. She is the author of UNDER NUSHAGAK BLUFF, set in the 1939 Alaska fishing village Nushagak, where she and her mother find outsider John Nelson when their skiff is flattened by his sailboat during a rear storm. Thus begins a generational saga of strong, stubborn Yup’ik women living in a village divided between the new and the old, the bluff side and the missionary side, the cannery side and the subsistence side.
Peggy Shumaker is the daughter of two deserts—the Sonoran desert where she grew up and the subarctic desert of interior Alaska where she lives now. She was a Rasmuson Foundation Distinguished Artist, served as Alaska State Writer Laureate, and is the author of eight books of poetry, including Cairn, her new and selected volume. Her lyrical memoir is Just Breathe Normally. She is professor emerita from University of Alaska Fairbanks, and teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA at PLU, among many other literary pursuits. The Boral series is an imprint of Red Hen Press.
Where: Red Hen Press Facebook – Online event (RSVP at site)
Date: Tuesday the 27th
Time: 4pm – 5 pm
Address: Four Platforms – Facebook Live Online event
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/359078005477622
Awful Good Writers: Poetic Bodies Workshop with Javon Johnson – Zoom Online Event
Javon Johnson will lead a weekly 90-minute writing workshop for four weeks, titled POETIC BODIES, which will use poetry writing, performance, and our personal narratives to explore how we are connected to larger political, historical, social and economic systems. You will receive performance coaching and feedback on your work.
Javon Johnson is an assistant professor in the Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and received hia PhD from Northwestern University in 2010.
NOTE: See site for tickets, costs and further details.
Where: Awful Good Writers – Online Event (see site for further details)
Date: Tuesday the 27th (plus November 3, 10 & 17)
Time: 4 pm – 5:30 pm PDT
Address: Awful Good Writers – Online event
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/3383607795048649
An Evening with Martin Espada – Poet of the Imagination via Revolution Books – Facebook Live Online
Join us for an Evening with acclaimed poet and former lawyer Martin Espada, who has published more than 20 books as a poet, editor, essayist, and translator. His forthcoming book of poems form Norton is called Floaters.
He has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award, and was awarded the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize by the Poetry Foundation. He is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Where: Revolution Books – Facebook online (see site)
Date: Tuesday the 27th
Time: 4 pm PDT
Address: Facebook – Online
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/360442151773337
Vroman’s Live: Elin Hilderbrand & Troubles in Paradise via Vroman’s – Crowdcast Online Event
Join author Elin Hilderbrand, in conversation with author Amanda Eyre Ward, to discuss her new novel, Troubles in Paradise.
This novel is the story of Irene Steele, who has uprooted her life and her sons in the U.S. and just settled in at the villa on St. John where her husband Ross had been living a double life, From the FBI she learns that the helicopter crash that killed him may not have been an accident. Many surprises are in store, as they forge a new beginning in the paradise that has become their home.
NOTE: Details available at website.
Where: Vroman’s Live – Crowdcast Online Event
Date: Tuesday the 27th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Crowdcast Live
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/elin-hilderbrand
AULA Literary Uprising: Reading with Jose Hernandez Diaz, Jennifer Bradpiece via Antioch Univerity, LA – Online Event
Join AULA’s Literary Uprising Reading hosted with Two Hawks Quarterly, featuring:
Jennifer Bradpiece, Alum Reader and author of the collection Lullabies for End Times.
Jose Hernandez Diaz, MFA Alum Reader andauthor of the poetry chapbook, The Fire Eaters.
They will be joined by Parveen Parmar, from Jim Krusoe’s SMC Advanced Fiction Class and Damien Belliveau, from UCLA Extension’s program and Pen America Emerging Voices.
NOTE: Details and link available at website.
Where: Antioch University, LA – Online Event
Date: Tuesday the 27th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: AULA – Live online event
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1643679252458718
Expressions Poetry Readings & Open Mic via Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – Zoom Online
Expressions LA Poetry Reading Series and Open Mic will meet online. Please email Emily at eaaronson@lapl.org for instructions on how to join the program.
Where: LAPL online (see site)
Date: Tuesday the 27th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Zoom Online
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-night
Virtual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas 2020 – Online Audible Panel Event
Join the 25th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas, postponed from April 2020, and offered virtually during October and November. A total of 25 literary events will take place from October 18- November 13, and tickets are FREE!
Today’s program features an Audible Panel in which Andre Aciman, Gayle Forman, Greer Hendricks, Sara Pekkanen will discuss writing fiction for audio, and with listeners in mind. Audible editor Katie O’Connor will guide the discussion.
Andre Aciman is an American memoirist, essayist, novelist, and scholar. He is the author of the bestselling Call Me by Your Name, and his latest collection of essays comes out in January 2021. His Audible Original, Mariana, will release next spring. He is Director of The Writers Institute and teaches Comparative Literature at CUNY.
Gayle Forman is creator of the audible Original The End of My Heart, and has written several novels for young adults, including the Just One Series.
Greer Hendricks is the co-author of The Wife Between Us, An Anonymous Girl, and You Are Not Alone. She spent two decades as dba editor at Simon & Schuster, and has writtenr for many magazines and publications.
Sara Pekkanen is the author of eight solo novels and the co-author of The Wife Between Us, An Anonymous Girl, and You Are Not Alone. A former investigative journalist and feature writer, she has published work in many newspapers and magazines.
Katie O’Connor is a Director of Editorial at Audible, and is a current MFA candidate at Farleigh Dickenson University.
Where: Los Angeles Times – Online events (see details & tickets available at Eventbrite link)
Date: Tuesday the 27th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online events (see site)
LiveTalks LA: Ryan Holiday, with Rich Roll, & Lives of the Stoics – Online Event
Join author Ryan Holiday, in conversation with athlete and author Rich Roll, to discuss his book, Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius.
Ryan Holiday is one of the world’s foremost thinkers and writers on ancient philosophy and its place in everyday life. His latest book. Lives of the Stoics, is co-authored with Stephen Hanselman, and explains that the stoic philosophers, and its embrace of self-mastery, virtue, and indifference to that which we cannot control, is as urgent today as it was during the chaos of the Roman Empire. The ideas of self-rule, and that character is fate, and how to learn to accept and love the hand we are dealt in life, are some of its many sources of inspiration.
NOTE: Details available at website.
Where: LiveTalks LA – Online Event
Date: Tuesday the 27th
Time: 6 pm PST
Address: LiveTalks – YouTube and Facebook Live
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/ryanholiday/
Non-Fiction Book Club & Vesper Flights via Pages Online Event
The Non-Fiction Book Club, facilitated by Mark Polak, meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month, and the following month’s selection is conducted via email in advance. The selection for this meeting is Vesper Flights, by Helen Macdonald.
NOTE: Check website for details.
Where: Pages Bookstore – Zoom Online event (see site)
Date: Tuesday the 27th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Pages Bookstore – Online Event
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/non-fiction-book-club-virtual-meeting-4
Gothic Book Club with John Palisano & Rosewater – Online Event
The Gothic Book Club, led by John Palisano, explores many genre and art forms, from horror to architecture, and the selection for this meeting is It Will Just Be Us, byJo Kaplan. In this book, dreams of a faceless boy haunt Sam when she returns to the family manor, at the edge of a swamp.
NOTE: All bookstore events are ticketed, so check website for details.
Where: The Last Bookstore – Zoom Online event (see site)
Date: Tuesday the 27th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: The Last Bookstore – Online Event
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events
Celebrate Roald Dahl Stories in 2020 via Penguin Online Kids Event
Join us to celebrate the world’s favorite books by Roald Dahl, with activities perfect for Halloween.
NOTE: Check website for details.
Where: Penguin Young Readers et al– Online event (see site)
Date: Wednesday the 28th
Time: 4 am – 7 am
Address: Penguin Young Readers – Online Event
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/380051259845888
Two Truths and a Lie Discussion via Electric Literature – Online Event
Eavesdrop on your dream writing group meeting with a classic drinking (or not drinking)game. Memoirists and essayists are masters at spinning everyday lives into literary gold,, but can they make stuff up? Join host Jess Zimmerman, and Electric Lit contributors and pals Angela Chen (Ace, Society, and the Meaning of Sex), Lilly Dancyger (Burn It Down), Deena ElGenaiddi, Jenna Kadlec, and Nina St. Pierre, who bring their talents to this discussion.
Where: Electric Literature – Online Event (see site for further details)
Date: Wednesday the 28th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm PST
Address: Electric Literature – Online event
Website: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/9xs3teqq or contact Jess Zimmerman, jess@electricliterature.com
Rachel Kauder Nalebuff & Agnes Borinsky: A Benefit Writing Workshop via Skylight Books – Online Event
Join authors Rachel Kauder Nalebuff & Agnes Borinsky to hear them read from their recent works and facilitate several short story and dialogue-based exercises designed to clarify the present and usher in subtle changes.
Rachel is the author of Stages (Thick Press, 2020), a hybrid collection of writing and interviews with end-of-life care workers. She is editor of My Little Red Book (2009), an anthology of people’s first period stories, and is co-editor of The Feminist Utopia Project (2015) a collection of essays and art that imagine feminist futures.
Agnes is a Los Angeles -based writer and bookseller at Skylight Books. She has written many plays, and her YA novel, Sasha Masha, comes out this fall.
NOTE: Details and ticket information available at website.
Where: Skylight Books – Online event
Date: Wednesday the 28th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Zoom online event
Jason Horton, with Rebecca Leib, & Abandoned & Historic Los Angeles: Neon and Beyond at Book Soup – Crowdcast Online Event
Join author Jaosn Horton, in conversation with Rebecca Leib, to hear them discuss his book, Abandoned & Historic Los Angeles: Neon and Beyond.
Somewhere between the Hollywood sign and the Pacific Ocean, there they are. They’re the landmarks, buildings, storefronts, and vintage signs that are part of what make Los Angeles and its surroundings so iconic.—each a lesson in LA’s past.
NOTE: Details and ticket information available at website.
Where: Book Soup – Crowdcast Online Event
Date: Wednesday the 28th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Crowdcast Live
Reid Forgrave & Love, Zac via Pages Bookstore – Online Event
Author Reid Forgrave will present and discuss his book, Love, Zac, a powerfully moving true story.
In December 2015 Zac Easter, a twenty-four-year-old from small town Iowa, decided to take his own life rather than continue his losing battle against the traumatic brain injuries he sustained as a no-holds-barred high school football player. The author was given access to Zac’ diaries, his family, friends and coaches, and he also interviewed brain scientists, psychologists, and sports historians to truly understand this story. He shows how football mirrors America, from its fighting spirit to the side effects of manhood that it affirms. This is ultimately a heart-wrenching and inspiring story.
NOTE: Check website for details.
Where: Pages Bookstore – Zoom Online event (see site)
Date: Wednesday the 28th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Pages Bookstore – Online Event
Vroman’s Live: Lynell George, with Dana Johnson, & A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky via Vroman’s – Crowdcast Online Event
Join author Lynell George, in conversation with author Dana Johnson, to discuss her new book, A Handful of Earth, a Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler.
This book offers a blueprint for a creative life from the perspective of award-winning science fiction writer and “MacArthur Genius” Octavia E. Butler, a collection of ideas about how to look, listen, breathe—how to be in the world. It’s about creating a life with what you have. her unique process of self-making, and it draws the reader into Butler’s’ world, creating a sense of unmatched intimacy with the deeply private writer, There is a great resurgence of interest in her work, trying to make sense of contemporary chaos, to bring clarity or calm. This book offers a visual album of a creative life—a map others can follow or take inspiration from.
NOTE: Details event link available at website.
Where: Vroman’s Live – Crowdcast Online Event
Date: Wednesday the 28th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Crowdcast Live
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/vromans-live-lynell-george-with-dana-johnson
Virtual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas 2020 – Online Fiction Event
Join the 25th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas, postponed from April 2020, and offered virtually during October and November. A total of 25 literary events will take place from October 18- November 13, and tickets are FREE!
Today’s program features a Fiction Panel titled All You Need Is Love. Moderated by author Jade Chang (The Wangs vs the World, 2016), the panel also includes:
Heather Cocks is a producer and writer, and is co-author of a sequel to the book, The Royal We.
Kevin Kwan is the author of the satirical novels, Crazy Rich Asians, its sequel China Rich Girlfriend, and Rich People Problems. His latest book is titled Sex and Vanity.
Jessica Morgan is the co-author of The Royal We, and is also known for her writing and reality TV projects, and the documentary series The Residents.
Where: Los Angeles Times – Online events (see details & tickets available at Eventbrite link)
Date: Wednesday the 28th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online events (see site)
Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop via Beyond Baroque – Zoom Online
Join Beyond Baroque’s longest running free poetry workshop via Zoom online as we welcome new and seasoned poets to share their work and provide feedback. Facilitators are rotated quarterly, and the current facilitator is James Maverick.
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: Online event (Eventbrite)
Date: Wednesday the 28th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html
Susan Orlean, In Conversation with Madeleine Brand, via Friends of Claremont Library & Scripps College – Online Event
Susan Orlean is a consummate storyteller. from The Orchid Thief to Rin Tin Tin, to her most recent book, The Library Book, a riveting investigation of the mysterious 1986 fire that nearly consumed the Los Angeles Central Library, and an impassioned reflection on the future of libraries in America.
Madeleine Brand is host of KCRW’s Press Play.
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: Online event (Eventbrite)
Date: Thursday the 29th (Rescheduled from March 2020)
Time: 5 pm – 5:45 pm
Address: Online event
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/2689479677975610
Jacqueline Suskin & Every Day Is a Poem via Creating Conversations – Online Event
Jacqueline Suskin will discuss her work, Every Day Is a Poem, and how poetry is not a magical cure-all to make adversity vanish, but how it helps us to understand challenging emotions, navigate confusion, and see beauty in every moment, including how it has helped her during this time. She will guide us toward our own writing through her questions, writing practices, and mindset exercises.
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: Online event (Eventbrite)
Date: Thursday the 29th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online event
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/389052052116540
Virtual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas 2020 – Online Future of LA Event
Join the 25th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas, postponed from April 2020, and offered virtually during October and November. A total of 25 literary events will take place from October 18- November 13, and tickets are FREE!
Today’s program features a USC Panel on The Future of L.A., titled Roots to Routes: Immigration and Race in Los Angeles, with author and Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, and USC Professor of History at USC, William Deverell moderating, and featuring:
Juan de Lara is an Assistant Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity at USC, and is currently working on a book titled Landscapes of Desire: Global Goods, Subprime Spaces, and Racial Politics in Inland Southern California.
Gail Kennard serves as vice president of the City of Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission, and is part of the Mayor’s Civic Memory effort. She is also head of Kennard Design Group.
Christopher Hawthorne is the Chief Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles, a position appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetti. From 2004-2018 he was architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times.
Dr. Robeson Taj Frazier is a writer and professor of communication in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC and Director of IDEA. He is the author of The East Is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination (2014), and co-author of the forthcoming book, Kaos Theory: Media Arts and the Afrokosmic Villages of Ben Caldwell.
Sarah Gualtieri is the author of Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Syrian American Diaspora (2009) and Arab Routes: Pathways to Syrian California (2019). She teaches at USC.
Manuel Pastor is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at USC where he is the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change. His research focuses on the conditions facing low-income urban communities.
Where: Los Angeles Times – Online events (see details & tickets available at Eventbrite link)
Date: Thursday the 29th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online events (see site)
Ilan Stavans, with Frederick Luis Aldama, & Popol Vuh via Diesel Bookstore – Online Event
Join us for an evening with author Ilan Stavans, in conversation with author and Ohio State University Distinguished Professor Frederick Luis Aldama, to discuss his book, Popel Vuh: A Retelling.
The archetypical creation story of Latin America, the Popol Vuh began as a Maya oral tradition millennia ago, and was written down in verse by members of the K’iiche’ nobility in what is today Guatemala. In 1701, that text was translated into Spanish by a Dominican friar and ethnographer before vanishing mysteriously.
This book is a one-of-a-kind rendition of this sacred text that is as seminal as the Bible and the Qur’an, the Ramayana and the Odyssey. Award-winning scholar of Latin American literature Ilan Stavans brings fresh energy to the Popol Vuh, giving readers an opportunity to connect with this timeless story and the plight of the indigenous people of the Americas.
Where: Diesel Bookstore – Zoom Online ticketed event (RSVP at site)
Date: Thursday the 29th
Time: 6:30pm – 8 PM
Address: Diesel Bookstore – Online event
Dr, Brennan Spiegel & VRX: How Virtual Therapeutics Will Revolutionize Medicine via Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online Event
Join author Dr. Brennan Spiegel, in conversation with Tom Norris, to hear them discuss his new book, VRX: How Virtual Therapeutics Will Revolutionize Medicine.
In this book a leading doctor unveils the groundbreaking potential of virtual medicine, which convinces your body tha tits somewhere of something it isn’t. It’s affordable, widely available, and has already proved effective against burn injuries, stroke, PTSD, and many other conditions.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online event (see site)
Date: Thursday the 29th
Time: 7pm – 8 pm
Address: Chevalier’s – Online event
Website: https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/brennan-spiegel
Megan Rosenbloom, with Caitlin Doughty, & Dark Archives via Skylight Books – Online Event
Join author Megan Rosenbloom, in conversation with Caitlin Doughty, to discuss her new book, Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin.
Would you know and recognize a volume bound in human skin? This book contains the historic and scientific truths behind anthropodermic bibliopegy—the practice of binding books in this most intimate covering, i.e. human skin, and examines their origins and the people involved in this disquieting collection.
NOTE: Details and ticket information available at website.
Where: Skylight Books – Online event
Date: Thursday the 29th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: Online event
Story Time Live with a Gallery Interpreter via Natural History Museum of L.A. County – Facebook Online Kids Event
Please enjoy a family event from the L.A. County Natural History, which hosts a Gallery Interpreter reading event for the little ones, to share a story in a live reading of favorite books, every Friday morning!
This is a Facebook online event.
NOTE: See website link for details.
Where: Online event (see site)
Date: Friday the 30th
Time: 11 am – 11:30 am
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/977481202718787
Doodlebugs Creepy Crawly Animal Show via Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library – Online Event
Meet some of nature’s most misunderstood and fascinating creepy creatures during this virtual program presented by Doodlebugs Animal Adventures!
Registration is required for this presentation and attendance will be limited.
Register: https://bit.ly/3dyA6id.
NOTE: See website link for details.
Where: Bruggemeyer Library – Online event (see site)
Date: Friday the 30th
Time: 3:30 pm – 4 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://www.facebook.com/events/337698027451871/
Ask an Author with Chris Colfer via LAPL – Online Kids Event
Join us as we talk with New York Times bestselling author Chris Colfer about his latest book, A Tale of Witchcraft.
The author has receives numerous awards for his work, and his books include: Struck by Lightning, The Carson Phillips Journal, The Land of Stories, and his bestseller A Tale of Magic. This event will be streaming live on the library’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.
NOTE: See website link for details.
Where: Online kids event (see site)
Date: Friday the 23rd
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/halloweek-ask-author-chris-colfer
Virtual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas 2020 – Online Memoir Panel Event
Join the 25th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas, postponed from April 2020, and offered virtually during October and November. A total of 25 literary events will take place from October 18- November 13, and tickets are FREE!
Today’s program is a Memoir Panel on Immgartion, and it features a discussion between award-winning author Laila Lalami, NPR’s Latino USA anchor Maria Hinojosa, and moderator and LA Times’ Column One editor Steve Padilla.
Panelists will discuss and explore immigration and what it means to be an American, subjects both authors examine in their recently released memoirs.
Laila Lalami was born in Rabat and educated in Moracco, Great Britain, and the United States. She is the author of four novels, including The Moor’s Account, which won the American Book Award, and was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Fiction, and The Other Americans, which also won numerous prizes. Her newest book is titled Conditional Citizens. She is a tenured professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, and lives in Los Angeles.
Maria Hinojosa, author of the memoir Once I Was You, has a nearly thirty year career as a journalist, including anchoring and executive producing the Peabody award-winning show Latino USA, distributed by NPR. In 2010 she founded Futuro Media, with the mission of producing multimedia content from a POC perspective. She has long worked in and documented the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad. She lives with her family in Harlem in New York City.
Steve Padilla is the editor of Column One, the Times’ front-page showcase for storytelling. A Times staffer for 33 years, he has edited a wide variety of topics, including politics, international news, higher education and religion. He also serves as a writing coach and tweets about writing technique.
Bookseller: Small World Bookstore (limited number of bookplates available)
Where: Los Angeles Times – Online events (see details & tickets available at Eventbrite link)
Date: Friday the 30th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: Online events (see site)
Skylight Live: Claire Cronin & Blue Light of the Screen via Skylight Books – Crowdcast Online Event
Join author Clair Cronin, in conversation with writer Colin Dickey, to hear her discuss her new book, Blue Light of the Screen
This is a creative, personal and critical memoir of the author’s obsession with the horror genre, and embeds its criticism of horror within a larger personal story about what it means to be afraid — about immersion, superstition, delusion, and the things that keep us up at night. It’s part memoir and part ghost story, and part critical theory.
NOTE: Details event link available at website.
Where: Skylight Live – Crowdcast Online Event
Date: Friday the 30th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Crowdcast Live
Alan Passman & When the Pain Starts via Moon Tide Press – Online Event
Join author Alan Passman for an All Hallow’s Eve Livestream book launch of his book, When the Pain Starts: Poetry as Sequential Art, which is a poetry collection crafted into a graphic novel, to bring his words into another dimension.
This book tackles relatable topics, and all things existential. It will make you laugh and cry and believe in the value of preventative medicine.
NOTE: Details event link available at website.
Where: Moon Tide Press – Instagram and FaceBook Live Online Event
Date: Friday the 30th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/3406414322758316
Jon Weiner & Conspiracy in the Streets via Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online Event
Join author Jon Weiner, in conversation with John Powers, to hear them discuss his new book, Conspiracy in the Streets: The Extraordinary Trial of the Chicago Seven.
This book is reprinted to coincide with the new Aaron Sorkin film, and provides the political background of this infamous trial, narrating the utter craziness of the courtroom and revealing the humorous antics and the serious politics involved.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online event (see site)
Date: Friday the 30th
Time: 7pm – 8 pm
Address: Chevalier’s – Online event
Website: https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/jon-weiner-john-powers
Get Lit Saturday Class via Get Lit – Words Ignite – Online Teen Event
Join Get Lit Saturday Class, a weekly poetry workshop that is free and open to all teens!
Learn writing techniques, performance training, and confidence-building every Saturday morning, from 9 am to 1 pm via Zoom.
NOTE: See website for online link and further details.
Where: Get Lit – Words Ignite – Online event (see details at website link)
Date: Saturday the 31st
Time: 10 am – 1 pm
Address: Online event (see website)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/670785633798185/
Creative Writing Workshop via LAwritersgroup.com – Online Event
Get words on the page and meet other writers in this online creative writing workshop.
NOTE: See website for online link and further details. Tickets are available via Eventbrite.
Where: Online event (see details at website link)
Date: Saturday the 31st
Time: 10 am – 12:30 pm
Address: Online event (see website)
Website: https://facebook.com/events/1129862607389180/
Book Club for Middle School Readers via Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – Online Kids Event
Join our Book Club for Middle Grade Readers when we read and discuss the book Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt. It asks the question: what if you could live forever? Is eternal life a blessing or a curse? Winnie Foster learns of a spring on her family’s property whose waters grant immortality. But then she must decide whether or not to keep the Tuck’s’ secret–and whether to join them on their never-ending journey.
NOTE: See website for further details and to RSVP.
Where: Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – Zoom online
Date: Saturday the 31st
Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 am
Address: Online event (see website)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/2830834180487444
Conchas y Café Zine, Vol. 6 Issue 1 Virtual Release Party & Relaiming the Space via DSTL Arts Online Event
Join DSTL Arts for the virtual Release Party of Conchas y Café Zine, Volume 6, Issue 1, titled Reclaiming the Space.
NOTE: Site for further details.
Where: DSTL Arts Block Zine – Online Event (see site)
Date: Saturday the 31st
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: DSTL Arts Online
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/429840701337378
Skylight Live: Halloween-Themed Choose Your Own Adventure Event with C. E. Simson & Katherine Factor via Skylight Books – Crowdcast Online YA Event
Join YA authors C E Simpson, author of Eighth Grade Witch, and Katherine Factor, author of two Choose Your Own Adventure books, one on Mata Hari and one on Harry Houdini.
This will be a very special Halloween themed reading by two authors from the Choose Your Own Adventure series.
NOTE: Details event link available at website.
Where: Skylight Live – Crowdcast Online Event
Date: Saturday the 31st
Time: 2 pm
Address: Crowdcast Live
Saturday Afternoon Poetry & Spectrum 25 Poets via Zoom Online
Join Saturday Afternoon Poetry for readings by featured poets from SPECTRUM 25: HOW TO STAY ALIVE.
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Santa Catalina Library, Zoom Online event (see details at website link)
Date: Saturday the 31st
Time: 3 pm– 5 pm
Address: Zoom online
Website; https://www.saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com
“Birthing Out the Writer in You” Writing Workshop – Zoom Online
Join this free class to know what is needed to write your book, and start writing it.
Event hosted by Lady T Gourmet Popcorn.
NOTE: Check website for further details.
Where: Check website to register and get zoom link online
Date: Saturday the 31st
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: See website link for details.
Website: https://www.faceebook.com/events/538958430115353/
November Writing Kickoff at Writers Blok – In-Person Event
Join Writers Blok for a November Writing Kickoff at our dedicated writing space, where you will participate in three sessions on the hour, at 9am, 10am, and 11am, to begin the National Writing event activities held each November.
NOTE: Tickets start at $10 and information is available at site.
Where: Writers Blok – In-Person event (Registration required at site)
Date: Sunday the 1st
Time: 9 am – 12 pm
Address: Online event
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/363360634709076
Virtual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas 2020 – Online Children’s Event
Join the 25th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas, postponed from April 2020, and offered virtually during October and November. A total of 25 literary events will take place from October 18- November 13, and tickets are FREE!
Today’s program is a Children’s Reading Event, and it features a reading and conversation with the authors and illustrators, presented by USC. Dr. Sumun L. Pendakur will moderate the event.
Ellison Tai Duong Nguyen, and co-author Viet Thanh Nguyen, will present their kids book Chicken of the Sea. Ellison likes videos, comics and legos, and likes reading superhero books and playing superhero games. His father, Viet Thanh Nguyen, is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and professor at USC.
Thi Bui is the illustrator of the children’s book, Chicken of the Sea.
Bookseller: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Where: Los Angeles Times – Online events (see details & tickets available at Eventbrite link)
Date: Sunday the 1st
Time: 11 am – 11:45 am
Address: Online events (see site)
Virtual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas 2020 – Online YA Fantasy Event
Join the 25th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas, postponed from April 2020, and offered virtually during October and November. A total of 25 literary events will take place from October 18- November 13, and tickets are FREE!
Today’s program is a YA Fantasy Event: Twists and Turns in Worlds Real and Unreal, and it will delve into mystical world-building and writing strong female protagonists, with moderator and young people’s literature reviewer, Sharon Levin. Loyalty and family, warriors overcoming evil ia broken world, and sacrifices made for freedom are just some of the topics to be discussed.
Jordan Ifueko is a Nigerian American author who grew up eating fried plantains while reading comic books under a blanket fort. Her debut novel is Raybearer.
Marie Lu is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling The Legend series, The Young Elites trilogy, Batman: Nightwalker, and the Warcross series. She lives with her illustrator/author husband Promo Gallanosa.
Tehlor Kay Mejia is the author of the critically acclaimed YA fantasy novel We Set the Dark on Fire, as well as the forthcoming sequel, We Unleash the Merciless Storm, and Miss Meteor (co-written with Anna –Marie McLemore). Her middle grade debut, Paola Santiago and the River of Tears, releases from Rick Reardon Presents in 2020.
Bookseller: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Where: Los Angeles Times – Online events (see details & tickets available at Eventbrite link)
Date: Sunday the 1st
Time: 12:30 pm – 1 pm
Address: Online events (see site)
Virtual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas 2020 – Online Children’s Event
Join the 25th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: Stories and Ideas, postponed from April 2020, and offered virtually during October and November. A total of 25 literary events will take place from October 18- November 13, and tickets are FREE!
Today’s program is a Children’s Event and it will feature moderator and LA Times interviewer and film critic Justin Chang, hosting a reading and conversation with actress, activist and debut children’s author Natalie Portman.
Natalie Portman is the author of Natalie Portman’s Fables, a delightful retelling of three classic fables that are imbued with wit and wisdom and certain to win the hearts of little ones.
Bookseller: Once Upon a Time Bookstore (25 book purchasers, chosen at random, will receive a signed bookplate).
Where: Los Angeles Times – Online events (see details & tickets available at Eventbrite link)
Date: Sunday the 1st
Time: 2:30 pm – 3:15 pm
Address: Online events (see site)
Ed Lin Book Launch & David Tung Can’t Have a Girlfriend Until He Gets into an Ivy League College, with Chris Terry via Skylight Books – Online Event
Ed Lin, in conversation with author Chris Terry (Black Card), will present and discuss his new book, David Tung Can’t Have a Girlfriend Until He Gets into an Ivy League College.
The author crafts a playful, wryly observant YA debut which explores coming-of-age in the Asian diaspora which navigating relationships through race, class, and young love. The young nerd hero competes for top grades, works in his family’s restaurant, attends weekend Chinese school, and is caught up in a world of high school love triangles, while fearing he will die alone.
NOTE: Event details and book purchase available at site link.
Where: Skylight Books – Cowdcast Online event (see site)
Date: Sunday the 1st
Time: 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: Skylight Books – Online Event
LiveTalks LA: Christopher Kimball & Milk Street: Cookish: Throw It Together – Online Event
Author, TV host, and cook Christopher Kimball, in conversation with producer Ted Habte-Gabr, present his new book celebrating 10 years of Milk Street, Cookish: Throw It Together.
This event will also include a special virtual cooking demonstration featuring two recipes from the book, and mad ewith just a handful of ingredients.
NOTE: Event is available to register and watch, and book itself may be purchased when you RSVP at site link.
Where: LiveTalks LA – YouTube and Facebook Online event (see site)
Date: Sunday the 1st
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm PST
Address: LiveTalks LA – Online Event
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/kimball/
Ekphrastric with the Classics: a Workshop with Jessica M. Wilson via Beyond Baroque – Zoom Online
This is the 2nd meeting of an Ekphrastic Writing Workshop series led by Jessica M. Wilson which will focus on art history while relaying our investigation through poetry. We will use poetry as a way to tell the tale of some of the best visual art throughout history. It’s art history meets poetry meets YOUR poetic eye!
Jessica M. Wilson is an author and Beat poet, founder of the LA Poets Society, leader of the Sunday Open Reading event series at Beyond Baroque, and writing workshop instructor.
NOTE: Details and costs for this ticketed series of workshops are available at site.
Where: Beyond Baroque online (tickets at Eventbrite)
Date: Sunday the 1st (through Sunday November 29th)
Time: 4 pm –6 pm
Address: Zoom Online
Los Angeles Literature 