NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here
Monday Night & Wednesday Workshops at Beyond Baroque – On Hiatus This Week
The two free online Poetry Writing Workshops offered by Beyond Baroque on Monday and Wednesday, by Raquel Baker and Jose Hernandez Diaz, respectively, are on hiatus this week only.
Where: Beyond Baroque – Online events (tickets at Eventbrite)
Date: Monday the 4th and Wednesday the 6th
Times: 7:30 pm & 8 pm
Address: Zoom Online (cancelled)
Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html
Adult Fiction Book Club: The Book of Lost Names at Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Adult Fiction Book Club reads selections from literary fiction, meets on the first Tuesday of every month, and is led by facilitator Judy Meadow. Join us to discuss the July selection, The Book of Lost Names (2020), by Kristin Hamel.
This historical fiction novel is inspired by a true story from World War II, when a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details. Meets in Community Room.
Where: Daniel Bruce Kauffman – Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 5th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/adult-fiction-book-club
Mystery Book Club & Dial A for Aunties via Sylmar Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Sylmar Mystery Book Club meets the first Tuesday of each month, and at our July meeting we will discuss Dial A for Aunties, by Jesse Q. Sutanto.
This story infuses comedy and culture into an unpredictable rom-com/murder mystery mashup that navigates family duty, possible arrest, and a groomzilla. Four meddling Asian aunties come the rescue.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, Zoom link, and details.
Where: Sylmar Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 5th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-0
Ron Shelton & The Church of Baseball at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join author Ron Shelton to hear him discuss his new book, The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham: Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings, and a Hit.
This book about the breakthrough 1988 film, Bull Durham, is widely revered as the best sports movie of all time. But back in 1987, the author was a first-time director and no one was willing to finance a movie about baseball—especially a story set in the minors. The jury was still out on Kevin Costner’s leading-man potential, while Susan Sarandon was already a has-been. There were doubts. But something miraculous happened, and The Church of Baseball attempts to capture why.
Also, this is a book about baseball and its singular romance in the world of sports. Shelton spent six years in the minor leagues before making this film, and his experiences resonate throughout this book. Ron Shelton’s Bull Durham launched a writing-directing career that includes White Men Can’t Jump, Blaze (1989), Cobb, and Tin Cup, among other films. He also directed Jordan Rides the Bus, a documentary about Michael Jordan’s year in the minor leagues. A former professional baseball player, he holds degrees from Westmont College and the University of Arizona. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his family.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 5th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Ron-shelton-author-signing
Bilingual Reading Group (Every other Tuesday) at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Event
Join us in reading Volume 1 of Capital by Karl Marx. Discussion will be facilitated by Jose Prado, PhD, professor of Sociology at CSUDH.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Tuesday 5th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
At Skylight: Lydia Yuknavitch, with Melissa Chadburn, & Thrust at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Lidia Yuknavitch, in conversation with Melissa Chadburn (The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez),will present and discuss her novel, Thrust.
This book is about people on the margins—vulnerable humans leading lives of challenge and transcendence. Yuknavitch offers an imaginative masterpiece: the story of Laisvė, a motherless girl from the late 21st century who is learning her power as a carrier, a person who can harness the power of meaningful objects to carry her through time. Sifting through the detritus of a fallen city known as the Brook, she discovers a talisman that will mysteriously connect her with a series of characters from the past two centuries: a French sculptor; a woman of the American underworld; a dictator’s daughter; an accused murderer; and a squad of laborers at work on a national monument. Through intricately braided storylines, Laisvė must dodge enforcement raids and find her way to the present day, and then, finally, to the early days of her imperfect country, to forge a connection that might save their lives—and their shared dream of freedom.
A dazzling novel of body, spirit, and survival, Thrust will leave no reader unchanged.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 5th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-lidia-yuknavitch-presents-thrust-melissa-chadburn
Book Launch: Jerry Stahl & Nein, Nien, Niein!: One Man’s Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Jerry Stahl, in conversation with Jonathan Ames, will discuss his new book: Nein, Nien, Niein!: One Man’s Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust, a memoir by Jerry Stahl.
Seamlessly weaving global and personal history, through the lens of Jerry Stahl’s own bent perspective, Nein, Nein, Nein! stands out as a triumph of strange-o reporting, a tale that takes us from gang polkas to tour-rash to the truly disturbing snack bar at Auschwitz. Strap in for a raw, surreal, and redemptively hilarious trip.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Tuesday the 5th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Tuesdays at the Virtual Cobalt: Poets Series Presents: Open Reading & Jon Wesick – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Jon Wesick.
Jon Wesick is a regional editor of the San Diego Poetry Annual. He’s published hundreds of poems and stories in journals such as the Atlanta Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, Metal Scratches, Pearl, Slipstream, Space and Time, Tales of the Talisman, and Zahir. The editors of Knot Magazine nominated his story “The Visitor” for a Pushcart Prize. His poem “Meditation Instruction” won the Editor’s Choice Award in the 2016 Spirit First Contest. Another poem “Bread and Circuses” won second place in the 2007 African American Writers and Artists Contest. “Richard Feynman’s Commute” shared third place in the 2017 Rhysling Award’s short poem category. Jon is the author of the poetry collection Words of Power, Dances of Freedom as well as several novels and most recently the short-story collection The Alchemist’s Grandson Changes His Name.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 5th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.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 5th 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 5th
Time: 9 pm – 12 am
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA
Website: Facebook
Mystery Book Discussion: 56 Days at Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Mystery Book group discussion meets monthly to read and discuss new and favorite detectives, settings, and character in the mystery genre. Join us to discuss the July selection, 56 Days, by Catherine Ryan Howard,
This novel is a suspenseful and insightful story set in the early days of a pre-Pandemic Dublin, and it’s about a couple who meet just prior to the Covid shutdown. The story has many twists and surprises.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 6th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-discussion-2
Isabel Kaplan, & NSFW: A Novel at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Isabel Kaplan present and discuss her new book, NSFW: A Novel, from the author of Hancock Park.
From the outside, the unnamed protagonist in NSFW appears to be the vision of success. She has landed an entry-level position at a leading TV network that thousands of college grads would kill for. And sure, she has much to learn. The daughter of a prominent feminist attorney, she grew up outside the industry. But she’s resourceful and hardworking. What could go wrong?
At first, the high adrenaline work environment motivates her. Yet as she climbs the ranks, she confronts the reality of creating change from the inside. Her points only get attention when echoed by male colleagues; she hears whispers of abuse and sexual misconduct. Her mother says to keep her head down until she’s the one in charge—a scenario that seems idealistic at best, morally questionable at worst. When her personal and professional lives collide, threatening both the network and her future, she must decide what to protect: the career she’s given everything for or the empowered woman she claims to be.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 6th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/isabel-kaplan-conversation-zan-romanoff-discusses-nsfw
At Skylight: Jen Spyra, with Greg Hess, & Big Time: Stories Debut – In-Person Event
Jen Spyra, in conversation with Greg Hess, will discuss her debut satirical story collection, Big Time: Stories.
A bride so desperate to get in shape for her wedding that she enrolls in a new kind of workout program that promises the moon but costs more than she bargained for. A snowman who, on the wish of a child, comes to life in a decidedly less savory way than in the childhood classic. And in the title story, a time-hopping 1940s starlet tries to claw her way to the top in modern-day Hollywood, despite being ridiculously un-woke.
In this uproarious, addictive debut, Jen Spyra takes a culture that seems almost beyond parody and holds it up to a funhouse mirror, immersing the reader in a world of prehistoric influencers, woodland creatures plagued by millennial neuroses, and an all-out birthday bash determined to be the most lavish celebration of all time, by any means necessary.
Welcome, brave soul, to the world of Jen Spyra.
Jen Spyra has worked in nearly every kind of comedy there is. She was a staff writer for three years at The Onion and for four years at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, is a long-time contributor to The New Yorker and McSweeney’s, and improvised onstage in New York, Chicago and LA for UCB. Her incredible range is on display in this uproarious, addictive debut.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 6th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-jen-spyra-presents-big-time-greg-hess
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 6th
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 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 6th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or
Flight School Open Mic Has Returned! at Playground Hookah Lounge – In-Person Event
Join us for the return of the weekly Flight School Open Mic, which returned in April after a five-year hiatus!
All arts are welcome: singing, dance, poetry, improv, comedy, music, and we learn to fly together, all balanced by host O. Smith and a full live band and DJ D-Major.
NOTE: Check site for further details, updates, and information.
Where: Flight School Open Mic at the Playground
Date: Wednesday the 6th
Time: 8 pm – 12 am
Address: 630 N. La Brea Ave., Inglewood, CA 90302
Website: https://losangelesliterature.wordpress.com/2022/06/22/flight-school-open-mic-is-back/ or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/flight-school-open-mic-tickets-362732662157
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry & hector son of hector at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Join Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Night.
The format is to welcome a featured poet for a reading, and an Open Mic reading. Tonight’s featured event features poet hector son of hector.
The poet hector son of hector lives in Oakland, CA. He is the child of Mexican immigrants, currently works in a hospital, dreams of short stories and writes poetry in secret.
$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 6th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/729826188442374
Anaheim Central Library Open Mic & Feature: Sarah Tatro at Anaheim Central Library – In-Person Event
Join us to hear poet and author Sarah Tatro read and discuss her writing, and to listen to or participate in an Open Mic, open to people of all ages. Teacher, poet, music lover. Arts advocate and EdTech-Champion, Sarah Tatro is the author of The Hallway of Poems: a Mark Kepple Student Anthology.
Poets, singers, songwriters, storytellers are welcome. Performers will be allocated 4-7 minutes to participate. A sign-up sheet for registration will be available at the site.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Anaheim Central Library
Date: Thursday the 7th
Time: 5 pm (sign-ups at 4:45 pm)
Address: 500 W. Broadway, Anaheim, CA 92805
Website: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=sarah%20tatro
True Crime Author James T. Bartlett & The Alaskan Blonde via Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us to hear author James T. Bartlett discuss his exciting new true crime book, The Alaskan Blonde.
Nicknamed “the most beautiful woman in Alaska,” 31-year-old Diane Wells was bruised and bloodied when she screamed for help in the early hours of October 17, 1953. Her husband Cecil, a wealthy Fairbanks businessman, had been shot dead, and she claimed they were the victims of a brutal home invasion. Blonde, glamorous, and 20 years younger than Cecil, police were immediately suspicious of Diane’s account, and the investigation soon turned toward her alleged lover, musician Johnny Warren, who had left town the night of the murder.
Bartlett digs into the decades-old case to uncover fascinating new evidence including an unpublished memoir, unseen photographs, and a re-examination of the FBI files. He tracks down and interviews the people close to Cecil, Diane, Johnny, and the mysterious “Third Suspect,” dance instructor William Colombany, to reveal the story of “the most notorious and baffling murder in the history of Fairbanks.”
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 7th
Time: 6 pm
Address: LAPL Online (see site)
James Kirchick & Secret City: the Hidden History of Gay Washington via Book Soup – Online Event
Join us to hear author James Kirchick discuss his new book, Secret City: the Hidden History of Gay Washington
This book is a chronicle of American politics like no other. For decades, the specter of homosexuality haunted Washington. The mere suggestion that a person might be gay destroyed reputations, ended careers, and ruined lives. At the height of the Cold War, fear of homosexuality became intertwined with the growing threat of international communism, leading to a purge of gay men and lesbians from the federal government. In the fevered atmosphere of political Washington, the secret “too loathsome to mention” held enormous, terrifying power.
Utilizing thousands of pages of declassified documents, interviews with over one hundred people, and material unearthed from presidential libraries and archives around the country, Secret City begins with the tragic story of Sumner Welles, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s brilliant diplomatic advisor and the man at the center of “the greatest national scandal since the existence of the United States,” Kirchick illuminates how homosexuality shaped each successive presidential administration through the end of the twentieth century. Cultural and political anxiety over gay people sparked a decades-long witch hunt, impacting everything from the rivalry between the CIA and the FBI to the ascent of Joseph McCarthy, the struggle for Black civil rights, and the rise of the conservative movement. Among other revelations, Kirchick tells of the World War II-era gay spymaster who pioneered seduction as a tool of American espionage, the devoted aide whom Lyndon Johnson treated as a son yet abandoned once his homosexuality was discovered, and how allegations of a “homosexual ring” controlling Ronald Reagan nearly derailed his 1980 election victory.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 7th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Book Talk: Wesley Straton, with Amelia Morris, & The Bartender’s Cure via Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Wesley Straton, in conversation with Amelia Morris, discuss her new book, The Bartender’s Cure.
This debut novel about an aspiring bartender at the perfect neighborhood bar, filled with cocktail recipes and bartending tips and tricks.
Samantha Fisher does not want to be a bartender. But after a breakup and breakdown in San Francisco, she decides to defer law school for a year to move to New York, crashing on her best friend’s couch. When she is offered a job at Joe’s Apothecary, a beloved neighborhood bar in Brooklyn, she tells herself it’s only temporary. Soon, she finds acceptance in her tight-knit community and even begins a new relationship. But as the year draws to a close, she is increasingly pulled between the life she thought she wanted and the possibility of a different kind of future. When destructive cycles from her past threaten to consume her again, Sam must decide how much she’s willing to let go of to finally belong.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 7th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-wesley-stratons-the-bartenders-cure-tickets-366184085457
Future Now: Black & Brown Reading & Open Mic at Re/Arte Centro Literio – Online & In-Person Event
Please join Future Now, either online or in-person, for Readings and an Open Mic, to hear featured guest poets and readers present their work. Hosted by co-editor and poet Nikolai Garcia and Dryland Literary Journal.
Samantha Rivas is a introvert with loud thoughts, she scribbles on any piece of paper she finds. She graduated with a BA in creative Writing and a minor in Women’s Gender, Sex, and Sexuality Studies from CSULB.
Lupita Limon Corrales is an undocumented angel, archivist, and daughter.
Vincent Cooper is the author of Where the Reckless Ones Come to Die and Zarzamora – Poetry of Survival. His poetry can be found in Huizache, Samos En Escrito and Riversedge Journal. He resides in the southside of San Antonio, TX.
NOTE: See site for link, event details.
Where: Re/Arte & Dryland Literary Journal – Hybrid Event
Date: Thursday the 7th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033 (& Online via Zoom)
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Tonalli Tuesday: Featured Poet & Open Mic via LAPS Online – Online Zoom Event
Please join Tonalli Thursdays every 1st Thursday of the month to hear featured guest poets and Open Mic readers.
This month’s featured poets TBA, and the event will be hosted by Sandy Shakes.
NOTE: See site for link, event details.
Where: Tonalli Thursdays Open Mic – Online LAPS Zoom event
Date: Thursday the 7th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: Online via Zoom (see site)
Website: https://www.lapoetsociety.org/events
John Vercher, with Chris L. Terry, & After the Lights Go Out via Vroman’s – Online Event
John Vercher, with conversation with Chris L. Terry, will discuss his book, After the Lights Go Out.
Xavier “Scarecrow” Wallace, a mixed-race MMA fighter on the wrong side of thirty, is facing the fight of his life. Xavier can no longer deny he is losing his battle with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), or pugilistic dementia. Through the fog of memory loss, migraines, and paranoia, Xavier does his best to stay in shape by training at the Philadelphia gym owned by his cousin-cum-manager, Shot, a retired champion boxer to whom Xavier owes an unpayable debt.
Xavier makes ends meet while he waits for the call that will reinstate him after a year-long suspension by teaching youth classes at Shot’s gym and by living rent-free in the house of his white father, whom Xavier was forced to commit to a nursing home. The progress of Sam Wallace’s end-stage Alzheimer’s has revealed his latent racism, and Xavier finally gains insight into why his Black mother left the family years ago.
Then Xavier is offered a chance at redemption: a last-minute high-profile comeback fight. If he can get himself back in the game, he’ll be able to clear his name and begin to pay off Shot. With his memory in shreds and his life crumbling around him, can Xavier hold on to the focus he needs to survive?
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 7th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Vroman’s Online (see site)
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/john-vercher-discusses-after-the-light-goes-out
At Skylight: Brian Dougherty, with Ben Schwartz, & Dirty Pictures at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear Brian Dougherty, in conversation with Ben Schwartz, discuss his book, Dirty Pictures: How an Underground Network of Nerds, Feminists, Misfits, Geniuses, Bikers, Potheads, Printers, Intellectuals, and Art School Rebels Revolutionized Art and Invented Comix
This book is a complete narrative history of the weird and wonderful world of underground comix.
In the 1950s, comics meant POW! BAM! superheroes, family-friendly gags, and Sunday funnies, but in the 1960s, inspired by these strips and the satire of MAD magazine, a new generation of creators set out to subvert the medium, and with it, American culture.
Their “comix,” spelled that way to distinguish the work from their dime-store contemporaries, presented tales of taboo sex, casual drug use, and a transgressive view of society. Embraced by hippies and legions of future creatives, this subgenre of comic books and strips was printed on out-of-date machinery, published in zines and underground newspapers, and distributed in head shops, in porno stores, and on street corners. Comix often ran afoul of the law, but that would not stop them from casting cultural ripples for decades to come, eventually moving the entire comics form beyond the gutter and into fine-art galleries.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 7th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-brian-doherty-presents-dirty-pictures-ben-schwartz
Fos–Thursday & FOST Artistic Collective Presents: 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, with sign-ups open on Wednesday at 3pm.
NOTE: See site for cost, event details.
Where: Freedom of Speech (FOS) Open Mic – In-Person & Online IG event
Date: Thursday the 7th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 665 N. Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.instagram.com/fos_thursdays/
Current Events Nonfiction Book Club & Soul Full of Coal Dust via Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us on the second Friday of each month for the Current Events Nonfiction Book Club, and our July discussion of Soul Full of Coal Dust: A Fight for Breath and Justice in Appalachia by Chris Hamby
This book is a devastating and urgent work of investigative journalism, in which Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hamby uncovers the tragic resurgence of black lung disease in Appalachia, its Big Coal cover-up, and the resilient mining communities who refuse to back down.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 8th
Time: 12 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/current-events-nonfiction-book-club
Jorge Arteaga, with Emily May, & I’ve Got Your Back via Book Soup – Online Event
Join us to hear author Jorge Arteaga, in conversation with Emily May, discuss his new book, I’ve Got Your Back.
Bystander intervention is simply overcoming that “freeze” instinct when you witness harassment and getting back to the very human desire to take care of one another. It’s not about being the hero, strapping on spandex, and saving the day. And it certainly isn’t about sacrificing your own safety.
From the nonprofit organization Right to Be (formerly Hollaback!), I’ve Got Your Back teaches readers the ins and outs of bystander intervention using Right to Be’s methodology: the 5D’s of bystander intervention–distract, delegate, document, delay, and direct. Each chapter of the book dives deeply into what these D’s can look like in practice, whether you are in public, online, or at work.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 8th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Book Launch: David Leo Rice, with Christopher Zeischegg & David Scott Hay, & HOUSE at Stories Books & Cafe – In-Person Event
A family of outsider artists roams the American interior in search of the New Jerusalem in David Leo Rice’s new dream novel, loosely inspired by the hermetic worlds of Joseph Cornell.
Tobias Carroll writes, “The childhood of Jakob, The New House’s young hero, is one unlike that of your typical coming-of-age narrative. His is a youth surrounded by prophetic dreams, religious schisms, and secretive conversations — plus some shocking scenes of violence. Rice’s prose creates a mood abounding with mystery and dread, and The New House would fit comfortably beside the likes of Michael McDowell’s Toplin and Iain Banks’s The Wasp Factory in terms of disquieting portraits of sustained alienation.”
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Friday 8th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Immigration, Gentrification & Urban Politics with Rodrigo Ribera D’Ebre and Obed Silva& New Releases at Village Well Books & Coffee– In-Person Event
Authors Rodrigo Ribera d’Ebre (The Displaced) and Obed Silva (The Death of My Father the Pope) join us for a discussion on their books, how they came to life, and their inspiration for writing.
The Displaced, follows a group of people who are determined to save their homes and neighborhood from gentrification, even if it means turning to violence. Exploring an issue relevant to all major urban cities in the United States, Rodrigo Ribera d’Ebre’s exciting novel shines a light on the impact of rising land and home values that pits a more privileged populace against those who have lived in the area for generations.
The Death of My Father the Pope: A man mourning his alcoholic father faces a paradox: to pay tribute, lay scorn upon, or pour a drink. A wrenching, dazzling, revelatory debut. Told with a wry cynicism, a profane, profound anger, an antic, brutally honest voice, and a hard-won classical frame of reference, Silva channels the heartbreak of mourning while wrestling with the resentment and frustration caused by addiction.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Village Well Books & Café
Date: Friday 8th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90026
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/18395
Dave Lopez & It’s a Great Life If You Don’t Weaken via Vroman’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Veteran news reporter and author Dave Lopez will discuss his memoir, It’s a Great Life If You Don’t Weaken.
For nearly fifty years, Dave Lopez covered every major story in the Southland. The veteran news reporter was a nightly presence in LA living rooms on KCBS Channel 2 for a remarkable 48-year career on camera. General managers and news directors came and went in the unforgiving world of major market TV news, but Dave outlasted more than twenty regime changes. LA’s man in the street kept his head down, nose to the grindstone, and relentlessly chased breaking news. He garnered Emmys, accolades, and tens of thousands of fans along the way.
One of the first Hispanic reporters on a major station, Dave was personally breaking barriers decades before Mexican lives officially “mattered”-success he credits entirely to his upbringing.
Professional success came early, but the true measure of a man is his family. In this nostalgic look back, Dave recalls the values instilled by his hardworking father-a man he worshiped and feared in equal measures. When he lost both his beloved wife and mother and his invincible father fell apart, Dave finally lost his unflagging optimism . . . and was forced to begin again just as the entire world of news was undergoing a sea change.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, and details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Friday the 8th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/dave-lopez-discusses-its-a-great-life
Social Justice Book Club: Worm Loves Worm by J.J. Austrian at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – Online Kids Event
Join us online for a discussion of the Eagle Rock Branch Library Social Justice Book Club selection for kids for the month, Worm Loves Worm, by author J.J. Austrian.
NOTE: See site for event details. Participants of all ages are welcome.
Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday 9th
Time: 10 am
Address: LAPL Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/social-justice-book-club
Summer Children’s Storytime at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Children’s Event
Join us for a Summer Children’s Bilingual Storytime event for kids, every Saturday morning.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Saturday 9nd
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Westwood Book Club: 84 Charring Cross Road (play) by James Roose-Evans at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us online for a discussion of the Westwood Branch Library Book Club selection for the month, 84 Charring Cross Road by author James Roose-Evans.
NOTE: See site for link and event details.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday 9th
Time: 11 am
Address: LAPL Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/social-justice-book-club
Early Readers Book Club & Ham Helsing #1 at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss the book, Ham Helsing #1: Vampire Hunter, by Rich Meyer.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, guidelines and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 9th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Suite 30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/early-readers-book-club-ham-helsing
Happily Everyone After Book Club & Knot My Type at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore Off-site at The Actors Gang – In-Person Event
Join us to celebrate The Summer of Christmas, by Juliet & Keith Giglio. They will be in conversation with their former student, LGBTQ TikTok comedian Rachel Samples. There will be a book signing to follow.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details on this event.
Where: Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 9th
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: Main Street at Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Saturday Afternoon Poetry Deep Critique Writing Workshop with G.T. Foster – Online Event Via Zoom
Join us at Saturday Afternoon Poetry online for a Deep Critique Poetry Writing Workshop led by G.T. Foster.
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday the 9th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online event (see site0)
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
At Skylight: Joseph Maida & A Third Look at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Joseph Maida will present and discuss his new book, A Third Look, reflecting on Lee Friedlander’s nudes from the 1970’s and 80’s, reinterpreting this series as a cutting edge homage both to Friedlander, the modernist titan of photography, and to LGBTQIA+ bodies across gender and identity spectra.
Maida calls their feminist reclamation of history “a visual queering of modernist photography, providing a visible reconciliation of where the canon of art photography has historically allowed us to see” with the broader spectrum of the human nude.
Joseph Maida is an artist, writer, and educator, who chairs the BFA Photography and Video Department at New York’s School of Visual Arts. Maida has exhibited his work extensively in the United States, Europe, Japan and China in solo exhibitions at Wallspace, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, the Nikon Salons, Tokyo and Osaka, and 403 International Art Center, Wuhan, among others. Maida’s work has also been included in group exhibitions nationally and internationally.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday 9th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-joseph-maida-presents-third-look
Obsedian Tongues Poetry & Open Mic at Café con Libros Press – In-Person Event
Caesar Aguilar presents Obsedian Tongues Open Mic at Café con Libros Press in Pomona every 2nd Saturday o the month.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Café con Libros
Date: Saturday 9th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm
Address: 280 2nd St., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: https://cafeconlibrospress.org/event-calendar/
Storybuilding Essentials Writing Workshop at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us at the Ripped Bodice for an in-person class: Storybuilding Essentials Writing Workshop, led by Jeanne De Vita, also known as the Book Genie, who is a book editor and coach teaching at UCLA and many other venues.
Writing a successful, marketable romance novel involves so much more than getting the love story right! Start your romance writing journey off strong or learn how to revise a work in progress in our Storybuilding Essential course. We’ll analyze the essential building blocks of your romance novel, provide worksheets and lessons to test if your building blocks are fully developed and strong enough, and will explore ways to fix broken stories in this interactive class. If you’re writing a romance and are stuck, bring your questions! New and experienced writers are welcome.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details on this event.
Where: Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 10th
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Address: Main Street Venice Blvd, at Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Cellar Door Book Club & Once There Were Wolves at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join the Cellar Door Book Club to read and discuss our July selection, Once There Were Wolves: A Novel, by Charlotte McConaghy, about reintroducing wolves into the Scottish Highlands landscape in a rewilding effort.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore, Riverside, CA 92507
Date: Sunday 10th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/cellar-door-book-club-once-there-were-wolves
We Have No Words: A Roe v. Wade Writing & Discussion Group with Nancy Lynee Woo – In-Person Event
Join this new community circle, led by poet and writer Nancy Lynee Woo, to write, process and share about the Roe v. Wade decision. This is not a political action group, not a writing and discussion circle, but who knows what will come of it.
You can sign up on Eventbrite or just show up!
Bring a notebook and a pen. (Actually, we will have a lot of words.)
NOTE: See site for the Eventbrite link and event details.
Where: Wrigley Coffee
Date: Sunday 10th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 437 W. Willow St., Long Beach, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/fancifulnance or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/we-have-no-words-a-roe-v-wade-writing-discussion-group-tickets-378139995907?fbclid=IwAR2uYJsFtIoSzoVQajq_JQuHFrl6Q-KUAikcVpLre9_0B1bS63WL3nGBn0s
Fantasy Romance Book Club & Song of Blood and Stone at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us at the Ripped Bodice for a new Book Club, which will meet and discuss Song of Blood and Stone, by L Penelope.
If witches, vampires, ghosts, and other worlds are your jam, join bookseller Taylor C. for our fantasy and paranormal romance Book Club.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details on this event.
Where: Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 10th
Time: 3 pm
Address: Main Street Venice Blvd, at Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Myth, Magic, and Getting It Made: Francesca Lia Block, with Sera Gambel, & House of Hearts at Village Well Books & Cafe – In-Person Event
Author Francesca Lia Block, in conversation with Sera Gamble, will join us for a discussion on her new release, House of Hearts.
House of Hearts is about Izzy Ames, who lives with her high school sweetheart, Cyrus Rivera, in the Salton Sea. They cling to each other and to their close friends Nephy and Seth to cope with the trauma of their pasts. Until the morning Izzy awakes to find Cyrus has vanished.
When she realizes no one will help, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and decides to search for Cyrus alone. After weeks of looking for him, she discovers a clue that leads her to the House of Hearts retreat center run by the mysterious Sky. At House of Hearts, Izzy meets an intriguing musician named Ever Fontana and for a moment she is able to forget the pain of her past. But when new clues about Cyrus’ disappearance surface, Izzy must go down into the dark to find the truth.
Izzy’s quest will take her into a world of sexuality, madness, and violence, where she will discover life-changing secrets not only about Cyrus but, ultimately, about herself.
Francesca Lia Block, M.F.A., is the best-selling, award-winning author of more than twenty-five widely-translated books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry including the Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award winning DANGEROUS ANGELS. Currently she teaches courses in creative writing at UCLA Extension, Antioch University, Litreactor and privately. Her latest novel HOUSE OF HEARTS is forthcoming from Rare Bird Books.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Village Well Books & Café
Date: Sunday 10th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90026
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/17779
Fantasy Romance Book Club & Song of Blood and Stone at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us at the Ripped Bodice for a new Book Club, which will meet and discuss Song of Blood and Stone, by L Penelope.
If witches, vampires, ghosts, and other worlds are your jam, join bookseller Taylor C. for our fantasy and paranormal romance Book Club.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details on this event.
Where: Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 10th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
AIR/LIGHT Literary Anthology Reading at the Poetic Research Bureau – In-Person Event
Join us for an AIR/LIGHT Literary Anthology Reading to celebrate the first 5 issues and the launch of Issue 6.
Air/Light is an online literary journal that showcases both traditional and innovative works. We are firmly of the West Coast, but also national, international. We mean to look out expansively from this place rather than to gaze narrowly back at it, to express a West Coast aesthetic, a West Coast sensibility, and direct that lens onto the world. We are published by the English Department at the University of Southern California.
Our featured readers include:
bridgette bianca is a poet and professor from South Central Los Angeles. When she is not sharing her own poetry, she co-curates two literary series, Making Room for Black Women and the Women’s Center for Creative Work Reading Series. be/trouble (Writ Large Press) is her debut collection of poetry.
Alex Espinoza earned his MFA from UC Irvine and is the author of the novels Still Water Saints (Random House) and The Five Acts of Diego León (Random House). His most recent book is Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime (Unnamed Press). He’s written for the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, and NPR’s All Things Considered. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the MacDowell Colony, as well as an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, he is the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at UC Riverside. This story is drawn from a new novel, tentatively titled The Moment We Touch Ground.
Carribean Fragoza was raised in South El Monte, California. She co-edits UC Press’s California cultural journal, Boom California, and is the founder of South El Monte Arts Posse, an interdisciplinary arts collective. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared numerous publications, including BOMB, Huizache, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She is the co-editor of East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte (Rutgers University Press) and coordinator of the Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Award at Claremont Graduate University. Her debut collection of stories, Eat the Mouth That Feeds You, is forthcoming from City Lights Books.
Edan Lepucki is the author of the novella If You’re Not Yet Like Me and the novels California and Woman No. 17.
Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press). His work has been published in the American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Crazyhorse, Georgia Review, Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review, the Los Angeles Times, LitHub, The Nation, Poetry, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. Currently, he is an Associate Editor at Frontier Poetry and a Guest Editor at Palette Poetry. He has taught creative writing for Litro Magazine and Sevilla Writers House.
Naomi Hirahara is an award-winning author of multiple traditional mystery series and noir short stories. Her Mas Arai mysteries, which have been published in Japanese, Korean and French, feature a Los Angeles gardener and Hiroshima survivor who solves crimes. The third Mas Arai mystery, Snakeskin Shamisen (Delta) which was set in Gardena and Torrance, won an Edgar Award for best paperback original, while the seventh and final Mas Arai mystery, Hiroshima Boy (Prospect Park Books), was nominated for the same award. Her first historical mystery is Clark and Division, (Soho Press) which follows a Japanese American family’s move to Chicago in 1944 after being released from a California wartime detention center. Her second Leilani Santiago Hawai‘i mystery, An Eternal Lei (Prospect Park Books), is scheduled to be released in 2022.
Lilliam Rivera is an award-winning author of children’s books, including her latest young adult novel Never Look Back (Bloomsbury). Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Elle. A Bronx, New York native, she lives in Los Angeles.
Lynne Thompson is the author of Beg No Pardon (Perugia Press), which won the Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award in 2008. Her other books include Start With A Small Guitar (What Books Press) and Fretwork, winner of the Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize and published by Marsh Hawk Press. New work is forthcoming in december, Ninth Letter, and Rosebud.
Ben Loory is an American short story writer. His first book, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day (Penguin 2011), was a selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program and was named one of the 10 Best Fiction Books of the Year by Hudson Booksellers. His second book, Tales of Falling and Flying (Penguin 2017), was named a Favorite Book of the Year by the staff of The Paris Review, and one of the 50 Best Fantasy Books of All Time by Esquire Magazine. Loory’s fables and tales have appeared in The New Yorker, BOMB Magazine, Fairy Tale Review, and A Public Space, and been heard on This American Life and Selected Shorts. They have also been adapted to short film, live theater, chamber music, and dance, and been translated into many languages, including Arabic, Farsi, Japanese, Chinese, Turkish, and Indonesian. Loory is a graduate of Harvard University and holds an MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute. He lives and teaches short story writing in Los Angeles. He is also the author of a picture book for children, The Baseball Player and the Walrus (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2015).
NOTE: Masks and vaccinations are required. See Site for details.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Sunday the 10th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.poeticresearch.com/events/airlight-magazine
Library Girl Presents: First Reader, Absolutely Celebrating Writer Couples at Ruskin Theatre – In-Person Event
Join the Library Girl Reading Series with co-curators Susan Hayden & Steve Hochman, to share an event: First Reader, Absolutely Celebrating Writer Couples, with readings by:
Leon Martell + Beth Ruscio
Paul Lacques + Victoria Jacobs
Jessie Jacobson + Sonia Brenna
Jessica Wilson Cardenas + Juan Cardenas
Susan Hayden + Steve Hochman
Bonus musical performance via video online in the Library Girl Facebook Group by The Prickly Pair (Mason Summit + Irene Greene).
Writer couples will explore how love takes shape within their creative lives.
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: Ruskin Group Theatre
Date: Sunday the 10th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 3000 Airport Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?actions=4&p=4 or https://www.facebook.com/events/697975487971362/?ref=newsfeed
Los Angeles Literature 