NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here
Donna Rifkind & The Sun and Her Stars via Northridge Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Author Donna Rifkind discusses her book The Sun and Her Stars: Salka Viertel and Hitler’s Exiles in the Golden Age of Hollywood, and this fascinating chapter of L.A. history, in honor of Jewish American History Month.
In the 1930s, thousands of Jews and anti-fascists fleeing Nazi Germany found themselves in Los Angeles. Many of them were internationally famous filmmakers, musicians, and writers who gathered on Sundays at the home of Salka Viertel, an MGM screenwriter and best friend of the actress Greta Garbo. Donna Rifkind is a book critic whose work appears in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and many other publications, and the author of this book.
NOTE: See site for RSVP & event details.
Where: Northridge Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: LAPL – Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/donna-rifkind-discusses-sun-and-her-stars
Book Club Bonanza: Let’s Celebrate Asian Pacific Voices via Central Library, LAPL – Online Teen Event
Teens may join our librarians online as they share activities and discuss The Best We Could Do, by Thi Bui and Flamer, by Mike Curato, to celebrate Asian Pacific voices in YA literature and also celebrate and join the Big Read.
Watch past episodes on YouTube for more book recommendations.
NOTE: See site for RSVP & event details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: LAPL – Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-bonanza-lets-celebrate-asian-pacific-voices
Author Talk: Olga Lazin & Statism via Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Please join us to hear Dr. Olga Lazin present and discuss her book, Statism: Its Recurring Cycles in Mexico and Romania, describing how political structures in those two countries evolved through history..
NOTE: See site for RSVP & event details.
Where: Westwood Banach Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 6 pm
Address: LAPL – Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/author-talk-olga-lazin
Brad Listi, with Melissa Chadburn & Milo Martin, & Be Brief and Tell Them Everything at Stories Books & Cafe – In-Person Event
Author Brad Listi, in conversation with Melissa Chadburn & Milo Martin, will present and discuss his new book, Be Brief and Tell Them Everything.
This book is a darkly funny meditation on creativity and family, tracking the life of a middle-aged author struggling to write his next novel while coming to grips with his son’s disabilities, all set against a backdrop of ecological catastrophe and escalating human insanity in Los Angeles. This book documents the starts and stops of adulthood and marriage, the joys and challenges of parenthood, while defining what it means to be a good man, and a good writer.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books Café
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
At Skylight: Hernan Diaz & Trust at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Hernan Diaz will present and discuss his new book,TRUST, which is a novel about money, power, intimacy, and perception.
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
Hernan Diaz’s TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another—and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that spans over a century and becomes more exhilarating with each new revelation.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-hernan-diaz-presents-trust
Rachel M. Harper, with Daniel Alexander Jones, & The Other Mother: A Novel at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Rachel M. Harper, in conversation with author Daniel Alexander Jones, discuss her new novel, The Other Mother.
Jenry Castillo is a musical prodigy, raised by a single mother in Miami. He arrives at Brown University on a scholarship–but also to learn more about his late father, Jasper Patterson, a famous ballet dancer who died tragically when Jenry was two. On his search, he meets his estranged grandfather, Winston Patterson, a legendary professor of African American history and a fixture at the Ivy League school, who explodes his world with one question: Why is Jenry so focused on Jasper, when it was Winston’s daughter, Juliet, who was romantically involved with Jenry’s mother? Juliet is the parent he should be looking for—his other mother.
Revelation follows revelation as each member of Jenry’s family steps forward to tell the story of his origin, uncovering a web of secrecy that binds this family together even as it keeps them apart. Moving seamlessly between the past and the present, this novel is a daring, ambitious novel that celebrates the complexities of love and resilience—masterfully exploring the intersections of race, class, and sexuality; the role of biology in defining who belongs to whom; and the complicated truth of what it means to be a family. (Counterpoint LLC)
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado St., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/rachel-m-harper-discusses-the-other-mother
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 16th
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-337343151447
Celebrate Chicano Culture: The Poetry of Literary Artist Matt Sedillo at El Camino College at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Los Angeles literary artist and political poet Matt Sedillo will discuss his life, works and experiences as a Chicano poet as parto f our celebration of Chicano LIterary Culture.
Matt Sedillo is the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass and City on the Second Floor.
NOTE: See site for guideiines and details.
Where: El Camino College, Distance Education Room
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 11:30 am- 1 pm
Address: 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance, CA 90506
Website: https://www.elcamino.edu/events/chicano-culture/index.aspx
Luncheon with Maggie Shipstead: Book Launch of You Have a Friend in 10A at Skay Italian Kitchen – In-Person Event
Pages hosts a luncheon celebrating the publication of Maggie Shipstead’s’ new book, You Have a Friend in 10A at Slay’s Italian Kitchen. Shipstead’s last novel, Great Circle was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was a {pages} staff and Coffee Time Book Club favorite of 2021.
In this book, her first collection of stories, knockout after knockout, Shipstead delivers another “extraordinary” (New York Times) work of fiction and seals her reputation as a writer of “breathtaking range and skill” (Kirkus Reviews). Rich in imagination and dazzling in its shapeshifting style, You Have a Friend in 10A excavates the complexities of love, sex, and life in ways unsparing and hilarious, sharp-eyed and tender. The stories are exquisite in their craft and audacious in their range.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore at Slay Italian Kitchen
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 11:30 am- 1 pm
Address: 1001 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/luncheon-shipstead-slay
Mysterious Book Club: The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths at Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Mysterious Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths, in person on our patio. This is the first book in the Brighton Mystery series form the author of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries.
This new series starts with a band of magicians who served together in World War II tracking a killer who’s performing their deadly tricks. Come join us for one of our first in-person discussions at the library. It’s always a fun and interesting time.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, and details.
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – on the Patio
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 1:30 pm
Address: 861 Alma Real Drive, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mysterious-book-club
Literary Uprising Quarterly Reading Series: Aminah Mae Safi, Melissa Chadburn, Aaron Angello, Maggie Morris, Lisbeth Coiman via Antioch University LA & Two Hawks Quarterly – Online Event
Come to the Antioch University LA Literary Uprising Reading to hear Five Featured readers:
AUBA alum Aaron Angello, author of the hybrid work The Fact of Memory: 114 Ruminations and Fabrications;
Maggie Morris, UCLA Extension Program reader and winner of their 2021 Allegra Johnson Prize for her memoir-in-progress Stone;
Women Who Submit reader Lisbeth Coiman, author of the poetry collection Uprising/Alzamietno;
MFA alum Melissa Chadburn, author of the new novel A Tiny Upward Shove;
MFA faculty member Aminah Ma Safi, author of the novel Travelers Along the Way: A Robin Hood Remix.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Antioch University’s Quarterly Literary Uprising
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: Online (see site)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/461391322423973
Book Club Discussion of Shit Cassandra Saw, by Owen E. Kirby at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Join our monthly book club discussion of Shit Cassandra Saw, by Owen E. Kirby.
Dive into this new collection of humorous short stories of time travel and talk about what we did and didn’t like about the book.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/16901
Chelsea Barker, with Stephaine Danler, & Heartbroke, at Book Soup –Online Event
Join us to hear Chelsea Baker, in conversation with Stephanie Danler, present and discuss her book, Heartbroke.
United by the stark and sprawling landscapes of California’s Central Valley, the characters of Heartbroke boil with reckless desire. A woman steals a baby from a shelter in an attempt to recoup her own lost motherhood. A phone-sex operator sees divine opportunity when a lavender-eyed cowboy walks into her life. A mother and a son selling dream catchers along a highway that leads to a toxic beach manifest two young documentary filmmakers into their realm. And two teenage girls play a dangerous online game with destiny.
This novel brims over with each character’s attempt to salvage grace where they can find it. Told in bright, snapping prose that reveals a world of loss and love underneath, Chelsea Baker brilliantly illuminates a golden yet gothic world of longing and abandonment under an unrelenting California sun. (Catapult)
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/chelsea-bieker-conversation-stephanie-danler-discusses-heartbroke
Rachel M. Harper, with Daniel Alexander Jones, & The Other Mother: A Novel at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Rachel M. Harper, in conversation with author Daniel Alexander Jones, discuss her new novel, The Other Mother.
Jenry Castillo is a musical prodigy, raised by a single mother in Miami. He arrives at Brown University on a scholarship—but also to learn more about his late father, Jasper Patterson, a famous ballet dancer who died tragically when Jenry was two. On his search, he meets his estranged grandfather, Winston Patterson, a legendary professor of African American history and a fixture at the Ivy League school, who explodes his world with one question: Why is Jenry so focused on Jasper, when it was Winston’s daughter, Juliet, who was romantically involved with Jenry’s mother? Juliet is the parent he should be looking for–his other mother.
Revelation follows revelation as each member of Jenry’s family steps forward to tell the story of his origin, uncovering a web of secrecy that binds this family together even as it keeps them apart. Moving seamlessly between the past and the present, this novel is a daring, ambitious novel that celebrates the complexities of love and resilience—masterfully exploring the intersections of race, class, and sexuality; the role of biology in defining who belongs to whom; and the complicated truth of what it means to be a family. (Counterpoint LLC)
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado St., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/rachel-m-harper-discusses-the-other-mother
At Skylight: Maggie Shipstead, with Aja Gabel, & You have a Friend in 10A at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join author Maggie Shipstead, in conversation with Aja Gabel, to discuss her new novel, You Have Friend in 10A.
This is a first collection of stories from theBooker Prize nominee and New York Times best-selling author of Great Circle, a piercing, irresistible first collection of short stories exquisite in their craft and audacious in their range.
.In these and other stories, knockout after knockout, Maggie Shipstead delivers another “extraordinary” (New York Times) work of fiction and seals her reputation as a writer of “breathtaking range and skill” (Kirkus Reviews). Rich in imagination and dazzling in its shapeshifting style, You Have a Friend in 10A excavates the complexities of love, sex, and life in ways unsparing and hilarious, sharp-eyed and tender
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-maggie-shipstead-presents-you-have-friend-10a-aja-gabel
Tuesdays at the Virtual Cobalt: Poets Series Presents: Open Reading & Patricia Smith – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest poet Patricia Smith.
Patricia Smith has been called “a testament to the power of words to change lives.” She is the author of eight books of poetry, including Incendiary Art (2017), winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, an NAACP Image Award, and finalist for both the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize; Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah (2012), which won the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets; Blood Dazzler (2008), a chronicle of the human and environmental cost of Hurricane Katrina which was nominated for a National Book Award; and Teahouse of the Almighty, a 2005 National Poetry Series selection published by Coffee House Press. In 2021 she was awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.
Smith is a distinguished professor of English for the City University of New York and a lecturer in creative writing at Princeton University. Her next poetry book, upcoming in 2022, will combine dramatic monologues with 19th century photos of African Americans from her extensive private collection. She is currently working on her first novel.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 10th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/cale ndar.html
Da Poetry Lounge IG Live Open MIc Night – IG Live Event
Every Tuesday (except for 3rd Tuesdays and special events) Da Poetry Lounge holds open mic nights. At an open mic, all are welcome to share their poetry or sit in the audience.
See sites for details.
Where: DA Poetry Lounge
Date: Tuesday the 17th (Check to Verify details).
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm
Address: IG Live (see site)
Website: https://www.instagram.com/dapoetrylounge_com/
SOM Tuesdays Open Mic at Di Piazza’s Pizza, Long Beach – In-Person Event
SOM Open Mic Tuesdays at Di Piazza’s are back! Come and share music, comedy, and poetry with us.
Where: Di Piazza’s Pizza (Check to verify)
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 9 pm – 12 am
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA
Coffee Time Book Club & Young Mungo, by Douglas Stuart, at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join our Coffee Time Book Club, facilitated by Linda McLoughlin Figel, to discuss our next monthly selection, Young Mungo, by author Douglas Stuart.
This second book by the author of 2020 Booker Prize winner Shuggie Bain, a literary tour-de-force is a vivid portrayal of working class life and a moving and suspenseful story of the dangerous first love between two young men in Scotland, Mungo and James, who meet when they discover in the pigeon dovecote that James builds for his racing birds. This book is a gripping and revealing story about the bounds of masculinity, the divisions of sectarianism, the violence faced by many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines and event details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Wednesday 18th
Time: 10 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/coffee-time-book-club-6
Middle Grade Book Club & Yusuf Azeem Is Not a Hero, by Saadia Faruqi, at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Join our Middle Grade Book Club to discuss our next monthly selection, Yusuf Azeem Is Not a Hero, by author Saadia Faruqi.
At a time when we are all asking questions about identity, grief, and how to stand up for what is right, this book by the author of A Thousand Questions will hit home with young readers who love Hena Khan and Varian Johnson—or anyone struggling to understand recent U.S. history and how it still affects us today.
Yusuf Azeem has spent all his life in the small town of Frey, Texas—and nearly that long waiting for the chance to participate in the regional robotics competition, which he just knows he can win.
Only, this year is going to be more difficult than he thought. Because this year is the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, an anniversary that has everyone in his Muslim community on edge.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines and event details.
Where: Pages Bookstore in the Courtyard
Date: Wednesday 18th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/middle-grade-book-club-5
Young Adult Book Club & loveless, by Alice Oseman, at Pages Bookstore – In-Person YA Event
Join our Young Adult Book Club to discuss our next monthly selection, loveless, by author Alice Oseman..
From the marvelous author of Heartstopper comes an exceptional YA novel about discovering that it’s okay if you don’t have sexual or romantic feelings for anyone . . . since there are plenty of other ways to find love and connection.
Georgia doesn’t understand why she can’t crush, kiss, and make out lie her friends do. It’s not until she gets to college that she discovers the A range of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum—coming to understand herself as asexual/aromantic. Disrupting the narrative that she’s been told since birth isn’t easy—there are many mistakes along the way to inviting people into a newly found articulation of an always-known part of your identity. But Georgia’s determined to get her life right, with the help of (and despite the major drama of) her friends.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines and event details.
Where: Pages Bookstore in the Courtyard
Date: Wednesday 18th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/young-adult-book-club-8
A Reading by California Youth Poets Laureate via Beyond Baroque Literary arts Center – Online Event
Join Urban Word Beyond Baroque online for a Virtual Reading by California Youth Poets Laureate, featuring twelve poets from north to southern regions of the state:
Ella Wen, Zoya Ahmed, Zoe Dorado, Anna Yang, Genesis Perez, Madeleine Hur, Chloe Chou, Tina Mai, Sidney Reggelbruge, Adriana Avalos, Madeline Miller, Kundai Chikowero,
This virtual event is open to the public and all California youth poets (13 – 19 years old). California organizational leaders are also welcome to attend.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Wednesday 18th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Zoom (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-reading-by-california-youth-poets-laureate-tickets-334858249037
The Three Act Poem Writer’s Workshop with Matt Sedillo, Chicano Political Poet – In-Person Event
Please join The Three Act Poem Writer’s Workshop with Matt Sedillo, Chicano Political Poet.
Matt Sedillo is the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass and City on the Second Floor (Flower Song Press).
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Re/Arte centro literio
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2014 ½ East Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Rachel Ignotofsky & The History of the Computer at Vroman’s Bookstore – Online Event
Author Rachel Ignotofsky will discuss her book, The History of the Computer: People, Inventions, and Technology That Changed Our World.
Computers are everywhere and have impacted our lives in so many ways. But who created them, and why? How have they transformed the way that we interact with our surroundings and each other?
Packed with accessible information, fun facts, and discussion starters, this charming and art-filled book takes you from the ancient world to the modern day, focusing on important inventions, from the earliest known counting systems to the sophisticated algorithms behind AI. The History of the Computer also profiles a diverse range of key players and creators–from An Wang and Margaret Hamilton to Steve Jobs and Sir Tim Berners-Lee–and illuminates their goals, their intentions, and the impact of their inventions on our everyday lives.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Vroman’s online (see site)
Wellness Wednesday Writing Workshop with Iris De Anda, via Mujeres se Maiz – Online Event
Please join poet and author Iris De Anda for a wellness writing workshop. Her new book is titled Roots of Redemption: You Have No Right to Remain Silent.
Iris De Anda is a Guanaca Tapatia poet, speaker & musician who has been featured with KPFK & KPFA Pacifica Radio, organized with Academy of American Poets, performed at Los Angeles Latino Book Festival, Feria del Libro Tijuana, Mexico, Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba and is named one of Today’s Revolutionary Women of Color. She is the author of Codeswitch: Fires from Mi Corazon with Los Writers Underground Press 2014 & Roots of Redemption: You Have No Right to Remain Silent with Flowersong Press 2022.
NOTE: See site for link and event details.
Where: Mujeres de Maiz
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Free Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/writing-wednesday-w-iris-de-anda-tickets-329265370587
At Skylight: Mark Rozzo, with Ed Ruscha, & Everybody Thought We Were Crazy at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Author and Vanity Fair contributing editor Mark Rozzo, in conversation with fine artist and author Ed Ruscha, will discuss his book, Everybody Thought We Were Crazy: Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and 1960s Los Angeles (Ecco).
This is the author’s recounting of the stylish, wild story of the marriage of Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward—a tale of love, art, Hollywood, and heartbreak. Everybody Thought We Were Crazy is at once a fascinating account of the Hopper and Hayward union and a deeply researched, panoramic cultural history. It’s the intimate saga of one couple whose own rise and fall—from youthful creative flowering to disorder and chaos—mirrors the very shape of the decade.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
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
Suggested: $5.00 Donation via PayPal: The World Stage Gallery.
NOTE: See site for further details, and any change in the schedule. Contact kaliflowers@gmial.com or call (323) 293-2451
Where: The World Stage (Eventbrite)
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Dengan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.theworldstage.org/events.html
The Queer-O-Sphere Open Mic at New Profanity – In-Person Event
Join us for a night of queer-centric poetry, spoken word, and acoustic music!
This month’s theme is “Bloom” focusing on coming-of-age stories.
Hosted by the amazing Hitchcock Blonde
Performers can sign up at queerartistscollab.com
This event is brought to you by New Profanity and Queer Artists Collab.
NOTE: See site for cost and further details.
Where: New Profanity
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 7706 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90046
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-queer-o-sphere-open-mic-tickets-333904967747?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
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 Jose Hernandez Diaz.
Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020). His work appears in The American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Colorado Review, Huizache, Iowa Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, The Yale Review, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading Anthology 2011. He teaches creative writing online and edits for Frontier Poetry.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets and information.
Where: Online event (Eventbrite)
Date: Wednesday the 18th
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-339110487597
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry & Linda Ravenswood 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 an Open Mic reading. Tonight’s featured artist is Linda Ravenswood.
Linda Ravenswood (BFA, MA, PhD abd) is a poet and performance artist from Los Angeles. She’s winner of The Yefe Nof Award (2019), first finalist for The International Beverly Prize, three times nominated for The Pushcart Prize, and was short listed for poet laureate of WeHo, LA, & El Segundo an aggregate 5 times! (Bridesmaid Forever!) Linda’s a frequent collaborator with BBLA, The Poetry Society of New York, Red Light Lit, Angels Gate Arts Center, The Poetry Brothel, and LARB. Find her at LACMA, Hauser Wirth Gallery, Medicine For Nightmares & Beyond Baroque this summer. She’s the founding editor of The Los Angeles Press. www.thelosangelespress.com
Recent books include rock waves / sloe drags (forthcoming from Eyewear London, Black Spring Press Group, 2022); The Stan Poems (Pedestrian Press, 2022); Tlacuilx (ed. Hinchas Press, 2021); The George Perry Floyd Jr. Poetry Anthology (ed. The Los Angeles Press, 2022); XLA Poets (ed. Hinchas Press, 2021)
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
Date: Wednesday the 18th
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/694616058401248
LA MADE: Rise: Pop History of Asian America via Central Library, LAPL – Online Event
Please join LA MADE for Rise: Pop History of Asian America, a candid conversation with Jeff Yang, Phil Yu, and Philip Wang, authors of the New York Times and L.A. Times bestselling book, Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now. Rise is a love letter to and for Asian Americans—a vivid scrapbook of voices, emotions, and memories from an era in which our culture was forged and transformed, and an intimate, eye-opening, and frequently hilarious guided tour through Asian America’s pop culture touchstones from the 90s, 2000s, 2010s, and beyond.
Those attending the virtual program will have an opportunity to win a free book.
Streaming live on the library’s YouTube channel.
NOTE: See site for link, RSVP, and event details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL – Online Event
Date: Thursday 19th
Time: 4 pm
Address: LAPL – Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/rise-pop-history-asian-america
Jason Tanamor, with Grace Talusan, & LOVE, DANCE & EGG ROLLS, at Bel Canto Bookstore – Online YA Event
Join us to hear Jason Tanamor, in conversation with Grace Talusan (THE BODY PAPERS). to hear them present and discuss his book, LOVE, DANCE & EGG ROLLS.
This YA book places Filipino culture and folk dancing front and center in a high school drama about finding identity during racial tensions in America.
Jamie Santiago loves dancing Tinikling, a Filipino tradition that he doesn’t always share with his white friends and classmates. It’s hard enough balancing the demands of high school life, but with rising protests in Portland and a racist bully making his life miserable, Jamie can’t help but hide his Filipino side altogether. When Jamie finds out that the last ever Asian Folk Festival falls on the same day as Homecoming, he must decide whether his girlfriend and best friends are more important than his love of dancing. Filipino tradition can take a back seat, or can it?
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, and event details.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 199h
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/jason-tanamor-for-love/register
Natalie Even Garett, with Aja Gabel, Lev Grossman, & Maggie Shipstead, & The Lonely Stories, at Book Soup – Online Event
Join us to hear Natalie Eve Garrett, in conversation with Aja Gabel, Lev Grossman, & Maggie Shipstead, to hear them present and discuss her book, The Lonely Stories.
If you’re feeling lonely or if you’ve ever felt unseen, if you’re emboldened by solitude or secretly longing for it: Welcome to The Lonely Stories. This cathartic collection of essays illuminates an experience that so few of us openly discuss. Some stories are heartbreaking, such as Jesmyn Ward’s reckoning with the loss of her husband and Dina Nayeri’s reflection on immigrating to a foreign country. Others are witty, such as Lev Grossman’s rueful tale of heading to the woods or Anthony Doerr’s struggles with internet addiction. Still others celebrate the clarity of solitude, like Claire Dederer’s journey toward sobriety and Lidia Yuknavitch’s sensual look at desire. Thoughtful and affirming, The Lonely Stories reveals the complexities of an emotion we’ve all felt–reminding us that we’re not alone. (Catapult)
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, and event details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 199h
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Charles Harper Webb and Carleton Eastlake Present: Ursula Lake and Monkey Business at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Join authors Charles Harper Webb and Carleton Eastlke, to hear them present their books: Ursula Lake and Monkey Business, respectively.
Webb’s Ursula Lake is a fast-paced, sexy, and very scary literary thriller, in which a husband and wife trying to save their marriage and a rock musician trying to get his career back on track find big trouble, natural and possibly supernatural, in the spellbinding wilds of British Columbia. (Red Hen Press).
Eastlake’s Monkey Business is a fast-moving Hollywood satirical adventure and deeply revelatory love story with a comprehensive look at the reality of producing a TV series. (Red Hen Press).
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Bett Williams, with Rosemary Carroll and Larry Foundation & The Wild Kindness at Stories Books & Cafe – In-Person Event
Author Bett Williams, in conversation with Rosemary Carroll & Larry Fondation, will present and discuss qa multimedia event for The Wild Kindness.
The Wild Kindness: A Psilocybin Odyssey is a lyrical, unforgettable memoir of the author’s relationship with psilocybin mushrooms, otherwise known as magic mushrooms. She begins experimenting with mushrooms in solitary ceremonies by the fire. Word soon gets out about her New Mexican desert mushroom farm, though, and people arrive in droves. Not long after, the police read her her Miranda Rights, her relationships fall out of whack, and her dog Rosie just might be CIA.
On a quest to find help through the psychedelic community, Bett is led to Cleveland to meet Kai Wingo, an African American leader within a high-dose psilocybin community, and to Huautla de Jiménez, home of well-known, well-respected curandera María Sabina. Back home, Bett begins a solid ritual practice with the help of her partner and friends, bearing in mind the medicine’s indigenous roots and power to transform one’s life.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 7 pm- 8 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
At Scripps College: Emily St. John Mandel, with Seija Rankin & Patrick Somerville, & Sea of Tranquiity via Skylight Bookstore Off-site – In-Person Event
Author Emily St. John Mandel, in conversation with Seija Rankin & Patrick Somerville, will present her new novel, Sea of Tranquility, a modern dark fantasy of betrayals, cabals, and a diss
The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.
Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core.
Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.
When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: This is a novel time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Scripps College, Garrison Theater
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 241 E. 10th St., Claremont, CA 91711
TNM: HUMAN ZOOM-IN with Shari Foos via The Narrative Method – Online Zoom Event
Please join Shari Foos every Thursday for The Narrative Method: Human Zoom-In to expand perspectives through storytelling and real connections.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, event details.
Where: Shari Foos TNM Workshop – Online Zoom event
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 7 pm – 8:15 pm
Address: Online via Zoom (see site)
Website: Facebook
Fos–Thursday & FOST Artistic Collective Present: Freedom of Speech Open Mic with Sabor y Cultura Café – In-Person & Online IG Event
Please help FOS’s in-person venue Sabor y Cultura with the link in the bio. Open Mic is currently only on IG Live at 8 pm PST, with sign-ups open on Wednesday at 3pm PST.
NOTE: See site for cost, event details.
Where: Freedom of Speech (FOS) Open Mic – In-Person & Online IG event
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 665 N. Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.instagram.com/fos_thursdays/ or https://www.instagram.com/p/CbQpRzPv5qe/
Last Words: Giving Victims a Voice Workshop by David Romero at UC Riverside – Student Event
Please join this Spoken word Poetry Workshop to honor Victims of hate crimes and/or police brutality a voice! Presented by David A. Romero, author of My Name Is Romero, with Briana Muñoz, author of Everything Is Returned to the Soil.
Participants receive a card with the name and information of a victim. Each story is read aloud. After observing a moment of silence, participants write poems from the perspective of these individuals; often painfully capturing their last moments. This workshop helps participants learn more about people of different races, genders, sexual orientations, gender identities, and economic backgrounds.
Each participant is made to swear an oath before they begin writing, “I solemnly swear, to tell the story of my person as truthfully and sincerely as possible. I do this to honor their memory, call attention to the injustice of their death, and support those who continue to live with their struggle. I might not know much about the person I have been given. That’s ok. I have an imagination. I can use it. I understand that not everyone here will know as much about these people as I might, or understand their struggle as clearly. I promise not to judge anyone for their interpretation of these last words and moments as long as I feel that what they are writing is in the spirit of sincerity and solidarity.”
Participants are given time to write their poems and are encouraged to read their poems aloud in front of the group. This is followed by an open discussion on the feelings evoked from the workshop and the many issues presented.
***45 random students who contribute will receive a book following the event that will include everyone’s poetry, who wishes to be published.***
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: UC Riverside
Date: Friday 20th
Time: 11 am – 1 am
Address: 900 University Ave., Riverside, CA 92521
Special In-Person Event with Zach Smith & Dolphin Girl at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Join us for a special in-person event with children’s author Zach Smith, as he shares his graphic novel series Dolphin Girl.
In Dolphin Girl superheroes protect and do battle in smalltown Deerburbia, Michigan. Our good guys, Dolphin Girl and Captain Dugong (a relative of the manatee) work out of their tropical themed restaurant Pizza Paradise.
One day while dad is training Dolphin Girl in signature moves (Blowhole cannon! Extreme Breath Holding!), Dolphin Girl and Dad discover their rivals are up to evil. But when Captain Dugong suddenly flakes out on Dolphin Girl, she must summon her inner sea mammal. With new recruit Pizza Paradise’s employee Keith to help out, Dolphin Girl sets out to defeat Sea Cow!
Books purchased from {pages} can be signed and personalized at the event OR order ahead and pickup either at the store or the event!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines and event details.
Where: Pages Bookstore – in the Courtyard
Date: Friday 20th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/zach-smith-may22
Bookish Author Event: Don Winslow, Melissa Chadburn, & Mark Rozzo: Presented by SoCal News Group and Hosted by Sandra Tsing Loh via Once Upon a Time Bookstore – Online Zoom Event
Join us for our monthly Bookish discussion with notable authors sharing their work, featuring:
Don Winslow is the author of City on Fire: A Novel, in which two criminal empires together control all of New England. Until a beautiful woman comes between the Irish and the Italians, launching a war that will see them kill each other, destroy an alliance, and set a city on fire.
Melissa Chadburn is the author of A Tiny Upward Shove: A Novel, inspired by the author’s Filipino heritage and its folklore, as it traces the too-short life of a young, cast-off woman transformed by death into an agent of justice—or mercy.
Mark Rozzois the author of Everybody Though We Were Crazy: Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and 1960s Los Angeles. This book is a stylish, wild story of the marriage of Dennis Hopper and Brooke Hayward—a tale of love, art, Hollywood, and heartbreak.
Sandra Tsing Loh is the author of The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchases, and event details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday 20th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/bookish-may-2022
Melissa Rivers & Lies My Mother Told Me: Tall Tales from a Short Woman at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Join us to hear TV personality and producer Melissa Rivers present and discuss her new book about her mother, comic Joan Rivers, Lies My Mother Told Me: Tall Tales from a Short Woman.
If you think Joan Rivers said funny, outrageous, and ridiculous things ONSTAGE, wait ’til you read the funny, outrageous, and ridiculous things she said OFFSTAGE…things that will make you laugh out loud…and keep Melissa in therapy for the foreseeable future. The only thing my mother loved more than making people laugh was lying…or as she’d say, “embellishing.” Her motto was: “Why let the truth ruin a good story?” This book contains some of those stories. (Post Hill Press)
NOTE: See site for book purchase and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Book Talk: Johnathan Martin & Alexander Burns, with Adam Nagourney, & This Will Not Pass Launch at Chevalier’s – In-Person Event
Authors Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns, in conversation with Adam Nagourney, will discuss This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future.
This is the authoritative account of an eighteen-month crisis in American democracy that will be sear ed into the country’s political memory for decades to come. With stunning, in-the-room detail, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns show how both our political parties confronted a series of national traumas, including the coronavirus pandemic, the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and the political brinksmanship of President Biden’s first year in the White House.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Friday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Married to the Word: A Reading with Lou Matthews & Allison Turner at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – Online Event
Join Beyond Baroque for an in-person reading of new works by L.A.’s literary couple, Lou Mathews and Alison Turner, with an introduction by Suzanne Lummis.
Lou Mathews is the infamous L.A. author if Just Like James, and L.A. Breakdown, and he will present this latest novel, Shakey Town (Tiger Van Books), Jim Gavin calls it “a peerless chronicle of working-class Los Angeles, capturing his beloved hometown in all its tragedy and knuckleheaded glory.” He is a journalist, playwright, author, and former mechanic and street racer who has received many awards for his work, and has taught at UCLA Extension Writer’s Program since 1989.
Alison Turner is celebrating the release of her debut poetry collection, The Second Split Between, winner of the 2021 Catamaran Poetry Prize for West Coast Poets, selected by Dorianne Laux. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including The American Poetry Journal, Hudson Review, Catamaran, and Poetry East.
Suzanne Lummis, award-winning L.A. poet, arts organizer and impresario, will introduce the readers and event, and it will be followed by an outdoor reception and refreshments.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Friday 20th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
Book Club for Middle Grade Readers: Out of My Heart by Sharon M. Draper via Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – Online Kids Event
Please join us for our Middle Grade Readers Book Club discussion of Out of My Heart, by Sharon M. Draper.
In this sequel to the acclaimed New York Times bestselling middle grade novel, Out of My Mind, Melody is a year older and braver, and must now face her fears and allow her passion to help her find a summer camp for disabled kids.
Please e-mail gkimIn @lapl.org for the Zoom login information.
NOTE: See site for link and event details.
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 10:30 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-middle-grade-readers-out-my-heart-sharon-m-draper
Indie Bookstore Field Trips #4: Now Serving & Hennessey + Ingalls (LA) Presented by Bel Canto Bookstore – In-Person Event
Please join us for an Indie Bookstore Field Trip to Now Serving + Henessey & Ingalls, in our Event #4 to Chinatown and the LA Arts District.
Once a month, we’ll host a FREE Saturday morning meetup at 1–2 bookstores in varying neighborhoods around SoCal. We’ll begin with free browsing time and end by circling up outside to introduce ourselves and share about any new books we bought or discovered. In certain n months, we may even be given private tours by the bookshop owners, as well!
Did you know there is a challenge to visit twenty-two bookstores in 2022? Read more about the #22in22 challenge and sign up if you’d like to join in the fun.
Your Field Trip Leaders:
Christy Krumm Richard is an author and freelance copy editor living in Long Beach, California with her husband and her toddler son (who will likely be making multiple appearances at bookstore field trips throughout the year). Her favorite genres to read are memoir and literary fiction. She also loves a good poem and any story that is set in a fascinating city or setting.
Jhoanna Belfer is a lifelong book nerd, travel addict, and owner/founder of Bel Canto Books in Long Beach, California, which was featured in Bibliophile: Diverse Spines. Her favorite genres to read are literary fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, and graphic memoir. Two bookstores on her travel bucket list are Loyalty Bookstore in Washington, DC and Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia.
Once a month, Bel Canto will host a FREE Saturday morning meetup at 1-2 bookstores in varying neighborhoods around SoCal. They will begin with FREE browsing time and end by circling up outside to introduce themselves and share about any new books they bought or discovered. In certain months, they may even be given private tours by the bookshop owners, as well!
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Meet Ups at 2 Bookstores: Now Serving and Hennessey + Ingalls
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 11 am- 1 pm
Address: Now Serving: 727 North Broadway, Unit 133, Los Angeles CA 90012 and Hennessey + Ingalls: 300 S. Santa Fe Ave., Suite M, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Meet & Greet Author Irene Concepcion & Princess Charlotte’s Picnic Garden at Flintridge Bookstore – In-Person Family Event
Please join us for a Meet & Greet With author Irene Concepcion & Princess Charlotte’s Picnic Garden.
This book is a novelty large format picture book fit for royalty! The story takes place in a majestic garden filled with beautiful flowers and trees, a swan lake, and even some furry friends. Throughout the day, these princesses teach us what it means to be a true friend.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Flintridge Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 11 am- 1 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.flintridgebooks.com/instore-events/2022/5/21/meet-amp-greet-author-irene-concepcion-princess-charlottes-picnic-garden
Kids Storytime with Brooke Hayward & I Have Juvenile Arthritis Too at Village Well Bookstore – In-Person Event
Local author Brooke Hayward will present and read her book: I have Juvenile Arthritis Too.
Stop by for a reading from Brooke Taylor, local author of I Have Juvenile Arthritis. Join us as we listen to Brooke’s journey diagnosed with juvenile arthritis and learn about its types and treatments. I Have Juvenile Arthritis Too is a comfort read and a resource for children and families to understand and navigate a life with juvenile arthritis.
Brooke Taylor is a senior at El Segundo High School. She enjoys reading writing and has two poems published and now a children’s book.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Village Well Bookstore
Date: Satu day the 21st
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/17092%20%207
1st Annual AAPI Book Festival Event for AAPI Heritage Month at Long Beach Public Library – In-Person Family Event
Please join us to celebrate AAPI stories and culture, meet local AAPI authors, and share their work in a series of readings and panel discussions. Admission is FREE and books are available through Bel Canto Bookstore.
This event includes:
Adult Author Panel—AAPI Visibility: Tori Eldridge, Traci Kato-Kiriyama, Anthony Christian Ocampo, Emery Lee, Christine Su Moderator: Alix Pham.
Adult and Young Adult Author Panel—Heroines: Elle Cruz, Jennifer J. Chow, Stephan Lee, Moderator: Naomi Hirahara
Children’s Early Reader/Middle Grade Author Readings: Maggie P. Chang, Tracy Badua
Children’s Picture Book Author Readings: Steve Nguyen, Livia Blackburne, Karen Yin
NOTE: See site for complete schedule, guidelines and event details.
Where: Billie Jean King Main Library, Long Beach Public Library
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 1 pm – 4 pm
Address: 200 W. Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeR2DMrulQMhEHeaGllZUrzxXqaliZ0QBNcHIzVw7J-6Gpgfw/viewform or https://www.longbeach.gov/library/news/fab-lb/
Readings by Filipino American Authors: Cecilia Brainard, Melissa Chadburn, Noel Alumit, & Angela Torres at Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Please join us to celebrate AAPI stories with readings by four Filipino American authors:
Cecilia Brainard She co-founded PAWAA or Philippine American Women Writers and Artists; and also founded Philippine American Literary House. is the author most recently of Selected Short Stories (2021) and Magdalena: A Novel (2016).
Melissa Chadburn writing has appeared in The LA Times, NYT Book Review, NYRB, Longreads, Paris Review online, and dozens other places. Her essay on food insecurity was published in Best American Food Writing 2019. She’s done extensive reporting on the child welfare system and appears in the Netflix docuseries The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. Melissa is a Ph.D. candidate at USC’s Creative Writing Program. She is the author most recently of A Tiny Upward Shove: A Novel.
Noel Alumit was born, the second of four children, in Baguio, the Philippines, and raised in Los Angeles, United States. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from the University of Southern California and later studied playwriting at the David Henry Hwang Writers Institute at East West Players. He is the author of Talking to the Moon and Letters to Montgomery Clift.
Angela Torres is the author of What Happens Is Neither (Four Way Books 2021) Blood Orange, winner of the 2013 Willow Books Literature Award for Poetry, and the chapbook, To the Bone (Sundress Publications 2020). A graduate of Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and Harvard Graduate School of Education, Angela has received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Illinois Arts Council, and Ragdale Foundation. She currently resides in San Diego.
NOTE: See site for complete schedule, guidelines and event details.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 1:30 pm
Address: 2011 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeR2DMrulQMhEHeaGllZUrzxXqaliZ0QBNcHIzVw7J-6Gpgfw/viewform or https://carlosbulosanbookclub.org/events/
17th Annual Celebrating Words Festival: Why We Rise at Tia Chucha’s Bookstore Off-site at Vaughn G3 Academy – In-Person Family Event
Please join Tia Chucha’s and its partners in a free day-long event for young people featuring spoken word poetry, music, a 1000-book giveaway, Book Press and Comics Row, artisan food vendors and a marketplace. This event encourages creativity and supports community wellness, intellectual growth and healing.
There are many diverse activities and events planned, including Creative Engagement Booths, a Comic Workshop with Javier Rodriguez, as well as the following:
Street Poets: 2nd Stage – 3-6 pm
Street Poets will host our first ever 2nd stage for CWF! They will host an array of poetic acts and performances: Red Hen Press – Kids Open Mic and WTIS Culmination, Rhythm Arts Alliance, Jail Guitar Doors, LA Poet Society, and an Open Mic for anyone who wants to participate.
NOTE: See site for full schedule, guidelines and event details.
Where: Tia Chucha’s at Vaughn G3 Academy
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 2 pm – 7 pm
Address: 11200 Herrick Ave., Pacoima, CA 91331
Website: https://whywerise.la/event/celebrating-words-festival/ or tiachucha.org/celebrating_words_festival or https://www.facebook.com/events/1161472041271045
Namrata Poddar & Border Less: A Novel at LibroMobile – In-Person & IG Online Event
Please join us for a hybrid event to hear author Namrata Poddar present and discuss her book, Border Less: A Novel.
This book is a construction of interconnected stories relating to Dia Mittal’s search for an easier life, moving form Mumbai to the United States, showing experiences and perspectives of a global community across the class spectrum, all seeking a sense of belonging, and it has won numerous awards for its storytelling, in excerpts and in its entirety.
Namrata Poddar writes fiction and nonfiction, serves as Interviews Editor for Kweli, and teaches literature as well as creative writing at UCLA. Her work has appeared in several publications including Poets & Writers, Literary.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines and event details.
Where: LibroMobile & IG Online
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol St., #A3, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/border-less-by-namrata-poddar
Saturday Afternoon Poetry & Poetry Readings & Open Mic – Off-Site In-Person Event & Via Zoom
Join us at Saturday Afternoon Poetry off-site for a Poetry Publication Reading hosted by DKC, and featuring: MARK FISHER, RICK LEDDY, MARC OLMSTED, TIM TIPTON and those published in Four Feathers Press’ THE POETRY LOTTERY 2 and SCENES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA VOL. 2: POETRY OF PLACES read their poetry. Winner announced. + Open Reading hosted by COCO.
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: My Place Café & via ZOOM portal online
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 2057 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena, CA
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
James Spooner’s Book Launch Party: The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – Online Event
Join Beyond Baroque for the launch party for James Spooner’s book, The High Desert” Black, Punk. Nowhere: A Memoir.
This event features a mini-zine fest, reading & conversation with Jim Ruland, and performances by the tissues & Dangers.
James Spooner is a graphic novelist, tattoo artist, illustrator, and filmmaker. He directed the seminal documentary AFRO-PUNK which premiered at national and international film festivals, including Toronto International and The American Black Film Festival. James also co-founded the Afropunk Festival, which currently boasts audiences in the hundreds of thousands around the world. His debut graphic novel, The High Desert (published by Harper), is set for release in Spring 2022.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday 21st
Time: 5 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
FlowerSong Press Readings by 6 Authors at L.A. County Fair Event – In-Person Event
FlowerSong Press authorswill read from their works, including:
Matt Sedillo has been described as the “best political poet in America” as well as “the poet laureate of the struggle” by academics, poets, and journalists alike. He has appeared on CSPAN and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. He is the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass and City on the Second Floor.
Luivette Resto is a mother, teacher, poet, and Wonder Woman fanatic, was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico but proudly raised in the Bronx. She is a CantoMundo and Macondo Fellow, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She is on the Board of Directors for Women Who Submit, a non profit organization in Los Angeles focused on women and nonbinary writers. She is the author of Living on Islands Not Found on Maps (FlowerSong Press, 2022), as well as Ascension: Poems and Unfinished Portrait: Poems.
Iris DeAnda is a writer, activist, and practitioner of the healing arts. A womyn of color of Mexican and Salvadorean descent. A native of Los Angeles she believes in the power of spoken word, poetry, storytelling, and dreams. She is the author of Roots of Redemption: You Have No Right to Remain Silent and Codeswitch: Fires From Mi Corazon.
David A. Romero is a Mexican-American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. Romero has appeared at over seventy-five colleges and universities in thirty-three different states in the USA. Romero’s work has been published in literary magazines in the United States, England, and Canada. He is the author of My Name Is Romero, and is host of this event.
Fernando Albert Salinas is on the Board of Directors for California Poets in the Schools, the Ventura County Area Coordinator, and a Master Poet-Teacher. He is an Adjunct Professor of English at Ventura College, the Ventura County Area Coordinator and recitation coach for the California Arts Council’s Poetry Out Loud program, and the Editor-In-Chief for Spit Shine Publishing. He is the author of Toxic Masculinity.
Natalie Sierra is a first generation Latinx author and poet. Natalie is the author of the feminist retelling of ‘Medusa’ (2020, DSTL Arts Press), for which her poem ‘Medusa is My Sister’ was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work has been featured in dozens of publications, including Dryland, WestWind: A Journal of the Arts from UCLA, Medium, and the Los Angeles Times. She is also the author of Charlie, Forever and Ever.
NOTE: FREE with admission to the Fair
Where: L.A. County Fair, Millard Sheets Art Center Fairplex
Date: Saturday the 207h
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 1101 W, McKinley Ave., Pomona, CA 91768
Website: N/A
At Skylight: Brian Kim Stefans Presents: Festivals of Patience at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Author Brian Kim Stefans will present and discuss his book, Festivals of Patience: The Verse Poems of Arthur Rimbaud (Kenning Editions).
Poet of logical revolts, of sexual freedom, inveterate modernist, Symbolist, and inspiration to beatniks, conceptual artists and punks, Arthur Rimbaud wrote some of the most enduring poem s of world literature. Here is a collection of all of his poems in verse, in a new English translation by American poet Brian Kim Stefans. With Rimbaud’s sense of song craft in mind, Stefans has retained the French meters in his English versions. He is the first to have done this. The book opens with a Latin poem that Rimbaud wrote more than a year before his first known French poem, and it ends with a short poem he wrote a few years after leaving Paris, one which became a touchstone for Surrealist Andre Breton.
NOTE: See site for link, book purchase and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-brian-kim-stefans-presents-festivals-patience
Pages on Stages: Long Beach CLI Chapter Poetry Reading at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
Please join Sims Library of Poetry to hear a Pages on Stages: Long Beach CLI Chapter Reading Open Mic, featuring:
Paige Pelonis, Mac Harris, Dreamkeypr, Faiza Sultan, Soul on Fire, Tommy Domino, Anne Hafner, Kierunya Davis, Christian Hanz Lozada, Sundiata, Fernando Funes, Lolo Wink, Jose Flores.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/event-details/pages-on-stages-long-beach-cli-chapter
Storytime! Eric Abramian & Pierre the Umbrella in Paris! at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for Storytime to hear Eric Abramian present his his new book, Pierre the Umbrella in Paris!
Pierre is an adorable red umbrella with a broken spring. Abandoned at the steps of a Paris Metro, he is left to fend for himself on a cold rainy night in the “City of Light”. Pierre travels across treasured Parisian landmarks in search of something more meaningful than his conventional role of protecting people from the rain. With a passion for studying art history, he wonders if art is only for humans. After overcoming his self-doubt, Pierre sets out for his favorite museum where he becomes a hero to the art world and gains a new sense of confidence!
Pierre the Umbrella in Paris is a lesson that art means feeling part of something larger than oneself. It is meant to instill in children an appreciation for art, culture, and creativity, and to emphasize the importance of developing a passion at an early age.
NOTE: See Site for guidelines and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore – in the Courtyard
Date: Sunday the 22nd
Time: 11 am
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/eric-abramian-storytime
La Palabra Reading Series: LA Poet Laureate Lynne Thompson, Luivette Resto & Davina Ferreira at Avenue 50 Studio – In-Person Event
Join host and curator Angelina Sáenz for the La Palabra Reading Series, featuring:
Lynne Thompson, current LA Poet Laureate, is the author of three poetry collections: Start with a Small Guitar, Beg No Pardon, and Fretwork. She serves on the Boards of Cave Canum and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and is Chair of the Board of Trustees, Scripps College.
Luivette Resto is a teacher, poet, and the author most recently of Living on Islands Not Found on Maps, from FlowerSong Press and Unfinished Portrait and Ascension, both from Tia Chucha Press.
Davina Ferreira is a bilingual poet and writer, social entrepreneur, and founder of Alegria Bilingual Media + Publishing. She is the author of five books.
Angelina Saenz is the author of the debut collection, Edgecliff, and is the host and curator of this reading series.
NOTE: See Site for guidelines and details.
Where: Avenue 50 Studio
Date: Sunday the 22nd
Time: 2 pm
Address: 131 N. Avenue 50, Los Angeles CA 90042
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-palabra-poetry-may-2022-tickets-334818279487
Mimi Slawoff & Oldest Los Angeles at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join author Mimi Slawoff to hear her present and discuss her new book, Oldest Los Angeles, which blends history and some local travel to take readers on a journey through the past to the oldest buildings, businesses and neighborhoods in the City of Angels.
The pages open with a walking tour of El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, a district that marks the city’s birthplace in 1781 when a group of 44 immigrants formed a farming community. What started as a humble pueblo evolved into a vibrant metropolis that’s home to over 10 million people and 185 languages.
Read touching family stories about the first Mexican restaurant, El Cholo; the oldest confectionery, Fugetsu-Do; and why the Palacios family was determined to save the oldest children’s bookstore against all odds. Oldest Los Angeles is both informative and engaging with insider stories and nuggets of fun facts.
NOTE: See Site for guidelines and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 22nd
Time: 2 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/oldest-los-angeles
VCP SoCal Poets Reading: Deena Metzger & Nicelle Davis via VCP Poets – Online Event
Join host Jerry Garica to hear poets Deena Metzger and Nicelle Davis read and discuss their work.
Deena Metzger is a poet, novelist, essayist, teacher, healer, and the author of 20+ books, most recently of La Vieja: A Journal of Fire (2022), A Rain of Night Birds, Feral, and others. Her experiences with Elephants in the wild over twenty years is based on their spiritual agency and complex narrative communication. Some of that experience is chronicled in her latest novel, La Vieja: A Journal of Fire.
Nicelle Davis is a California poet. Her poetry collections include The
Walled Wife (Red Hen Press, 2016), In the Circus of You (Rose Metal Press, 2015), Becoming Judas (Red Hen Press, 2013), and Circe (Lowbrow Press, 2011). Her poetry film collaborations with Cheryl Gross have been shown across the world. She is the creator of The Poetry Circus and collaborator on the Nevermore Poetry Festival.
NOTE: See Site for details.
Where: VCP SoCal Poets
Date: Sunday the 22nd
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: Online (see site)
At Skylight: Red Hen Press Presents: Jenny Qi. Lily Hoang, & Pete Hsu at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for a Red Hen Press group reading by the following authors:
Jenny QI will read from and discuss Focal Point, winner of the 2020 Steel Toe Books Poetry Award. This book is a scientist’s unofficial dissertation, a daughter’s faithful correspondence, and a coming-of-age story. Written largely while Jenny Qi was a young Ph.D. student conducting cancer research after her beloved mother’s death from cancer, the collection turns to “all the rituals of all the faiths,” invoking Western and Eastern mythology and history, metaphors from cell biology, and even Jimi Hendrix, as Qi searches for a container to hold grief. The opening poem of this debut collection primes us to consider all definitions of the titular “focal point,” as the speaker evaluates this moment of early loss beneath a literal and metaphoric microscope. Here, the past and future converge, in an uncompromising interrogation of how to be alive in the world, always loving something that has been or is in the process of being lost.
Lily Hoang will read from and discuss Underneath, in which, over a five-year period, Martha Johnson murders her four children, one by one, in order to punish her husband when they argue. But Martha is no ordinary serial killer. She murders her children by using the bulk of her 250-pound body to suffocate them. Unlike other fictionalized true-crime novels, Underneath neither valorizes nor focuses on the specific acts of violence. Instead, it attempts to understand how feelings of powerlessness, the residue of trauma, and the need to find justice in a world that refuses to give a fat body justice finds its only respite through murder.
Pete Hsu will read from and discuss his book, If I Were the Ocean, I’d Carry You Home, his debut story collection. This book captures the essence of surviving in a life set adrift. Children and young people navigate a world where the presence of violence and death rear themselves in everyday places: Vegas casinos, birthday parties, church services, and sunny days at the beach. Each story is a meditation on living in a world not made for us–the pervasive fear, the adaptations, the unexpected longings. A gripping and energetic debut, Hsu’s writing beats with the naked rhythms of an unsettled human heart.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 22nd
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-red-hen-press-presents-jenny-qi-lily-hoang-and-pete-hsu
Los Angeles Literature 