Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
Hanukkah Party & Authors KD Casey, Jean Meltzer, Stacy Agdern via The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – Online Event
Please join The Ripped Bodice Hanukkah Party to celebrate love and latkes and to discuss all things Jewish romance with authors: KD Casey, Jean Meltzer, Stacey Agdern, and moderator Felicia Grossman.
KD Casey is a romance novel writer and baseball enthusiast, and the author most recently of her debut novel, Unwritten Rules, a sensitive coming-out story set in the world of baseball, and the forthcoming One True Outcome, about a veteran player and the rookie who hero-worshiped him growing up.
Jean Meltzer is the author of The Matzah Ball, the story of a nice Jewish girl who hides the shameful secret she hides from her family, that she loves Christmas and has a career as a Christmas romance novelist.
Stacey Agdern is the author of Miracles & Menorahs, a friendship and festivals novel with a hockey reference.
Felicia Grossman is the author of historical romance novels, featuring Jewish protagonists and lots of food references. She is the author of Appetites & Vices and Dalliances & Devotion of The Truitts series.
NOTE: See site for book purchase & event details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice – Online Event
Date: Monday the 6th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Local Author Day: Robert Smith, Marshall Smith & Owen Smith & Journaling Memories via Vroman’s – Online Event
Please join Local Authors Day to hear Robert Smith, Marshall Smith & Owen Smith discuss their book Journaling Memories.
This book is a self-help workbook process intended to encourage seniors and others to chronical the most relevant, experiences, thoughts, and feelings of their lives. It guides users in recalling and journaling significant aspects of their life by organizing life milestones and stimulating thought through over 350 questions, in order to protect this information for future generations.
NOTE: See site for book purchase, tickets & event details.
Where: Vroman’s – Online Event
Date: Monday the 6th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online (see site)
Monday Night Fiction Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Zoom Online
This free Monday Night Fiction Workshop led by Raquel Baker is a community writing workshop in which participants are asked to bring copies of 2-3 pages of fiction to read, and to use for critique and discussion. Registration is required.
Raquel Baker earned a PhD in English Literary Studies from the University of Iowa and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. She is currently Assistant Professor of Postcolonial Studies and Transnational Literatures at CSU Channel Islands. She also has published poetry and non-fiction, and done readings with the Ventura Poetry Project.
Where: Beyond Baroque – Online event (tickets at Eventbrite)
Date: Monday the 6th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online
Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html
Jean Pierre Isbouts & The Ultimate Visual History of the World at Central Library, LAPL – Zoom Online
History comes to life in this visually stunning book by Jean Pierre Isbouts. The Ultimate History of the World contains beautiful maps, art and photographs which illustrate the history of civilization from the earliest times to the present day, illustrating the arc of human history.
Join author Jean-Pierre Isbouts in a conversation about his remarkable new book.
Jean-Pierre Isbouts is a scholar of humanities and history and a professor at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. He has published widely on the origins of human civilization. An award-winning filmmaker, Dr. Isbouts has also produced TV programs including The Search for the Last Supper (PBS, 2019). Born in the Netherlands, he lives in Santa Monica, California.
Where: Central Library, LAPL – Online event (see site)
Date: Tuesday the 7th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: LAPL Online (see site)
Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Vol. 7 via The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – Online Event
Please join The Ripped Bodice Bookstore to celebrate the anthology, Best Women’s Erotica of the Year Volume 7 Launch Event with authors: Adrianna Herrera, Lucy Eden, Corrina Lawson, Angelina M. Lopez, Holley Trent & Erin McLellan and moderator Rachel Kramer Bussel.
Adrianna Herrera is a romance novel writer, and the author most recently of the novels, One Week to Claim It All and Just for the Holidays, of The Dreamer Series, as well as other standalones and anthologies.
Lucy Eden is the author of Gingerbread Kisses and Pre-Teen Wealth, among other titles.
Corrina Lawson is the author of Rise of the Firestarter. Dark Inferno and six books in the Phoenix Institute series.
Angelina Lopez is the author of sexy stories about strong women and confident men, and the author of the “Filthy Rich” series.
Holley Trent is the award-winning author of Watcher and Wish Out of Water, and writes contemporary, paranormal and fantasy novels.
Erin McLellan writes complex and goodhearted characters and is the author of the novels Perfect Match and Stocking Stuffers.
Rachel Kramer Bussel is the author of personal essays and culture journalism, including Curvey Girls Book, Begging for It and He’s On Top
NOTE: See site for book purchase & event details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice – Online Event
Date: Tuesday the 7th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Van Hoang, with Katie Zhao, & Girl Giant and the Jade War via Vroman’s – Online MG Kids Event
Author Van Hoang, in conversation with Katie Zhao, will present and discuss her MIddle Grade fantasy book, Girl Giant and the Jade War, the sequel to Girl Giant and the Monkey King.
In this story Thom and her friends set off on a far flung adventure to save the Heavens and the Jade Emperor form certain destruction. Thom thought the Monkey King was her friend, but he was just using her to steal from the Heavens and release him from his 500 year prison. Now the Monkey King is waging war, and she must do everything in her owe rot fix the mess she made.
NOTE: See site for RSVP & event details.
Where: Vroman’s – Online Event
Date: Tuesday the 7th
Time: 5 pm- 6 pm
Address: Online (see site)
David Alan Sklansky & A Pattern of Violence via Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online Event
In the book, A Pattern of Violence, author David Alan Sklansky, a law professor and former prosecutor, reveals how inconsistent ideas about violence are enshrined in law and at the root of the problems that plague our entire criminal justice system, from mass incarceration to police brutality.
Pattern of Violence shows that novel legal philosophies of violence have bloated incarceration, blunted efforts to hold police accountable, constrained responses to sexual assault and domestic abuse, pushed juvenile offenders into adult prisons, limited responses to mass shootings, and hindered steps toward justice.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, & event details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Tuesday the 7th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online (see site)
Website: https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/decemeber-7-david-sklansky
Tuesdays at the Virtual Cobalt: Poets Series Presents: Open Reading & Karla Cordero – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest poet Karla Cordero.
Karla Cordero is a poet, artivist and educator, and a descendent of the Chichimeca people from Northern Mexico, raised in Calexico. She is a Professor of Creative Writing and English at MIra Costa and San Diego City Colleges. She is the author of How to Pull Apart the Earth and Grasshoppers Before Gods.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 7th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
Danny Trejo Book Signing at Book Monster Old & New Bookstore – On-site Event
Book Monster in Santa Monica will present a book signing by author and actor Danny Trejo of both his cook book and new autobiography.
Danny Trejo is a Mexican American actor, and former construction worker and convict, and the author of two books.
Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood, is the autobiography of Trejo’s life, co-written by Trejo and Donal Logue. It reflects the inspirational true story of his journey through addiction and loss, with a Hollywood ending. Trejo the actor who has been killed at least a hundred times in his notorious career.
Trejo’s Tacos: Recipes & Stories From L.A. is the Mexican cookbook written by Danny Trejo and Hugh Garvey, which was his first book.
NOTE: Details at event link.
Where: Book Monster – On-site Event
Date: Wednesday the 8th
Time: 1 pm – 3 pm
Address: 212 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/445144410380802
Jenny Holiday, with Andie J. Christopher, & Duke, Actually! via The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – Online Event
Please join The Ripped Bodice Bookstore to celebrate the release of Jenny Holiday’s book, Duke, Actually! She will be in conversation with Andie J Christopher. This book follows another contemporary romance by the author, A Princess for Christmas, and is a Princess for Christmas #2 novel. When the Duke of Aquilla is under his father’s pressure to marry a suitable bride before he inherits a title, he finds himself attracted to a no-nonsense professor who wants to avoid him at all costs.
Andie J. Christopher is a romance novel writer, and the author most recently of the novels, Before Daylight, Not That Kind of Guy, and Not the Girl You Marry.
NOTE: See site for book purchases & event details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice – Online Event
Date: Wednesday the 8th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Tom Bissell, with Owen King, & Creative Types: And Other Stories via Book Soup Bookstore – Online Event
Tom Bissell, in conversation with Owen King, will present his new book of stories. Creative Types: And Other Stories.
In Creative Types the author vividly renders the complex worlds of characters on the brink of artistic and personal crises– writers, video game developers, actors, and other creative types who see things slightly differently from the rest of us. These surreal, poignant, and sometimes squirm-inducing stories, come from one of our more versatile and talented American writers today.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, and event details.
Where: Book Soup – Online Event
Date: Wednesday the 8th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online (see site)
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/tom-bissell
Writing Workshop with Matt Sedillo via Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-person Event
Join us for a writing workshop, hosted by Chicano Political Poet, Matt Sedillo.
Matt Sedillo is an El Sereno native, a political activist, speaker, and writer, and author of the poetry collection, Mowing Leaves of Grass (Flowersong Press, 2019).
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-person event
Date: Wednesday the 8th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 2014 ½ E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 900333
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Dormant Rose Poetry Writing Workshop at North Hollywood Regional Library, LAPL – Zoom Online
Dormant Rose Poetry Writing Workshop meets monthly. To receive the access link, please email nohlwd@lapl.org at least one day before the meeting.
We study a different poet each month via Zoom. Write poetry based on that poet’s style.
Where: North Hollywood Amelia Earhart Regional Library, LAPL – Online event (see site)
Date: Wednesday the 8th
Time: 6 pm – 7:45 pm
Address: LAPL Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/dormant-rose-poetry-writing-workshop-0
OPEN MIC: Grito de Boyle Heights with Sammy Quetzalli via Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-person Event
Join us every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month for an OPEN MIC hosted by poet and activist Sammy Quetzalli.
Sign-ups at 6:45 pm, and start time is 7 pm. Donations accepted at the door, but no one will be turned away due to lack of funds.
Come early at 6 pm for a writers workshop guided by Chicano political poet Matt Sedillo, author of Mowing Leaves of Grass (donations accepted).
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: 2014 ½ E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 900333
Date: Wednesday the 8th
Time: 6:45 pm – 9:15 pm
Address: 2014 ½ E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 900333
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Anansi Virtual Writers Workshop via The World Stage – In-Person Event
Join this weekly community workshop founded in 1990, and following a three-part format, by joining in via Zoom every Wednesday night at 7:30 pm.
We return to the building after a 15-month, Covid-19 imposed exile, where the faithful met weekly via Zoom online. We are currently working on the process to continue to include our online community each session. WELCOME HOME!
In its 30th year, the Anansi Writers Workshop is a workshop and open mic performance featuring L.A.’s freshest, most inspiring voices speaking their truth in poetry and prose.
Suggested: $5.00 Donation via PayPal: The World Stage Gallery.
NOTE: See site for further details, and any change in the schedule. Contact kaliflowers@gmial.com or call (323) 293-2451
Where: The World Stage (Eventbrite)
Date: Wednesday the 8th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Dengan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.theworldstage.org/events.html or https://www.facebook.com/events/2956323627961146/
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 Joseph Rios.
Joseph Rios is the author of Shadowboxing: Poems and Impersonations (Omnidawn), winner of the American Book Award, and was named one of the notable debut poets by Poets & Writers Magazine for 2017. He is currently attending the low residency MFA program at Bennington College.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets and information.
Where: Online event (Eventbrite)
Date: Wednesday the 8th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at The Ugly Mug – In-person Event
Join Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Nights.
See site for details and/or to verify.
$4 cover fee, cash only. Masks are required unless eating or drinking.
NOTE: See site for further details, guidelines & information.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange – In-person event
Date: Wednesday the 8th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Two-Idiots-Peddling-Poetry/ (Check to verify)
Sharon M. Draper & Out of My Heart Virtual School Talk via Children’s Book World – Online MG & YA Event
Sharon M. Draper is the award-winning MG & YA author of Out of My Heat, the long awaited sequel to her novel, Out of My Mind. She is also the author of Blended, Stella by Starlight, and Clubhouse Mysteries among others.
Out of My Mind is the story of Melody, who refuses to be defined by her cerebral palsy and is determined to let her classmates know she is not mentally challenged, even though she can’t tell them otherwise. Out of My Heart tells the story of how Melody faces her fears to follow her passion, and her dream to go to summer camp.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase & event details.
Where: Children’s Book World – Online Event
Date: Thursday the 9th
Time: 10:30 am – 11:15 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Freda Payne, with Mark Bego, & Band of Gold via Book Soup Bookstore – Online Event
Join us online when Freda Payne, in conversation with co-author Mark Bego, will present and discuss her memoir Band of Gold, titled after her 1970 #1 hit song and part of her 1971 Grammy nominated album, Contact.
The author’s story is an exciting adventure, and a celebration of a glamorous life well-lived.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, and event details.
Where: Book Soup – Online Event
Date: Thursday the 9th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online (see site)
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/freda-payne
Ann Patchett, with Steve Lopez, & These Precious Days via LA TIMES Book Club & Pages Bookstore – Online Event
Please join LA TIMES Book Club to hear bestselling author Ann Patchett, in conversation with LA Times columnist Steve Lopez, to discuss her latest collection of essays and reflections on home, family, and friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection.
At it’s center is the title essay in the book, These Precious Days, which first appeared in Harper’s magazine: a meditation on the unexpected friendship that developed with the actor Tom Hanks’ assistant, Sooki Raphael, who the author met during the release of Hanks’ book, and with whom she formed a profound bond, prior to and during her illness and their overlapping joint isolation during the pandemic.
Ann Patchett is the author if eight novels. She was born in Los Angeles, and now lives in Nashville and co-owns Parnassus Books.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase & event details.
Where: LA TIMES & Pages Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Thursday the 9th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/ann-patchett-la-times-book-club
Amanda Gorman, with Elizabeth Alexander, & Call Us What We Carry via The Skirball Cultural Center – Online Livestream Event
Please join the Skirball Cultural Center online to hear bestselling author, poet, and activist Amanda Gorman, in conversation with former decorated poet and scholar Elizabeth Alexander, to discuss her latest collection, Call Us What We Carry.
In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman captures a shipwrecked moment in time and transforms it into a lyric of hope and healing. This luminous poetry collection explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, these poems shine a light on a moment of reckoning and reveal that Gorman has become our messenger from the past, and a major voice for the future.
Amanda Gorman captivated the nation at the January 29, 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden, and became the youngest inaugural poet in US history, after she became the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate, After graduating cum laude from Harvard University, she now lives in her hometown of Los Angeles. In 2017, Amanda Gorman was appointed the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate by Urban Word—a program that supports Youth Poets Laureate in more than sixty cities, regions, and states nationally. Gorman’s special edition of her inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb,” was published in March 2021 and debuted at #1 on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestsellers lists.
Elizabeth Alexander is a decorated poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, and cultural advocate Dr. Elizabeth Alexander is president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in arts, culture, and humanities in higher education, and has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Columbia University, and Yale University, where she taught for fifteen years and chaired the African American Studies Department. She is Chancellor Emeritus of the Academy of American Poets, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, serves on the Pulitzer Prize Board, and co-designed the Art for Justice Fund. Notably, Alexander composed and delivered “Praise Song for the Day” for the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama and is author or co-author of fourteen books. Her book of poems, American Sublime, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2006, and her memoir, The Light of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 2015. Her next book, The Trayvon Generation, is forthcoming in April 2022.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase & event details.
Where: Skirball Cultural Center – Online Event
Date: Thursday the 9th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.skirball.org/programs/words-and-ideas/amanda-gorman-call-us-what-we-carry
Kiley Roach & Chloe Gong: Killer Content & Our Violent Ends via Vroman’s – Online YA Event
Join us online to hear authors Kiley Roach & Chloe Gong present and discuss their books, Killer Content and Our Violent Ends, respectively.
Kiley Roach’s Killer Content is about six teens who make up the Lit Lair, making videos about their perfect lives, who make it to a beachfront mansion only to have one of the teens turn up dead in the infinity pool. They are all potential suspects.
Chloe Gong’s Our Violent Ends is set in in 1927 Shanghai, which teeters on the edge of revolution, and Roma and Juliette must set aside their romantic differences and blood feud to combat new monstrous dangers emerging in the cit.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and event details.
Where: Vroman’s – Online Event
Date: Thursday the 9th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online (see site)
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Kiley-Roache-Chloe-Gong-present-Killer-Content-Our-Violent-Ends
Claudia Rankine & Will Rawls Present: What Remains via RED CAT/CalArts Theatre – In-Person Event
RED CAT is pleased to present “What Remains,” a collaboration between world-renowned poet and MacArthur Fellow Claudia Rankin and choreographer and Guggenheim Fellow Will Rawls.
Through movement and voice, four performers invite us across the threshold of a historical void produced by anti-Blackness and respond to violence and disappearance with a resonant, ghostly chorus. Inspired by Rankine’s texts on racial violence: Citizen (2014) and Don’t Let Me Be Lonely (2004), the result is a performance at the edge of dance and poetry that meets and challenges the erasure of Black citizens with its own immersive disturbance.
NOTE: See site for tickets and event details.
Where: RED CAT – Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theatre – Online FB Event
Date: Friday the 9th – Saturday the 11th
Time: 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Address: RED CAT Downtown Theatre, 631 W, 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/903915203549075 or https://www.redcat.org/event/claudia-rankine-and-will-rawls-what-remains?fbclid=IwAR2b7OeZ46-tVMLfS7fL6wDlpQQFeIy9F4pz4fT98BEia4TfLdcS1z63isQ
Your Author Series: Lyn Risling & A Is For Acorn: A California indian ABC via LAPL – Online Kids Event
Your Author Series celebrates American Heritage Month when it presents aritst Lyn Risling to present her children’s book A Is For Acorn: A California Indian ABC, a recipient of the 2004 Community Spirt Award from the First Peoples Fund and her first show at the Carl Gorman Museum Gallery at UC Davis in 2005.
The author left her full-time teaching position at Humboldt State University to dedicate her time to her art, culture, and family.
NOTE: See site for link and event details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL – Online FB Event
Date: Friday the 10th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-lyn-risling
Jam Daley & Home for Christmas Autograph & Listening Party at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Jan Daley present and autograph her new album, Home for Christmas.
The author is a highly prolific artist in the Jazz world.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, and event details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Friday the 10th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/december-10-jan-daley
LA Poet Society Presents: Unstoppable Writers of 2020 via Tia Chucha’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Celebrate Unstoppable Writers of 2020 who are also published BIPOC authors who will present their work and be in conversation with us at Tia Chucha’s new location. There will be an OPEN MIC for the PEOPLE + cake!
Thelma Reyna is an award-winning author, editor and writing consultant, owner and publisher of Golden Foothills Press, editor of the ground-breaking anthology, When the Virus Came Calling: Covid-19 Strikes America (2020) and author of Dearest Papa (2020). Dr. Reyna’s fiction, poetry and non-fiction have appeared widely in publications and the media for 25+ years, and she has curated readings and events, taught and presented at many schools and universities.
Juan Cardenas is a musician, poet, LAPS coordinator, and the author of The Beat of an Immigrant Chicano, winner of an honorable mention by the International Latino Book Awards in 2020. This book is a collection of poetry and prose about crossing the U.S. border at the as a young child, and the author’s experiences as a newly undocumented person in the U.S.
Lisbeth Coiman is a bilingual writer, educator, cultural commentator, and rezandera from Venezuela. She is the author of two books, I Asked the Blue Heron: A Memoir, 2017, and Uprising / Alzamiento, a bilingual collection from Finishing Line Press, (2021).
Jessica Villegas is a multidisciplinary artist based in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas. She received her BFA at The University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley with a minor in Mexican American Studies. She has dedicated the last few years of her artistic career to cultivating a new historical narrative, one which is inclusive of the Latinx/Chicanx community. Focusing on border culture, politics and social issues. She attributes the uniqueness of her pieces to the ideas and expressions of the many Latinx poets, artists, activists and philosophers who have created beautifully transparent and representative narratives of the Southmost Borderlands. She won the 2020 NCECA Juried Student Exhibition of her work, during the pandemic.
NOTE: See website for further details.
Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Date: Friday the 10th
Time: 6 pm – 9 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://www.tiachucha.org/ or https://www.lapoetsociety.org/
Creative Writing Workshop via LAwritersgroup.com – Online Zoom 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. Limited to 8 participants.
Where: Online event (see details at website link)
Date: Saturday the 11th
Time: 10 am – 12:30 pm
Address: Online event (see website)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1256929641349142/
Conney William: Reading, Open Mic & Mini-Workshop Writing Workshop via Altadena Poet Laureate – Online Event
Please join us for a poetic morning with featured artist and author Conney Williams, plus an Open Mic and a mini- Holiday poetry workshop led by poet Khadija Andserson.
Conney Williams is the author most recently of the collection The Distance of Observation, from World Stage Press (2021).
NOTE: See website for online link and further details.
Where: Online event (see details at website link)
Date: Saturday the 11th
Time: 11 am
Address: Online event (see website)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/302107105117908/
A Special Storytime: Brady Smith & Louie Bear in the Land of Anything Goes at Vroman’s – Online Kids Event
Author Brady Smith will present his children’s book Louis Bear in the Land of Anything Goes, a story about a strange world filled with wild creatures, absurd chicken-boy hybrids, and a giant, winged, kid-eating monster called a Cacapoop.
NOTE: See website for further details & guidelines.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday the 11th
Time: 11 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/vromans-live-brady-smith-louie-and-bear-land-anything-goes
Writer’s Workshop with Viva Padilla via Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Event
Join us for an introduction to submitting your writing to journals and magazines. Incudes career advice, and writing feedback. Bring your work and a notebook.
NOTE: See website for registration, donation, and further details.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Event
Date: Saturday the 11th
Time: 1 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: 2014 ½ E. Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Afternoon Poetry: traci kato-kiriyama & Navigating Without Instruments at My Place Café – In-person Event
Author, artist, and activist traci kato-kiriyama will present her newly released poetry collection, Navigating Without Instruments.
The author is an interdisciplinary artist, recognized for co-founding Tuesday NIght Project, presenter of the Tea & Letterwritng series and Tuesday Night Café space in Little Tokyo. Traci’s work has been published in a wide swath of media and print publications, and tkk is principal writer for PULLproject Ensemble, a two-time NET recipient, and NEFA 2021 National Touring Project for the showTALES OF CLAMOR, among other endeavors.
NOTE: See website for further details & guidelines.
Where: My Place Café – In-person
Date: Saturday the 11th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 2057 N. Los Robles, Unit #10, Pasadena CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/271245534970887/
Saturday Afternoon Poetry & Deep Critique Workshop with G.T. Foster – Online Event
Join Saturday Afternoon Poetry for a Deep Critique Poetry Writing Workshop led by G.T. Foster,
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Online at Zoom ID: 759 9367 3202 (no spaces required); P/W: poetry.
Date: Saturday the 11th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Ilana Harkavy& The Just Girl Project of Self Care: Expressing Yourself, Owning Your Struggles, and Pursuing your Dreams at Village Well Books & Coffee – On-site Event
Join us for a free conversation with self-care author Ilana Harkavy to hear her discuss The Just Girl Project and her book of tips: The Just Girl Project of Self-Care: Expressing Yourself, Owning Your Struggles, and Pursuing your Dreams
This book contains The Just Girl project’s tips for living your best life, and tricks for self-love and radial self-acceptance, touching on everything from mental health to body image to relationships. The author started her career as a recording artist and songwriter in L.A, and started The Just Girl Project. Part of each book purchase goes directly back to the Project.
NOTE: See website for further details.
Where: Village Well Bookstore, Culver City – On-site Event
Date: Sunday the 11th
Time: 5:30 pm – 7 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/15246
Ruth Hanson & The Railwalkers Live Reading at Sideshow Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join Sideshow Books for a live reading by indie author and entertainer Ruth Hanson of her independent book, The Railwalkers. She will be reading and performing Chapter 3 of her most recent book, and she invites you to come out and support a local business and an indie author during your Christmas shopping.
The Railwalkers is set in 1887 America, a country healing rom the Civil War, where a group of bandits called the “rainwalkers,” who some believe have been rumored to scare would be criminals, and others see as angels of mercy. Growing up as the sole heiress to a sizable estate, Violet Donovan has resisted pressures to marry a suitable spouse, until she is saved from an attacker by a strange woman. Once she faces a murder charge, she leaves for a life on the run, and crosses paths with the woman who saved her. Soon she comes to know the woman and her comrades.
Where: Sideshow Books
Date: Sunday the 12th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 1639 South La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/406143957851665
WEHO Reads & Carla Sameth: What Is Left Book Launch – Online Event
Join the City of West Hollywood’s WeHo Reads program and City Poet Laureate Brian Sonia Wallace to welcome the launch of Carla Sameth’s new chapbook, What Is Left, published by dancing girl press, featuring the author and readings by guest poets Chen Chen, Jireh Deng, Seema Reza, and Victor Yates.
Carla Sameth’s poetry has the lens of the mother at the heart of her poems–a mother who knows loss profoundly, a queer mother, and mother to a Black son–and offers potent and urgent currents of protection in a shaky world. She is the author of What is Left (dancing girl press, 2021) and memoir One Day on the Gold Line (published 2019, reissue forthcoming by Golden Foothills Press, 2022). Her writing on blended/unblended, queer, multi-racial and single parent families appears in a variety of literary journals and anthologies. Carla’s work has been twice named as Notable Essays of the Year in Best American Essays. A Pasadena Rose Poet, a West Hollywood Pride Poet, and a former PEN Teaching Artist, Carla teaches creative writing to high school and university students, and has taught incarcerated youth. More at more at https://carlasameth.com/
Chen Chen’s second book of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, is forthcoming from BOA Editions in September 2022. His first book, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017), was long-listed for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors. His work appears in many publications, including three editions of The Best American Poetry. He teaches at Brandeis University and also serves on the poetry faculty for the low residency MFA programs at New England College and Stonecoast.
Seema Reza is the author of A Constellation of Half-Lives & When the World Breaks Open. Based in Maryland, she has led writing workshops within correctional facilities, military and civilian hospitals, elementary and secondary schools, and universities. She is the CEO of Community Building Art Works, a unique arts organization that encourages the use of the arts as a tool for narration, self-care and socialization among a military population struggling with emotional and physical injuries. Reza’s work with veterans is featured in the 2018 HBO documentary We Are Not Done Yet. An alumnus of Goddard College and VONA, she has had writing online and in print in McSweeney’s, The LA Review, The Feminist Wire, The Offing, and Entropy among others.
Jireh Deng (she/they) is a queer Asian American poet and journalist born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley. Their work appears in the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, the podcast VS, L.A. Taco, the Human Rights Campaign, TaiwaneseAmerican.org and more. They are a student at CSU Long Beach and the student advisory board representative for the Asian American Journalist Association’s Los Angeles Chapter. In summer 2021 they interned at the L.A. Times and is currently interning at NPR. When they aren’t writing, you can probably find them cooking noodles or fried rice for loved ones.
Victor Yates is a writer, storyteller, and performance artist. His digital Black Lives Matter spoken word performance, Death Sentence, received grants from the city of West Hollywood (2020) and Glendale (2021). He was also awarded a grant from West Hollywood to shoot a documentary recording narratives of older gay men. He was selected for the Fire Island Artist Residency and is the winner of the 2020 George Floyd Honorarium for Poetry from the Los Angeles Press. He won the 2017 Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers and the 2016 Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Debut Fiction for his book, A Love Like Blood.
Brian Sonia-Wallace is the 4th Poet Laureate of the City of West Hollywood and a national 2021 Laureate Fellow for the Academy of American Poets. He has been published in Poets.org, Rattle, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian. Brian has spent the last decade writing poems for over 10,000 strangers based on their stories in a string of unlikely residencies ranging from Amtrak to the Mall of America. These adventures and poems appear in Brian’s memoir, The Poetry of Strangers (Harper Collins, 2020) which the New York Times called, “full of optimism and wide-eyed wonder…he charms us.”
Where: WeHo Reads & City of West Hollywood – Online Event
Date: Sunday the 12th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weho-reads-what-is-left-book-launch-poetry-reading-tickets-203475630087
Los Angeles Literature 