Many Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
World Literature Book Club: Story Selections via Central Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us for a spirited discussion of the world’s best short stories! All selections are from The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story (New York, 2021) ed. John Freeman. This month’s selections are:
March 14: The Hermit’s Story by Rick Bass (1998)
March 21: A Temporary Matter by Jhumpa Lahiri (1998)
NOTE: See site for event details and Zoom link.
Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online event
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 10 am
Address: LAPL – Online Event
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-literature-book-club-28
Tween Book Club: Two Selections via Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – Online Tween Event
Join us for a discussion of two books selected for this month:
When Stars Are Scattered, by Victoria Jamison and Omar Mohamid (graphic novel);
The One Thing You’d Save, by Linda Sue Park (short novel in verse).
The titles are available online through Libby/Overdrive or check out a copy from your local branch. The book(s) should be read in advance of the meeting.
NOTE: See site for event details and Zoom link.
Where: Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – Online event
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: LAPL – Online Event
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/tween-book-club-1
Sun Valley Book Club &The Other Black Girl via Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL – Online Tween Event
Join us for a discussion of the book selected for this month, The Other Black Girl, by Zakiya Dalila Harris.
This story starts thirty years earlier as a Black woman boards an almost empty train. She is running form somebody or something and she is literally trying not to tear her hair out. Who is she?
Please email ebarrera@lapl.org for the Google Meet link and additional information.
NOTE: See site for event details and Zoom link.
Where: Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL – Online event
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 4:45 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: LAPL – Online Event
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/event/sun-valley-book-club
Adrian Nathan West & My Father’s Diet (And Other Stories) via Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Join us to hear author Adrian Nathan West discuss his book, My Father’s Diet (And Other Stories), now in paperback.
This book is a journey to the dark side of American masculinity and family disintegration through a father’s request of his son to help him get in shape for an upcoming bodybuilding competition. Since his father’s request is actually better than the expected request for advice against committing suicide he had expected after another of his father’s boozy relationship’s has fallen apart, how can he refuse?
NOTE: See site for event details, book purchase, and link.
Where: Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Skylight Crowdcast event
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-adrian-nathan-west-presents-my-fathers-diet
Lizz Huerta, with Daniel Hernandez, & The Lost Dreamer at Vroman’s – In-person YA Event
Join us to hear author Lizz Huerta in conversation with Daniel Hernandez, discuss her novel, The Lost Dreamer.
This book is a stunning YA fantasy inspired by Mesoamerica, a gripping debut that introduces us to a lineage of seers defiantly resisting the shifting patriarchal state that would see them destroyed. With a detailed, supernaturally-charged setting and topical themes of patriarchal power and female strength, this story brings an ancient world to life, mirroring the challenges of our modern one.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and event details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/lizz-huerta-discusses-the-lost-dreamer
Ambassador Martin Indyk, with Steve Zipperstein, & Master of the Game at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Store Event
Join us in-store to hear Ambassador Martin Indyk, in conversation with Steve Zipperstein, discuss his book, Master of the Game
Master of the Game is a perceptive and provocative history of Henry Kissinger’s diplomatic negotiations in the Middle East that illuminates the unique challenges and barriers Kissinger and his successors have faced in their attempts to broker peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
NOTE: See site for event details and to RSVP.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore – On-site event
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/march-14-martin-indyk
Monday Night Fiction Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Zoom Online Event
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 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 14th
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-293223016937
LA Made: Create Your Best Life via Journaling via Venice-Abbot Kinney Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us for a unique workshop which will introduce a light-hearted approach to journaling and daily goal setting that will build your self-confidence and open you up to intuitive guidance.
NOTE: See site for event details and to RSVP.
Where: Venice-Abbot Kinney Branch LIbrary, LAPL – Online event
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: LAPL Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/la-made-create-your-best-life-journaling
Braintrust Generative Workshop: Danielle Mitchell & f*ck around + find out: poems about revenge via The Poetry Lab – Online Event
Join us to hear author and director of The Poetry Lab, Danielle Mitchell, lead an exploration of instances of revenge In poetry—from love letters never sent to trolls on the internet
NOTE: See site for event details and to RSVP.
Where: The Poetry Lab – Online event
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.thepoetrylab.com/braintrust
Tim McLoughlin, with Kenji Jasper, & Alcohol, Tobacco, & firearms: stories and essays via Book Soup – Online Event
Join us to hear author Tim McLoughlin, in conversation with Kenji Jasper, discuss his new book, Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms: stories and essays.
In this book the author draws upon his three-decade career in the criminal justice system with his wit and fascination with misfits and malfeasance. His stories are rife with personal arrogance and misjudgment, and his essays are about toeing the line when the line keeps disappearing. It’s about chronic displacement and constant change.
NOTE: See site for tickets, link, and event details.
Where: Book Soup – Online event
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Book Soup – Online (see site)
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/tim-mcloughlin
Mary Kuryla, with Sara Freeman, & Away to Stay at Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online Event
Join us to hear Mary Kuryla, in conversation with Sara Freeman, discuss her book, Away to Stay
Away to Stay is a book that burns with the urgency of its young narrator, living on the hard edge of homelessness. Through Olya’s off-beat and probing consciousness, we witness a world of desperate people flailing inside a broken system. Olya’s mother Irina is a Russian émigré and self-serving liar, obsessed with becoming a prima ballerina and stalking Mikhail Baryshnikov. Cousin Jack is haunted by demons from the Afghanistan war–and the oft-absent Irina. Jack turns his obsession onto his untrainable dog named Bird that he kidnapped from the Riverside Police Department. To Olya, Bird is Job on four legs. Away to Stay is an exploration of the precarious nature of shelter and home in the life of an immigrant and American working family.
NOTE: See site for event details and to RSVP.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online event
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Chevalier’s – Online (see site)
Website: https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/march-15-mary-kuryla
Rachel McMillan & Anna Lee Luber Present: The Mozart Code and A Perilous Perspective via The Ripped Bodice – Online Event
Join us to hear two authors present their new releases:
Rachel McMillan will present her new book, The Mozart Code, a historical romance in which a secret female double agent who investigates relics and espionage to help end the Cold War.
Anna Lee Huber will present her new book, A Perilous Perspective, (A Lady Darby Mystery #10), which follows beloved inquiry agents Lady Kiera Darby and her dashing husband and investigative partner, Sebastian Gage.
NOTE: See site for event details and to RSVP.
Where: The Ripped Bodice – Online event
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online FB Event (see site)
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Book Club Discussion: Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun at Village Well Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss our March selection, New York Times bestseller and Booker Prize Nominee, Klara and the Sun, about the wondrous nature of the human heart and an Artificial Friend, by author Kazuo Ishiguro.
Gather with us to discuss the book, dive into what we loved (or didn’t), and meet fellow book lovers!
To join our monthly book club, email events@villagewell.com to sign up.
NOTE: See site for event details and to RSVP.
Where: Village Well Bookstore – Online event
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/15504
Reyna Grande, with Hector Tobar, & A Ballad of Love & Glory at Vroman’s – In-person Event
Join Vroman’s and PEN USA to hear author Reyna Grande in conversation with acclaimed author Hector Tobar, discuss her novel, A Ballad of Love & Glory.
This book is a stunning story of a forgotten war and an unforgettable romance, based on true events and historical figures, and illuminates a forgotten moment in history that impacts the U.S. and Mexico border to this day. In 1846, after the controversial annexation of Texas, the U.S. army marches couth to provoke war with Mexico over the disputed Rio Grande border. Ximena Salome is a gifted Mexican healer, widowed by Texas Rangers, who joins the Mexican army as a nurse. John Riley, an Irish immigrant and IU.S, Army deserter to the cause forms a St. Patrick’s battalion of solders willing ot fight to the death for Mexico’s freedom. When they meet, there is a dangerous attraction between them, and they find themselves fighting for the fate of a nation as well as a future together.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Susan Straight, with Ivy Pochoda, & MECCA via Skylight Bookstore – In-person Event
Join celebrated author Susan Straight, in conversation with author Ivy Pochoda (Wonder Valley, These Women), to hear her launch and discuss her new novel MECCA.
MECCA is a stunning epic tracing the intertwining lives of native Californians fighting for life and land. It examines race, history, family, and destiny through the interlocking stories of a group of native Californians all gasping for air. With sensitivity, furor, and a cinematic scope that captures California in all its injustice, history, and glory, she tells a story of the American West through the eyes of the people who built it—and continue to sustain it. As the stakes get higher and the intertwined characters in Mecca slam against barrier after barrier, they find that when push comes to shove, it’s always.
Johnny Frías has California in his blood. A descendant of the state’s Indigenous people and Mexican settlers, he has Southern California’s forgotten towns and canyons in his soul. He spends his days as a highway patrolman pulling over speeders, ignoring their racist insults, and pushing past the trauma of his rookie year, when he killed a man assaulting a young woman named Bunny, who ran from the scene, leaving Johnny without a witness. But like the Santa Ana winds that every year bring the risk of fire, Johnny’s moment of action twenty years ago sparked a slow-burning chain of connections that unites a vibrant, complex cast of characters in ways they never see coming.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore – In-Person event
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 7 pm PST
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-susan-straight-launches-her-novel-mecca-ivy-pochoda
Adult Book Group & Island of Sea Women at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-person Event
Join us for the Adult Book Club event when we read our monthly selection, Island of Sea Women, by Lisa See.
This beautiful, thoughtful novel illuminates a world turned upside down, one where the women are in charge, engaging in dangerous physical work, and the men take care of the children. A classic Lisa See story—one of women’s friendships and the larger forces that shape them—The Island of Sea Women introduces readers to the fierce and unforgettable female divers of Jeju Island and the dramatic history that shaped their lives.
NOTE: See website for further details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/adult-book-group-island-sea-women-lisa-see
Tuesdays at the Virtual Cobalt: Poets Series Presents: Open Reading & Noor Hindi – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest poet Noor Hindi.
Noor Hindi is a Palestinian American poet, essayist, and journalist. Her debut collection of poetry, Dear God, Dear Bones, Dear Yellow, is forthcoming form Haymarket Books in 2023.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 15th
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 details.
Alyesha Wise and Matthew “Cuban” Hernandez are our hosts and this event and others will take place at Dynasty Typewriter.
NOTE: See site for general admission prices, guidelines, and livestream admission information.
Where: DA Poetry Lounge – IG Online
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm (Doors 8 pm)
Address: 2511 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/Casg2-Tvti5/ or www.dynastytypewriter.com
SOM Tuesdays Open Mic at Di Piazza’s Pizza, Long Beach
SOM Open Mic Tuesdays at Di Piazza’s are back! Come and share music, comedy, and poetry with us.
Where: Di Piazza’s Pizza
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 9 pm – 12 am
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy, Long Beach, CA 90804
Website: https://www.facebook.com/dipiazzaslongbeach/photos/gm.1253013068539459/10160379033182269
Coffee Time Book Club & Violeta at Pages Bookstore – In-person Event
Join us for the Coffee Time Book Club event when we read our monthly selection, Violeta, by Isabelle Allende.
This sweeping novel tells the story of Violeta Del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century. Her birth at the time of World War 1 and the Spanish flu epidemic begins her story, in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, and recounts her times through yet another pandemic. Surviving through a lifetime of upheaval, her story is an epic both inspiring and emotional.
NOTE: See website for further details.
Where: Pages Bookstore – On-site Patio Event
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 10:30 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/coffee-time-book-club-4
Book Club Discussion: The Only Woman in the Room via Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us to discuss this month’s Book Club selection for Women’s History Month, The Only Woman in the Room, by Marie Benedict.
This is the story of the intricate, compelling, and utterly captivating Hedy Lamarr, who was once a glamorous movie star, but who should best be remembered as an avid inventor and for her groundbreaking contribution to the communication technology that led to the cell phone, Wi-Fi and GPS and Bluetooth technology we use today.
NOTE: See site for event details and to RSVP.
Where: Granada Hills Branch LIbrary, LAPL – Online event
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 1:30 pm
Address: LAPL Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-discussion-only-woman-room
Peter Swanson, with Lynne Constantine, & Nine Lives at Diesel Bookstore – Online Event
Join us online to hear Peter Swanson, in conversation with Lynne Constantine, present and discuss his newest novel, Nine Lives.
In this story, nine strangers receive a list with their names on it in the mail. Nothing else, just a list of names on a single sheet of paper. None of the nine people know or have ever met the others on the list. They dismiss it as junk mail, a fluke — until very, very bad things begin happening to people on the list. FBI agent Jessica Winslow, who is on the list herself, is determined to find out what this means. Could there be some dark secret that binds them all together? Or is this the work of a murderous madman? As the mysterious sender stalks these nine strangers, they find themselves constantly looking over their shoulders, wondering who will be crossed off next…
NOTE: See website for further details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore – Online Crowdcast Event
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 3 pm
Address: Diesel Bookstore – Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/nine-lives-virtual-launch
Middle Grade Book Club & Operation Do-Over at Pages Bookstore – In-person Middle Grade Event
Join us for the Middle Grade Book Club event when we read our monthly selection, Operation Do-Over, by Gordon Korman.
This book is a high-concept friendship story. Mason and Ty were once the very best of friends, like two nerdy sides of the same coin . . . until seventh grade, when Ava Petrakis came along. Now Mason can trace everything bad in his life to that terrible fight they had over the new girl. The one thing he’d give anything for is a do-over. But that can’t happen in real life—can it?
NOTE: See website for further details.
Where: Pages Bookstore – On-site Patio Event
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/middle-grade-book-club-3
Celebrating Women’s History Month: Carolyn Tara O’Neil & Kelly McWilliams “Telling Her Story” via Once Upon a Time Bookstore – Online YA Event
Join us to delve into some beautiful YA fiction for Women’s History Month, in which authors Carolyn Tara O’Neil and Kelly McWilliams will present their new YA novels.
Daughters of a Dead Empire, a debut by Carolyn Tara O’Neil, takes place in Russia, 1918. This is a story about Anna, a bourgeois girl, who narrowly escaped the massacre of her entire family in Yekaterinburg. Desperate to get away from the Bolsheviks, she offers a peasant girl a diamond to take her as far south as possible–not realizing that the girl is a communist herself. With her brother in desperate need of a doctor, Evgenia accepts Anna’s offer and suddenly finds herself on the wrong side of the war.
Mirror Girls, by Kelly McWilliams, takes place in America, 1953. This is a thrilling gothic horror novel about biracial twin sisters separated at birth after the brutal lynching of their parents, for loving across the color line. Now, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, Charlie is a young Black organizer in Harlem, while white-passing Magnolia is the heiress to a cotton plantation in rural Georgia.
NOTE: See website for link and further details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/telling-her-story
Creative Writing Workshop with Tony DuShane at Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join our Creative Writing Workshop, led by Tony DuShane, UCLA Instructor and author of the novel, Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk, now a major motion picture.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details. To obtain a link please email: mpanzera@lapl.org.
Where: Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL – Online Zoom Event
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 6 pm
Address: LAPL – Online Event
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/creative-writing-workshop-tony-dushane-4
WeHo Reads: Road to Joy & How We Gather Anthology: A Celebration of Women Who Submit & GATHERING via City of West Hollywood & BookSwell – Online Event
Join us to celebrate Women Who Submit’s anthology, Gathering, with participation by editors and contributors. Joining the event will be:
Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. Her debut poetry collection, Posada: Offerings of Witness and Refuge (Sundress Publications 2016), is inspired by her family’s immigration stories and her time volunteering with the humanitarian aid organization, No More Deaths. A dramatization of her poem “Our Lady of the Water Gallons,” directed by Jesús Salvador Treviño, can be viewed at latinopia.com.
Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera, Chicana feminist and rodeo queen, writes “so that the desert landscape of my childhood can be heard as loudly as the urban chaos of my adulthood. Growing up in tiny, isolated corners of the Southwest – Holtville, California; Hatch, New Mexico; Poston, Arizona; and Blythe, California – all I dreamed of was escaping.” She is presently a PhD candidate in Creative Writing and Literature at USC.
Noriko Nakada, is a multi-racial Asian American who creates fiction, nonfiction, poetry and art to capture the hidden stories she has been told not to talk about. Publications include her memoir series, Through Eyes Like Mine, Overdue Apologies, and I Tried. Works in progress include Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop: One Family’s Struggle with Mental Illness, and Rice Paper Superheroes, a historical novel about a Japanese American family during World War II.
A moment of healing will be led by Thea Pueschel.
NOTE: See site for event details, tickets, and book purchases.
Where: WeHo Reads 2022 – Online Event
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: WeHo Reads – Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/634837784484711/
Maria Brito, with Josh Spector, & How Creativity Rules the World via Book Soup – Online Event
Join us to hear author Maria Brito, in conversation with Josh Spector, discuss her new book, How Creativity Rules the World.
In this book the author illustrates how creativity is merely a series of habits, actions, and attitudes that anyone can develop—regardless of who you are or what you do. The book is a deep dive into history, culture, psychology, science, and entrepreneurship, breaking down and analyzing elements used by the most creative minds throughout the last 600 years.
NOTE: See site for tickets, link, and event details.
Where: Book Soup – Online event
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Book Soup – Online (see site)
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/maria-brito
Noviolet Bulawayo & Glory via Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Join us to hear award-winning author of Booker Prize finalist for We Need More Names, Noviolet Bulaway, present anddiscuss her book, Glory.
This book is a blockbuster novel that chronicles the fall of an oppressive regime, and the chaotic, kinetic potential for real liberation that arises in its wake. Glory centers around the unexpected fall of Old Horse, a long-serving leader of a fictional country, and the drama that follows for a rumbustious nation of animals on the path to true liberation. Inspired by the unexpected fall by coup, in November 2017, of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president of nearly four decades, Bulawayo’s bold, vividly imagined novel shows a country imploding, narrated by a chorus of animal voices who unveil the ruthlessness and cold strategy required to uphold the illusion of absolute power, and the imagination and bullet-proof optimism to overthrow it completely.
NOTE: See site for event details, book purchase, and link.
Where: Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Skylight Crowdcast event
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-noviolet-bulawayo-presents-glory
Kate Spencer, with Maureen Goo, & In a New York Minute at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear Kate Spencer, in conversation with Maureen Goo, discuss her book, In a New York Minute
In a New York Minute is a love story to friendship, and a sparkling debut novel about discovering and living your authentic self. In this novel, Franny and Hayes couldn’t be a more disastrous match. She’s fanciful, talkative, and creative. He’s serious, shy, and all about numbers. Luckily, in a city of eight million people, they never have to meet again. Yet somehow, Hayes and Franny keep running into each other–and much to their surprise, they enjoy each other’s company. A lot. But when Franny’s whole world is turned upside down (again!), can she find the courage to trust in herself and finally have the life–and love–she’s always wanted?
NOTE: See site for event details, guidelines, and to RSVP.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person event
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/march-16-kate-spencer
Anansi Virtual Writers Workshop at The World Stage – In-Person Event
The Anansi Writers Workshop was founded in 1990 by Kamau Daáood, Akilah Oliver, Nafis Nabawi and Anthony Lyons. In 1993, Michael Datcher initiated the development of a three-part format for the workshop. Our tradition of a community workshop began in the late 1960s at the Watts Writers’ Workshop, where World Stage co-founder Kamau Daáood started his writing career. For general information and booking, contact V. Kali, the Anansi Writers Workshop Coordinator, at vkaliflowers@gmail.com.
• 7:30p.m.–8:30p.m. — Formal workshop;
• 8:30p.m.–9:00p.m. — Featured reader;
• 9:05p.m.–10:00p.m. — Open mic
Admission: $5 Suggested Donation
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
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Dengan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.theworldstage.org/events.html
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 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 16th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.instagram.com/p/Casg2-Tvti5/
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry & Eric Moraga 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 Eric Moraga.
Eric Moraga is a two-time Pushcart nominated poet who believes performance carries as much importance on the page, as it does off. He hosts a monthly reading series, teaches writing workshops, and serves as associate editor for the online literary journal, FreezeRay Poetry. He is the author of What We Ache From (Moon Tide Press) and Feasting on Sky (Paper Plane Pilots).
NOTE: See site for details and guidelines.
$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 16th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/Two-Idiot-Peddling_poetry/ or https://www.facebook.com/events/659760098590338
2nd and 3rd Grade Book Club & Ranger in Time #5: Journey through Ash and Smoke via Pages Booksore – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss our monthly selection, Ranger in Time #5: Journey through Time and Smoke, by Kate Messner.
Ranger is a time-traveling golden retriever with search-and-rescue training. In this adventure, he goes to Viking age Iceland, which proves to be tough terrain for Ranger to navigate. Usually it’s Ranger’s job to save the day before he can return to his family, but he meets a girl named Helga who rescues him more than once. And when a nearby volcano threatens to erupt and Helga’s new baby brother or sister starts to come early, they must journey through ash and smoke to find Helga’s father. But if Helga doesn’t need Ranger’s help, how will he ever get home?
NOTE; See site for RSVP and event details.
Where: Pages Bookstore: – On-site in Courtyard
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/2nd-and-3rd-grade-book-club-1
Mystery Book Club & The Thursday Murder Club: A Novel, by Richard Osman, at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join our Mystery Book Club to read and discuss our selection this month, The Thursday Murder Club: A Novel by Richard Osman.
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club.
When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case.
As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it’s too late?
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr. #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-thursday-murder-club
Panel Discussion: Lexington Sherbin and Naomi Valdivia via Beyond Baroque – Zoom Online
Join Beyond Baroque for a special discussion with disability justice advocatess Lexington Sherbin Naomi Baldivia and others on the impact of poetry-spoken-word, zine-making, and the arts in Los Angeles, via Zoom.
Lexington Sherbin and Naomi Valdivia are working artists in Tierra del Sol and DSTL Arts, respectively. The conversation focuses on the importance of personal storytelling through poetry, spoken word, zine- making, and visual art. We are inviting participants and audiences to collectively envision a liberated future for disabled/chronically ill/mad/neurodivergent folks and identify avenues of healing through narrative medicine and storytelling during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The panel discussion is led and curated by Tasha Fierce, Laurent Ash Corralez, System Hatfield, and Bri M. of the Los Angeles Spoonie Collective. CART and ASL Interpretation will be provided.
In addition to this event, join us on Sunday March 20th for The Future Lives in Our Bodies: A Reading & Open Mic. Visit our website for more details on how you can sign up for the open mic!
This event is one of many events taking place during March 2022 in conjunction with the Poetry Coalition, under the collective heading “The Future Lives in our Bodies: Poetry & Disability Justice,” with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for support of Poetry Coalition programming.
NOTE: See site for further details, Eventbrite registration and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: 6ttps://www.beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-community-arts-panel-discussion-with-disability-justice-advocates-of-la-tickets-290966146577
Christopher Caramon & Angelina Saenz Readings: From the RGV to LA via LIbroMobile – Hybrid In-Person and Virtual IG Event
Join us to hear authors and writers Christopher Caramona & Angelina Saenz in conversation and reading form their work, titled: From the RGV to LA: A Reading Across State Lines.
Christopher Caramona is and award-winning author and a member of Refusing to Forget Project. His novel. El Pincha: The Ghost Ranger of the Rio Grande, was a finalist for the 2019 Best YA Novel Award.
Angelina Saenz is an award-winning teacher, La Palabra reading series host, and the author of her debut collection of poetry, EdgeCliff.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and event details.
Where: LibroMobile – Hybrid event
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol, Suite A3, Santa Ana, CA 92701
Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/christopher-carmona-angelina-saenz
Tanais, with Kiese Laymon, & In Sensorium via Skylight Bookstore – Live Virtual Event
Join us to hear author Tanais (Bright Lines), in conversation with author Kiese Laymon (Long Division, Heavy), present Tanais’ In Sensorium: Notes for My People.
Fragrance has long been used to mark who is civilized and who is barbaric, who is pure and who is polluted, who is free and who is damned—
Structured like a perfume—moving from base to heart to head notes—IN SENSORIUM interlaces eons of South Asian perfume history, erotic and religious texts, survivor testimonies, and material culture with memoir. In Sensorium is archive and art, illuminating the great crises of our time with the language of Liberation.
This is a lyrical memoir, sensuous and sensual, which rejects outmoded mores. The author is a novelist and perfumer and this book is a beautiful meditation.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore & Institute for Art and Olfaction – Online Crowdcast event
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Skylight – Online (see site)
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-tana%C3%AFs-presents-sensorium-kiese-laymon
Architecture and Beyond: Robert Inman & Urban Hikes Southern California via Skylight Bookstore & Los Feliz Library, LAPL – Live Zoom Event
Join for the Architecture and Beyond lecture series to hear Robert Inman, author of Urban Hikes Southern California, this event’s featured guest.
From the iconic Pacific Coast to deep canyons full of stories to mountaintops with breathtaking views, explore the dramatic Southern California landscape without traveling deep into the backcountry. This book features easy-to-follow urban trails that allow hikers of all levels to discover the landmarks that shape the Golden state’s cities and towns. Urban Hikes Southern California provides the latest information to plan a customized trip.
The book contains forty-one hikes that range from 3 to 8-miles. Each follows a variety of routes that include vibrant avenues, quiet residential lanes, park trails, pedestrian-only lanes, public stairways, beach boardwalks, and canal paths. Every excursion seeks out and describes viewpoints, natural features, local history, architecture, and street art. Starting points are selected for their ease of access and parking information is included. Many of the hikes are accessible to rail transit and directions are provided.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, links, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore & Los Feliz Library, LAPL – Online Zoom event
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Skylight at Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL – Online (see site)
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/architecture-and-beyond-los-feliz-library-2
Noontime Poetry with Karo Ska at My Place Cafe – On-site & YouTube Event
Please join us for Noontime Poetry, featuring poet Karo Ska.
Karo Ska is a South Asian & Eastern European non-binary femme poet living on unceded Tongva land, who migrated here in 1996 from Warsaw, Poland. Their first book, gathering grandmother’s bones, was released in February, 2020, and their full collection. loving my salt-drenched bones, was published through World Stage Press in February, 2022. Other work appears in Dryland Lit, Resurrection Magazine, Altadena Poetry Review, Cultural Daily, and elsewhere.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: My Place Cafe – On-site Event
Date: Friday the18th
Time: 12 pm – 1 pm
Address: 2057 N. Los Robles Ave., Unit #10, Pasadena, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/989029522023654/
Catriona Ward, with Caroline Kepnes, & Sundial via Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Join us to hear author Catriona Ward, in conversation with Caroline Kepnes, present and discuss her novel, Sundial.
Sundial is a new, twisty, psychological horror novel from the author of The Last House on Needless Street.
You can’t escape what’s in your blood…
All Rob wanted was a normal life. She almost got it, too: a husband, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs. But Rob fears for her oldest daughter, Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. Rob sees a darkness in Callie, one that reminds her too much of the family she left behind.
She decides to take Callie back to her childhood home, to Sundial, deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice.
Callie is worried about her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely, and speaks of past secrets. And Callie fears that only one of them will leave Sundial alive…
The mother and daughter embark on a dark, desert journey to the past in the hopes of redeeming their future.
NOTE: See site for book purchase, link, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Friday the 18th
Time: 1 pm PST
Address: Skylight Books – Online Crowdcast Event (see site)
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-catriona-ward-presents-sundial-caroline-kepnes
2nd and 3rd Grade Book Club & Ranger in Time #5 via Pages Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
The 2nd and 3rd Grade Book Club will meet and discuss Ranger in Time #5: Journey through Ash and Smoke, by author Kate Messner.
Ranger is a time-traveling golden retriever with search-and-rescue training. In this adventure, he goes to Viking age Iceland, which proves to be tough terrain for Ranger to navigate. Usually it’s Ranger’s job to save the day before he can return to his family, but he meets a girl named Helga who rescues him more than once. And when a nearby volcano threatens to erupt and Helga’s new baby brother or sister starts to come early, they must journey through ash and smoke to find Helga’s father. But if Helga doesn’t need Ranger’s help, how will he ever get home?
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, and event details.
Where: Pages Bookstore – In-Person Courtyard Event
Date: Friday the18th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/2nd-and-3rd-grade-book-club-1
Bookish Event: Sandra Tsing Loh Hosts Guest Authors: John Cho, Wajahat Ali, & Editors Mai-Linh Hong & Chrissy Yee Lau via Once Upon a Time Bookstore & Southern California News Group – Online Zoom Event
Join us to delve into some amazing books and authors writing about social justice issues, presented by author and host Sandra Tsing Loh.
Troublemaker, a debut by actor John Cho, is a YA graphic novel which follows the events of the LA Riots through the eyes of 12-year old Jordan, as he navigates school and family. It highlights the unique Korean American perspective and recounts his perilous journey to come to the aid of his father, who is protecting the family store from intruders. Along the way he must come to terms with the racism within and affecting their community.
Go Back to Where You Came From and Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become an American, by Wajahat Ali, is an adult nonfiction book about the “tips” and disdain the author and other children of immigrants receive on a daily basis, and the differences between his roots in a now unaffordable home in Freemont, CA and Pakistan, the country his parents left behind a half century ago. In this bold and uproarious memoir, the author offers indispensable lessons for cultivating a more compassionate, inclusive, and delicious America.
The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice, by editors Mai-Linh Hong & Chrissy Yee Lau, is about a massive mutual-aid network of volunteers who provided free masks in the wake of US government failures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Aunties made and funneled masks to asylum seekers, indigenous communities, incarcerated people, farmworkers, and others disproportionally impacted by COVOD-19. These homemade masks met an urgent public health need and expressed solidarity, care, and political action in a moment of social upheaval.
The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem, by Sandra Tsing Loh. A comic exploration of a year in the life of an “imaginatively twisted and fearless” (Los Angeles Times) best-selling author, she recounts all the burdens of running a household that still, too often, fall to women.
NOTE: See website for link and further details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event
Influx Collective Presents: Queer Poetry Night & Five Poets at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
Join Influx Collective, in collaboration with the Sims Library of Poetry to hear the readers at Queer Poetry Night, featuring:
tahbile makue is a South African-born and raised healer and writer with over 10 years of experience in communications work. And the author of makaseko (African Poetry Book). They are the Communications Director of the Young Woman’s Freedom Center and driven to social justice by their hope for a world in which everyone is free and has equitable access to opportunities for healing and self-actualization.
KB Brookins is a Black/queer/transmasculine poet, essayist, and cultural worker from Stop Six, Fort Worth, Texas. Their poems are published in American Poetry Review, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere; their essays are published in Huffington Post, Teen Vogue, andother venues. KB is the author of How To Identify Yourself with a Wound (Kallisto Gaia Press, 2022), a chapbook selected by ire’ne laura silva as winner of the Saguaro Poetry Prize. They have received Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominations, along with fellowships from PEN America, Lambda Literary, and The Watering Hole among others.
Lupita Limon Corrales Sonia Guinansaca is an international award winning queer migrant poet, cultural organizer and social justice activist. They emerged as a national leader in the migrant artistic and political communities where they coordinated and participated in groundbreaking civil disobedience actions.
Stephen van Dyck self-published their debut mini chapbook Nostalgia and Borders in 2016. They are a contributor for the new edition of ColonizeThis! Anthology (2019 Seal Press), and featured on Stop Telling Women to Smile (2020 Seal Press). In 2022, Guiñansaca is releasing their second chapbook #PapiFemme and launching House of Alegria, a publishing house for undocumented writers. Now, represented by Writers House Agency , Sonia is also working on their first memoir, and co-editing the forthcoming anthology “SomeWhere We Are Human” (HarperCollins June 2022).
NOTE: See site for details. $10 at the door.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event (see site)
Date: Friday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/queer-poetry-night-tickets-253387888997?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
Poetry Reading: Anna Journey & David St. John via Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Join us for Beyond Baroque’s reopening weekend for a Poetry Reading by Anna Journey, in conversation with David St. John. To read and discuss their works.
Journey will read from and discuss her forthcoming collection, The Judas Ear, due out in March from LSU Press. St. John will read from and discuss his in-progress collection, The Sketchbook.
Anna Journey is the author of the poetry collections The Judas Ear, The Atheist Wore Goat Silk, Vulgar Remedies, and If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting, which was selected by Thomas Lux for the National Poetry Series, and the essay collection An Arrangement of Skin. She is an associate professor of English at the University of Southern California.
David St. John is the author of twelve collections of poetry, most recently, The Last Troubadour: New & Selected Poems. He is chair of English at The University of Southern California and a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Friday the 18th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anna-journey-david-st-john-reading-at-beyond-baroque-tickets-272543213087
At Dynasty Typewriter: Danny Pellegrino Book Release Event & “How Do I Unremember This?” via Skylight Bookstore – On-site & Restreamed Event
Join us to hear author Danny Pellegrino present and discuss his book, “How Do I Unremember This?”
This book is a collection of all the most embarrassing things that ever happened to the author. Growing up as a closeted gay kid in small-town Ohio wasn’t easy, and Danny has the stories to prove it. But coming of age in the 90s still meant something magical to Danny. The music, film, and celebrity moments of his youth were truly iconic, and his love for all things pop culture connected him to a world larger than the one he knew in the suburban Midwest. And through all the pains of growing up, Danny could always look to that world for hope. He invites readers to experience his most formative moments in life—from his hometown in Ohio to his hit podcast and career in entertainment today.
NOTE: See site for book purchase, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore at Dynasty Typewriter at the Hayworth
Date: Friday the 18th
Time: 8 pm (doors at 7 pm)
Address: 2511 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Third Fridays Rapp Saloon Reading Series, with host Elena Secota, via Rapp Saloon – Online Event
Join Third Fridays at Rapp Saloon Open Mic & Featured Readers, offered every 3rd Friday of the month by host Elena Secota.
Our featured guest poets and artists this month TBA
Share your voice at the Open Mic, where there is a time limit of 4 minutes max. Sign-ups are at 8:15 pm. Zoom ID posted 3 hours prior to event.
NOTE: See site for event details. (CHECK to Verify)
Where: Rapp Saloon – Online Event
Date: Friday the 18th
Time: 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Address: Online Zoom event
Graphic Novel Book Club & Spellbound: A Memoir via Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Event
Join our Graphic Novel Book Club, which meets on the 3rd Saturday of every month, to discuss this month’s selection, Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir, by Bishakh Som.
The meticulous artwork of transgender artist Bishakh Som gives us the rare opportunity to see the world through another lens. This exquisite graphic novel memoir by a transgender artist, explores the concept of identity by inviting the reader to view the author moving through life as she would have us see her, that is, as she sees herself.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and event details.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 10 am – 11:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://shopthehangout.com/products/bcb-spellbound-a-graphic-memoir
Susan Lendroth & Piper and Purpa Forever at Flintridge Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Join us to meet and greet children’s author Susan Lendroth, who will present and sign her children’s book, Piper and Purpa Forever.
Every child wants to hear that they are getting bigger, yet growing up can mean leaving things behind. This book takes a lighthearted look at this classic childhood dilemma when a lively girl named Piper holds fast to a prized possession — her favorite purple sweater called Purpa. Piper keeps growing, but Purpa does not, so she discovers a way to move on.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Flintridge Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 11 am
Address: 858 Foothill Blvd., La Canada-Flintridge, CA 91011
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-12
Fantasy and Magic: Erika Lewis & Kelcie Murphy and the Academy of Unbreakable Arts at Village Well Bookstore – On-site Middle Grade Event
Join us to hear local author Erika Lewis present her Middle Grade book, Kelcie Murphy and the Academy of Unbreakable Arts, a tale about fantasy, magic, and storytelling.
Brimming with Celtic mythology, action, and danger, Erika Lewis’s Kelcie Murphy and The Academy for the Unbreakable Arts introduces readers to a new kind of magical school and a warrior who must choose with which side of an epic battle her destiny will lie.
This epic fantasy adventure novel will win over devotees of The School for Good and Evil, Percy Jackson, and Keeper of the Lost Cities series.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Village Well Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/16333
Avery Monsen & Abby Hanlon, & Chester Van Chime via Vroman’s Bookstore – Online Kids Event
Join us to hear author Aver Monsen, with illustrator Abby Hanlon, present their children’s book, Chester Van Chime, Who Forgot How to Rhyme.
There once was a youngster named Chester van Chime Who woke up one day and forgot how to rhyme. Chester loved rhyming, in poem or song. It always felt right, but today it felt…not right. VERY not right.
Filled with irresistible wordplay and whimsically silly illustrations, this read aloud tells the story of a boy who learns not to be stressed if he’s not at his…tippy-top peak performance.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link and details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore – Online Crowdcast Event
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 11 pm PST
Address: Vroman’s – Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/vromans-live-presents-special-storytime-with-avery-monsen
Teens Read to Young Readers: A Teens Leading Change (TLC) Series of Events at Chatsworth Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Teen & Kids Event
Teen volunteers have created a program series to engage young readers, particularly those with learning disabilities.
Teens will work with readers grades 1-5 to engage young learners: reading to kids, introducing them to library resources, and encouraging excitement and interest in reading. Young Readers need not attend all four sessions, though it is encouraged. There will be special giveaways every week.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Chatsworth Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 21052 Devonshire St., Chatsworth, CA 91311
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/tlc-teens-read-young-readers-teens-leading-change-series-events
Revisiting Octavia Butler’s Pasadena: Ayana Jamison Conversation – In-Person Event
Ayana Jamieson, local educator and founder of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network, will lead a moderated conversation about our desire to locate Octavia Butler’s Pasadena. This lecture will be held at the La Pintoresca Branch of the Pasadena Public Library at 1355 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena.
This event is sponsored by the Office of the President and the Library division at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
This event is part of the Mapping Fiction Exhibition, ongoing now.
NOTE: See site for details. Tickets may be unavailable.
Where: The Huntington Museum at La Pintoresca Branch Library, Pasadena Public Library
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: 1355 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, CA 91103
Website: https://tickets.huntington.org/events/5e7a2684-ebb6-dc6e-c375-da44d1a12fb6
LibroMobile’s Grand Opening: New Location in Santa Ana – In-Person Event
Join LIbroMobile in celebrating their new location at the Bristol Swap Mall Plaza!
LibroMobile Arts Cooperative (LMAC) intends to empower artists of color and culturally diverse residents in Orange County through social engagement, diverse arts, equitable practices, and direst action. We try to counter the impact of gentrification in the local community and cultivate diversity through a mobile bookstore and cultural center, through their programs, events, and workshops.
Event Schedule:
2 pm: Ribbon Cutting & Blessing by Danza Azteca-Chichimeca
3 pm: Poetry Readings by local poets Jesus Cortez & Gustavo Hernandez.
3:30 pm: OC History Trivia: Featuring a People’s Guide of OC, with co-authors Elaine Lewinnek, Gustavo Arellano, Thuy Vo Dang
NOTE: See site for details on this free event
Where: LibroMobile’s Grand Opening
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol St., A3, Santa, Ana. CA, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/662747171736250
In-Store Signing & Meet and Greet: Catriona Ward & Sundial at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to see author Catriona Ward for an in-store signing of her novel, Sundial.
Sundial is a new, twisty, psychological horror novel from the author of The Last House on Needless Street.
You can’t escape what’s in your blood…
All Rob wanted was a normal life. She almost got it, too: a husband, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs. But Rob fears for her oldest daughter, Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. Rob sees a darkness in Callie, one that reminds her too much of the family she left behind.
She decides to take Callie back to her childhood home, to Sundial, deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice.
Callie is worried about her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely, and speaks of past secrets. And Callie fears that only one of them will leave Sundial alive…
The mother and daughter embark on a dark, desert journey to the past in the hopes of redeeming their future.
NOTE: See site for book purchase, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 2 pm- 4 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/store-signing-catriona-ward-signs-sundial
Saturday Afternoon Poetry & Features: Lynne Bronstein, Patrick Thomas Jeffries & Totie O’Brien & Open Mic – Online Event
Join us at Saturday Afternoon Poetry for an afternoon of poetry readings and an Open Mic, featuring guest artists:
Lynne Bronstein has been a poet and writer contributing to the Los Angeles community for five decades, with four books, poems, and short stories in numerous magazines, readings, and organizing poetry events. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net Awards and her short story “Why Me?” won a prize in the Poetic Diversity Short Fiction Contest.
Patrick Thomas Jeffries has writtendozens of books of poems, unlike any others you have ever read. He has hard hitting visions of this world, and beyond, which he captures in his performance of the poems.
Totie O’Brien is a local poet and writer who makes a living as a self-employed artist, performing musician and professional dancer. Her work has most recently appeared in The Capra Review, The Write Place at The Write Time, Hamline Lit Link, and Bindweed Magazine.
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Zoom Online Event
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Jerry Garcia Book Launch & Trumpets in the Sky & Guests via Moon Tide Press – Online Event
Join us for the Virtual Book Launch of Trumpets in the Sky, by Jerry Garcia.
Daniel McGinn is the author of a full length collection of poems, 1000 Black Umbrellas, released by Write Bloody Press. He’s had five chapbooks published as part of the Laguna Poets chapbook series. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and publications including Bank Heavy, Lummox, Silver Birch Press, the OC Weekly, Next Magazine, Freeze Ray, Spillway, Rip Rap, Re)verb, Amethyst Arsenic and others.
Bryn Wickerd, a VCP SoCal director, is a gender-tender Poet, certified Domestic Violence Advocate, + San Fernando Valley Rat. Bryn has performed in several features/shows and has been published in conjunction to a variety of projects; such as Whittier College’s ekphrastic art gallery: Bridges, The Poetry Circus, Moon Tide Press’s Poet of the month, and more.
& Music by Tucker Smallwood.
Where: Virtual Book Launch by Moon Tide Press – Online (see site)
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/481204800117128/
Stories, Poems and Songs: Listening in Place: A Literary Salon and Video Screening at LA River Public Art Project, Rissho Kosei-kai Buddhist Center – In-Person Event
Join us for the LA River Public Art Project: Stories, Poems and Songs: Listening in Place, hosted by poet and writer Mike Sonksen, and featuring an evening with Tongva Culture Bearer Tina Orduno Calderon, multicultural poets and storytellers celebrating the LA River and the legacy of the late poet and activist Lewis MacAdams.
There will be a screening of the Rodrigo Ribera d’Ebre video on the 2021 Lewis MacAdams Prize, and readings by:
Teresa Mei Chuc was born in Saigon, Vietnam shortly after the Vietnam War, and settled with her family in Pasadena, California. Her father remained in a Vietnamese “reeducation camp” for nine years. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Red Thread (2012), Keeper of the Winds (2014), and Invisible Light (2018). Her many chapbooks include Truth is Black Rubber (2010), Year of the Hare (2013), and How One Loses Notes and Sounds (2016). Chuc’s poetry engages memory, trauma, healing, and her family’s particular history of the Vietnam War.
Kelly Caballero is a Gabrielino Tongva singer-songwriter, performer, poet, and jeweler. Her body of work focuses primarily on highlighting the multifaceted and complex lives of Indigenous peoples born and raised in urban settings. She recently performed her poetry in collaboration with the great cellist, Yo- Yo Ma. Her work has been featured in partnership with The Ford Theater, Hollywood Climate Summit, The Hundreds Streetwear Brand, We Rise LA and much more. She continues to share her personal experience and stories of life, love and Indigenous resilience through her work as a Tongva woman.
Hosting workshops, speaking on panels, and performing are some ways in which Kelly works to educate folks on intersecting identities, history and current achievements and struggles of California Native Nations.
A.K. Toney is a Griot, poet, writer and performance artist, known for his teaching and owner of Reading Is Poetry. He is a musician, songwriter, village historian, and world-traveled poet, with roots in Leimert Park.
Rocio Carlos is the author of Coyolxhauqui, Los Angeles (Archetype Press, 2012), A World Below (Mindmade books, 2014), and co-author of ex.her.pt (wirecutter collective, 2016). Her poems have appeared in Chaparral, Angel City Review, The Spiral Orb and Cultural Weekly. Most recently, her work was included in LACMA’s Pacific Standard Time exhibition, Those of This America. With the poet Terry Wolverton, she participated in the DIS.ARTICULATIONS project through Entropy Magazine. Her collaborative book, Attendance, with the poet Rachel Mcleod Kaminer is from The Operating System (2018). She is co-publisher of the Wirecutter Collective and completed a book entitled (the other house).
Rachel Kaminer Is the author of As in the dark, descend (2016) and Attendance (2018). Her collaborative book, Attendance, with the poet Rocio Carlos is from The Operating System. She grew up in the Blue Ridge of the Appalachian=n Mountains, and lives and works in Los Angeles.
Note: See Eventbrite link for guidelines, tickets and details.
Where: Rissho Kosei-kai Buddhist Center of Los Angeles
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 4 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 2707 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90033
3rd Saturdays Block Party on Pine: Readings & Open Mic by Music Changing Lives & Catalyst Cares – In-Person Event
Join us for our 3rd Saturdays Block Party & Open Mic On PIne in Long Beach to celebrate arts and culture. Enjoy festivities while enjoying good music and great food, while building up local businesses with your family.
This is a free event!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: 3rd Saturdays Block Party & Open Mic
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 5 pm – 9 pm
Address: 433 Pine Ave., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/3rd-saturdays-on-pine-tickets-274362023197
Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Club: Ancestral Night at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for our Sci-Fi % Fantasy Book Club, when we will read and discuss Ancestral Night, by author Elizabeth Bear.
In this book, a space salvager and her partner make the discovery of a lifetime that just might change the universe in this wild, big-ideas space opera from Hugo Award-winning author Elizabeth Bear.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., 30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/sci-fi-fantasy-book-club-ancestral-night
Pages on Stages: Women of World Stage Press and Lynda La Rose’s Book Release at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
Join us for Pages on Stages, consisting of 2 Parts: Women of World Stage Press Reading, Part 1, at 6pm, will be followed by Part 2. Linda La Rose’s book release of Sunshine and Concrete.
World Stage Press readers will include:
Alex Petunia is the author of the poetry collection, Tending My Wild, about running away on all fours back to a forgotten self.
Ravina Wadhwani is a spoken word poet, educator and therapist who embraces her Asian roots and multicultural upbringing. She is the author of her debut poetry collection, YELLOW.
Heather Parker is a poet, performer, healer and author of her debut collection, Loving a Lioness: Poetry in LIfe, Love & Eros.
Nadia Hunter Bey is the author of a debut poetry collection, The Restoration of Orange.
Queen Ex N/A
Lisbeth Coiman is an educator and the author of the memoir, I Asked the Blue Heron, and the bilingual chapbook, Uprising/Alzamiento.
Jasmine Banks is an educator, blogger, and author of Home.
& many more to be announced!
NOTE: See site for details. $10 at the door.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry – Hybrid Event (see site)
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/events or https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/event-details/women-of-world-stage-press-lynda-la-roses-new-book-release
At Skylight: Mikel Jollet & Hollywood Park at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author and Airborne Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollet present and discuss his memoir, Hollywood Park.
Hollywood Park recountsa tumultuous life in on one of the country’s most infamous cults, and subjected to a childhood of poverty, addiction and emotional abuse, and finding a raw poetic voice on his adulthood.
His family was immersed in the commune which later morphed into the Church of Synanon. Raised by a depressed mother, tormented by his angry older brother, subjected to troubled step-fathers, and longing for his ex-con, heroine-addicted father, Jollett build a life that led him to Stanford University and a life as a writer and musician.
This is ultimately a portrait of love at its fiercest and most loyal.
NOTE: See site for book purchase, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-mikel-jollett-presents-hollywood-park
Off-Site via Skylight: Mariko Tamaki, with CB Lee, & COLD: A Novel at Skylight Bookstore – Off-Site YA Event
Join us to hear Canadian YA author Mariko Tamaki, in conversation with Lambda Literary Award-nominated writer CB Cee, present and discuss her book, COLD: A Novel.
COLD is a haunting YA novel about a shocking crime, told by the boy who died and the girl who wants to know why.
Todd Mayer is dead. Now a ghost, hovering over his body, recently discovered in a snow covered park, naked and frozen. As detectives investigate Todd’s homicide, talking to the very people linked to the events leading to his death, Todd replays the choice that led him to his end.
Georgia didn’t know Todd. But ever since she heard about his death, she can’t stop thinking about him. Maybe because they’re both outcasts at their school, or because they’re both queer. Maybe because the story of Todd people keep telling feels like a lot of fake stories Georgia has heard people tell. Plus Georgia has a feeling she’s seen Todd somewhere before, somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be.
NOTE: See site for book purchase, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore – Off-site at Junior High School
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 7 pm (doors at 6 pm)
Address: 603 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA 901204
The Sunday Series: traci kato-kiryama, via The Poetry Lab – Online Event
Join The Sunday Series interactive workshop with instructor traci kato-kiriyama, author most recently of the book Navigating Without Instruments. All are welcome!
The workshop is led by traci kato-kiriyama, an award-winning multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary artist – recognized for their work as a writer, performer, theatre deviser, cultural producer, and community organizer, with recognition and support that includes the Art Matters Foundation; Center for Cultural Innovation; the CA State Senate Breaking Silence Award; ONE Archives Pride Publics; and the NEFA National Theatre Project for TALES OF CLAMOR and PULLproject Ensemble for which she serves as principal writer/performer. traci has been presented at hundreds of venues throughout North America as a writer, poet, actor, storyteller, speaker, guest lecturer, facilitator, and organizing / arts & culture consultant. tkk’s writing, commentary and work appears in numerous media and print publications (incl. NPR; PBS; Elle.com; The Hollywood Reporter; Entropy; Chaparral Canyon Press; Tia Chucha Press; Bamboo Ridge Press; Heyday Books; Regent Press, Temple University Press).
NOTE: See site for registration, cost, and event details.
Where: The Poetry Lab Sunday Series – Online Event
Date: Sunday the 20th
Time: 1 pm – 4 pm
Address: Online Zoom event
Website: https://www.thepoetrylab.com/sunday-series or https://www.thepoetrylab.com/register/sunday-series/tracikatokiriyama
Poetry Reading & Open Mic: The Future Lives in Our Bodies via Beyond Baroque – Online Event
Join us for a Poetry Reading and Open Mic: The Future Lives in Our Bodies, featuring three emerging L.A. poets who identify as disabled, chronically ill, or neuro-diverse.
Joshua Corwin is the author of Drawing a Blank, a debut collection of poems and illustrations published by Tierra del Sol.
Kyle Johnson is the author of Becoming Vulnerable, Baxter Daniels lnk Press/International Word Bank.
Jessica Kim, 2021-2022 L.A. Youth Poet Laureate, and author of the forthcoming debut collection,L(EYE)GHT, to be published by Animal Heart Press in April.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and event details.
Where: Beyond Baroque & L.A. Spoonie Collective – Online Event
Date: Sunday the 20th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: Online Zoom event
Book Launch & Signing: Angelina Saenz and Guests & Edgecliff at Avenue 50 Studios – In-Person Event
Join us for a Poetry Reading and Book Launch for Angelina Saenz’s debut collection, Edgecliff. Written in the three years following a divorce after 22 years of marriage, these poems are about a middle class Chicana who is facing life on her own for the first time. These poems respond to the confusion and pain of a rebound love affair, the courage to pursue an MFA and be in a workshop as an older, first-gen student who never studied literature, the longing and hopes of a single-mother, life under a racist and violent political regime and the everlasting effects of intergenerational trauma in hers and her family’s life. These poems bleed love and hope in the midst of uncertainty and longing.
Special guest readers include:
Olga Gracia is a Los Angeles-based writer and teacher. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Ethnic Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso. Falling Angels: Cuentos Y Poemas is her first book.
chenel king was born and raised in Walnut, CA. She comes from a long line of storytellers and is obsessed with asking: why? Seeking to embody various different voices throughout time, history and space gives this writer the opportunity to provide prospective and bend and break held knowledge. Constantly intrigued and mystified by the obscurities this world, without pause, has to offer, one can’t help but to write. king has a B.A. in English, Creative Writing from San Francisco State University (2011) and an M.F.A. in Writing from Otis College of Art and Design (2018). king is the author of A Map Back to Us.
Frankie Hernandez N/A
Lindsey Haley was raised in Venice. Her family was part of the Chicano wave that set roots in the Westside during the 1960’s and 1970’s. She is a Chicano poet, activist and playwright from Venice, CA and a current producer at Casa 101 Theater.
MC, Susan Gonzales
NOTE: See site for RSVP and event details.
Where: Avenue 50 Studios
Date: Sunday the 20th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 131 N. Avenue 50, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: facbook.com/events/507556774316847
Bucket List Book Club & Dr. Zhivago, Parts 1-7 at Cellar Door Books – On-site Event
Join us for the Bucket List Book Club discussion of Boris Pasternak’s novel, Dr. Zhivago. We will read Parts 1-7 for this meeting.
Dr. Zhivago was first published in Italy in 1957 amid international controversy. It’s the story of the lives and loves of a poet/physician during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution, who takes his family from Moscow to what he hopes will be shelter in the Ural Mountains. Instead he becomes embroiled in the battle between the Reds and Whites. Set against this backdrop of cruelty and strife is Zhivago’s love for the tender and beautiful Lara, the very embodiment of the pain and chaos of those cataclysmic times.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 20th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/bucket-list-book-club-doctor-zhivago-parts-1-7
Ora Nadrich & Mindfulness and Mysticism at Diesel Bookstore – On-site Event
Join us for a discussion and signing with author Ora Nadrich on her book, Mindfulness and Mysticism: Connecting Present Moment Awareness with Higher States of Consciousness.
This is a book about bringing together the practice of Mindfulness with a spiritual understanding of becoming one with a higher consciousness, which can be called God, a supreme-being, source, unity consciousness, or oneness. The author takes the reader into a non-religious experience of mysticism by giving them what she calls “sacred truths”, which are universal principles, or divine laws every human being can live by if they choose to be present with the mystery of life.
NOTE: See site for book purchase, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore – in the Courtyard
Date: Sunday the 20th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/ora-nadrich
At Skylight: Garrett Hongo, with Viet Thanh Nguyen, & The Perfect Sound at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for a discussion and signing with author Garrett Hongo, in conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen (The Sympathizer), for his book, The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo.
The Perfect Sound is about a poet’s audio obsession, from collecting his earliest vinyl to his quest for the ideal vacuum tubes, which offers us an indispensable guide for the “search of truth.”
Garrett Hongo’s passion for audio dates back to the Empire 398 turntable his father paired with a Dynakit tube amplifier in their modest tract home in Los Angeles in the early 1960s. But his adult quest begins in the CD-changer era, as he seeks out speakers and amps both powerful and refined enough to honor the top notes of the greatest opera sopranos. In recounting this search, he describes a journey of identity where meaning, fulfillment, and even liberation were often most available to him through music and its astonishingly varied delivery systems.
Hongo writes about the sound of surf being his first music as a kid in Hawaiʻi, about doo-wop and soul reaching out to him while growing up among Black and Asian classmates in L.A., about Rilke and Joni Mitchell as the twin poets of his adolescence, and about feeling the pulse of John Coltrane’s jazz and the rhythmic chords of Billy Joel’s piano from his car radio while driving the freeways as a young man trying to become a poet.
Journeying further, he visits devoted collectors of decades-old audio gear as well as designers of the latest tube equipment, listens to sublime arias performed at La Scala, hears a ghostly lute at the grave of English Romantic poet John Keats in Rome, drinks in wisdom from blues musicians and a diversity of poetic elders while turning his ear toward the memory-rich strains of the music that has shaped him: Hawaiian steel guitar and canefield songs; Bach and the Band; Mingus, Puccini, and Duke Ellington. And in the decades-long process of perfecting his stereo setup, Hongo also discovers his own now-celebrated poetic voice.
NOTE: See site for book purchase, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 20th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-garrett-hongo-presents-perfect-sound-viet-thanh-nguyen
Los Angeles Literature 