NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here
Community Bridges: I Am, a civil rights-inspired workshop at Barnes & Noble Montclair – In-Person Event
As part of our “Community Bridges” workshop series, this 4th session will focus on the history and impact of the Chicano Movement, a movement inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, which advocated for equal rights and cultural pride among individuals of Latin American descent.
During this workshop, we’ll discuss the use of poetry in expressing the concept of “Chicanismo”, and how the poetry of Rudolfo “Corky” Gonzales empowered generations of artists and communities. Participants will be guided through the process of crafting an “I Am” poem influenced by the Civil Rights Era and the concept of self-pride and empowerment.
All participants are invited to submit their creations for consideration to our “Community Bridges” print anthology, a book featuring artworks inspired by the Civil Rights Era and its impact on our community today. Individuals whose work is published will receive a free copy of the anthology upon its release in late-Summer/early-Fall 2022.
To learn more about submission requirements, visit https://DSTLArts.org/creativeimpact.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: DSTL Arts at BN-Montclair
Date: Monday the 11th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 5183 N. Montclair Plaza Lane, Montclair, CA 91763
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-bridges-i-am-tickets-373450238717
An Evening with FlowerSong Press Authors: Matt Sedillo, Fernando Albert Salinas, Natalie Sierra, David A. Romero at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Join Chevalier’s and FlowerSong Press to hear four poets and authors from FlowerSong Press for a chill night of book readings.
Collectively, these poets and writers have performed their poetry around the world, sold thousands of copies of their books, had their work published in dozens of literary journals and newspapers, performed at hundreds of colleges and universities, have been taught at dozens of colleges and universities and have engaged in powerful work to uplift and transform their communities.
The FlowerSong poets and authors are on a mission to put Latinx authors and their allies on the map and to catch the attention of the many institutions: New York and Chicago-based publishing houses and Los Angeles literary and cultural centers, that would deny them opportunities and recognition.
Matt Sedillo has been described by journalists and historians alike as, “the best political poet in America” as well as “the poet laureate of the struggle.” His work has drawn comparisons in print to Bertol Brecht, Roque Dalton, Amiri Baraka, Alan Ginsberg and countless other legends of the past. Sedillo was the recipient of the 2017 Joe Hill Labor Poetry Award, a panelist at the 2020 Texas Book Festival, and a participant in the 2011 San Francisco International Poetry Festival, the 2022 Elba Poetry Festival. Sedillo has appeared on CSPAN, been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Axios, the Associated Press, NPR for the Southwest, the Kenyon Review, the Pacifica Network, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation among many other publications and broadcasts. Sedillo has spoken at Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba, at numerous conferences and forums, such as the National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education, the National Association of Chicana/Chicano Studies, the Left Forum, the US Social Forum, the Left Coast Forum, the Worker Cooperative National Conference, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs and at over a hundred universities and colleges, including the University of Cambridge. Matt Sedillo is the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass (FlowerSong Press, 2019) and City on the Second Floor (FlowerSong Press, 2022), both of which are taught at universities throughout the country as coursework.
Born in Los Angeles County, Fox Hills, California, Fernando Albert Salinas received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Entertainment from Full Sail University and a Bachelor of Arts in English at California State University, Channel Islands. He is on the Board of Directors, the Ventura County Area Coordinator, and a Master Poet-Teacher for California Poets in the Schools. He is an award-winning educator and has taught poetry workshops in over 25 schools throughout California. He is also an Adjunct Professor of English at Ventura College, the Ventura County Area Coordinator and a recitation coach for the California Arts Council’s Poetry Out Loud program, and the Editor-in-chief for Spit Shine Publishing. As Literary Arts Program Coordinator for the Ventura County Arts Council, he focuses on enhancing the presence and appreciation of poetry and the literary arts, raising awareness of the power of literature, poetry, and the spoken word. In 2012, Salinas initiated the Groundswell Committee: a small collection of local poets, with the support of the Ventura County Arts Council, and created Ventura County’s poet laureate program. In 2018, he implemented a youth poet laureate program for the county. His written poetry has appeared in several publications, including Askew Poetry Journal, Solo Poetry Journal, Miramar, and Lummox Press. The Misadventures of the Barrio Boys of Guadalupe, a collection of chapters presented monthly through Patreon, was released in September 2021. Toxic Masculinity, his book of poetry, was released in October 2021 by FlowerSong Press. He has performed his spoken word internationally. This year, he has been nominated for California Poet Laureate.
Natalie Sierra (she/they) is a first generation Latinx author and poet. Natalie is the author of two collections of poetry, Nadine: Love Songs for Demented Housewives (2015), and Medusa (2020, DSTL Arts Press), for which her poem ‘Medusa is My Sister’ was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She has also written two collections of short stories; Temblors (2016), and Strangelove: Tales of Love and Lust (2019). Her work has been featured in dozens of publications, including Dryland, South Broadway Ghost Society, Medium, and the Los Angeles Times. In addition to her own poetic endeavors, Natalie is the Editor-In-Chief of Disquiet Arts, a Gothic literary magazine that publishes work from BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities, seeking to change the narrative on gothic & erotic content and the ownership thereof. http://www.pandorademise.com
David A. Romero is a Mexican-American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, California. Romero is the author of My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press, 2020), a book reviewed by Gustavo Arellano (¡Ask a Mexican!), Curtis Marez (University Babylon), and founding member of Ozomatli, Ulises Bella. Romero has appeared at over seventy-five colleges and universities in thirty-three states in the USA. Romero’s work has been published in literary magazines in the United States, England, and Canada. Romero has opened for Latin Grammy winning bands Ozomatli and La Santa Cecilia. Romero’s work has been published in anthologies alongside poets laureate, Joy Harjo, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Luis J. Rodriguez, Jack Hirschman, and Tongo Eisen-Martin. Romero has won the Uptown Slam at the historic Green Mill in Chicago, the birthplace of slam poetry. Romero’s poetry deals with family, identity, social justice issues, and Latinx culture. Romero offers a scholarship for high school seniors interested in spoken word and social justice: “The Romero Scholarship for Excellence in Spoken Word.” http://www.davidaromero.com
NOTE: See site for book purchases, guidelines and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Monday the 11th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-of-book-readings-by-flowersong-press-tickets-373078918087
Natalka Burian, with Alisson Wood, & The Night Shift via Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Join us to hear author Natlaka Burian, in conversation with Alisson Wood, discuss her novel, The Night Shift.
Hidden behind back doors of bars and restaurants and theaters and shops all over New York City are shortcuts—secret passageways that allow you to jump through time and space to emerge in different parts of the city. No one knows where they came from, but there are rules—you can only travel through them one way and only at night.
When Jean’s work friend Iggy introduces her to the shortcuts, it’s to help shorten her commute between her night shifts bartending and her work at an upscale bakery. Jean is intrigued but has a hard time shaking the side effects—the shortcuts make her more talkative, more open to discussing her past and recalling memories she’s tried hard to forget.
When Iggy goes missing, Jean believes it’s related to the shortcuts and his growing obsession with them. But as she starts digging into their origins, she comes to find a strange connection between herself and the shortcuts. A shimmering, propulsive novel set in New York City during the early aughts and across time, The Night Shift shows that by confronting the past can we reshape our future.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Monday the 11th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-natalka-burian-presents-night-shift-alisson-wood
Delia E. Racines & Trust as the CORE of Instructional Leadership at Vroman’s – Online Event
Delia A. Racines will present and discuss her book, Trust as the CORE of Instructional Be visible and approachable. Unpack necessary conversations with care. Build capacity based on strengths.
The author offers these powerful protocols and more to support instructional leaders in building a community of trust in which positive change can occur. All current and aspiring instructional leaders ready to work collaboratively to improve teaching and learning will value this book.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Monday the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
At Skylight: Meng Jin & Self-Portrait with Ghost at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Meng Jin discuss her book, Self-Portrait with Ghost.
Meng Jin’s critically acclaimed debut novel, Little Gods, was praised as “spectacular and emotionally polyphonic (Omar El-Akkad, BookPage), “powerful” (Washington Post), and “meticulously observed, daringly imagined” (Claire Messud). Now Jin turns her considerable talents to short fiction, in ten thematically linked stories, Self-Portrait with Ghost.
Written during the turbulent years of the Trump administration and the first year of the pandemic, these stories explore intimacy and isolation, coming-of-age and coming to terms with the repercussions of past mistakes, fraying relationships and surprising moments of connection. Moving between San Francisco and China, and from unsparing realism to genre-bending delight, Self-Portrait with Ghost considers what it means to live in an age of heightened self-consciousness, seemingly endless access to knowledge, and little actual power.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Monday the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-meng-jin-presents-self-portrait-ghost
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 nonfiction and done readings with the Ventura Poetry Project.
Where: Beyond Baroque – Online event (tickets at Eventbrite) (check to verify)
Date: Monday the 11th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online
Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html (check to verify)
Under Mic Influence Event with Derek Brown and Mike the Poet at Long Beach Unified Bar & Lounge – In-Person Event
Derek D. Brown will feature at the Under Mic Influence event, with Mike the Poet Sonksen at Long Beach Unified Bar & Lounge, an event hosted by Kuahmel Ayleeus KuahAllah and Mylo Mu.
In the tradition of Funkmosphere, Monday Night Delight, Melodic Mondays, Project Blowed, Griot Cafe, and Lady Basco’s Speakeasy, we are here to light things right back up and take the poet & the MC to new heights. Monday July 11, you will be under Mic Influence. Come to level up with carefree, high-caliber spitters, and head home ready to get the bars up & come back for more!
The feature act for this edition is killer king Derek D. Brown, poet and spoken word artist.
Grab his book Articulate Scars now or at his feature with us @lbunified July 11. @derek.d.brown will leave you saying “oh man, goddamn!”
Anyone looking to sign up for the mic early, drop a DM or text.
Where: Long Beach Unified Bar & Lounge
Date: Monday the 11th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 2222 East Anaheim St., Long Beach, CA 90804
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1678113439233868&set=a.383136428731582
New Classics Book Club & My Antonia via Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
The New Classics Book Club meets monthly, and the July selection is the novel My Antonia by Willa Cather.
We’ll talk about the intersection of ideas and the breadth of writerly influence across literary, historical, philosophical, and political spectra. Sign up for profound conversation and a chance to read those books that have been on your list forever (or experience books you know and love in an entirely new way).
NOTE: See site for RSVP, Zoom link, and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/brentwood-tuesday-july-12th-400-pm-new-classics-book-club-my-antonia-willa
Poetry Open Mic at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Poetry Open Mic with host Wyatt Underwood is offered every second Tuesday of the month.
Share a poem you wrote or a poem you love! You are also welcome to just listen and enjoy. Emceed by Wyatt Underwood.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 6 pm
Address: LAPL online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-open-mic
One Sentence Poems Writing Workshop with Kelsey Bryan-Zwick via The Poetry Lab – Online Event
In these fast times of click and scroll the one sentence poem delivers the quick jolt to the heart many of us are searching for. In this workshop we will explore poems contained within the bounds of a single sentence. Like the prose poem this form uses a structure that is commonplace to push against the expectations of language. For these reasons I leaned into the simple power of this form in my debut collection Here Go the Knives. As a group we’ll discuss how in this world of social media poems like this can find new ways of going beyond the page. Prompts will be provided and time to generate new poem drafts. At the end of workshop we can share about the process and if you like, your fresh new one sentence poems!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, links, and details.
Where: The Poetry Lab
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Jamila Rowser, with Robyn Smith, & Wash Day Diaries via Skylight Bookstore – Online Crowdcast Event
Join us to hear author Jamila Rowser, in conversation with artist Robyn Smith, discuss their graphic novel love letter to the beauty and endurance of Black women, Wash Day Diaries.
Wash Day Diaries tells the story of four best friends—Kim, Tanisha, Davene, and Cookie—through five connected short story comics that follow these young women through the ups and downs of their daily lives in the Bronx.
The book takes its title from the wash day experience shared by Black women everywhere of setting aside all plans and responsibilities for a full day of washing, conditioning, and nourishing their hair. Each short story uses hair routines as a window into these four characters’ everyday lives and how they care for each other.
This story follows Kim, a 26-year-old woman living in the Bronx—as the book’s first chapter and expands into a graphic novel with short stories about these vibrant and relatable new characters.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Elisa Albert, with Merritt Tierce, & Human Blues at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Elisa Albert, in conversation with Merritt Tierce, present and discuss her new novel, Human Blues.
On the eve of her fourth album, singer-songwriter Aviva Rosner is plagued by infertility. The twist: as much as Aviva wants a child, she is wary of technological conception, and has poured her ambivalence into her music. As the album makes its way in the world, the shock of the response from fans and critics is at first exciting—and then invasive and strange. Aviva never wanted to be famous, or did she? Meanwhile, her evolving obsession with another iconic musician, gone too soon, might just help her make sense of things.
Told over the course of nine menstrual cycles, Human Blues is a bold, brainy, darkly funny, utterly original interrogation of our cultural obsession with childbearing. It’s also the story of one fearless woman at the crossroads, ruthlessly questioning what she wants and what she’s willing—or not willing—to do to get it.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/elisa-albert-conversation-merritt-tierce-discusses-human-blues
Book Release Party: Jeff Bishop, with Suzanne Park, & A Heavy Dose of Allison Tandy – In-Person YA Event
Join Chevalier’s for a release party and to hear author Jeff Bishop, in conversation with Suzanne Park, discuss his new YA novel, A Heavy Dose of Allison Tandy.
This funny and heartfelt debut is about a boy’s delirious summertime quest with his ex-girlfriend.
The summer after senior year should have been a time for Cam to party and hang out with his friends. It should also have been a time for him to win back the love of his life, Allison Tandy, who’d dumped him so brutally the year before. But it quickly becomes clear that this summer is going to be worse than a failure for Cam. It’s going to be a tragedy.
Ally is left comatose after a terrible car crash, then Cam tears his ACL in a basketball accident. The operation leaves him in agony, confined to his couch and ruminating over the fact that his ex may not survive. But when (after taking his medication) Cam starts seeing Ally, he starts to think: 1. He may be headed for a complete mental breakdown and 2. This summer might just be interesting after all.
NOTE: See site for book purchases, guidelines and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
At Skylight: Nada Alic, with Jedidiah Jenkins, & Bad Thought: Stories Debut – In-Person Event
Nada Alic, in conversation with Jedidiah Jenkins, will discuss her debut story collection, Bad Thoughts: Stories.
Nada Alic’s women—the perverts, nobodies, reality TV stars, poetic hopefuls, shameless party girls, and self-help addicts of Los Angeles and its environs—are all wrestling with a shared stark reality: the modern world. To cope, they live in their baddest thoughts: the lush, strange landscape of female make-believe.
In “Earth to Lydia,” a support group meets to enjoy earthly pleasures after achieving “too much enlightenment,” engaging in bizarre exercises that escalate to a point of violence and fear. The narrator of “Ghost Baby”—the spirit of a proto-child assigned to a couple whose chemistry is waning—writhes in disembodied frustration as its parents fail to conceive it. In “Daddy’s Girl,” the daughter of Eastern European immigrants tries to connect to her distant and difficult father through the invention of increasingly elaborate home maintenance repairs. And in “The Intruder,” a lonely woman’s break-in fantasy quickly builds to a full-blown obsession, until she finds an unwitting partner with whom to act it out.
Though each of Alic’s characters thrive and ache in different circumstances, they all grapple with the most painful equations of modern life: love, trust, power, loneliness, desire, violation, and vengeance. And she conjures them all with a voice that is instantly arresting, unexpectedly hilarious, and absolutely unforgettable.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
UPDATE – Adult Book Group, & The Personal Librarian. by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us for an Adult Book Group discussion of The Personal Librarian, by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray
We will be hosting a hybrid book club both in-person and via zoom!
Whether you loved it, hated it, or haven’t finished it, we want to see you at our Adult Book Club that has been going strong for 40+ years at America’s Oldest Children’s Bookstore!
NOTE: See site for book purchase, link, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 12th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/adult-book-group-daughter-fortune-isabel-allende (SIC)
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Tara A. Elliott – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Tara A. Elliott.
Tara A. Elliott is a poet and writer whose poems have appeared in The TAOS Journal of International Poetry & Art, Wildness, The American Journal of Poetry, and Stirring among others. She teaches English Language Arts as a middle grades teacher on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 12th
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.
Summer is officially here and we’re back home EVERY TUESDAY.
$10 donation. Do NOT lineup prior to 7:30 p.m. Free parking adjacent to theatre.
See sites for details.
Where: DA Poetry Lounge
Date: Tuesday the 12th 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 12th
Time: 9 pm – 12 am
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA
Website: Facebook
Mystery Book Discussion: While Justice Sleeps at West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Mystery Book group discussion meets monthly to read and discuss new and favorites in the mystery genre. Join us to discuss the July selection, While Justice Sleeps, by Stacy Abrams.
This novel is set in Washington D.C. in the halls of the Supreme Court, where a young law clerk finds herself embroiled in a shocking mystery when the most cranky swing-vote justice has slipped into a coma.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 10:30 am
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/west-valley-mystery-book-club-0
Ned Bauman, with Joshua Cohen, & VENOMOUS LUMPSUCKER at Vroman’s – Online Event
Ned Bauman, in conversation with Joshua Cohen, will present and discuss his book, VENOMOUS LUMPSUCKER.
The near future. Tens of thousands of species are going extinct every year. And a whole industry has sprung up around their extinctions, to help us preserve the remnants, or perhaps just assuage our guilt. For instance, the biobanks: secure archives of DNA samples, from which lost organisms might someday be resurrected . . . But then, one day, it’s all gone. A mysterious cyber-attack hits every biobank simultaneously, wiping out the last traces of the perished species. Now we’re never getting them back.
Karin Resaint and Mark Halyard are concerned with one species in particular: the venomous lumpsucker, a small, ugly bottom-feeder that happens to be the most intelligent fish on the planet. Resaint is an animal cognition scientist consumed with existential grief over what humans have done to nature. Halyard is an exec from the extinction industry, complicit in the mining operation that destroyed the lumpsucker’s last-known habitat.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 1 pm PT
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/ned-beauman-presents-venomous-lumpsucker
Cara Hoffman & Morgan Talty Present: Ruin and Night of the Living Rez via Skylight Bookstore – Online Crowdcast Event
Join us to hear authors Cara Hoffman and Morgan Talty present and discuss their new books: Ruin and Night of the Living Rez, respectively.
Cara Hoffman’s Ruin is both bracingly timely and eerily timeless in its examination of an American state in free-fall, unsparing in its disregard for broken institutions, while shining with compassion for all who are left in their wake. Hoffman’s short fictions are brutal, surreal, hilarious, and transgressive, celebrating the sharp beauty of outsiders and the infinitely creative ways humans muster psychic resistance under oppressive conditions. The ultimate effect of these ten interconnected stories is one of invigoration and a sense of possibilities—hope for a new world extracted from the rubble of the old.
Morgan Talty’s Night of the Living Rez is set in a Native community in Maine and is a riveting debut about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy.
In twelve striking, luminescent stories, author Morgan Talty—with searing humor, abiding compassion, and deep insight—breathes life into tales of family and a community as they struggle with a painful past and an uncertain future. A boy unearths a jar that holds an old curse, which sets into motion his family’s unraveling; a man, while trying to swindle some pot from a dealer, discovers a friend passed out in the woods, his hair frozen into the snow; a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s projects the past onto her grandson; and two friends, inspired by Antiques Roadshow, attempt to rob the tribal museum for valuable root clubs.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-cara-hoffman-conversation-morgan-talty
Elisa Albert, with Orli Auslander, & Human Blues at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Elisa Albert, in conversation with Orli Auslander (I Feel Bad), will present and sign Human Blues.
On the eve of her fourth album, singer-songwriter Aviva Rosner is plagued by infertility. The twist: as much as Aviva wants a child, she is wary of technological conception, and has poured her ambivalence into her music. As the album makes its way in the world, the shock of the response from fans and critics is at first exciting—and then invasive and strange. Aviva never wanted to be famous, or did she? Meanwhile, her evolving obsession with another iconic musician, gone too soon, might just help her make sense of things.
Told over the course of nine menstrual cycles, Human Blues is a bold, brainy, darkly funny, utterly original interrogation of our cultural obsession with childbearing. It’s also the story of one fearless woman at the crossroads, ruthlessly questioning what she wants and what she’s willing—or not willing—to do to get it.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/elisa-albert-author-signing
Ashley Flowers, with Max Cutler, & CULTS via Book Soup & Spotify – Onllne Live Event
Join us to hear author Ashley Flowers, in conversation with Max Cutler, for an evening to meet and greet to celebrate Parcast’s first book, CULTS, and discuss their journey in podcasting and all things true crime.
CULTS is more than just a compilation of grisly biographies. Based on the hit eponymous podcast, Parcast’s founder Max Cutler and national bestselling author Kevin Conley dive even deeper to look closely at the lives of some of the most disreputable cult figures and tell the stories of their rise to power and fall from grace, sanity, and decency. Beyond that, it is a study of humanity, an unflinching look at what happens when the most vulnerable recesses of the mind are manipulated and how the things we hold most sacred can be twisted into the lowest form of malevolence.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, links, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/spotify-ashley-flowers-max-cutler
Book Launch: Nada Alic, with Guests & Bad Thoughts & at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Nada Alic, in conversation with Aiden Arata, Madeline Cash, Moira O’Neill, and Lizzie Rose, will discuss her debut, Bad Thoughts: Stories.
This book of stories is an exhilarating and delightfully deviant debut story collection that, with comedic precision and compulsive irreverence, explores the most surreal and inadmissible fantasies of contemporary women.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
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 13th
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-377565888737
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 13th
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-362732882817?aff=erelpanelorg
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry & Alyssa Matuchniak 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 Alyssa Matuchniak.
The poet Alyssa Matuchniak is a Southern Californian emerging on the poetry scene. A second-generation biracial American — the daughter of an Indian mother and an English-Polish father — she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and Creative Writing from UC Santa Cruz and a Master of Arts in Teaching form UC Irvine. An award-winning educator in the South Bay, she currently works as a secondary English teacher and dreams of creating a space for kids to learn, imagine, invent, dream, and liberate. She is the author of the debut poetry book Small Wars, Little Revolutions (World Stage Press, 2018), and her poems have previously been published in Black Napkin Press.
$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 13th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/421230163348654
Breaking the Line Poetry Workshop with bridgette bianca via The Poetry Lab – Online Event
Join us work with instructor, poet and author bridgette bianca in a 4-week poetry writing workshop titled: Breaking the Line.
This workshop is appropriate for writers at all levels. It includes four weeks of live Thursday evening lecture, discussion, and guided writing time on July 14, 21, 28 and August 4. The final night of class, participants will be invited to share their work and celebrate each other.
bridgette bianca is a poet and professor from South Central Los Angeles. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Howard University and her Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Otis College of Art & Design. bridgette bianca has performed her poetry all around Southern California, including features at The World Stage, the Southern California Poetry Festival, Los Angeles Lit Crawl, the Table Lit, LitFest Pasadena, Rapp Saloon, La Palabra, Beyond Baroque, and the un::fade::able Reading Series. She was most recently published on CulturalWeekly.com and in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora. She is one half of the literary curating team, Making Room for Black Women, with Sanura Williams of My Lit Box, and co-hosts the Women’s Center for Creative Work’s Reading Series with Nina Rota. bridgette bianca’s work as a writer and an educator seeks to serve the people and moments most forget or ignore. Her first book of poetry be/trouble, was released by Writ Large Press in February 2020.
Find her on social media at @bridgettebianca on Instagram, @thebridgebianca on Twitter, and Bridgette Bianca on Facebook
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, link, and details.
Where: The Poetry Lab
Date: Thursday July 14th – Thursday August 4
Time: 5 pm – 7pm (4 weekly sessions)
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.thepoetrylab.com/breaking-the-line
Mystery Book Club & The Monkey’s Raincoat via Venice-Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join the Mystery Book Club to discuss this month’s selection, The Monkey’s Raincoat by Robert Crais.
Meet Elvis Cole, L.A. Private Eye…He quotes Jiminy Cricket and carries a .38. He’s a literate, wisecracking Vietnam vet who is determined to never grow up.
When quiet Ellen Lang enters Elvis Cole’s Disney-Deco office, she’s lost something very valuable—her husband and her young son. The case seems simple enough, but Elvis isn’t thrilled. Neither is his enigmatic partner and firepower, Joe Pike. Their search down the seamy side of Hollywood’s studio lots and sculptured lawns soon leads them deep into a nasty netherworld of drugs, sex—and murder.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Venice Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 14th
Time: 5 pm
Address: LAPL Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-4
Sam Wasson & Jeanine Basinger, with Erika Schickel, & The Famous Mr. Fairbanks via Book Soup – Online Event
Join us to hear authors Sam Wasson & Jeanine Basinger, in discussion with Erika Schickle, discuss Richard Schickel’s book about Douglas Fairbanks, The Famous Mr. Fairbanks.
This book by the illustrious author and critic Richard Schickle is about the actor who virtually invented the celebrity star, Douglas Fairbanks. In the end, perhaps dying because he could not find his way out. Fairbanks’ story is the Hollywood celebrity story, and in Schickel’s landmark work, first published in 1973, he lays bare the influence and legacy, the trials and glories, of this quintessentially American phenomenon.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 14th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Made in L.A. Authors & Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera at Small World Books – In-Person Event
Join us to hear great stories by L. A. authors form the Made in L.A. anthology Tidal Waves of Change.
Small World Books, Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera, Lucy Rodriguez-Hanley, and other contributing writers invite you to catch a literary wave with Made in L.A. writers and listen to the rushing roar of stories from Angelenos pushed past the breaking point and caught in the undertow.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Small World Books
Date: Thursday the 14th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 1407 Ocean Front Walk, Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.facebook.com/tisha.reichle
Trenches Full of Poets Reading Series at Page Against the Machine Bookstore – In-Person Event
Please join Trenches Full of Poets Reading Series every month to hear featured guest poets and readers present their work. Hosted by poets Nikolai Garcia and Mauricio Andres Moreno, The vision for Trenches events is to bring diverse voices and poetry of all kinds. We’ve packed the house since we started so come early to get a good seat!
Our poets will be there with their books so make sure you bring your wallets too to support the poets and the bookstore!
Briana Munoz is the author of the chapbook Loose Lips and most recently her full collection Everything Is Returned to the Soil.
Brian Dunlap is a Los Angeles poet, writer, workshop leader, and the author of the chapbook, Concrete Paradise, and the creator and curator of the blog losangelesliterature.wordpress.com.
Aruni Wijesinghe is the author of the debut poetry collection, 2 Revere Place.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Page Against the Machine Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2714 E, 4th St., Long Beach, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/patmbooks/events/?ref=page_internal or https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=789270990736&set=a.504769324356
At Skylight: Chris Belcher, with Karen Tongson, & Pretty Baby: A Memoir at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear Chris Belcher, in conversation with Karen Tongson, discuss his book, Pretty Baby.
This memoir tells how the author appeared destined for a life of conventional femininity after taking first place in an infant beauty contest—a minor glory that can follow you around a working-class town of 1,600 people in rural West Virginia. But when she came out as queer, the conservative community that had once celebrated its prettiest baby turned on her.
A decade later, living in Los Angeles and trying to stay afloat in the early years of a PhD program, Belcher plunges into the work of a pro domme. Branding herself as LA’s Renowned Lesbian Dominatrix, she specializes in male clients who want a domme to make them feel worthless, shameful, and weak—all the abuse regularly heaped upon women for free. A queer woman whom men can trust with the unorthodox sides of their sexualities, Belcher is paid to be the keeper of the fantasies that they can’t enact in their everyday relationships. But moonlighting as a sex worker also carries risks, like the not-so-submissive who tries to turn the tables and the jealous client out for revenge.
In this sharp and discerning memoir, we see through Belcher’s eyes how power and desire can be renegotiated—or reinforced.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 14th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-chris-belcher-presents-pretty-baby-karen-tongson
Book Launch: My War, by Matt L. Roar & Guests at Stories Books & Cafe – In-Person Event
The book launch of My War, by Matt L. Roar features guests: Michelle Tea, Thomas Page McBee, Christopher Soto and Kate Durbin.
“…Roar takes on loaded subjects with grace and startling beauty, but what we feel is terror, the ways in which children bring themselves up, try to propel their own lives one skate at a time. And always the wall ahead put up by speculators to keep kids down. That’s My War and that’s the truth of the matter, as you’ve never understood it this completely.” —Kevin Killian
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Thursday 15th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Michael Bourne, with Edan Lepucki, & Blithedale Canyon via Vroman’s – Online Event
Michael Bourne, with conversation with Edan Lepucki, will discuss his book, Blithedale Canyon.
Trent Wolfer has blown it, in every possible way, over and over and over. And now he’s blowing it again. Fresh out of rehab, he’s back in his hometown working a dead-end job at a fast food joint and cutting out on his breaks to sneak airplane bottles of vodka and gin, when he looks up from his register one day to see Suze Randall, his closest friend from high school, now a radiant blonde single mother of two. Set in a small, sun-drenched Northern California town shifting from hippie haven to moneyed paradise, Blithedale Canyon asks whether a man who has spent his whole life screwing up can stop long enough to avoid destroying a woman he loves. Bourne’s funny, edgy debut is a literary love story for every man who has ever wondered why he keeps smashing up the things he cares about, and for every woman who’s ever wondered what was going on in the head of that guy she spent her twenties trying to fix.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 14th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 911101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/michael-bourne-discusses-blithedale-canyon
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 14th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 665 N. Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.instagram.com/fos_thursdays/
Your Author Series: Tracey Baptiste & The Jumbies via Central Library, LAPL – Online Kids Event
Join us for the Your Author Series to hear author Tracey Baptiste present her middle grade series, The Jumbies, a scary but cheerful tale that draws on Caribbean folk traditions. Danger is in the air as Corinne must call upon her courage, her friends, and ancient magic to stop the jumbies and save her island home.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-tracey-baptiste
Sarah Priscus, with Megan Angelo, & I’ve Got Your Back via Book Soup – Online Event
Join us to hear author Sarah Priscus, in conversation with Megan Angelo, discuss her new book, Groupies.
It’s 1977, and Faun Novak is in love with rock ‘n’ roll.
After her mother’s death, Faun, a naïve college dropout, grabs her Polaroid and hops a Greyhound to Los Angeles. In the City of Angels, she reconnects with her charismatic childhood friend Josie, now an up-and-coming model and muse. To make their reunion even sweeter, Josie is now dating Cal Holiday, the front man of the superstar rock band Holiday Sun, and Faun is positively mesmerized.
Except it’s not just the band she can’t get enough of. It’s also the proud groupies who support them in myriad ways, Equal parts an evocative coming-of-age and a cutting look at fame, desire, and the media, Groupies is a novel that will have you turning the pages until the music-and drug-fueled end.
INOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/virtual-sarah-priscus-conversation-megan-angelo-discusses-groupies
Author Reading: Violeta Orozco & The Broken Woman Diaries at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Event
Join us for an author reading featuring Violeta Orozco presenting her first book in English, The Broken Woman Diaries, featuring a series of original illustrations by Perla Temoltzin and a foreword by Dr. Naomi Quiñónez.
The Broken Woman Diaries is a bold exploration of dismembered selves. Moving through a captivating mix of form, her prose and poetry carry together the sharp edge of a critical intelligence, while inviting the reader to begin an empowering process of making oneself whole through the work. We enter unsuspectingly, quickly rendered through language, only to be pieced back together by Orozco’s daring sensibility. There is love, humor, rage, and resistance mounted in the pages, often gifted a generous amount of space to make room for a restless cadence.
Violeta Orozco is a bilingual author and spoken word artist from Mexico City. She is the author of three poetry collections. The Broken Woman Diaries is her third book and her debut full-length poetry collection in English. She is also translator for Nueva York Poetry Review, translating Chicana and Latina poets into Spanish. Her work in English is published or forthcoming in magazines like Acentos Review, Harvard College’s PALABRITAS and Bozalta journal. Currently she conducts research in Chicana poets and performers at University of Cincinnati, where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Spanish Literature.
Perla Temoltzin is a talented painter and sculptor from Mexico City, graduated from the famous Esmeralda art school where Frida Kahlo studied. She draws her inspiration from prehispanic aesthetics like Códices and prehispanic iconography.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Friday 15th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
At Skylight: Jeremy Atherton Lin, with Jonathan Parks-Ramage, & Gay Bar at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Jeremy Atherton Lin. In conversation with Jonathan Parks-Ramage, will present and discuss his new book, Gay Bar: Why We Went Out.
As gay bars continue to close at an alarming rate, a writer looks back to find out what’s being lost in this indispensable, intimate, and stylish celebration of queer history.
The journey that emerges is a stylish and nuanced inquiry into the connection between place and identity—a tale of liberation, but one that invites us to go beyond the simplified Stonewall mythology and enter lesser-known battlefields in the struggle to carve out a territory. Elegiac, randy, and sparkling with wry wit, Gay Bar is at once a serious critical inquiry, a love story and an epic night out to remember.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Friday 15th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-jeremy-atherton-lin-presents-gay-bar-jonathan-parks-ramage
A Poetry Reading with Susan Suntree & Tom Laichas & New Releases at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Join us at Beyond Baroque for poetry readings by Susan Suntree & Tom Laichas, who will read their new works. There will be a reception with food and refreshments.
Susan Suntree will read from her new collection, Dear Traveler. This book is a Postmodern travel diary taking us on a journey through “a fevered civilization.” These poems shine with moments of quiet astonishment as they guide us into the interior of the self during these turbulent times. Her poems remind us ‘Your wild life is listening.’” -Alan Soldofsky.
Tom Laiches will read from his new collection, Sixty-Three Photographs At The End of a War. Photo essay, memoir, and prose poem, Tom Laichas’s new book resurrects a past that was never fully buried.
Susan Suntree is an award-winning poet, performer, and essayist whose recent books of poetry included Dear Traveler and the updated paperback and audiobook release of her non-fiction epic poem Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California which won the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Award for Nonfiction, the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Narrative Poetry, a Mellon Foundation Elemental Arts Award, and was a finalist for a Society of Voice Arts and Sciences prize. Other books include Eye of the Womb, also published in Madrid as a bilingual edition, El Ojo de la Matriz; Tulips, a bilingual chapbook of translations of poetry by Spanish poet Ana Rossetti; Rita Moreno, YA biography; Wisdom of the East; Stories of Compassion, Inspiration and Love for which the Dalai Lama wrote the foreword. http://www.susansuntree.com/
Tom Laichas is author of Three Hundred Streets of Venice California (forthcoming from FutureCycle Press, 2023), Sixty-Three Photographs from the End of a War (3.1 Press, 2021), and Empire of Eden (The High Window Press, 2019). The recipient of the Nancy Hargrove Poetry Prize, his recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Rupture, Disquieting Muses, Stand, Ambit and elsewhere. He lives in Venice, California.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Friday 15th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-poetry-reading-with-susan-suntree-tom-laichas-tickets-371711518157
Third Fridays Rapp Saloon Reading Series, with host Elena Secota, via Rapp Saloon – In-Person Event
Join the return of Third Fridays at Rapp Saloon Open Mic & Featured Readers, offered every 3rd Friday of the month by host Elena Secota.
This re-launch will expand the event as a HYBRID event, with a return to live in-person events while maintaining at HISUA Zoom option for our performers and guests.
Our featured guest poets and artists this month include:
Elena Karina Byrne is a poet, editor, and multi-media artist and is poetry consultant and moderator for The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, literary programs director for the Ruskin Art Club, and a judge for the Kate/Kingsley Tufts Prizes in poetry. She served as regional director of the Poetry Society of America for 12 years and has also served as executive director of AVK Arts.
Byrne’s books include: The Flammable Bird (Zoo Press 2002), MASQUE (Tupelo Press, 2008), and Squander (Omnidawn, 2016). Her poetry and book reviews have also appeared in many magazines and journals, such as Pushcart Prize XXXIII, Best American Poetry, Yale Review, Paris Review, American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, Denver Quarterly, Colorado Review, Slate, Ploughshares, the Kenyon Review, Drunken Boat, the Dublin Review, Verse, and Volt
Gail Wronsky is the author, coauthor, or translator of fifteen books of poetry and prose, including the poetry collections Imperfect Pastorals; Poems for Infidels; and Dying for Beauty, a finalist for the Western Arts Federation Poetry Prize. She is the translator of Argentinean poet Alicia Partnoy’s book Fuegos Florales/Flowering Fires, winner of the American Poetry Prize from Settlement House Press. Her poems have appeared in many journals, including Poetry, Boston Review, Antioch Review, Denver Quarterly, Poetry International, Guesthouse, and Volt.
Her most recent book, Under the Capsized Boat We Fly: New & Selected Poems was published in 2021.
Surprise Guests
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Rapp Saloon at HISUA – In-Person & Online Event (Check site)
Date: Friday the 15th
Time: 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://m.facebook.com/pg/therappsaloonpoetryreading/posts/
Notable Books Discussion Group: Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us online for a discussion of this month’s selection in the Notable Books Discussion Group, Our Country Friends: A Novel, by author Gary Shteyngart.
Eight friends, one country house, and six months in isolation—a novel about love, friendship, family, and betrayal hailed as a “virtuoso performance” (USA Today) and “an homage to Chekhov with four romances and a finale that will break your heart” (The Washington Post)
This is an elegiac and very funny book by the author of the beloved bestseller, Super Sad True Love Story.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Santa Monica Public Library, SMPL
Date: Saturday 16th
Time: 11 am
Address: SMPL Online (see site)
Website: http://calendar.smgov.net/library/eventsignup.asp?ID=33943
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 16th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Tania Marien of The Carbon Almanac: Taking Collective Action on Climate Change at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss the book, The Carbon Almanac, with Tania Marien.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, guidelines and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 16th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Suite 30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/carbonalmana
Julie Tieu Book Launch & Circling Back to You at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to celebrate the launch of Circling Back to You, by Julie Tieu. They will be in conversation with author Lacie Waldon, and a book signing will follow.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details on this event.
Where: Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 16th
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 Readings & Open Mic – In-Person at Rosebud Coffee & Online Via Zoom
Join us at Saturday Afternoon Poetry on the patio at Rosebud Coffee for readings hosted by DKC, featuring:
MARY McKEEL, is a poet and writer who graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Her poems have appeared in several print and online journals.
TERRENCE MOORE, 10-time “Best Poet” award winner, is the proud father of Taylor and Tyra Moore and Director of Adult Services @ Center for Fathers and Families
LYNDA LA ROSE is a poet/performance artist who has been writing poetry since 1993; she has been published in several poetry anthologies including “I Love Your Poetry”, “What?!?!” , “Listen to Me: Shared Secrets From WriteGirl,” San Gabriel Poetry Calendar, and the City of Los Angeles African American Heritage Month …
DIG WAYNE is a poet, teacher, coach, photographer, performer, writer and musician. For more information go to: digwayne.com/Poetry.html
Open Reading hosted by COCO.
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry at Rosebud Coffee
Date: Saturday the 16th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 2302 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. CA
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Club: Far from the Light of Heaven at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss the book, Far from the Light of Heaven, by Tade Thompson.
The colony ship Ragtime docks in the Lagos system, having traveled light-years to bring one thousand sleeping souls to a new home among the stars. But when first mate Michelle Campion rouses, she discovers some of the sleepers will never wake.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, guidelines and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 1616h
Time: 5 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Suite 30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/sci-fi-fantasy-book-club-far-light-heaven
At Skylight: K-Ming Chang & Gods of Want: Stories at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
K-Ming Chang will present and discuss her new book, Gods of Want: Stories.
Gods of Want: Stories contains startling stories that center the bodies, memories, myths, and relationships of Asian American women, from the National Book Award “5 Under 35” honoree and author of Bestiary.
With each tale, K-Ming Chang gives us her own take on a surrealism that mixes myth and migration, corporeality and ghostliness, queerness and the quotidian. Stunningly told in her feminist fabulist style, these are uncanny stories peeling back greater questions of power and memory.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday 16th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-k-ming-chang-presents-gods-want
Diverse Voices LA – Pan African Film Festival Presents: Poet Volume 2 at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
To begin the 5:30pm cocktail hour, beer, wine, coffee, teas and lite pastries will be available for purchase.
Featured poets: Papa Sak, Quan The Poet, Derek Brown, Dr. Alice Nicholas, Iona Morris Jackson and the one and only Conney Williams! (6:30pm sharp) Hosted by ‘Kooki’ (PAFF Spoken Word Festival) and Philosophy (Tv One-Verses and Flow). Special guest poet Shihan and music by Dj S.O.U.L.-O. Summer cocktail attire. Cost $20. Limited capacity, 100 people. A limited Open Mic (Hosted by Paul Mabon) will be held from 8:30-9pm. Please follow us for another enchanting evening @Diverseversesla.
NOTE: See site for tickets and event details.
Where: Mimoda Studio (Street Parking Only, Enter through Paper or Plasti)
Date: Saturday 16th
Time: 5:30 pm – 9 pm
Address: 5774 West Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90019
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/diverse-verses-la-pan-african-film-festival-presents-poet-volume-2-tickets-337536409487?aff=eand&fbclid=IwAR2YcwFo1-_6qX9UA-HPRdllw5BYOGhi3W5v6C7oq16AzC_sgRTQvIPKOLE
Storytelling Night at the Pop-Hop Bookstore in Highland Park – In-Person Event
Storytelling Night is back, hosted by Erin James! Participants will tell ten-minute stories with a general theme of self-expression or un-bottling, with musical interludes between stories. There will be a mingling period afterwards, with a live DJ. The takeaway will be the value of expressing things you’d otherwise bottle up.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Pop-Hop
Date: Saturday 16th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 5002 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: http://www.thepophop.com/events-3
Hiram Sims & SLP Birthday Poetry Bash at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
Did you know July is Hiram Sims (Founder and Executive Director of CLI) and the Sims Library of Poetry birthday month?
We’ll be celebrating like we always do with dope poetry and greasy pizza.
Tickets are $15. All proceeds will go towards sustaining the Library.
Line-up TBA.
Can’t come, but would like to donate? See link at site.
NOTE: See site for tickets and event details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday 16th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2702 Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/event-details/hirams-and-slps-birthday-poetry-bash
Sunday Series Poetry Workshop with Diamond Forde via The Poetry Lab – Online Event
Join us work with instructor, poet and author Diamond Forde in a one-time Sunday Series poetry writing workshop titled: It’s Time to Embrace Poetry’s Fat Girl.
In this workshop, we will explore cultivating excess and why it’s time to embrace poetry’s fat girl. We will discuss fat poetics, queerness, and Blackness while exploring the body and body image. We may find ourselves in conversation with the work of poets like Claudia Cortese, Jennifer Jackson Berry, and Rachel Wiley. Themes of the racialized body and the Other may also fill this space.
Diamond Forde is a poet and writer whose debut collection, Mother Body, is the winner of the 2019 Saturnalia Poetry Prize. Forde has received numerous awards and prizes, including a Pink Poetry Prize, a Furious Flower Poetry Prize, and a finalist for the 2022 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, Claremont Graduate University. A Callaloo and Tin House fellow, Forde’s work has appeared in Boston Review, Honey Literary, Obsidian, Massachusetts Review, and more. She enjoys R&B, fish and grits, and cuddling with her dog.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, link, and details.
Where: The Poetry Lab
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 1 pm – 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.thepoetrylab.com/register/sunday-series/diamondforde
Focus on Craft Book Club at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us at the Ripped Bodice for an in-person Focus on Craft Book Club discussion of The No Show, by Beth O’Leary
Developmental editor and teacher Jeanne Devita leads this book club that focuses on examining popular romance novels from a writer’s viewpoint. But everyone is welcome, you don’t have to be a writer!
Meets at the store on the 3rd Sunday of the month at 1pm.
No membership necessary, feel free to show up!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details on this event.
Where: Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address: Main Street Venice Blvd, at Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Sizzling Summer Showcase & Open Mic with James Coates & Guests via The Garci Center for the Arts – In-Person Event
Poet-in-Residence at The Garcia Center for the Arts James Coates is honored to put together a Sizzling Summer Showcase and Open Mic in 2 weeks. With an all-star feature line up Eric DeVaughnn George Hammons and IamRomaine Washington these poets have inspired me for many years with their incredible talent and generous hearts. This is an event you don’t want to miss. So mark your calendars for Sunday July 17, 2-4 pm and get those hot poems ready cause this show will be fire.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Garcia Center for the Arts
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 536 W. 11th St., San Bernardino, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=5352115481515139&set=a.523906561002746
Bucket List Book Club & The Mayor of Casterbridge at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join the Bucket List Book Club to read and discuss our July selection, The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy, a haunting study of guilt and lost love.
In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper. Subtitled “A Story of a Man of Character,” Hardy’s powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed Henchard is also an intensely dramatic work, tragically played out against the vivid backdrop of a close-knit Dorsetshire town.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore, Riverside, CA 92507
Date: Sunday 17th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/bucket-list-book-club-mayor-casterbridge
Becky Chambers, with Ryka Aoki, & A Prayer for the Crown-Shy at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear Becky Chambers, in conversation with Ryka Aoki, present and discuss her book, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy.
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is a story of kindness and love from one of the foremost practitioners of hopeful SF. After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some renown) and Mosscap (a robot sent on a quest to determine what humanity really needs) turn their attention to the villages and cities of the little moon they call home. They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe. Becky Chambers’ new series continues to ask: in a world where people have what they want, does having more even matter?
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/becky-chambers-signing
The Poetry Salon Reading and Open Mic: Douglas Manuel & Emily Enger – In-Person Event
The Poetry Salon Readings & Open Mic, hosted by Tresha Faye Haefner and Emily Enger, will feature the electrifying poetry of Douglas Manuel and the historical fiction debut novel of Emily Enger.
Douglas Manuel‘s debut poetry collection, Testify (Red Hen Press, 2017), won an IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for Poetry. Manuel’s poems explore identity, race, and masculinity. His most recent collection is the author of Testify, from Red Hen Press.
Emily Enger’s work has been published in print magazines, literary anthologies, and popular websites. Her creative writing has earned several honors, including exclusive spots in Lore Ferguson Wilbert’s inaugural mentorship program and the GoodLit writers retreat sponsored by Wedgwood. She is the author of an historical fiction debut novel.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: The Poetry Salon
Date: Sunday 17th
Time: 3 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1343273612830495/?ref=newsfeed
At Skylight: Samantha Allen, with Kate Stayman-London, & Patricia Wants to Cuddle at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join Samantha Allen, in conversation with Kate Stayman-London, to discuss her book, Patricia Wants to Cuddle.
When the final four women in competition for an aloof, somewhat sleazy bachelor’s heart arrive on a mysterious island in the Pacific Northwest, they prepare themselves for another week of extreme sleep deprivation, invasive interviews, and, of course, the salacious drama eager viewers nationwide tune in to devour. Each woman came on The Catch for her own reasons—brand sponsorships, followers, and, yes, even love—and they’ve all got their eyes steadfastly trained on their respective prizes.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 17th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Los Angeles Literature 