Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
Jami Attenberg, with Patricia Lockwood, & I Came All This Way to Meet You via Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Jami Attenberg, in conversation with Patricia Lockwood (No One Is Talking About This), will present and discuss her new book, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home.
From New York Times bestselling author of urban culture Jami Attenberg (All This Could Be Yours, The Middlesteins) comes a dazzling memoir about unlocking and embracing her creativity—and how it saved her life. Always drawn to a life on the road, and often writing about her travels, the author began to reflect on her youthful experiences—the trauma, challenges, and risks taken. Throughout her journeys she refined her craft and learned to trust her gut and, ultimately, herself.
Exploring themes of friendship, independence, class, and drive, this book is a story of finding one’s way home—emotionally, artistically, and physically—and an examination of art and individuality that will resonate with anyone determined to listen to their creativity.
NOTE: See Site for RSVP, book purchase, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Skylight – Online Crowdcast event (see site)
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-jami-attenberg-conversation-patricia-lockwood
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 24th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online
Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-250137176027
LA Times Book Club: Stephanie Land & Maid via LA Times Event – Online Event
Join author Stephanie Land, in conversation with LA Times reporter Paloma Esquivel, to hear her discuss her book: Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive.
Land had big plans: She’d leave her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to attend a university, then chase her dream to become a writer. But when a summer relationship turned into an unexpected pregnancy, she had to watch her daughter’s first steps in a homeless shelter, and she began cleaning houses so they could survive.
Her story of resilience, recovery and dreams postponed but not ended is now a Netflix series.
NOTE; See site for RSVP, tickets, and event details.
Where: LA Times Book Club – Online event
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 6 pm – 7:15 pm
Address: LA Times – Online (see site)
WeHo Reads 2022: Road to Joy, Songs and Signs of Hope and Healing with Shonda Buchanan, Peter j. Harris, and Imani Tolliver – Online Event
Join us for WeHo Reads 2022: Road to Joy, to hear songs and Signs of Hope and Healing from our guest poets and writers:
Shonda Buchanan will open the event with a song and discuss her memoir Black Indian, which explores her family’s legacy of being African Americans with American Indian roots and how they dealt with not just with society’s ostracization, but also the consequences of this dual inheritance.
Peter j. Harris will discuss The Black Man of Happiness Project’s See You Campaign, which excavates historical photos of Black men “emanating a sense of joy.”
Imani Tolliverwill recount her intersectional and sacred journey as a Black queer woman and share excerpts from her memoir–in-verse, Runaway.
NOTE: See site for free RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: WeHo Reads – Online event
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 6 pm
Address: WeHo Reads – See Site
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1585985585128036/
Swan Huntley, with Maggie Shipstead, & Getting Clean with Stevie Green via Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Join us to hear Swan Huntley, in conversation with Maggie Shipstead, to discuss her new book, Getting Green with Stevie Green.
Swan Huntley, theauthor of We Could Be Beautiful, here presents a feel-good novel about one woman’s messy journey from self-delusion to self-acceptance. Stevie Green is tired of her life as it is, one of binge drinking and sleeping with strange men, so she accepts her mother’s request to help her move to another house. It goes so well that she decides to start her own decluttering business, and starts over by mending her relationship with her sister and others, only to find she can’t seem to outrun her complicated past.
NOTE: See site for book purchase, link, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore – Online event
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 6 pm- 7:30 pm
Address: Skylight Bookstore – Online event (see site)
AAPI Book Club & Minor Feelings via Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Event
Join the AAPI Book Club to read and discuss the book, Minor Feelings, by author Cathy Park Hong, who blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose the truth of racialized consciousness in America. What binds these essays together is Hong’s theory of “minor feelings.”
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore – Online event
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Bel Canto Bookstore – Online event (see site)
Website: https://belcantobooks.net/book-clubs
Tuesdays at the Virtual Cobalt: Poets Series Presents: Open Reading & Generalissimo Bryan Franco – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest poet Generalissimo Bryan Franco.
Generalissimo Bryan Franco is a gay, Jewish, 55-year-old poet and spoken word performer who moved from Alabama to Maine in 2001. He is a slam poetry performer, as well as a painter and gardener.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
Da Poetry Lounge Tuesday Open Mic via Da Poetry Lounge – IG Online
Open Mic Tuesdays at Da Poetry Lounge are back! Catch us live on IG for our first Open Mic of the season and hear updates about the 2022 season.
Where: DA Poetry Lounge – IG Online
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/CYvULkirZCx/
Mystery Book Group Discussion & The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – On-site Event
Join our monthly Mystery Book Group meeting, when we discuss the book, The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton.
This story is an inventive debut in which Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 pm on a certain day. There are eight days and eight witnesses who can only escape captivity after inhabiting the body of a different guest, which leaves readers guessing until the last page. Aiden Bishop must identify her killer and break the cycle in this mystery of unexpected creativity.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore (in the circle in front of Star Café)
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 9 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Classics Book Club Discussion & Candide via Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL – Online via Zoom
Join our monthly Classics Book Club meeting, when we will discuss the novel Candide, by author Voltaire.
This story is a satirical novel published in 1759 that is the best-known work by Voltaire. It is a savage denunciation of metaphysical optimism—as espoused by the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz—that reveals a world of horrors and folly.
NOTE: Please email grnhs@lapl.org for Zoom link.
Where: LAPL – Online (see site for link)
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 1:30 pm – 3 pm
Address: Online events (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/classics-book-club-discussion-candide
Quest Book Club Discussion & Small Things Like These at The Book Jewel Bookstore – On-site Event
Join our monthly Quest Book Club meeting, when we will discuss the novel Small Things Like These, by author Claire Keegan. This Book Club offers journeys for the spirit, in literary fiction or nonfiction.
This story is set in 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/classics-book-club-discussion-candide
Kimberly Jones, with T Murph, & How We Can Win via Book Soup Bookstore – Online Event
Join us to welcome political activist Kimberly Jones, in conversation with T Murph, to discuss her book, How We Can Win: Race, History and Changing the Money Game That’s Rigged.
This book is a breakdown of the economic and social injustices facing Black people and other marginalized citizens inspired by political activist Kimberly Hones’ viral video, “How We Can Win.” Here, the author delves into the impacts of systemic racism and reveals how her formative years in Chicago gave birth to a lifelong devotion to justice. She calls for Reconstruction 2.0, a multilayered plan to reclaim economic and social restitutions—those that were promised with emancipation but blocked, again and again, for more than 150 years. And most of all, Jones delivers strategies for how we can effect change a citizens and allies while nurturing ourselves—the most valuable asset we have—in the fight against a system that is still rigged.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Book Soup – Online
Matt Sedillo & The Three Act Poem Writers Workshop at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-person Event
Please join our Poet-in Residence, author and Chicano political poet Matt Sedillo, to participate in his Writers Workshop: The Three Act Political Poem.
Matt Sedillo is the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass, and is a Chicano political activist and speaker who has performed at colleges and universities nationally and world-wide. This workshop has been taught in many educational venues.
NOTE: See site for guidelines & event details.
Where: Re/Arte centro literario – In-person Event
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Where: 2014 ½ E. Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
OPEN MIC NIGHT with Sammy Quetzalli, at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-person Event
Please join our Open Mic Night hosted by Sammy Quetzalli, offered every 2nd & 4th Wednesday of the month,to participate and read your work.
See site for guidelines and details. Come earlier to also participate in the Matt Sedillo workshop.
NOTE: See site for guidelines & event details.
Where: Re/Arte centro literario – In-person Event
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6:30 pm – 9:15 pm
Where: 2014 ½ E. Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Julia Cameron, with Joel Fotinos, & Seeking Wisdom via Diesel Bookstore – Online Event
Join us to welcome Julia Cameron, famed author of The Artist’s Way, in conversation with Joel Fotinos, to discuss her new book, Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection.
Julia Cameron changed the way the world thinks about creativity when she first published The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity thirty years ago. Over five million copies later, Cameron now turns her attention to creative prayer, which she believes is a key facet of the creative life.
Tracing her own creative journey, she reveals that prayer led her forward at a time of personal crisis. Unexpectedly, prayer became an indispensable support to her artistic life. The tools she created to save herself in her darkest hour became the tools she would share with the world through The Artist’s Way. Seeking Wisdom details the origin of these tools, and by her example, the central role that prayer plays in sustaining a life as an artist.
In this volume, Cameron shares a mindful collection of prayer practices that open our creative souls. This path takes us beyond traditional religious rituals, welcoming readers regardless of their beliefs and backgrounds. Through each week of the program readers will explore prayers of petition, gratitude, creativity, and more. Along the way, the three beloved tools of The Artist’s Way–Morning Pages, Artist Dates, and Walks–are refreshed and reintroduced, to provide a proven, grounded framework for growth and development.
Additionally, Cameron introduces a fourth tool, Writing Out Guidance. She believes this powerful practice will greatly aid aspiring artists. Seeking Wisdom issues an invitation to step further into exciting creative practice.
NOTE: See site for ticketing information and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore, Brentwood
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Diesel Bookstore – Online Ticketed Event (see site)
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/seeking-wisdom
Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop via Beyond Baroque – Zoom nline
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 Pam Ward.
Pam Ward is the author most recently of Between Good Men and No Man at All (World Stage Press, 2022). Author of two novels, Want Some Get Some, and Bad Girls Burn Slow, she is a California Arts Council Fellow, Pushcart nominee, and Art Center instructor/designer. Her poetry has been published in Calyx, Chiron, The Santa Monica Review, Voices of Leimert Park, and The Los Angeles Times. Pam’s writing sings of her beloved city in prismatic color.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets and information.
Where: Online event (Eventbrite)
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wednesday-night-poetry-workshop-tickets-252037941267
Poetry Reading & Open Mic with Conney Williams, 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.
The format is to welcome a featured poet for a reading, and also have an Open Mic reading. Tonight’s featured artist is Conney Williams.
Conney D. Williams is a Los Angeles-based poet, actor, and performance artist originally from Shreveport, Louisiana where he worked as a radio personality. His latest poetry collection entitled The Distance of Observation was released by World Stage Press in August 2021. He is also co-founder of World Stage Press, and is former artistic director at the World Stage Performance Gallery. He has released two CDs and two previous poetry collections, and has been published in numerous journals and anthologies. He is a community activist, curator of cultural events and organizations, and is based in Los Angeles.
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 26th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/261053966124886/
Sofi Thanhuaser & Worn: A People’s History of Clothing via Book Soup – Online Event
Join author, artist and professor, Sofi Thanhuaser, to hear her discuss her book, Worn: A Peoples’ History of Clothing.
In this panoramic social history, the author brilliantly tells five stories— Linen, Cotton, Silk, Synthetics, Wool— about the clothes we wear and where they come from, illuminating our word in unexpected ways. She shows us h ow textiles were once dyed with lichen, shells, bark, saffron, and beetles, displaying distinctive regional weaves and knits, and how the modern Western garment industry has refashioned our attire into the homogenous and disposable uniforms popularized by fashion brands.
The author also makes clear how the clothing industry has become one of the planet’s worst polluters, and how it relies on chronically underpaid and exploited laborers. But she also shows how micro-communities, textile companies, and clothing makers worldwide are rediscovering ancestral and ethical methods for making what we wear.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Book Soup – Online Event
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Book Soup – Online (see site)
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/sofi-thanhuaser-discusses-worn-peoples-history-clothing
Andrew Lipstein, with Halle Butler, & Last Resort via Book Soup – Online Event
Join author Andrew Lipstein, in conversation with Halle Butler, as they discuss his novel, Last Resort.
In this blazing debut novel, the author blurs the lines of fact and fiction with a thrilling story of fame, fortune, and impossible choices.
Caleb Horowitz is twenty-seven, and his wildest dreams are about to come true. His manuscript has caught the attention of the literary agent, who offers him fame, fortune, and a taste of the literary life. He can’t wait for his book to be shopped around to every editor in New York, except one: Avi Dietsch, a college rival and the novel’s “inspiration.” When Avi gets his hands on it, he sees nothing but theft—and opportunity. Caleb is forced to make a Faustian bargain, one that tests his theories of success, ambition, and the limits of art.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore – Online event
Date: Thursday the 277h
Time: 6 pm
Address: Skylight Books – Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-andrew-lipstein-presents-last-resort-halle-butler
Vroman’s Live: Marie Rutkoski, with Leigh Bardugo, & Real Easy – Online Event
Join us live online to hear author Marie Rutkoski, in conversation with Leigh Bardugo, present and discuss her book Real Easy: A Novel.
In this story, it’s 1999 and Samantha has danced for years at the Lovely Lady strip club. She’s not used to mixing work and friendship–after all, between her jealous boyfriend and his young daughter, she has enough on her plate. But the newest dancer is so clueless that Samantha feels compelled to help her learn the hustle and drama of the club: how to sweet-talk the boss, fit in with the other women, and make good money. One night, when the new girl needs a ride home, Samantha agrees to drive: a simple decision that turns deadly.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Vroman’s – Online event
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Vroman’s – See Site
In Pursuit of Prose Poetry Workshop with H.L. Lewis III – Online Event
Led by J.L. Lewis III, this workshop asks: What is the difference between prose and prose poetry? What makes a prose poem? What are the origins of prose poetry? Find out these answers and more at the Pursuit of Prose workshop.
J.L. Lewis III graduated from the University of Houston where his success in track and field led to 2 NCAA national championship titles. He is a quiet soul from the back woods of Willis, TX. Due to his rural upbringing most of his poetry is influenced by nature. Through his poetry and prose he strives to create a sense of relation, motivation and meditation within his audience. He is currently in the process of writing a fiction novel and a collection of poetry.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and event details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry – Online Event
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/events or https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/event-details/in-pursuit-of-prose-poetry-workshop
In Conversation: Patrisse Cullors and Angela Davis via CAAM – Online Event
Join us to hear author and activist Patrisse Cullors in conversation with author and political activist Angela Davis, which will be moderated by LA County Library Director Skye Patrick.
In An Abolitionist’s Handbook, artist, author, and organizer Patrisse Cullors charts a framework for how everyday activists can effectively fight for an abolitionist present and future. Filled with relatable pedagogy on the history of abolition, a reimagining of what reparations look like for Black lives, and real-life anecdotes, An Abolitionist’s Handbook offers a bold and humanistic approach to how to be a modern-day abolitionist.
Join Cullors online as she virtually discusses her latest work with political activist, scholar, and philosopher Angela Davis. This program is moderated by LA County Library Director Skye Patrick.
Presented in partnership with LA County Library as part of their Trailblazers in Conversation series.
NOTE: See site for registration and event details.
Where: California African American Museum (CAAM) – Online Event
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: CAAM – Online (see site)
Website: https://caamuseum.org/programs/talks-and-workshops/in-conversation-patrisse-cullors-and-angela-davis
Nancy Perloff, with Brian Sonia-Wallace, & Concrete Poetry: A 21st Century Anthology at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-person Event
Please join us to hear author Nancy Perloff, in conversation with Brian Sonia-Wallace, present and discuss her new book release, Concrete Poetry: A 21st Century Anthology, which is a radical reinvention of writing.
Perloff’s anthology presents individual poems, reproduced in their original languages, together with lively commentaries that explicate and contextualize the work, allowing readers to discover the intricacy of poems that some have dismissed as simple, even trivial, texts. This substantial new collection redefines what the concrete poetry movement means today.
Nancy Perloff is the curator of Modern & Contemporary Collections at the Getty Research Institute (GRI), Los Angeles. She is the author or editor of many books, including Explodity: Sound, Image, and Word in Russian Futurist Book Art.
Brian Sonia-Wallace is the Poet Laureate of the City of West Hollywood, a 2021 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, and the author of The Poetry of Strangers. Publications include Rolling Stone, The Guardian, LitHub, and poets.org.
NOTE: See site for free tickets, guidelines and event details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/15399
Skylight Books & Writers Bloc: Bernardine Evaristo, with Roxane Gay, & Manifesto: On Never Giving Up – Online Event
Join us online to hear author Bernardine Evaristo, in conversation with author Roxane Gay, present and discuss her book, Manifesto: On Never Giving Up.
From the bestselling and Booker Prize winning author of Girl, Woman, Other, comes Bernadine Evaristo’s memoir of her own life and writing, and her manifesto on “unstoppabilty,” creativity, and activism.
In this memoir the author’s characteristic humor comes through as she describes her childhood as one of eight siblings, with a Nigerian father and white Catholic mother, tells the story of how she helped set up Britain’s first Black women’s theatre company, remembers the queer relationships of her twenties, and recounts her determination to write books that were absent in the literary world around her. She provides a hugely powerful perspective to contemporary conversations around race, class, feminism, sexuality, and aging. She reminds us of how far we have come, and how far we still have to go. In Manifesto, Evaristo charts her theory of showing creative people how they too can visualize and find success in their work, ignoring the naysayers.
Both unconventional memoir and inspirational text, Manifesto is a unique reminder to us all to persist in doing work we believe in, even when we might feel overlooked or discounted. Evaristo shows us how we too can follow in her footsteps, from first vision, to insistent perseverance, to eventual triumph.
Bernardine Evaristo is the 2019 winner of the Booker Prize for Girl, Woman, Other, which was a national bestseller and a winner and finalist for many awards including the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Dublin Literary Award. Evaristo is the author of seven other books that explore aspects of the African diaspora. She received an OBE in 2020, and lives in London with her husband. Her most recent book is Manifesto: On Never Giving Up.
Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects. She also has a newsletter, The Audacity.
NOTE: See site for tickets, link and event details.
Where: Skylight & Writers Bloc – Online event
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 1 pm
Address: Skylight & Writers Bloc (see site)
Your Author Series Lori Snyder & The Circus at the End of the Sea at LAPL – Online Kids Event
Join Your Author series to hear author Lori R.Snyder present and discuss her new middle grade fantasy, The Circus at the End of the Sea, her love letter to Venice, California.
A Los Angeles native and a huge fan of the Los Angeles Public Library, Lori has had many careers in her life —sadly, none of them circus-related—including marine biologist, fourth-grade teacher, dancer, yoga teacher, business owner, book editor, and writer. She is also the founder of the Writers Happiness Movement, which offers free retreats, yoga, salons, micro-grants, and more to writers.
NOTE: See site for links and event details.
Where: LAPL – Online YouTube & FB Event
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 4 pm
Address: LAPL – Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-lori-snyder
Book Club for Middle Grade Readers: A Long Way From Chicago, by Richard Peck via LAPL – Online MG Kids Event
Join us at the LA Public Library virtually for our Book Club for Middle Grade Readers. This month’s selection is Richard Peck’s novel, A Long Way From Chicago.
This Newberry Honor Book and National Book Award Finalist, is a story about Joey and his sister Mary Alice as they spend nine unforgettable summer with the worst influence imaginable – their grandmother!
NOTE: Please email gkim@lapl.org for the Zoom login information.
Where: LAPL – Online YA Event
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 10:30 am
Address: LAPL – Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-middle-grade-readers-long-waychicago-richard-peck
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 – On-site Event
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 1 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: 2014 ½ E. Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Juanita E. Mantz Launch of Tales of an Inland Empire Girl at Garcia Center for the Arts – On-site Event
Join the Inlandia Institute to celebrate the launch of Tales of an Inland Empire Girl, by local author and public defender, Juanita E, Mantz. Join Juanita, with Wonder twin Jacqueline Mantz and Romaine Washington, for readings, conversation, and refreshments as we welcome this amazing mew book into the world.
This book is the searing and beautiful tale that illuminates the struggles of parents and children beaten down by life, arduous jobs, and family battles in an old house still inhabited by ghosts in the Inland Empire. It is deep and funny and true, and a remarkable story of resilience and love.
NOTE: See website for book purchase, guidelines, and further details.
Where: Garcia Center for the Arts – On-site Event
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 1 pm – 3 pm
Address: 536 W. 11th St., San Bernardino, CA 92410
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/523406442174337/
Joe Ide & The Goodbye Coast: A Philip Marlowe Novel via Diesel Bookstore – On-site Event
Join us to welcome Joe Ide, author of The IQ series, to discuss his new book, The Goodbye Coast: A Philip Marlowe Novel.
Joe Ide’s new novel,The Goodbye Coast, is a vividly reimagined story of Raymond Chandler’s relentless and seductive detective, Philip Marlowe set in present day Los Angeles. He is imagined very much of our time: he’s quiet lonely, and remarkably capable and confident as a private detective, but lives beneath the shadow of his father, a once-decorated LAPD homicide detective, famous throughout the city, who’s given in to drink after the death of Marlowe’s mother.
Against his better judgement, Marlowe accepts two missing person cases, the first a daughter of a faded, tyrannical Hollywood starlet, and the second, a British child stolen from his mother by his father. At the center is Marlowe’s relationship with his father, a son who despises yet respects his dad, and a dad who is unable to hide his bitter disappointment with his grown boy.
NOTE: See site for ticketing information, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore, Brentwood (in the outside courtyard)
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Ste. 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/joe-ide-goodbye-coast
Emily Wibberley & Austin Siegemund-Broka & The Roughest Draft via Pages Bookstore – Online Event
Join us to welcome authors Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka to discuss their new book, The Roughest Draft.
Thisnew novel is the YA authors’ fifth, and first for adults. They will be in conversation with fellow romance author Bridgett Morrissey, author of Love Scenes.
They were co-writing literary darlings until they hit a plot hole that turned their lives upside down. Now they must “reunite” because they have one last book due on contract.
They never thought things could go this way. What could go wrong?
While passion and prose push them closer together in the Florida heat, Katrina and Nathan will learn that relationships, like writing, sometimes take a few rough drafts before they get it right.
NOTE: See site for RSVP information and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 3 pm
Address: Pages – Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/launch-party-roughest-draft
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: SPECTRUM, Winter 2022 Reading – Off-site Event
Join us at Saturday Afternoon Poetry for the SPECTRUM, Winter 2022 reading. This event may be seen in-person and off-site at My Place Café, or it may be viewed on our Zoom portal (see site).
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Camobell.
Where: My Place Café
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 2057 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena, CA
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Young Adult Author Panel: Suzanne Park, Michelle Quach & Kiley Roach at Village Well Books & Coffee – On-site YA Event
Join Village Well Books for a Young Adult Author Panel, featuring:
Suzanne Park is a Korean American writer who was born and raised in Tennessee. Her books have been featured in “best of” lists in NPR, Popsugar, Buzzfeed, The Today Show, and more. She is the author most recently of So We Meet Again and Sonny Song Will Never Be Famous.
Michelle Quach is a graphic designer and writer living in Los Angeles. She is Chinese Vietmanese American and graduate of Harvard University. She is the author of Not Here to Be Liked.
Kiley Roache is an author and journalist, and has written for publications including: The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and The New York Times. She is the author of Killer Content.
NOTE: See site for free tickets, RSVP, guidelines & event details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee – On-site Event
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/15400
At Skylight: Kendra James, with Gina Mei, & Admissions via Skylight Bookstore – On-site Event
Join us in the Skylight Books for an in-store event featuring Kendra James, in conversation with Gina Mei, to discuss her new book, Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School.
This is a sharp-witted and deeply insightful look into the storied world of elite prep schools from the first African American legacy student to graduate from The Taft School.
As an admissions officer specializing in diversity recruitment for independent prep schools, Kendra James persuaded students and families to embark on the same perilous journey she herself had made—to attend cutthroat and largely white schools similar to The Taft School, where she had been the first African-American legacy student only a few years earlier. Her new job forced her to reflect on her own elite education experience, and to realize how disillusioned she had become with America’s inequitable system.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, details, and guidelines.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-kendra-james-presents-admissions-gina-mei
Author Panel & Book Signing for FlowerSong Press: Hybrid Event at Tia Chucha Bookstore – On-site & Virtual Event (FB & YouTube)
Join us for a special lineup of FlowerSong Press authors for a Panel Presentation and Book Signing, offered both in-person at the store and virtually online, and featuring:
David A. Romero is the author of the collection, My Name Is Romero.
Fernando Albert Salinas is the author of the collection, Toxic Masculinity.
Briana Munoz is the author of Everything Is Returned to the Soil.
Natalie Sierra is the author of Medusa.
Luivette Resto is the author of the forthcoming Living on Islands Not Found on Maps.
Iris De Anda is the author of Roots of Redemption: You Have No Right to Remain Silent.
Sonia Gutierrez is the author of Dreaming with Mariposas, winner of the Tomas Rivera 2021 Book Award: Works for Older Readers.
Matt Sedillo is the author of the forthcoming City on the Second Floor, and the accliamed Mowing Leaves of Grass.
Gina Duran is the author of …And So the Wind Was Born.
Where: Tia Chucha’s Bookstore (see site for details)
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://tia-chuchas.myshopify.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/TiaChuchasCentroCultural/
Meet Benson Shum & Anzu: the Great Kaiju via The Book Jewel Bookstore – On-site Kids Event
Join us at The Book Jewel for an event with Disney animator, illustrator, and children’s book author Benson Shum, who will read from his new book, Anju: The Great Kaiju.
This picture book is a story about a tiny monster with a big heart trying to follow in his family’s footsteps.
Where: The Book Jewel Bookstore – Kids Event
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 12 pm
Address: 6257 W. 87th St. , Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.facebook.com/BookJewelBookstore/photos/a.104096281005518/638505894231218/
Burning Issues Book Club (BIBC): History of the World in Seven Cheap Things via Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Event
Join us at Bel Canto for our Burning Issues Book Club discussion of History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet, by authors Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore.
Nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives: these are the seven things that have made our world and will shape its future. In making these things cheap, modern commerce has transformed, governed, and devastated Earth.
In A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore present a new approach to analyzing today’s planetary emergencies, bringing the latest ecological research together with histories of colonialism, indigenous struggles, slave revolts, and other rebellions and uprisings.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 12 pm
Address: Bel Canto (see site)
Website: https://belcantobooks.net/book-clubs or https://shopthehangout.com/products/bcb-history-of-the-world-in-seven-cheap-things
Rebecca Donner & All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days via The Skirball Cultural Center – Online event
The Skirball Cultural Center welcomes author Rebecca Donner, in conversation with literary curator Louise Steinman, to discuss the little known story of Mildred Harnack, the American leader at the heart of the German resistance to Hitler, in this biography from Harnack’s great-great niece.
Witnessing the troubling ascent of the Nazi party, Harnack began holding secret meetings in her apartment with a small band of political activists. By 1940, they had grown into the largest underground resistance group in Berlin. The group helped Jews escape, plotted acts of sabotage, and spread leaflets denouncing Hitler and calling for revolution. With “the pace of a political thriller” (Wall Street Journal), Donner’s nonfiction narrative brilliantly weaves letters, diary entries, survivor testimony, and declassified intelligence documents into a powerful, page-turning epic. .
NOTE: See site for registration. book purchase, and details.
Where: Skirball Cultural Center – Online Event
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 2 pm
Address: Skirball Cultural Center – Online (see site)
Website: https://www.skirball.org/programs/words-and-ideas/rebecca-donner-all-frequent-troubles-our-days
T. Jefferson Parker & A Thousand Steps via Diesel Bookstore – On-site Event
Join us at Diesel Bookstore to hear author T. Jefferson Parker discuss and sign his new novel, A Thousand Steps.
This novel is set in 1968, Laguna Beach California. The Age of Aquarius is in full swing. Timothy Leary is a rock star. LSD is God. Folks from all over are flocking to Laguna, seeking peace, love, and enlightenment.
Matt Anthony is just trying get by.
Matt is sixteen, broke, and never sure where his next meal is coming from. Mom’s a stoner, his deadbeat dad is a no-show, his brother’s fighting in Nam . . . and his big sister Jazz has just gone missing. The cops figure she’s just another runaway hippie chick, enjoying a summer of love, but Matt doesn’t believe it. Not after another missing girl turns up dead on the beach.
All Matt really wants to do is get his driver’s license and ask out the girl he’s been crushing on since fourth grade, yet it’s up to him to find his sister. But in a town where the cops don’t trust the hippies and the hippies don’t trust the cops, uncovering what’s really happened to Jazz is going to force him to grow up fast.
If it’s not already too late.
T. Jefferson Parker is the author of numerous novels and short stories, the winner of three Edgar Awards (for Silent Joe, California Girl, and the short story “Skinhead Central”), and the recipient of a Los Angeles Times Book Prize for best mystery (Silent Joe). Before becoming a full-time novelist, he was an award-winning reporter. He lives in Fallbrook, California.
Where: Diesel Bookstore – On-site courtyard Event (masks required)
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, Ca 99402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/thousand-steps
VCP Poets Reading: Luis J. Rodriguez & Peter J. Harris via Poets & Writers & VCP SoCal Poets.– Online Event
Join us for a new VCP Poets Poetry Reading event, hosted by VCP Poets & Jerry Garcia and featuring:
Luis J. Rodriguez is a poet, writer, LA Poet Laureate emeritus, community and urban peace activist, and author of sixteen books in all genres, including his bestselling memoir, Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. He is founding editor of Tia Chucha Press and co-founder of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore in the San Fernando Valley. He has been an inspiration and a leader in the literary community, worldwide and locally, for many years, from his ideas, writings and reportage, to his dedication to his indigenous roots and spirituality. In late 2021 he embarked on a campaign for California governor as “Imagine a New California…Then Let’s Build it.”
Peter J. Harris is a writer and cultural worker, and the author of the 2015 prize-winning Bless the Ashes (Tia Chucha Press), and winner of The American Book Award in 2015 for The Black Man of Happiness: In Pursuit of My ‘Unalienable Right’. He founded The Black Man of Happiness Project, which crystallizes 40+ years as poet, essayist, journalist, editor, publisher, broadcaster, educator, and workshop leader exploring the lives of Black men. His forthcoming book release from FlowerSong Press is titled Safe Arms: 20 Love & Erotic Poems.
NOTE: Donations are accepted, but not required.
Where: VCP Poets – Online at; Zoom ID 882 9457 6313 (P/W: poetry)
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: VCP Poets – Online Zoom Event (see Zoom link above)
Website: https://www.vcpsocal.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/events/1682296178785039/
Los Angeles Literature 