By Brian Dunlap

The Los Angeles Literary Community rolls into the dog days of summer, coming off an amazing weekend where 60 local poets gathered to share their poems with the world at the Central Library, streamed on the library’s YouTube page. “A Day of Poetry in L.A.” An expansive cross section of poets from Derek D. Brown, Briana Muños, Kim Dower, Bill Mohr, A.K. Toney, Dare Williams, Amy Simshon-Santo, Peter Harris, Victoria Chang, Michelle Biting, Suzanne Lummis, bridget bianca, Aruni Wijesinghe, Luis J. Rodriguez, among many others, graced the stage in the Mark Taper Auditorium. The event was organized and hosted by Los Angeles Poet Laureate Lynne Thompson and former Anaheim Poet Laureate Grant Hier.

After the reading, all the poets took a group picture to commemorate the event.

“A Day of Poetry in L.A.” is not the only happening the community has been up to. Its poets and writers, independent presses and literary arts organizations continue to share their words, build community and make news.

Gold Line Press, a small independent press run by students and alumni of the University of Southern California’s PhD Program in Creative Writing, announced earlier this month that their 2022 Chapbook Contests are open. They are currently accepting chapbook manuscripts in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction through September 30th. This year’s judges are Courtney Faye Taylor, a writer and visual artist and author of Concentrate (Graywolf Press, 2022), selected by Rachel Eliza Griffiths as the winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize; Sarah Minor, the author of Slim Confessions: The Universe as a Spider or Spit (Noemi Press 2021), Bright Archive (Rescue Press 2020), winner of the 2020 Big Other Nonfiction Book Award and shortlisted for the 2020 CLMP Firecracker Award in Nonfiction, and The Persistence of the Bonyleg: Annotated from Essay Press; and K-Ming Chang, a Kundiman fellow, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree and the author of the New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice novel Bestiary (One World/Random House, 2020), which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award, a chapbook Bone House (Bull City Press, 2021) and her most recent book Gods of Want (One World/Random House, 2022). The submission guidelines can be found at: https://dornsife.usc.edu/goldlinepress/contest/.

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Writers across the Southland continue to get nominated for awards. To open the month, poet Nicelle Davis announced, via Facebook, that her “plant poems (questions by the great Ron Koertge)” are nominated for the Best of the Net by Verdad Magazine. “Please give them a read,” she said. “I wrote them for you.”

Also, Natashia Deón, Los Ángeles native, practicing criminal attorney and author of the books Grace (Counterpoint, 2016) and The Perishing (Counterpoint, 2021) announced recently on Facebook, “OH MY GOSH!!!! Thank you so much to the Hurston/Wright Foundation (Zora Neale Hurston & Richard Wright Foundation) for this Legacy Award nomination!!!! Beyond honored to be recognized and alongside these giants. Thank you is an understatement.

Thank you to my publisher Counterpoint Press, editor Dan Smetanka and agent Dara Hyde for putting my words in the world.
Deeply grateful [for] The Hurston/Wright Foundation.”

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Sarah Rafael Garcia, author, community educator, performance ethnographer, founder of Barrio Writers, LibroMobile and Crear Studios, from Santa Ana, California, recently announced on Facebook: “As much as I feel neglected by the art world, I do feel excited about all the work I do independently & on my own schedule, here are some cool upcoming things I get to curate & participate in:

• Alta California Chapbook Prize: A Reading with Nicholas Reiner & Crystal AC Salas
• Detain & Displace by Alberto Lule
• Anfitrionas: Curating Community through the Literary Arts
• Book Celebration: A Kiss Across the Ocean by Dr. Richard T. Rodriguez

And so much more on a personal level, from upcoming writing, editing to two multimedia installations. (pats self on back).”

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There is a new open mic in town. Earlier this month, Whittier poet, Brenda Vaca, announced on Facebook, that her virtual open mic, Friday Fire, “now has a residency every 3rd Friday of the month beginning Friday August 19th at 7pm.” The venue is Uptown Plants by Casa Verde LA, “collaborating with the fiercest Plant Mami and Papi, Lindsay and Ruben.” To keep the reading accessible to all, Vaca will continue to live stream the open mic on Instagram. She hopes to “strengthen the poetry community by going live on location on the regular.”

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Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera has done many things in her life. Growing up she was a rodeo queen. She’s taught English for many years at Santa Monica High. She went back to school to obtain an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She is pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature at USC. She works with the literary arts organization Women Who Submit as their Website Manager. She’s published her writing in many publications and anthologies such as The Accentos Review, PANK: Latinx Literature Celebration, The Coachella Review Daily, Five South, and MADE IN L.A. Volume 4. According to her website Reichle-Aguilera calls herself a “Chicana Feminist and former Rodeo Queen.”

However, earlier this month on Facebook Reichle-Aguilera announced: “Some of you have heard me mention that I’ve been in a play writing workshop this past year. Well, I wrote a play. And it will be part of the [Center Theater Group (CTG)] Writers’ Workshop Festival at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City in September. I hope you will consider buying a festival pass to see all TEN of the readings. They are all amazing!” Reichle-Aguilera’s play “took inspiration from earthquake-prone Los Angeles and her 17 years of teaching high school before getting her PhD with her play. Blind Thrust Fault, is a timely pandemic work when the profession of teaching has become even more challenging today,” according to the Festival’s website.

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Finally, on August 18th, Beyond Baroque, the oldest literary arts venue in Los Ángeles, announced the winners of their inaugural Amanda Gorman Future Voices Poetry Scholarship, Indigo Eatmon, Simone Wesley and Lucia Kornzweig. They also announced the winners of their inaugural Amanda Gorman Future Voices Poetry Prize, Tina Mai, first place, Jessica Kim, second place, Fiona Lu, third place and Anna Yang, honorable mention.
Also, Beyond Baroque posted the winner’s author statements to their Facebook page.

Scholarship winner Indigo Eatmon said, “Writing has always come naturally to me. As a shy, introverted, child, I enjoyed that writing was a way for me to express myself and my thoughts without being the loudest kid in the room…Poetry was a way for me to express my artistic side, and things I didn’t know how to say with my mouth…I am excited to continue exploring the different ways I can use my writing and poetry!” Scholarship winner Simone Wesley said, “I am a born-and-raised San Francisco native. My work mainly consists of experiencing grief and coming to terms with juxtaposing aspects of my own identity, primarily race and class. The third scholarship winner, Lucia Kornzweig said, “I write about my observations connected to human themes, such as the meaning of home and living in a city…I use words and ideas to express the lens through which I experience the world…This award will help me with my academic endeavors in college, and share my voice.”

Tina Mai, first place winner of the poetry prize said, “For me, poetry is a powerful medium to tell the stories behind my culture and heritage. Having grown up as an immigrant in a trilingual household, I started writing before I was even fluent in English because I was always drawn to the power of words.” Second place winner Jessica Kim statement said, she “is the author of L(EYE)GHT, the runner-up for Animal Heart Press’ Chapbook Prize. She [was] the 2021-2022 National Youth Poet Laureate runner-up…She writes poetry as a revolution against one-dimensional stereotypes and hatred in our country. Now, and in the future, she hopes to create a communal space for young poets to engage in civic discourse, challenge systemic barriers, and empower one another.” Third place winner Fiona Lu said, “I have been writing for as long as I can remember. I still remember my first story, a crudely stapled-together packet of paper with messy crayon scribbles and a main character I so cheekily named ‘Fiona…’ The announcement helped me gain a little more confidence in my own words…My writing journey definitely won’t end here…” And honorable mention Anna Yang said, “Poetry is important to me because, in the words of Audre Lorde, ‘Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence.’ Thus, I write poetry because it has the power to give a voice to those who go unheard, spinning thoughts into stanzas and bridging divisions with the unveiling of a common humanity…”

As Beyond Baroque said about the scholarship and prize on Facebook: “This scholarship and prize [were] created in honor of Beyond Baroque alumna and U.S. Presidential Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman, who, like many other California poets and artists, spent the earliest days of her career attending workshops at Beyond Baroque.” The scholarship’s and prize’s intent is to “further [Gorman’s] legacy and support student poets of color in their development,” as poets.

They received close to 130 applications “across the scholarship and prize tracks, from students all over the state of California. Winners were selected by a panel of poets and writers.”

Beyond Baroque will host a hybrid reading featuring the winners on October 1, 2022.

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These dog days of summer have produced more community news. And next month and in the months to come, there will be more community news to report on.