Los Angeles Literature Events: 08/15/22 – 08/21/22
NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here
World Literature Book Club at via West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us for a spirited and engaging discussion of the world’s best short stories! All selections are from The Best Short Stories 2021: The O. Henry Prize Winners (New York, 2021), ed. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This month’s selections are:
- Scissors by Karina Sainz Borgo
- Witness by Jamel Brinkley
- The Other One by Tess Hadley
We meet every Monday morning (excluding holidays).
NOTE: See site for link, and details. Email wvally@lapl.org with “World Literature” in the subject line.
Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 15th
Time: 10 am (repeated by Woodland Hills Branch Library at 2 pm).
Address: Zoom Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-literature-book-club-0
Book Club Bonanza Reading Challenge via LAPL– Online Teen Event
Join us as we partner with Well Suited, a nonprofit organization that provides middle and high school students with the tools needed to create college and career pathways.
- August 15: Join us for activities related to Jennifer Niven’s Holding up the Universe.
- August 22: Join us for activities related to the book(s) chosen.
- August 29: Join us for the book discussion on Jennifer Niven’s Holding up the Universe.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 15th
Time: 4:30 – 5:30 pm
Address: LAPL (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-bonanza
Philosophical Horror Book Club: And Then I Woke Up & At Night All Blood Is Black via Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join the Philosophical Horror Book Club for a discussion of this month’s selections, And then I Woke Up, by Malcolm Devlin, and At Night All Blood Is Black, by David Diop, Anna Muschovakis.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchases, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday the 15th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Main Library Book Discussion Group: Mama’s Last Hug via Santa Monica Public Library – Online Event
Join a community-led discussion of books selected by the group. This month’s selection is Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves by Frans de Waal.
Contact jeff.schwartz@santamonica.gov for the Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Santa Monica Public Library
Date: Monday the 15th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: http://calendar.smgov.net/library/eventsignup.asp?ID=33895
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 15th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online
Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-399564537287
Under the Mic Influence & Open Mic featuring Big Arch – In-Person Event
Join host Kuahmel Alyeeus KuahAllah for poetry, Open Mic, rare grooves, cocktails, tasty bites.
Time to see who’s paying attention: this Monday, you will be under Mic Influence and vegan soul food influence at @lbunified as @anotherside0fsoul will be on the premises with smackalicious grub for real people while @bigarchgame_ will provide the slaptastic feature and the open mic tops it all off! You will be well-fed twice over as @djkevjam and I look to ensure that happens!
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: LB Unified
Date: Monday the 15th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 2222 E. Anaheim, Long Beach, CA
Website: https://facebook.com/events/s/mic-influence-w-feature-big-ar/1148589355695556/
Rosalie Lim & Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – Online Event
Join us to hear Rosalie Lim present and discuss Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club.
Newly minted professional matchmaker Sophie Go has returned to Toronto, her hometown, after spending three years in Shanghai. Her job is made quite difficult, however, when she is revealed as a fraud—she never actually graduated from matchmaking school. In a competitive market like Toronto, no one wants to take a chance on an inexperienced and unaccredited matchmaker, and soon Sophie becomes an outcast.
In dire search of clients, Sophie stumbles upon a secret club within her condo complex: the Old Ducks, seven septuagenarian Chinese bachelors who never found love. Somehow, she convinces them to hire her, but her matchmaking skills are put to the test as she learns the depths of loneliness, heartbreak, and love by attempting to make the hardest matches of her life.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 16th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Book Club Discussion: Cult Classic at Village Well Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join our next Book Club meeting to discuss this month’s selection, Cult Classic, by Shane Crosley.
Hilariously insightful and delightfully suspenseful, Cult Classic is an original: a masterfully crafted tale of love, memory, morality, and mind control, as well as a fresh foray into the philosophy of romance.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, and details.
Where: Village Well Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 16th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/19220
Scott Berg, Lesley M.M. Blume, Mark Cirino & One True Sentence at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear, contributors A. Scott Berg, Lesley M. M. Blume and co-editor Mark Cirino discuss and sign One True Sentence: Writers and Readers on Hemingway’s Art,
Thirty-eight of Ernest Hemingway’s most perceptive and interesting readers discuss their favorite sentences by one of the most influential authors in modern history.
“All you have to do is write one true sentence,” wrote Ernest Hemingway in his posthumous memoir, A Moveable Feast. “Write the truest sentence that you know.” From the creators of One True Podcast comes a celebration of the greatest sentences by a master—unforgettable sentences that can take a reader’s breath away. Each sentence has been selected by an acclaimed author, scholar, or aficionado and then examined in conversations that deepen readers’ understanding of both literature and life.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 16th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/One-True-Sentence-Contributor-signing
Mystery Book Group Discussion via Santa Monica Public Library – Online Event
Join a community-led discussion of an exciting mystery novel each month.
Currently held on Zoom.
Email library@santamonica.gov to join.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Santa Monica Public Library
Date: Tuesday the 16th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: http://calendar.smgov.net/library/eventsignup.asp?ID=33998
Stephen Lloyd, with Vali Chandrasekaran, & Friend of the Devil at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Stephen Lloyd, in conversation with Vali Chandrasekaran, will present and discuss his book, Friend of the Devil.
Welcome to Danforth Putnam, boarding school for the elite, sprawled across its own private island off the coast of New England. Sam, a war vet who feels sure he’s seen it all, has been called here to find a stolen rare book. But as he corners D&D nerds, grills steroid-raging linemen, and interviews filthy-rich actresses, he soon senses that something far stranger—“witchy”, in fact—is afoot. When students start to meet mysterious and gruesome deaths, Sam realizes just how fast the clock is ticking.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 16th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/stephen-lloyd-conversation-vali-chandrasekaran-discusses-friend-devil
Book Talk: Eloise Moran, with Eliza Wexelman, & The Lady Di Look Book at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Eloise Moran, in conversation with Eliza Wexelman, will present and discuss The Lady Di Look Book.
Through a rich and beautiful series of images, British fashion journalist Eloise Moran decodes Princess Diana’s outfits in this smart visual psychobiography of an icon.
From the pink gingham pants and pastel-yellow overalls of a sacrificial lamb, to the sexy Versace revenge dresses, power suits, and bicycle shorts of a free woman, British fashion journalist Eloise Moran has studied thousands of pictures of Princess Diana. She soon discovered that behind each outfit lay a carefully crafted strategy: What Lady Di couldn’t express verbally, she expressed through her clothes.
NOTE; See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 16th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
At Skylight: Elaine Castillo, with Jane Hu, & How to Read Now at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Elaine Castillo, in conversation with Jane Hu, will present and discuss How To Read Now: Essays.
How to Read Now explores the politics and ethics of reading and insists that we are capable of something better: a more engaged relationship not just with our fiction and our art, but with our buried and entangled histories. Smart, funny, galvanizing, and sometimes profane, Castillo attacks the stale questions and less-than-critical proclamations that masquerade as vital discussion: reimagining the cartography of the classics, building a moral case against the settler colonialism of lauded writers like Joan Didion, taking aim at Nobel Prize winners and toppling indie filmmakers, and celebrating glorious moments in everything from popular TV like The Watchmen to the films of Wong Kar-wai and the work of contemporary poets like Tommy Pico.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 16th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-elaine-castillo-presents-how-read-now-jane-hu
Rebecca Woolf, with Diablo Cody, & All of This: A Memoir of Death and Desire at Vroman’s – Online Event
Join us to hear Rebecca Woolf, in conversation with Diablo Cody, present and discuss her book, All of This: A Memoir of Death and Desire.
After years of struggling in a tumultuous marriage, writer Rebecca Woolf was finally ready to leave her husband. Two weeks after telling him she wanted a divorce, he was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. Four months later, at the age of forty-four, he died.
In All of This, Woolf chronicles the months before her husband’s death–and her rebirth after he was gone. With rigorous honesty and incredible awareness, she reflects on the end of her marriage: how her husband’s illness finally gave her the space to make peace with his humanity and her own.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 16th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/rebecca-woolf-presents-all-of-this
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Rick Christiansen – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Rick Christiansen.
Rick Christiansen is a former corporate executive, stand-up comedian, actor and director. His work is published or forthcoming in Oddball Magazine, Muddy River Poetry Review, Stone Poetry Journal, The Raven’s Perch, The Rye Whiskey Review, As It Ought to Be Magazine, WINK Magazine, MacQueen’s Quinterly and other journals, anthologies and magazines. He is the co-host of SpoFest Poetry and Prose. And, along with Damian Ward Hey, he is editing the forthcoming Dead Pet Poetry Anthology, “Gone but not Forgotten.” He lives in Missouri near his eight grandchildren.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 16th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
Da Poetry Lounge Slam Night
3rd Tuesdays are SLAM NIGHTS! A slam is a poetry competition where poets perform their OWN original work and are then judged on a numeric scale by 5 judges from the audience. We’ll take up to 10 poets. Sign ups are in person the day of.
$10 donation. Do NOT lineup prior to 7:30 p.m. Free parking adjacent to theatre.
See sites for details.
Where: Greenway Court Theatre and YouTube Live Stream
Date: Tuesday the 16th
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm
Address: 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChLUBSRPCFb/
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 16th
Time: 9 pm – 12 am
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA
Website: Facebook
Coffee Time Book Club & Horse, by Geraldine Brooks at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us at a Pages Bookstore’s Coffee Time Book Club to discuss Geraldine Brooks’ novel, Horse.
A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history.
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.
New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.
Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse—one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.
Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.
NOTE: See site for tickets, book purchase and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 17th
Time: 10 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/coffee-time-book-club-8
At Skylight: Julian Barnes & Elizabeth Finch at Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Julian Barnes will present and discuss his new novel, Elizabeth Finch.
This beautiful, spare novel of platonic unrequited love springs into being around the singular character of the stoic, exacting Professor Elizabeth Finch. Neil, the narrator, takes her class “Culture and Civilisation,” taught not for undergraduates but for adults of all ages; we are drawn into his intellectual crush on this private, withholding, yet commanding woman. While other personal relationships and even his family drift from Neil’s grasp, Elizabeth’s application of her material to the matter of daily living remains important to him, even after her death, in a way that nothing else does.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 17th
Time: 12 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-zoom-julian-barnes-presents-elizabeth-finch
Middle Grade Book Club & Author Visit: Gordon Korman & The Fort at Pages Bookstore – In-Person MG Event
Join us at the Pages Bookstore courtyard to discuss this month’s selection with the author, Gordon Korman, about his novel, The Fort.
From the bestselling author of RESTART, the story of a middle-school “band of brothers”—five friends who need to stick together after they set up a hideout in an abandoned bomb shelter and discover that the only way to be true friends is to reveal their secrets and help each other out.
NOTE: See site for book purchase and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore – in Courtyard
Date: Wednesday the 17th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/middle-grade-book-club-8
Marie Myung OK-Lee, with Julia Fierro, & The Evening Hero at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear Marie Myung OK-Lee, in conversation with Julia Fierro, discuss and sign The Evening Hero.
The Evening Hero tells the story of Dr. Yungman Kwak, an OB-GYN in the Iron Range town of Horse’s Breath, Minnesota. Kwak immigrated in the wake of the Korean War and worked his whole life to achieve the American Dream. Now in his 70s, Kwak finds himself lost in his own skin—his rural hospital has shuttered, his son is wrapped up in his medical startup, and his wife prefers the company of her newfound church friends. A letter arrives from Korea, sending Kwak into a tailspin, reminding him that his picture-perfect life is based on a lie. He must choose to hide his secret from his family and friends or confess and potentially lose everything he holds dear. He begins to question the assumptions on which his life is built—the so-called American dream, with the abject failure of its healthcare system, patients and neighbors who perpetuate racism, horrifying inequality, and a history that doesn’t see him in it.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 17th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Marie-Myung-Ok-Lee-author-signing
Live on Crowdcast: Nona Willis Aronowitz , with Ann Friedman, & Bad Sex at Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Nona Willis Aronowitz, in conversation with Ann Friedman, will present and discuss her new book, Bad Sex: Truth, Pleasure, and an Unfinished Revolution.
From Teen Vogue sex and love columnist Nona Willis Aronowitz, a blend of memoir, social history, and cultural criticism that probes the meaning of desire and sexual freedom today.
At thirty-two years old, everything in From Teen Vogue sex and love columnist Nona Willis Aronowitz, a blend of memoir, social history, and cultural criticism that probes the meaning of desire and sexual freedom today.
At thirty-two years old, everything in Nona Willis Aronowitz’s life, and in America, was in disarray. Her marriage was falling apart. Her nuclear family was slipping away. Her heart and libido were both in overdrive. Embroiled in an era of fear, reckoning, and reimagining, her assumptions of what “sexual liberation” meant were suddenly up for debate. life, and in America, was in disarray. Her marriage was falling apart. Her nuclear family was slipping away. Her heart and libido were both in overdrive. Embroiled in an era of fear, reckoning, and reimagining, her assumptions of what “sexual liberation” meant were suddenly up for debate.
Nona’s attempt to find the answer places her search for authentic intimacy alongside her family history and other stories stretching back nearly two hundred years. Stories of ambivalent wives and unchill sluts, free lovers and radical lesbians, sensitive men and woke misogynists, women who risk everything for sex—who buy sex, reject sex, have bad sex and good sex. The result is a brave, bold, and vulnerable exploration of what sexual freedom can mean.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 17th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Adult Book Club Discussion: On Earth Were Briefly Gorgeous at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Adult Book Club discussion group discussion meets monthly and we will discuss the August selection, On Earth Were Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong.
NOTE: See site for link, and details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 17th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/calendar?page=2
Montana Branch Book Group Discussion: Agent Sonya via Santa Monica Public Library – Online Event
Join a community-led monthly book club, centered in the Montana neighborhood. This group currently meets via Zoom. Email library@santamonica.gov for the link.
This month’s book is Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Santa Monica Public Library
Date: Wednesday the 17th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: http://calendar.smgov.net/library/eventsignup.asp?ID=34262
Elva Green & The Jeffersons via Book Soup – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Elva Green discuss her book The Jeffersons: A Fresh Look Back, featuring episodic insights, interviews a peek behind-the-scenes, and photos.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 17th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/elva-green
At Skylight: Cecil Castelucci, with Sherri L. Smith, & Shifting Earth at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Cecil Castelucci, in conversation with Sherri L. Smith and guests Kat Superfisky and Stephanie Barton, will present and discuss her new book, Shifting Earth.
In a not-so-distant future, a freak particle storm has landed botanist Dr. Maeve Millay on an idyllic yet strange parallel Earth, with no way back home.
Here, two moons rule society, and nature outshines science. But just like her own climate ravaged planet, this verdant Earth has a sinister side. Children are rare. Humans must serve a purpose or pay an unthinkable price. Astronomer Zuzi battles this underlying darkness every day—just like Maeve did at home. Both women are fighters, and both face a choice: forge new paths, or save the worlds they’ve always known? Maeve will have to decide, and fast—because she’s fighting for more than just herself.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 17th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-cecil-castelucci-presents-shifting-earth-sherri-l-smith
Ramona Emerson & Shutter at Vroman’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Ramona Emerson present and discuss her novel, Shutter.
Rita Todacheene is a forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque police force. Her excellent photography skills have cracked many cases—she is almost supernaturally good at capturing details. In fact, Rita has been hiding a secret: she sees the ghosts of crime victims who point her toward the clues that other investigators overlook.
As a lone portal back to the living for traumatized spirits, Rita is terrorized by nagging ghosts who won’t let her sleep and who sabotage her personal life. Her taboo and psychologically harrowing ability was what drove her away from the Navajo reservation, where she was raised by her grandmother. It has isolated her from friends and gotten her in trouble with the law.
And now it might be what gets her killed.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 17th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Anansi Virtual Writers Workshop at The World Stage – In-Person Event
The Anansi Writers Workshop was founded in 1990 by Kamau Daáood, Akilah Oliver, Nafis Nabawi and Anthony Lyons. In 1993, Michael Datcher initiated the development of a three-part format for the workshop. Our tradition of a community workshop began in the late 1960s at the Watts Writers’ Workshop, where World Stage co-founder Kamau Daáood started his writing career. For general information and booking, contact V. Kali, the Anansi Writers Workshop Coordinator, at vkaliflowers@gmail.com.
• 7:30p.m.–8:30p.m. — Formal workshop;
• 8:30p.m.–9:00p.m. — Featured reader;
• 9:05p.m.–10:00p.m. — Open mic
Suggested: $5.00 Donation via PayPal: The World Stage Gallery.
NOTE: See site for further details, and any change in the schedule. Contact kaliflowers@gmial.com or call (323) 293-2451
Where: The World Stage (Eventbrite)
Date: Wednesday the 17th
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 17th
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-400771437157
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, offered every Wednesday from 8pm – 12pm.
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.
$10 Entry at the door. $8 tickets at Eventbrite.
NOTE: Check site for further details, updates, and information.
Where: Flight School Open Mic at the Playground
Date: Wednesday the17th
Time: 8 pm – 12 am
Address: 630 N. La Brea Ave., Inglewood, CA 90302
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/flight-school-open-mic-tickets-362732902877?aff=erelpanelorg
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry & 22nd Anniversary at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Join Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Night for our 22nd Anniversary celebration, featuring Ben Trigg, Ellen Webre, and the poems of the enigmatic Steve Ramirez.
The format is to welcome a featured poet for a reading, and an Open Mic reading. Tonight’s featured readers are our own Idiots Ben Trigg and Ellen Webre.
Ben Trigg is the co-host of Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug in Orange, California. As a host, he works to remind people that poetry is often fun, and sometimes silly. When not at the Ugly Mug, Ben spends his time using a BA in drama to work in educational research. His full length collection Kindness from a Dark God came out on Moon Tide Press in 2007. He co-edited the anthology Don’t Blame the Ugly Mug: 10 Years of 2 Idiots Peddling Poetry. When all else fails, Ben goes to Disneyland.
Ellen Webre is a biracial, Taiwanese-American poet, born in Hong Kong and raised in California. She is a social media marketing specialist and videographer for Moon Tide Press, is a co-host of Two Idiots Peddling Poetry, and is an editor of Freezeray Magazine. Ellen’s debut book, A Burning Lake of Paper Suns, was released in October 2021 with Moon Tide Press. Her poem “Metaphors for My Body in Midwinter” has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2021. Ellen’s other poems have most recently been published in A Moon of One’s Own, FreezeRay Press, Sh!t Men Say to Me Anthology in Response to Toxic Masculinity, DARK INK: A Horror Anthology, and Voicemail Poems.
$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 17th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Two-Idiots-Peddling-Poetry/ or https://www.facebook.com/events/612274620320576
Mystery Book Club & The Ruin: A Novel at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join the Mystery Book Club for a discussion of this month’s selection, The Ruin: A Novel, by author, Dervla McTiernan.
In this novel, #1 in the A Cormac Reilly series, we are introduced to the likeable Cormac Reilly, a 20-yeart veteran detective recently relocated to Galway, Ireland, and trying to figure out where he fits in at his new police station. Tasked with closing cold case files, Reilly’s investigation of a case from his rookie days soon intersects with the current case of an apparent suicide that proves to be much more than it appears.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 18th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Create Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-ruin
Marie Myung-Ok Lee, with Jeff Yang (Rise), & The Evening Hero at Bel Canto Bookstore at The Hangout – In-Person Event
Join Bel Canto at The Hangout to hear Marie Myung-Ok Lee, in conversation with Jeff Yang, author of RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now, to celebrate her debut book, The Evening Hero.
In this sweeping, lyrical debut novel, a Korean immigrant pursuing the American dream must confront the secrets of the past or risk watching the world he’s worked so hard to build come crumbling down. Dr. Yungman Kwak immigrated from Korea after the Korean War, forced to leave his family, ancestors, village, and all that he knew behind. But his life is built on a lie. And one day, a letter arrives that threatens to expose it. Yungman’s life is thrown into chaos—the hospital abruptly closes, his wife refuses to spend time with him, and his son is busy investing in a struggling health start-up. Yungman faces a choice—he must choose to hide his secret from his family and friends or confess and potentially lose all he’s built. He begins to question the very assumptions on which his life is built—the so-called American dream, with the abject failure of its healthcare system, patient and neighbors who perpetuate racism, a town flawed with infrastructure, and a history that doesn’t see him in it. Toggling between the past and the present, Korea and America, Evening Hero is a sweeping, moving, darkly comic novel about a man looking back at his life and asking big questions about what is lost and what is gained when immigrants leave home for new shores.
Marie Myung-Ok Lee is an acclaimed Korean American writer and author of the young adult novel Finding my Voice, thought to be one of the first contemporary-set Asian American YA novels. She is one of a handful of American journalists who have been granted a visa to North Korea since the Korean War. She was the first Fulbright Scholar to Korea in creative writing and has received many honors for her work, including an O. Henry honorable mention, the Best Book Award from the Friends of American Writers, and a New York Foundation for the Arts fiction fellowship. Her stories and essays have been published in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Slate, Salon, Guernica, The Paris Review, The Nation, and The Guardian, among others. Marie is a founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and teaches creative writing at Columbia. She lives in New York City with her family.
Jeff Yang has been observing, exploring, and writing about the Asian American community for over thirty years. He launched one of the first Asian American national magazines, A. Magazine, in the late ’90s and early 2000s, and now writes frequently for CNN, Quartz, Slate and elsewhere. He has written/edited three books—Jackie Chan’s New York Times-best-selling memoir I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action; Once Upon a Time in China, a history of the cinemas of Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Mainland; and Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore at The Hangout
Date: Thursday the 18th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 2122 E. 4th St,, Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://shopthehangout.com/products/bcb-author-event-marie-myung-ok-lee-thurs-8-18-6pm
Steve Adelman, with Christopher Lawrence & Eli Wilkie, & Nocturnal Admissions at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Join us to hear Steve Adelman, in conversation with Christopher Lawrence and Eli Wilkie, discuss Nocturnal Admissions :Behind the Scenes at Tunnel, Limelight, and Other Legendary Nightclubs.
Steve Adelman’s humorous and engaging memoir reflects on his years as the director and owner of some of the world’s most popular nightclubs, including the Roxy, Limelight, Tunnel, and Palladium in the heyday of clubs in New York City during the 1980s and 1990s, followed by Avalon (Boston, Hollywood, NYC, and Singapore locations), and the New Daisy Theatre in Memphis. Nocturnal Admissions is a timely, unconventional look at one of pop culture’s most outwardly glamorous, yet misunderstood industries, bringing the reader backstage into the world of nightlife at its highest level.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Book Talk: Felicia Berliner, with Heather Pasternak, & Shmutz at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Felicia Berliner, in conversation with comedian Heather Pasternak, will present and sign Shmutz, a hilarious dirty book with a heart.
In this witty, provocative, and unputdownable debut novel a young Hasidic woman on a quest to get married fears she will never find a groom because of her secret addiction to porn.
Like the other women in her Brooklyn Hasidic community, Raizl expects to find a husband through an arranged marriage. Unlike the other women, Raizl has a secret.
NOTE; See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-shmutz-by-felicia-berliner-tickets-392889020637
William I. Robinson & GLOBAL CIVIL WAR: Capitalism Post Pandemic at Page Against the Machine – In-Person Event
Join us to hear William I. Robinson discuss and sign Global civil War: Capitalism Post-Pandemic.
This sophisticated yet accessible study provides a big-picture account of how the coronavirus pandemic and new digital technologies have drastically transformed capitalism along with the entire global economy and our society as a whole. Analyzing the concentration of power and control in the hands of corporate conglomerates, tech giants, megabanks, and the military-industrial complex, 𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙡 𝙒𝙖𝙧 documents the extent of unprecedented global inequalities as the mass of humanity faces violent dispossession and uncertain survival.
William I. Robinson is Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Global Studies, and Latin American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a self-described scholar-activist whose work focuses on worldwide movemen14ts for social justice, popular empowerment, and participatory democracy. He is the author of numerous books, including 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡 𝙋𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚, 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙏𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙨𝙩: 𝙀𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙢, and 𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙢 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙃𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, and details.
Where: Page Against the Machine (PATM)
Date: Thursday the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2714 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/745246596710584/
Keith Corbin & California Soul: An American Epic of Cooking and Survival at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Join us to hear cook, chef, and author Keith Corbin discuss his memoir, California Soul: An Americna Epic of Cooking and Survival.
Chef Keith Corbin has been cooking his entire life. Born on the home turf of the notorious Grape Street Crips in 1980s Watts, Los Angeles, he got his start cooking crack at age thirteen, becoming so skilled that he was flown across the country to cook for drug operations in other cities. After his criminal enterprises caught up with him, though, Corbin spent years in California’s most notorious maximum-security prisons–witnessing the resourcefulness of other inmates who made kimchi out of leftover vegetables and tamales from ground-up Fritos. He developed his own culinary palate and ingenuity, creating “spreads” out of the unbearable commissary ingredients and experimenting during his shifts in the prison kitchen.
After his release, Corbin got a job managing the kitchen at LocoL, an ambitious fast food restaurant spearheaded by celebrity chefs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson, designed to bring inexpensive, quality food and good jobs into underserved neighborhoods. But when Corbin was suddenly thrust into the spotlight, he struggled to live up to or accept the simplified “gangbanger redemption” portrayal of him in the media. As he battles private demons while achieving public success, Corbin traces the origins of his vision for “California soul food” and takes readers inside the worlds of gang hierarchy, drug dealing, prison politics, gentrification, and culinary achievement to tell the story of how he became head chef of Alta Adams, one of America’s best restaurants.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
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 18th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 665 N. Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.instagram.com/fos_thursdays/
Spectacular Storytime for Children at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Spectacular Storytime is offered every Friday morning at 9:30 am. It is ready to delight and dazzle with troubadour Maddie, it and is geared for children ages 3-6.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday the 19th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/spectacular-story-time-1
Your Author Series: Katherine Trejo & Yefferson, Actually! via Central Library, LAPL – Online Kids Event
Join us for the Your Author Series to hear author Katherine Trejo discuss her children’s book, Yefferson, Actually!
Katherine Trejo is a first-generation Salvadoran American college graduate who lives in Historic Filipinotown with her Boston Terrier Lily, mom, brother, cousins, aunts, grandma, niece, and nephew in the same apartment complex where she was raised! She co-authored Yefferson, Actually/En Realidad Es Yefferson with Mr. Scott Martin-Rowe, one of her most influential and favorite teachers in high school.
Streaming live on the library’s YouTube channel.
Those attending the virtual program will have an opportunity to win a free book.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 19th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-katherine-trejo
Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series & Open Mic at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL & Online – In-Person & Online Event
Join us for Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series & Open Mic and tell your story!
This event is offered both in-person and online, and you may email studio@lapl.org for instructions on how to join the program.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines and details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL & Online
Date: Friday the 19th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91804
Website https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/expressions-la-poetry-reading-series-and-open-mic
Bookish Literary Event: AJ Jacobs, Laura Chinn, Jerry Stahl & Sandra Tsing Loh at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – Online Event
Southern California News Group presents Bookish, a monthly literary discussion with authors on a variety of topics, hosted by Sandra Tsing Loh. Features this month include:
AJ Jacobs is the author of The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life.
Laura Chinn is the author of Acne: A Memoir.
Jerry Stahl is the author of Nein, Nein, Nein! One Man’s Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust.
Sandra Tsing Loh is the author of The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem.
NOTE: See site for link, guidelines and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday the 19th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/bookish-august-2022
Inner Child Healing Poetry Workshop, with Nicole Alston via Sims Library of Poetry – Online Event
Join us for an Inner child Healing Poetry Workshop, led by Nicole Alston.
This free workshop is geared around healing your inner child.
In the workshop we will write a poem to our inner child based on our eyes of today. It’s a healing exercise to nurture ourselves and our inner child healing process.
About Nicole: “I am an author of multiple books, a poet, writer. I love poetry. I have been published online with Sims Library.”
INOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Friday the 19th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Friday Fire Feature & Open Mic with Brenda Vaca at Casa Verde LA – In-Person Event
Join us for Friday Fire Residency Goes Live @ Casa Verde LA, Uptown Whittier, hosted by Brenda Vaca, featuring Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl, open mic, and vendors.
Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl, is a bilingual educator and the mother of a beautiful, creative soul. She has a bachelor’s in English and a master’s in Cross-Cultural Education. She first published her poetry back in high school in her alma mater’s bilingual literary magazine, Las Voces. She self-published the multilingual poetry collection A Church of My Own. She lives in Southern Californnia.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Casa Verde LA
Date: Friday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Uptown Whittier, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/riotofroses/
Mason Deaver & Feeling of Falling in Love Launch at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for the launch of Feeling of Falling in Love, by author Mason Deaver.
Two white teens’ fake dating ploy prompts convoluted feelings in Deaver’s (The Ghosts We Keep) angsty romance.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Friday the 19th
Time: 7 pm – pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
A Reading and Celebration of Rhiannon McGavin at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Rhiannon McGavin is leaving LA!
We’ll be a hosting a reading in honor of Rhiannon featuring Aman Batra, Jeremy Radin, Rhiannon herself, Sofia Fey and Yesika Salgado.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Friday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
SWAAM Spoken Word, Art & Music at Park Hills Community Center – In-Person Event
SWAAM spoken word event features “Judah 1” the Poet Laureate of Pomona will be in the building. David “Judah 1” Oliver, is a Renaissance Man. He is the Founder of LionLike MindState Poetry Series in Pomona. As an Entrepreneur he opened “Machine Pomona Art Gallery” in Downtown Pomona. He’s an Author of 2 original Books of Poetry. His newest Spoken Word Album “The First Laureate” and his previous album “The Thought Scriptures” are available on all streaming platforms. As a Teacher and Art Consultant he has taught Poetry in every Level of Education spanning Kindergarten to High School. As an Instructor for the Prison Education Project, he has taught Poetry behind bars at Chino Men’s and Women’s Prison and many other Institutions. He is a Licensed Minister and has Officiated 16 Weddings of Artists in his Community and 1 Funeral.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Park Hills Community Center
Date: Friday the 19th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 5245 Overdale Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/swaam-spoken-word-art-music-tickets-401465703727?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
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 Salon at the Rapp Saloon features Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts!
Our featured guest poets and artists this month include its contributors.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Rapp Saloon at HISUA – In-Person & Online Event (Check site)
Date: Friday the 19th
Time: 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://m.facebook.com/pg/therappsaloonpoetryreading/posts/
Graphic Novel Book Club & WHAT IT IS at Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Event
Join Bel Canto’s Graphic Novel Book Club to discuss our August selection, WHAT IT IS, by Lynda Berry.
How do objects summon memories? What do real images feel like? For decades, these types of questions have permeated the pages of Lynda Barry’s compositions, with words attracting pictures and conjuring places through a pen that first and foremost keeps on moving. What It Is demonstrates a tried-and-true creative method that is playful, powerful, and accessible to anyone with an inquisitive wish to write or to remember. Composed of completely new material, each page of Barry’s first Drawn & Quarterly book is a full-color collage that is not only a gentle guide to this process but an invigorating example of exactly what it is: The ordinary is extraordinary.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 20th
Time: 10 am
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/graphic-novel-book-club-hosted-by-bel-canto-books-tickets-312230859907
Intensive Writing Workshop: Lisbeth Coiman & Caminos Entre Lenguas: Taller de escritura creativa at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Join us for an intensive creative writing workshop in Spanish, led by poet, writer and author Lisbeth Coiman.
This is a 3-hour session workshop for adults to explore creative writing (no specific genre) in Spanish. The program will include reading and discussion, as well as prompts to get the creative energy flowing. No writing experience needed. Spanish proficiency is a must.
En este taller de tres horas de duración tendrá la oportunidad de explorar escritura creativa en español. El programa incluye lecturas y discusión, así como propuestas temáticas para catalizar la energía creativa. No se necesita experiencia de escritura, pero si es necesario dominio del idioma español.
Lisbeth Coiman es un poeta y educadora bilingüe. El español es su lengua materna. Coiman tiene una Maestría en Educación y más de 25 años de experiencia enseñando inglés como segunda lengua y español tanto a niños como a adultos en diferentes escenarios. Debutó como escritora con su libro, I Asked the Blue Heron: A Memoir (publicado independientemente en el 2017) en el cual narra su trayectoria como inmigrante. Su primera colección de poesía bilingüe, Uprising / Alzamiento (Finishing Line Press, 2021) crea conciencia sobre la crisis humanitaria sin precedente en su tierra natal. Una lectora voraz, Coiman disfruta escribiendo reseñas para el New York Journal of Books. Es miembro activo de varias comunidades literarias: Women Who Submit, Community Literature Initiative y Wayward Writers. En su tiempo libre, Coiman baila salsa y hace senderismo en las montañas alrededor de Los Ángeles, CA.
NOTE: See site for costs and event details.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday 20th
Time: 11 am – 2 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Kids Storytime with Nell Cross Beckerman & Down Under the Pier at Village Well Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to experience the fantastical realm of the natural world from mussels and barnacles to kelp and seashells, all hiding mere steps away from the lights and games of the pier in Down Under the Pier read by author Nell Beckerman.
Nell Cross Beckerman writes books inspired by free play and exploration in nature. She is a LA native and former TV producer, and lives in Culver City with her family. Upcoming books include When the Sky Glows, about all the ways nature makes beautiful skies, and Caves, about mysterious caves all over the world.
There’s lots of fun to be had up on the pier—the Ferris wheel, cotton candy, the carousel—but it’s down under the pier, at low tide, where the real magic can be found. Inspired by our very own Santa Monica Pier, with part of the author’s proceeds benefiting the Heal the Bay Aquarium.
All ages welcome. Perfect for ages 4-8.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Village Well Bookstore
Date: Saturday 20th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/18932
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 20th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Joe Cepeda Presents: Rafa Counts on Papa at Vroman’s – In-Person Children’s Event
Join us for a children’s event to hear author Joe Cepeda introduce his children’s book, Rafa Counts on Papa.
Rafa and his papá love to count and measure together. They know how many branches they climb to their favorite spot, they know how high their dog Euclid can jump, and they know how far they can run. But there’s one thing Rafa can’t count or measure because it is infinite: the love that he and his papá share.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday 20th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/joe-cepeda-discusses-rafa-counts-pap%C3%A1
Notable Fiction Discussion Group & Our Country Friends via Santa Monica Public Library – Online Event
This event is a community-led book club, focusing on books which have won major prizes or are otherwise notable. This month’s selection is Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart. Contact jeff.schwartz@santamonica.gov for the Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for link and event details.
Where: Santa Monica Public Library
Date: Saturday 20th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: http://calendar.smgov.net/library/eventsignup.asp?ID=34284
Bookstore Romance Day: Jayci Lee & Booked on a Feeling; Bridget Morrissey & A Thousand Miles at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for Romance Day to hear two novelists present their latest works, back-to-back,
Jayci Lee, in conversation with Lacey Thach, will discuss her new book,Booked on a Feeling. This romcom features an overachieving lawyer, a failing bookstore, a childhood friend, and the chance of a lifetime…
Bridget Morrissey will present and discuss her new book, A Thousand Miles. After a decade of silence, Dee and Ben reunite for a road trip they once promised to take. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details on this event.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 20th
Time: 12 pm – 1:30 pm & 1:30 – 2:30, respectively
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/bookstore-romance-day
Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Club & The Unspoken Name via Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join our Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club to discuss this month’s selection, The Unspoken Name (The Seroent Gates #1), by A.K. Larkwood.
A. K. Larkwood’s The Unspoken Name is a stunning debut fantasy about a young priestess sentenced to die, who at the last minute escapes her fate; only to become an assassin for the wizard who saved her.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday 20th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/sci-fi-fantasy-book-club-unspoken-name
Pages on Stages Open Mic by CLI at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
Join us for our monthly Open Mic event by CLI, featuring:
jimmy vega is the son of Mexican immigrants, a Chicano L.A.-based poet, writer, educator, and bookseller. He holds a B.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from UCLA and is an MFA candidate in the School of Critical Studies, Creative Writing Program at CalArts, where they co-created the MFA in Creative Writing’s HyperLink reading series. Jimmy sings out loud when he’s gridlocked anywhere in Los Angeles traffic.
Iván Salinas isa poet based in the San Fernando Valley experimenting with words, images, and sound. His literary work has been published in a variety of journals and magazines including Curious Publishing, Dryland, Drifter Zine, Backlash Lit, and more.
Jessica Kim is a YoungArts Finalist in Writing (Poetry), 1st Place Winner of Columbia College Chicago’s Young Authors Contest, Commended Foyle Young Poet, 2nd Place Winner of the Bennington Young Writers Awards (Poetry), Gregory Djanikian Scholar Finalist, and more. She is founding Editor-in-Chief of The Lumiere Review and one of the EICs of Polyphony Lit and her school’s literary magazine, The Ink and the Iris. She also reads for Palette Poetry, Carve Magazine, and Breakbread Magazine. Last but not least, Jessica is a WriteGirl mentee!
Jennifer Baptiste is a writer and school librarian based in Los Angeles with over ten years of experience in educational settings. She is certified in School Librarianship for grades Pk-12 and holds a masters in Library Science from Sam Houston State University. She enjoys teaching creative engaging literacy lessons, writing children’s books, mentoring, and presenting.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/event-details/pages-on-stages-open-mic-by-cli
Author Event: Zabie Yamasaki & Trauma-Informed Yoga at Bel Canto Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join Bel Canto’s author event with Zabie Yamasaki, to discuss her new book, Trauma-Informed Yoga for Survivors of Sexual Assault.
Zabie Yamasaki will give us a Morning of Embodied Care, from the founder of Transcending Sexual Trauma through Yoga and author of Trauma-Informed Ygga for Survivors of Sexual Assault.
Trauma-Informed Yoga for Survivors of Sexual Assault provides a comprehensive overview of how to offer yoga to survivors of sexual assault in a safe, effective, evidence-based, and healing way. Transcending Sexual Trauma through Yoga founder Zahabiyah A. Yamasaki draws on the framework of trauma-informed care and trauma-informed yoga program development and curriculum, while also weaving in personal narrative and inspiring survivor stories. She explores practical considerations for survivors, as well as for yoga teachers, mental health professionals, educators, and other healing professionals who are interested in integrating trauma-informed yoga into the scope of their work and/or healing.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore at The Hangout (outdoors in the garden)
Date: Sunday the 21st
Time: 11 am
Address: 2122 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: hopthehangout.com/products/bcb-author-event-zabie-yamasaki-sun-8-21-11am
One-Time Sunday Series Workshop with Tory Adkisson via The Poetry Lab – Online Event
Tory Adkisson is the author of The Flesh Between Us, and will lead this Sunday Series writing workshop.
This workshop is titled A Face to Meet the Faces, an in it we will explore the poetics of the self-portrait poem. Specifically, we will look at how poems in the lyrical mode of the “self-portrait” interrogate both the idea of the self and of portraiture, considering both the ekphrastic inspirations of the mode and examples by poets who’ve written these sorts of poems themselves. Over the course of the workshop students will gain a stronger understanding of the mode and write their own drafts of a “self-portrait.”
Tory Adkisson is the author of The Flesh Between Us (SIU Press 2021), winner of the Crab Orchard Series Open Book Competition. His poems have appeared widely in journals such as Third Coast, Crazyhorse, Adroit Journal, Boston Review, Quarterly West, and elsewhere. He lives in Oakland and teaches writing at UC Berkeley.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: The Poetry Lab
Date: Sunday the 21st
Time: 1 pm – 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.thepoetrylab.com/upcoming-events/2022/tory-adkisson
Focus on Craft Book Club at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us every third Sunday of the month for our Focus on Craft Book Club.
This month’s selection for discussion is A Caribbean Heiress in Paris, a historical romance by Adriana Herrera.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 21st
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Beatnik Café Poetry Night: Lisbeth Coiman & Gustavo Hernandez at Hey Hey – In-Person Event
Join the Beatnik Café hosted by Hannah Pachman, for another night of truth and perspective!
Lisbeth Coiman is a warrior of internal battles and a trekker the intersecting paths she has taken in her immigration journey. Venezuelan born, Canadian by choice, American by force majeure, Coiman is a bilingual poet and writer standing unbalanced on a blurred line between fiction and memoir. She started publishing in 2017 with her debut book, I Asked the Blue Heron: Memoir and is now on her third book, Parchita, Passion Poetry, coming up next year with World Stage Press.
Gustavo Hernandez is the author of the poetry collection Flower Grand First (Moon Tide Press). His poems have been published in Reed, Acentos Review, Sonora Review and other publications. He was born in Jalisco, Mexico and lives in Southern California.
Schedule is as follows:
3:50-4 pm- Open Mic Sign Up
4-4:10 pm- Intro
4:10- 4:30 pm- Lisbeth Coiman Reading
4:30- 4:50 pm- Gustavo Hernandez Reading
4:50- 5:50 pm- Poetry Open Mic (3 minutes per poet)
5:50- 6 pm- Close
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Hey Hey
Date: Sunday the 21st
Time: 4 pm
Address: 1555 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://happeningnext.com/event/beatnik-cafe-poetry-eid3a096rdtok
Stories X Los Angeles Review of Books Presents: The LARB Quarterly #34, Do you love me? Issue Launch Party at Stories Books and Cafe – In-Person Event
Join us to hear a discussion and readings from the #34 LARB Quarterly.
Writer, actor, and activist Cyrus Dunham will give a reading from his essay, “Long Hallway” and writer and LARB editor Chloe Watlington will read from the issue’s Love Letter from the Editor. They will discuss the issue’s tense, titular question on love.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books and Cafe
Date: Sunday the 21st
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 1716 W, Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Los Angeles Literature 