NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here
Book Talk: Gianluca Russo & The Power of Plus via Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online Event
Author and journalist Gianluca Russo will present and discuss his book, The Power of Plus: Inside Fashion’s Size-Inclusivity Revolution.
Gianluca Russo is a NYLON columnist and freelance journalist who has written for GQ, Glamour, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan, InStyle, Fashionista, Huffington Post, Bustle, Mic, and Vice. His work has primarily focused on plus-size fashion and representation, and he has reported extensively on the subject from covering brand launches to exploring trends within the market and investigating taboo topics within the plus-size community. He lives in Phoenix, AZ.
NOTE: See site for link, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Monday the 19th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cMYAc1zJS7–AAY1vip8Rg
Philosophical Horror Book Club & Sorrowland: A Novel at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Philosophical Horror Book Club will read and discuss this month’s selection, Sorrowland: A Novel, by Rivers Solomon.
In Sorrowland, Vern—seven months pregnant and desperate to escape the strict religious compound where she was raised—flees for the shelter of the woods. There, she gives birth to twins and plans to raise them far from the influence of the outside World. But even in the forest, Vern is a hunted woman. Forced to fight back against the community that refuses to let her go, she unleashes incredible brutality far beyond what a person should be capable of, her body wracked by inexplicable and uncanny changes.
Rivers Solomon writes about life in the margins, where they are much at home. In addition to appearing on the Stonewall Honor List and winning a Firecracker Award, Solomon’s debut novel An Unkindness of Ghosts was a finalist for a Lambda, a Hurston/Wright, an Otherwise (formerly Tiptree) and a Locus award. Solomon’s second book, The Deep, based on the Hugo-nominated song by Daveed Diggs-fronted hip-hop group clipping, was the winner of the 2020 Lambda Award and shortlisted for a Nebula, Locus, Hugo, Ignyte, Brooklyn Library Literary, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy award. A refugee of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, he was born on Turtle Island but currently resides on an isle in an archipelago off the western coast of the Eurasian continent.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday the 19th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr.., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/philosophical-horror-book-club-sorrowland
Live on Crowdcast: Writing Bisexuality with Antonia Angress & Jen Winston at Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
It’s Bi Visibility Week, and what better way to celebrate than to join novelist Antonia Angress and memoirist Jen Winston for this very bisexual chat! Topics will include: writing queer characters in fiction vs. nonfiction, capturing nuance, and reading other works that get bisexuality right.
Antonia Angress is the author of Sirens & Muses, which overturns notions of class, money, art, youth, and a generation’s fight to own their own future. Set in 2011, four artists are drawn into a web of rivalry and desire at an elite art school and on the streets of New York in this “gripping, provocative, and supremely entertaining” (BuzzFeed) debut
Jen Winston is the author of Greedy: Notes forma Bisexual Who Wants Too Much, a collection of essays offering an intimate look at bisexuality, gender, and, of course, sex. Jen draws on personal experiences with sexism and biphobia to understand how we all can and must do better.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, Link, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Monday the 19th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Craig Johnson & Hell & Back: A Longmire Mystery at Vroman’s at All Saints Church – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Craig Johnson discuss his new novel, Hell & Back: A Longmire Mystery.
In this eighteenth installment of the Longmire series, the author takes the beloved sheriff to the very limits of his sanity to do battle with the most dangerous adversary he’s ever faced—himself. When he wakes up in the middle of the street in the infamous town of Fort Pratt, Montana, where thirty, young Native boys perished in a tragic 1896 boarding school fire, every person he encountered in that endless night was dead. And the only way he knows who he is. is because his name is printed in the leather sweatband of his cowboy hat, which says his name is Walt Longmire—but he doesn’t remember him.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s at All Saints Church
Date: Monday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 132 N. Euclid Ave., Pasadena, CA 91101
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)
Date: Monday the 19th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online (see site)
Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-418993158817
Under the Mic Influence & Open Mic featuring Micah Bournes – In-Person Event
Join host Kuahmel Alyeeus KuahAllah and DJ Kev Jam for poetry, Open Mic, rare grooves, cocktails, tasty bites.
Micah Bournes is lined up as the featured artist!
Micah Bournes is a musician and poet born and raised in Long Beach, California. His work centers on themes of culture, justice, and faith. He is passionate about helping others identify and grow their creativity, convinced that creative expression is essential to individual and community healing and thriving. He is the author of the poetry collection “Here Comes This Dreamer”, and has released 6 studio albums in various genres, including his latest hip hop record “DETOX”.
Come for the electric feature, the open mic, and the rhythm relief inside @lbunified Monday Sept 19. BE THERE!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, and details.
Where: LB Unified
Date: Monday the 19th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 2222 E. Anaheim, Long Beach, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/
Live Talks LA: Randall Munroe, with Conan O’Brien, & What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Scientific Questions at Gloria Kauffman Performing Arts Center at Vista Del Mar – In-Person Event
Randall Munroe, in conversation with Conan O’Brien, will discuss his new book, What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Scientific Questions.
Randall Munroe is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers How To, What If? and Thing Explainer, the science question-and-answer blog What If?, and the popular web comic xkcd. A former NASA roboticist, he left the agency in 2006 to draw comics on the internet full time.
NOTE: See site for ticket, guidelines, and details.
Where: Live Talks LA at Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center
Date: Monday the 19th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 3200 Motor Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90034
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/randall-munroe-2/v
Dr. Mary Hill-Wagner & Girlz ‘N the Hood Memoir at Santa Monica College – Hybrid Event
Journalist Dr. Mary Hill-Wagner, will discuss how she nurtured her love of reading and built a life for herself, overcoming poverty, adversity, and survivor’s guilt. The author of Girlz ‘N the Hood: A Memoir of Mama in South Central Los Angeles will share strategies for resilience, networking, and self-affirmation. Includes audience Q&A and book signing. Books will be available for purchase ($15, cash only). Sponsored by the SMC Associates, SMC Communication & Media Studies Department, and SMC Design Technology Department.
This event is part of the ongoing SMC Associates free online talks and panel discussions exploring developments in communication, media, and design today. Call 310-434-4003 for details and more information.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, link and details.
Where: Santa Monica College, Student Services Center Orientation Hall
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 11:15 am – 12:15 pm
Address: 1900 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405 & Hybrid Event (see site)
Website: https://www.smc.edu/calendar/index.php#event-details/36f5c89a-9e0b-451e-9d21-d68f5be67069
WeHo Reads: Expansive Vista and Hidden Corners, with Lynell George & Marisela Norte at Manhattan Country Club – Online Event
WeHo Reads presents Expansive Vistas and Hidden Corners, a discussion to examine our surroundings and find joy is searching the city, with writers Lynell George and Marisela Norte.
QUESTIONS: Do we take note of our surroundings as they shape-shift around us? How do we remember places that vanish? How do we preserve memories as fragile as morning fog?
Artists and writers explore concepts of places, how they’re made, and how we understand, remember, and memorialize them. Lynell George is a journalist and essayist based in Los Angeles, who tells the city’s story one sentence at a time. She will be in discussion with Marisela Norte, an American writer, poet, and artist living in Los Angeles and known for poetry that explores the unseen city. Together, they will explore hidden corners of Los Angeles and the poetry of the city in images and text.
Lynell George is an essayist and journalist based in L.A. and focused on social issues, human behavior, and the arts. She is the author of No Crystal Stair: African Americans in the City of Angels, a collection of features and essays drawn from her reporting; and After/Image: Los Angeles Outside the Frame. She won a 2017 GRAMMY for her liner notes Otis Redding Live at the Whisky A Go Go and is a 2020 recipient of a Distinguished Journalist award from the Society of Professional Journalists/Los Angeles. Her latest book, A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler, published in 2020 by Angel City Press.
Considered one of the most important voices to come out of East Los Angeles, Marisela Norte is the author of Peeping Tom Tom Girl, a collection of poetry. Norte’s work was recently featured in the MTA’s Out Your Window project and named one of the best transit poems in the world by The Atlantic Monthly. Her work can be found in numerous anthologies, and she has also written for ChismeArte, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Metro Transit Authority.
WeHo Reads is a literary series presented by the City of West Hollywood and produced by BookSwell.
NOTE: See site for tickets, link, and details.
Where: WeHo Reads at www.weho.org/wehoreads
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.weho.org/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/24986/15
Classic Detectives Book Club: Black Orchids at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Classic Detectives Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Black Orchids, by Rex Stout.
Black Orchids/The Silent Speaker: Nero Wolfe Mysteries combines two complete mysteries in one volume. Rex Stout (1886-1975) wrote hundreds of short stories, novellas, and full-length mystery novels, most featuring his two indelible characters, the peerless detective Nero Wolfe and his handy sidekick, Archie Goodwin.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/classic-detectives-book-club-black-orchids
The Mic at Micky’s Open Mic, with Hosts Brian Sonia-Wallace & Nate Lovett at Micky’s Nightclub & Bar – In-Person Event
Join The Mic at Micky’s Open Mic and Literary Readings, hosted by West Hollywood Poet Laureate Brian Sonia-Wallace, Nate Lovett and Tony Moore.
This is a weekly event for creatives to collaborate and write something for the Mic and/or sign up for the Open Mic, limited to 3-5 minutes per person, and offering poems, stories and music.
Located in the heart of one of LA’s oldest gay clubs, this space promises connection and community for folks across the LGBTQ+ spectrum (and allies!) before the untz untz starts.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Micky’s Nightclub & Bar in West Hollywood – Upstairs
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 6 pm – 9 pm
Address: 8857 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-mic-mickys-tickets-383607880497
Book Talk: David Ambroz, with Dean Hansell, & A Place Called Home at Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online Event
Author David Amboroz, in conversation with Dean Hansell, will present and discuss his book, A Place Called Home: A Memoir.
Told with lyricism and sparkling with warmth, A Place Called Home depicts childhood poverty and homelessness s as it is experienced by so many young people who have been systematically overlooked and unprotected. It’s at once a gripping personal account of deprivation—how one boy survived it, and ultimately thrived—and a resounding call for readers to move from empathy to action.
David Ambroz is a national poverty and child welfare expert and advocate. He was recognized by President Obama as an American Champion of Change. He currently serves as the Head of Community Engagement (West) for Amazon. Previously he led Corporate Social Responsibility for Walt Disney Television, and served as the President of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, and as a California Child Welfare Councilmember. After growing up homeless and then in foster care, he graduated from Vassar and later from UCLA School of Law (J.D.). He is a foster dad and lives in Los Angeles, CA.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Gloria Mattioni & California Sister at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Gloria Mattioni will present and discuss her book, California Sister.
Can anybody know what’s best for others? What happens when loved ones are no longer able to speak for themselves and crucial decisions about their care need to be made by their relatives?
A sister’s love versus a cruel fate. A story of fierce love and heartbreaking grief. Claire Waters, an Italian mystery writer living in Los Angeles rushes to Italy after her older sister’s devastating brain-hemorrhage, determined to restore her to health—or help her die with dignity. Forsaking her career, Claire hardly leaves her sister’s side, refusing to give up the hope of healing. It takes an exhausting and lonely year for stubborn Claire to listen to her silent sister.
Gloria Mattioni is the author of several books and a long-time magazine contributor. She has been a storyteller since she learned to form complete sentences and became a professional writer at eighteen. Raised in Milan, Italy, she moved to Los Angeles in 1992. She’s a proud member of the Authors’ Guild and a volunteer with the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.
NOTE: See stie for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Gloria-Mattioni-Author-signing
Anthony Christian Ocampo, with Adrian De Leon, & Brown and Gay in LA Launch at Bel Canto Bookstore – In-Person Event
Anthony Christian Ocampo, in conversation with Adrian De Leon, will present and discuss his book, Brown and Gay in LA.
Filipinx author and Cal Poly Pomona professor Anthony Christian Ocampo will celebrate the launch of BROWN AND GAY IN LA: THE LIVES OF IMMIGRANT SONS. Anthony will be joined in conversation by Adrian De Leon, author of BARANGAY.
This book contains the stories of second-generation immigrant gay men coming of age in Los Angeles
Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, the gay sons of immigrants featured in Brown and Gay in LA could not have felt further removed from a world where queerness was accepted and celebrated. Instead, the men profiled here maneuver through family and friendship circles where masculinity dominates, gay sexuality is unspoken, and heterosexuality is strictly enforced. For these men, the path to sexual freedom often involves chasing the dreams while resisting the expectations of their immigrant parents—and finding community in each other.
Ocampo also details his own story of reconciling his queer Filipino American identity and those of men like him. He shows what it was like for these young men to grow up gay in an immigrant family, to be the one gay person in their school and ethnic community, and to be a person of color in predominantly White gay spaces.
Anthony Christian Ocampo is Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race and co-editor of Contemporary Asian America, 3rd edition. A Tin House and VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts fellow, he has published essays in GQ, Catapult, Colorlines, Gravy, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, among others. His work has also been featured on NPR, NBC News, BuzzFeed, and in the Los Angeles Times. Raised in Northeast Los Angeles, he earned his BA and MA from Stanford University and his MA and PhD in sociology from UCLA.
Adrian De Leon is a historian, poet, and multimedia educator. His work explores the global Filipino diaspora in historical, ethnographic, and literary ways. Born in Manila and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, he currently live in Los Angeles, where he teaches Asian American Studies at the University of Southern California.
NOTE: See stie for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Bel Canto at The Hangout (outdoors in the Garden)
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2122 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://shopthehangout.com/products/bcb-author-event-anthony-christian-ocampo-9-20-7pm
Adam Sass, with Julian Winters, & Boyfriends of Micah Summers at Book Soup – In-Person YA Event
Adam Sass, in conversation with Julian Winters, will present and discuss his novel, Boyfriends of Micah Summers.
Micah Summers runs a popular Instagram full of drawings of his numerous imaginary boyfriends (ninety-nine so far) though he’s never had a real boyfriend before. But when a meet-cute with Boy 100 goes wrong, Micah embarks on a Prince Charming-like quest throughout Chicago to find true love—for real this time.
Will Boy 100 be the One?
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/adam-sass-julian-winters
Voice the Vote: Poets bridgette bianca, Vanessa Angelica Villarreal, traci kato-kiriyama, Jaha Zainabu, Christopoher Rivas at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Artist Collective ART SAVE THE VOTE, Feel Good Action, and Skylight Books have partnered for a special night of art as activism.
Five poets will read their work, all with one goal. To get you ready to vote in November!
Join us on National Voter Registration Day TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20th @ 7pm PT as we present the following poets:
bridgette bianca is a poet, and professor from South Central Los Angeles, and the author of the acclaimed debut collection, be/trouble. She is one half of the literary curating team, Making Room for Black Women, with Sanura Williams of My Lit Box and co-host of the quarterly reading series at the Women’s Center of Creative Work with Nina Rota. Her work as a writer and an educator seeks to serve the people and moments most forget or ignore.
Vanessa Angélica Villarreal was born in the Rio Grande Valley to Mexican immigrants. She is the author of the award-winning collection Beast Meridian (Noemi Press, Akrilica Series 2017), recipient of a 2019 Whiting Award, a Kate Tufts Discovery Award nomination, and winner of the John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Harpers Bazaar, Oxford American, POETRY, and elsewhere.
traci kato-kirayama is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer/author, actor, arts educator & community organizer. They have most recently released their book Navigating With(out) Instruments. Since 1996, she has performed and written for theatre tours, productions, artist residencies, and performance collaborations in hundreds of venues throughout the country.
Jaha Zainabu is the author most recently of I’M WRITING TO TELL YOU, a collection of vulnerable, transparent, inspiring and entertaining poetry. In this book, she talks about her journey and soul work as a woman and mother. She lives with bipolar 1 and talks about her life with depression. She is also encouraging and witty in her poetry.
Christopher Rivas is a championship actor, storyteller, podcaster, and speaker and the author of Brown Enough: True Stories About Love, Violence, the Student Loan Crisis, Hollywood, Race, Familia, and Making It in America.
ASL Interpreting provided by PRO BONO ASL.
Throughout the event they will be raising money for Feel Good Action, a voter mobilization organization who will provide onsite voter registration and verification!
Although our event is free to attend, please consider donating in place of a ticket. Suggested donation is $10 but any amount helps!
http://weblink.donorperfect.com/voicethevote
NOTE: See stie for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Book Launch: Joe Trohman, with Jessica Shalvoy, & None of This Rocks at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Joe Trohman, in conversation with Jessica Shalvoy, will present his book, None of This Rocks.
The lead guitarist and co-founder of Fall Out Boy shares personal stories from his youth and his experiences of modern rock and roll stardom in this memoir filled with wit and wisdom.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Patricia Schultz & Why We Travel: 100 Reasons to See the World at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Patricia Schultz will present and discuss her new book, Why We Travel: 100 Reasons to See the World.
This book from the author of 1,000 Places to See Before you Die, is a rallying cry to get off the couch and out into the world. Why We Travel is filled with personal stories and anecdotes, quotes that inspire, and reasons to motivate-plus images so lush you can’t wait to be there.
Travel is, as the writer Pico Iyer says, the thing that causes us to “stay up late, follow impulse, and find ourselves as wide open as when we are in love.” Why We Travel is all about rekindling that feeling.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/patricia-schultz-discusses-why-we-travel
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Madeline Cash – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Madeline Cash.
Madeline Cash is a is a writer living in Los Angeles. She runs the Forever reading series. You can find her work in The Baffler, Expat Press, The Literary Review, Maudlin House, and Always Crashing, among others.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
Live Talks LA: An Evening with Jann Wenner & Like a Rolling Stone at Wilshire Boulevard Temple – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Jann Wenner, in conversation with Chris Willman, will discuss his memoir, Like a Rolling Stone.
Jann Wenner is founder, co-editor, and publisher of Rolling Stone magazine will present his new memoir, Like a Rolling Stone.
Jann S. Wenner was born in New York City and raised in San Francisco and Marin County. He founded Rolling Stone in 1967. Over the ensuing decades, Rolling Stone won many awards for its design, photography, public service, and journalism, and was instrumental in launching the careers of many groundbreaking journalists and photographers. He also founded and published Outside, US Weekly, Family Life, and Men’s Journal. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he is the youngest inductee in the American Society of Magazine Editor’s Hall of Fame.
Chris Willman is senior music writer and chief music critic at Variety. He was named Entertainment Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club at the 2020 SoCal Journalism Awards. Prior to joining Variety, Willman was a longtime senior writer at Entertainment Weekly and a contributor to the Los Angeles Times, Billboard, TV Guide, the Hollywood Reporter, and other publications.
NOTE: See stie for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Live Talks LA at Wilshire Boulevard Temple
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 3643 Wilshire Blvd., Los ageless, CA 90010
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/jann-wenner/
Da Poetry Lounge Tuesday Open Mic at Greenway Court – In Person Event
The nation’s largest weekly Open Mic event is 24 years strong. It takes place every Tuesday and is open to all ages. Third Tuesdays are SLAM NIGHTS! A slam is a poetry competition.
$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 20th
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm
Address: 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChLUBSRPCFb/ or https://www.dapoetrylounge.com/admission
SOM Tuesdays Open Mic at Di Piazza’s Pizza, Long Beach – In-Person Event
SOM Open Mic Tuesdays at Di Piazza’s takes place in a casual setting with a lunch & dinner menu that includes pizzas, pastas, salads, sandwiches, burgers and more. Come and share music, comedy, and poetry with SOM and Di Pizza.
Where: Di Piazza’s Pizza (Check to verify)
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 9 pm – 12 am
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA
Website: https://dipiazzas.com/tickets-%26-events
Coffee Time Book Club & Properties of Thirst, by Marianne Wiggins, at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Coffee Time Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Marianne Wiggins novel, Properties of Thirst.
This intimate, but universal, novel is a sweeping masterwork set during World War II about the meaning of family and the limitations of the American Dream. It is the story of a changing American landscape and an examination of one of the darkest periods in this country’s past, told through the stories of the individual loves and losses that weave together to form the fabric of our shared history and how we celebrate the bonds of family against all odds.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, book purchase, and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 10 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Avenue, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/coffee-time-book-club-9
Middle Grade Book Club & Hummingbird, by Natalie Lloyd, at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Middle Grade Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Natalie Lloyd’s novel, Hummingbird.
This heartfelt story is about a girl who is armed with her trusty, snazzy wheelchair, and refuses to let her brittle bone disease stand in the way of adventure
Twelve-year-old homeschooled Olive is tired of being seen as “fragile” just because she has osteogenesis imperfecta (otherwise known as brittle bone disease) so she’s thrilled when she finally convinces her parents to let her attend Macklemore Elementary. Olive can’t wait to go to a traditional school and make the friends she’s always longed for, until a disastrous first day dashes her hopes of ever fitting in.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, book purchase, and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 4:30 Pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Avenue, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/middle-grade-book-club-9
Adult Book Club & I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness via Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Studio City Branch Library Adult Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness: A Novel, by Claire Vaye Watkins.
This book is a darkly funny, soul-rending novel of love in an epoch of collapse—one woman’s furious revisiting of family, marriage, work, sex, and motherhood.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, and details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/adult-book-club
Hannah Sward, with Patrick O’Neil, & Strip: A Memoir at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Hannah Sward, in conversation with Patrick O’Neil, will present and discuss her book, Strip: A Memoir.
Born in the bohemian seventies, Hannah Sward was abandoned by her mother, and lived with her poet father on an island with no stores or cars. Kidnapped and molested by a stranger at age six, she grew up to be a stripper and a prostitute with a taste for crystal meth—which seemed to be a sure-fire way to lose weight—with stops along the way for silent gurus, sugar daddies, and drinking in the CVS bathroom before therapy sessions. Painstakingly honest, often humorous, Strip is a heartfelt memoir revealing a woman’s journey from innocence to a dark existence, and beyond it to a world of empowerment.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/hannah-sward-patrick-o%E2%80%99neil
Anthony Christian Ocampo, with Traci Thomas, & Brown and Gay in LA at Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Anthon Christian Ocampo, in conversation with Traci Thomas, will present and discuss his new book, Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons.
Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, the gay sons of immigrants featured in Brown and Gay in LA could not have felt further removed from a world where queerness was accepted and celebrated. Instead, the men profiled here maneuver through family and friendship circles where masculinity dominates, gay sexuality is unspoken, and heterosexuality is strictly enforced. For these men, the path to sexual freedom often involves chasing the dreams while resisting the expectations of their immigrant parents–and finding community in each other.
Ocampo also details his own story of reconciling his queer Filipino American identity and those of men like him. He shows what it was like for these young men to grow up gay in an immigrant family, to be the one gay person in their school and ethnic community, and to be a person of color in predominantly White gay spaces.
Anthony Christian Ocampo is Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race and co-editor of Contemporary Asian America, 3rd edition. A Tin House and VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts fellow, he has published essays in GQ, Catapult, Colorlines, Gravy, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, among others. His work has also been featured on NPR, NBC News, BuzzFeed, and in the Los Angeles Times. Raised in Northeast Los Angeles, he earned his BA and MA from Stanford University and his MA and PhD in sociology from UCLA.
Traci Thomas is an avid reader and book lover who created the acclaimed podcast, The Stacks, in order to talk about books and the ways they shape our cultural understanding of race, gender, politics, and what it means to be alive. Weekly guests range from academic thought leaders to bestselling authors, from actors to politicians and more; you’ll find Ibram X. Kendi, Angelina Jolie, Brit Bennett, Desus and Mero, Quentin Tarantino, and many more on The Stacks. Traci also writes a monthly bookish advice column on Shereads.com.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Sandra Cisneros, with Cherrie Moraga, & Women Without Shame: Poems at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
The acclaimed author of The House on Mangos Street, Sandra Cisneros, will be in conversation with writer and playwright Cherrie Moraga, to present and discuss her new collection, Women Without Shame: Poems.
Sandra Cisneros is best known for her first novel, The House on Mango Street (1983), and her subsequent short story collection, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991). Her work experiments with literary forms that investigate emerging subject positions, which Cisneros herself attributes to growing up in a context of cultural hybridity and economic inequality that endowed her with unique stories to tell.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/sandra-cisneros-discusses-woman-without-shame
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
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan 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: Beyond Baroque
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wednesday-night-poetry-workshop-tickets-420544649367
Javier Zamora, with Christopher Soto, & Solito: A Memoir at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Join Beyond Baroque to welcome Javier Zamora, in conversation with Christopher Soto, to discuss his new book, Solito: A Memoir.
Javier Zamora’s adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks.
At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents’ arms, snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family.
A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito provides an immediate and intimate account not only of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also of the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier Zamora’s story, but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home.
Javier Zamora was born in El Salvador in 1990. His father fled the country when he was a year old, and his mother when he was about to turn five. Both parents’ migrations were caused by the U.S.-funded Salvadoran Civil War. When he was nine Javier migrated through Guatemala, Mexico, and the Sonoran Desert. His debut poetry collection, Unaccompanied, explores the impact of the war and immigration on his family. Zamora has been a Stegner Fellow at Stanford and a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard and holds fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.
Christopher Soto (b. 1991) is a poet based in Los Angeles, California. His debut poetry collection, Diaries of a Terrorist, was published by Copper Canyon Press. This collection demands the abolition of policing and human caging. He was honored with Them’s 2022 Now Award in Literature for representing the cutting edge of queer culture.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA
Flight School Open Mic Has Returned at Playground Hookah Lounge – In-Person Event
The weekly Flight School Open Mic is 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 the 21st
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-362732983117?aff=erelpanelorg
Live Talks LA: An Evening with Scott Turow & Suspect at Wilshire Boulevard Temple – Online Event
Scott Turow, author of Presumed Innocent and The Last Trial, among many others, returns with a riveting legal thriller in which a reckless private detective is embroiled in a fraught police scandal, Suspect.
Scott Turow is the New York Times bestselling author of many bestselling works of fiction. Suspect is a riveting legal thriller in which a reckless private detective is embroiled in a fraught police scandal.
For as long as Lucia Gomez has been the police chief in the city of Highland Isle, near Kindle County, she has known that any woman in law enforcement must walk a precarious line between authority and camaraderie to gain respect. She has maintained a spotless reputation—until now. Three male police officers have accused her of soliciting sex in exchange for promotions to higher ranks. With few people left who she can trust, Chief Gomez turns to an old friend, Rik Dudek, to act as her attorney in the federal grand jury investigation, insisting to Rik that the accusations against her are part of an ugly smear campaign designed to destroy her career and empower her enemies—both outside the police force and within.
Guided by her gut instinct and razor-sharp investigative skills, Clarice “Pinky” Granum dives headfirst into a twisted scandal that will draw her into the deepest recesses of the city’s criminal networks, as well as the human mind.
Scott Turow is the author of many bestselling works of fiction, including The Last Trial, Testimony, Identical, Innocent, Presumed Innocent, and The Burden of Proof, and two nonfiction books, including One L, about his experience as a law student. His books have been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and have been adapted into movies and television projects. He has frequently contributed essays and op-ed pieces to publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.
NOTE: See stie for ticket, guidelines, and details.
Where: Live Talks LA via Wilshire Boulevard Temple
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)This book
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/turow/
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry & Robin Axworthy at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Join Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Night for our Reading & Open Mic, featuring Robin Axworthy.
The format is to welcome a featured poet for a reading, and an Open Mic reading. Tonight’s featured reader is Robin Axworthy.
Robin Axworthy has been writing since she was 8 years old because if she doesn’t write her head gets too full of words. She has deep roots in California and was born here. She’s lived sin many places but returned home in her mid-30s, got married and finally settled down.
She has a BA and MA in English from CSU Fullerton, and taught Language Arts for 30 years in Paramount before retiring in 2016.
Her chapbook, Crabgrass World, published in March 2020, is also available from Moon Tide 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 21st
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/6203056739711225
Introspection: A Conversation on Contemporary Poetry at Mexican Consulate of Los Angeles – In-Person Event
Moderator Jose Prado, PhD, professor of Sociology at CSU Dominguez Hills, will welcome a free and open panel of poets to discuss Introspection: A Conversation on Contemporary Poetry.
The panel of poets featuring at this event will include:
Matt Sedillo is the Literary Director of the Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles. He has also been described as the “best political poet in America” as well as “the poet laureate of the struggle” by academics, poets, and journalists alike. He has appeared on CSPAN and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. He 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, and at over a hundred universities and colleges, including the University of Cambridge, among many others. He is the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass (Flowersong Press, 2019), which is currently being taught at California State University at Northridge and Monterey Bay, as well as at Mission College. His Three Act Poem structure has been taught as capstones of coursework at UCLA and Occidental College. He’s the author most recently of City on the Second Floor (Flowersong Press, 2021) and has presented his work nationally and internationally at many universities and literary festivals.
Iris De Anda is a fearless, passionate poet and an activist and practitioner of the healing arts. She is a Guanaca Tapatia poet, speaker & musician who has been featured with KPFK & KPFA Pacifica Radio, organized with Academy of American Poets, performed at Los Angeles Latino Book Festival, Feria del Libro Tijuana, Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba and is named one of Today’s Revolutionary Women of Color. Author of Codeswitch: Fires from Mi Corazon and most recently, Roots of Redemption: You have No Right to Remain Silent (Flowersong Press, 2022), she hosted the Writers Underground Open Mic at Eastside Café and performed at numerous literary events.
Briana Muñoz is a poet and writer from Southern California, raised in San Diego, who is committed to social justice activism. She is the author of Loose Lips (Prickly Pear Publishing 2019) and Everything is Returned to the Soil/Todo vuelve a la tierra (FlowerSong Press, 2021). Her work has been published in Dryland, the Bravura Literary Journal, LA BLOGA, and in the Oakland Arts Review, among others.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Mexican Counsulate of Los Angeles & Centro Cultural Cinematografico de Mexico
Date: Thursday the 22nd
Time: 5:30 pm
Address: 2401 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, Ca 90053, CA 90053
Website: https://www.facebook.com/matt.sedillo.75
LGBTQ Book Club: Gordo, by Jaime Cortez at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The LGBTQ Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Gordo, by Jaime Cortez.
Shedding profound natural light on the inner lives of migrant workers in Steinbeck country, Jaime Cortez’s debut collection of stories, Gordo, ushers in a new era of American literature that gives voice to a marginalized generation of migrant workers in the West.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr, Suite 30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/lgbtq-book-club-gordo
Cristina Rodriguez, with William Archila, & Walk the Barrio via Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Cristina Rodriguez, in conversation with William Archila, will present and discuss her new book, Walk the Barrio: The Streets of Twenty-First-Century Transnational Latinix Literature.
To write about place you must experience place. In Walk the Barrio, Cristina Rodriguez enacts this premise by walking neighborhood streets, talking to immigrants, interviewing authors, and placing herself physically in the spaces that she seeks to understand. She reveals connections between place, narrative form, and migrancy. This first-person, interdisciplinary approach presents an innovative model for literary studies and sheds important light on the ways in which transnationalism transforms the culture of each Latinx barrio.
Cristina Rodriguez is Associate Professor of English and Latinx Literature at Providence College, and the current director of the American Studies Program. Her research explores the relationship between place identity, immigration, and narrative experimentation in contemporary Latinx and multi-ethnic U.S. literature. Her new book, Walk the Barrio: The Streets of Twenty-First Century Transnational Latinx Literature (University of Virginia Press), combines first person reportage, literary analysis, sociology, and human geography to connect literary settings to the real-world neighborhoods they are based on—in cities including New York, Miami, and LA. The result is an interdisciplinary map of the contemporary U.S. transnational Latinx immigrant experience. She has also written on Los Angeles urban space and its role in innovative fiction for the Asian American Journal and Latino Studies.
William Archila is the author of The Art of Exile, International Latino Book Award, and The Gravedigger’s Archaeology, Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize. He has been published in American Poetry Review, AGNl, Conjunctions, Colorado Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Magazine, and the anthologies The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, Theatre Under My Skin: Contemporary Salvadoran Poetry, and The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the US. He lives in Los Angeles, on Tongva land
NOTE: See site for further details, link, & information.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Writer’s Workshop with Editor-in-Chief of Dryland Literary Journal, Viva Padilla at Re/Arte – In-Person Event
Join us for a Writer’s Workshop led by writer Viva Padilla to focus on getting your work published. Bring your work to get feedback. Donation of $15 minimum encouraged.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, further details, guidelines & information.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Thursday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Michael Frank, with Cathleen Schine, & One Hundred Saturdays at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join Michael Frank, in conversation with Catherine Schine, to discuss his new book, One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World.
This book is the remarkable story of ninety-nine-year-old Stella Levi whose conversations with the writer Michael Frank over the course of six years bring to life the vibrant world of Stella, the deportation to Auschwitz that extinguished ninety percent of her community, and the resilience and wisdom of the woman who lived to tell the tale.
Over many Saturdays Stella and the author met to conjure what it felt like to come of age on this luminous, legendary island in the eastern Aegean, which the Italians conquered in 1912, began governing as an official colonial possession in 1923, and transformed over the next two decades until the Germans seized control and deported the entire Juderia to Auschwitz in July of 1944.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines & information.
Where: Diesel Bookstore (in the Courtyard)
Date: Thursday the 22nd
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/michael-frank-september-22-Author-signing
Book Talk: Suzanne Enoch, with Karen Hawkins, & Something in the Heir via Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online Event
Suzanne Enoch, in conversation with Karen Hawkins, will present and discuss her book, Something in the Heir, a historical romantic comedy.
Smart, capable heiress Emmeline Pershing will do anything to keep her beloved home; and all it takes is an arranged marriage and a teeny white lie to fulfill her family’s silly inheritance rules. But now her little fib means that she and her completely unsuspecting husband are going to inherit big—and very messy!—trouble.
Suzanne Enoch loves movies almost as much as she loves books, with a special place in her heart for anything Star Wars. She has written more than forty Regency novels and historical romances—including the Scandalous Brides and Scandalous Highlanders series.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0sPnP-FfQli1xnlm3dy12Q
Javier Zamora, with Yesika Salgado, & Solito: A Memoir at Vroman’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Javier Zamora, in conversation with Yesika Salgado, discuss his memoir, Solito: A Memoir.
Javier Zamora’s adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks.
He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/javier-zamora-discusses-solito
At Skylight: Cheryl E. Klein, with Marisa Urrutia Gedney, & Crybaby at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Cheryl E. Klein, in conversation with Marissa Urrrutia Gedney, will present her new book, Crybaby: Infertility, Illness, and Other Things That Were Not the End of the World.
A self-described crybaby who sees the end of the world lurking around every corner, Cheryl E. Klein has relied on planning and hard work to reach her goals and avoid catastrophe. But when she finds her wish for a baby dashed over and over—first by infertility, then miscarriage, and finally breast cancer—her carefully structured life, marriage, friendships, and belief system begin to crumble. But this is the story of what happens when a failed perfectionist and successful hypochondriac is forced to make room in her life for grief and joy, fear and hope, all at the same time.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 22nd
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-cheryl-e-klein-presents-crybaby-marisa-urrutia-gedney
Sandra Cisneros, with Nely Galan, & Women Without Shame: Poems at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultura y Bookstore – In-Person Event
Iconic author Sandra Cisneros, in conversation with Nely Galan, will present and discuss her new book, Women Without Shame: Poems.
It has been twenty-eight years since Sandra Cisneros published a book of poetry. With dozens of never-before-seen poems, Woman Without Shame is a moving collection of songs, elegies, and declarations that chronicle her pilgrimage toward rebirth and the recognition of her prerogative as a woman artist. These bluntly honest and often humorous meditations on memory, desire, and the essential nature of love blaze a path toward self-awareness. For Cisneros, Woman Without Shame is the culmination of her search for home—in the Mexico of her ancestors and in her own heart.
Where: Tia Chucha’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 22nd
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://www.sandracisneros.com/events
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 22nd
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 23rd
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/spectacular-story-time-6
NoHo Online Book Club: The Lincoln Highway at North Hollywood Regional Library, LAPL – Online YA Event
Join the NoHo Online Book Club twice a month to discuss a selected title and a book of your choice. New members are always welcome. We meet on Zoom the second and fourth Friday of the month.
The Lincoln Highway: A Novel, by Amor Towles, is our selected title for discussion. This novel “is filled with nostalgia and the gentle naïveté and hijinks of those who are young, optimistic, and on a mission. The story follows four boys who set out to travel the country in search of a fresh start” says Amazon editor Al Woodworth.
Email nohlwd@lapl.org to receive the Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.
Where: North Hollywood Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 23rd
Time: 10 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/noho-book-club
Your Author Series: Tyler Feder & Dancing at the Pity Party at Central Library, LAPL – Online YA Event
Your Author Series will discuss this presentation of the YA graphic novel memoir, Dancing at the Pity Party and meet author and illustrator Tyler Feder.
Dancing at the Pity Party is about the premature death of the author’s super cool mom. This acclaimed graphic memoir has been called “cathartic and uplifting” as the author works through the process of grieving as well as being able to move forward.
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 23rd
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-tyler-feder
Author/Illustrator Workshop for 2nd– 5th Grade: Lauren Magaziner and Mirelle Ortega & The Mythics at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Pages Bookstore presents an Author/Illustrator Workshop for children in 2nd– 5th grades, led by Lauren Magaziner and Mirelle Ortega, who also will present their book, The Mythics: Marina and the Kraken.
Work side-by-side with Lauren and Mirelle to write and draw your own mythical beast in this collaborative workshop. Kids will walk away with their own illustrated character, character bio, and all the elements needed to write a spectacular story! For children in grades 2 through 5.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and event details.
Where: Pages Bookstore (in the Courtyard)
Date: Friday the 23rd
Time: 4 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 0266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/mythics-author-illustrator-workshop
Embodied Trauma Healing Discussion: Zabie Yamasaki and Dr. Shena Young at Village Well Coffee & Books – In-Person Event
Join local author, Zabie Yamasaki, for an evening of authentic conversation, practice, and healing as she discusses her new book and affirmation card deck: Trauma-Informed Yoga for Survivors of Sexual Assault: Practices for Healing and Teaching with Compassion. Zabie will be in conversation with Dr. Shena Young, author of forthcoming books: a workbook + holistic healing journey for Black survivors of sexual trauma and a companion guide for those that hold them.
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.
Zabie Yamasaki, M.Ed., RYT (she/her) is the Founder of Transcending Sexual Trauma through Yoga which is an organization that offers trauma-informed yoga to survivors, consultation for universities and trauma agencies, and training for healing professionals.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Friday the 23rd
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/17073
Black Lit Book Club: We Are Not Like Them, by Christine Pride & Jo Piazza, at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join Black Lit Book Club to discuss this month’s selection, We are Not Like Them: A Novel, by Christine Pride & Jo Piazza.
This story is about two women, one Black and one white, told from alternating perspectives, whose friendship is altered by a tragic event.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Friday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr, Suite 30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/black-lit-book-club-we-are-not-them
LGTBQ Open Mic at Cafe con Libros Press, Pomona – In-Person Event
Cafe con Libros Press hosts the LGBTQ Open Mic every 3rd Friday of the month, and celebrates the family created through music poetry, and community.
Where: Cafe con Libros Press
Date: Friday the 23rd
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 208 W. 2nd St., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: http://www.cafeconlibrospress.com/events
Vincent Paterson and Amy Tofte, with Jacob Ionas, & Instincts at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Co-authors Vincent Paterson and Amy Tofte, in conversation with Jacob Ionas, present and discuss their book, Instincts: Choreographing and Directing Entertainment’s Biggest Stars.
For the first time, the choreographer of Michael Jackson, Madonna, Björk and many others reveals stage stories through his extraordinary journey. He tells with humility the fascinating universe of film sets, the rehearsal sessions where he had to orchestrate and synchronize dozens of dancers, life backstage where it is sometimes necessary to manage a few whims of the stars, his successes and his disappointments. It is a dive into the heart of the world of dance.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 23rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/vincent-patterson
Sunset Ecos Reading: Poetry Readings at Sunset at Stories Books & Cafe – In-Person Event
Join Stories Books & Café for the Sunset Ecos Reading: Poesía y Puesta del Sol, {poetry & sunset} is a new literary platform curated by Mexican-born poets & organizers Iván Salinas & Karla Lamb.
The mission is to incite conversation, empower, & amplify creative voices in Echo Park & beyond. Join us for the third installment featuring a powerhouse lineup of local & regional talent including:
Gabrielle Civil, Gabriela Herstik, and Giulia Bencivenga!
Gabrielle Civil is an actress, executive producer, activist, best-selling author and most recently, a Time100 cover honoree. Union formed her production shingle “I’ll Have Another” in 2018 with the goal of telling stories that center marginalized communities with their specific point of views in an authentic manner. Her first book, We’re Going To Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated and True, was released in 2017 and instantly became a New York Times best seller.
Gabriela Herstik is an author, columnist and witch, based in Los Angeles. She is the author of Inner Witch: A Modern Guide to the Ancient Craft (known as Craft in the UK), Bewitching the Elements: A Guide to Empowering Yourself Through Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit, Embody Your Magick: A Guided Journal For the Modern Witch, and the forthcoming Sacred Sex: The Magick and Path of the Divine Erotic (July 2022). She is the Priestess and co-creatrix of Kink Coven, a monthly full moon ritual play party that casts a spell of protection on sex workers and raises funds for mutual aid groups and organizations supporting them.
Giulia Bencivenga is the author of GIULIA BENCIVENGA IS A MANIAC, Unreasonable Whole, and CUD. Their work appears in Prelude Magazine, Peach Mag, Wonder, Adriadne Mag, Blush Lit, and other places. Their poem “Nook” was a nominee for Best of the Net in 2019. Their work has been translated into Italian. They run the reading series Two Snake in Los Angeles (@twosnakela) and host virtual poetry workshops.
SUNSET ECOS {Spanish for echo} will be MC’d by Karla & Iván, with musical guest Raul Garcia & The Loved Ones.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Stories Books & Cafe
Date: Friday the 23rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
S. Yarberry, with Rosie Stockton, & A Boy in the City at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
S. Yarberry, in conversation with Rosie Stockton, will discuss his debut book of poetry, A Boy in the City.
A Boy in the City uses poems as pillars to interrupt and excavate an interiority that unfolds and interrogates grim thoughts and intimacy. Yarberry weaves a sexy, glitzy journey through their city, where the speaker can “pose” and “compose” in a “trans way, of course.” Clever in its playful allusions to Greek myths, William Blake, and other literary figures, A Boy in the City is a distinct work of joy and liberation that reckons with the language of gender and desire.
S. Yarberry is a trans poet and writer. Their poetry has appeared in AGNI, Tin House, Indiana Review, The Offing, Berkeley Poetry Review, jubilat, Notre Dame Review, The Boiler, miscellaneous zines, among others. Smith‘s other writings can be found in Bomb Magazine, The Adroit Journal, and Annulet: A Journal of Poetics. They currently serve as the Poetry Editor of The Spectacle; they also run a small magazine called Tyger Quarterly. S. has their MFA in Poetry from Washington University in St. Louis and is now a PhD candidate in literature at Northwestern University where they study twenty and twenty-first century receptions of William Blake.
Rosie Stockton is a poet based in Los Angeles. They are the author of Permanent Volta (Nightboat Books), which was the recipient of the 2019 Sawtooth Prize, and Pumpjack (Other Weapons Distro). Their poems have been published by Social Text Journal, VOLT, Jubilat, Apogee, and WONDER. They are currently a Ph.D. Student in the Gender Studies Department at UCLA.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Friday the 23rd
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-s-yarberry-presents-boy-city-rosie-stockton
Special Storytime: Holly Robinson Peete and R.J. Peete & Charlie Makes a Splash at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Join us for a special story time with children’s author Holly Robinson Peete and R.J. Peete, who will present her new book, Charlie Makes a Splash.
The award-winning team who brought us My Brother Charlie will present a companion book that celebrates the power of water for those who have autism.
Like many kids on the autism spectrum, Charlie finds solace and empowerment in pools, ponds, sprinklers, visiting the aquarium, and swimming in the ocean. Through his adventures and discoveries, he shows the world that even though he has autism, autism doesn’t have him.
In this beautiful ode to the love between siblings Callie and Charlie, we return to the characters from our award-winning first book, who bring whimsy to everyday fun for all children, while showing readers that kids who may experience the world in different ways can help us see the wonders of swimming to your own rhythm.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday the 24th
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/holly-peele-and-rj-peele-read-charlie-makes-a-splash
Fourth Saturdays Poetry Readings: Elline Lipkin & Jose Hernandez Diaz at Claremont Helen Renwick Library – In-Person Event
Elline Lipkin’s first book, The Errant Thread, was selected for the Kore Press Book Award, Her second, Girls’ Studies, explores girlhood in the U.S.A. Research Scholar with UCLA’s Center for the Study of Women, she teaches independent writing workshops and has served as Poet Laureate of Altadena. Her poems have been published in a variety of journals and she has been in residence at Yaddo, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, and was a California Resident at Yele Nof.
Jose Hernandez Diaz holds degrees in English and Creative Writing from UC Berkeley and Antioch University Los Angeles. He is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eaters (2020), and Bad Mexican, Bad American (2024). His work appears in numerous journals and in the Best American Nonrequired Reading.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Claremont Helen Renwick Library
Date: Saturday the 24th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 208 Harvard Av. N. Claremont, CA 01711
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1193391281205262
South Central Noir Book Signing: Gary Phillips, Larry Fondation, Penny Mickelbury & Nikolas Charles at Village Well Coffee & Books – In-Person Event
South Central Noir: The Akashic Noir Series’ forensic study of Southern California sharpens its focus on one of Los Angeles’s most recognized neighborhoods. Featuring brand-new stories by Steph Cha, Nikolas Charles, Tananarive Due, Larry Fondation, Gar Anthony Haywood, Naomi Hirahara, Emory Holmes II, Roberto Lovato, Penny Mickelbury, Gary Phillips, Eric Stone, Jervey Tervalon, Jeri Westerson, and Désirée Zamorano.
About the editor:
Gary Phillips has published novels, comics, short stories, and has edited numerous anthologies. Violent Spring was named one of the essential crime novels of Los Angeles. Culprits, a linked anthology he coedited, has been optioned as a British miniseries, and he was a staff writer on FX’s Snowfall about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central, where he grew up. He is the editor of South Central Noir, Orange County Noir, and the coeditor of The Cocaine Chronicles.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday the 24th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/19832
Saturday Afternoon Poetry & Featured Readers & Open Mic – In-Person Event & Online Event via Zoom
Saturday Afternoon Poetry presents an in=person and online hybrid event to hear featured readers and workshops.
Print & Internet Publishing Workshops led by KEVIN DUBLIN and KESAU ‘C HILL + Poets published in Four Feathers Press’ THE POETRY LOTTERY 6 (winner announced) and MEMORIES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: POETIC RECOLLECTIONS read their poetry THIS MEETING CAN ALSO BE ACCESSED THROUGH OUR USUAL ZOOM PORTAL All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry at Rosebud Coffee Patio
Date: Saturday the 24th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 2302 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena CA & Online Zoom Event (see site)
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Special Launch Party for Ed Zuckerman & Wealth Management at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event
Pages Bookstore presents a special Launch Party for author Ed Zuckerman and his new book, Wealth Management: A Novel.
Copies of Wealth Management will be available for purchase and signing. Refreshments will be served, toasts will be made and perhaps a reading will be shared. This event is free RSVPs are appreciated. Please support Ed and {pages} a bookstore by purchasing copies of his book through {pages}.
For Fans of Jess Walter and Gary Shteyngart, comes a financial thriller featuring three Ivy League MBAs who must put their lopsided love triangle aside to snare international terrorists
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 24th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 0266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/special-launch-party-ed-zuckerman-saturday-september-24th-4pm
Historical Fiction Book Club & Rise of Librtie via Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Historical Fiction Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Libertie: A Novel, by Kaityn Greenidge
Inspired by the life of one of the first Black female doctors in the United States, critically acclaimed and Whiting Award–winning author Kaitlyn Greenidge returns with an unforgettable and immersive novel that will resonate with readers eager to understand our present through a deep, moving, and lyrical dive into our past.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and event details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday 24th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/historical-fiction-book-club-libertie
Julie Murphy IN-PERSON Launch Party for A Merry Little Meet Cute! with co-author Sierra Simone, at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice will host an IN-PERSON book launch for Julie Murphy and co-author Sierra Simone, and new book, A Merry Little Meet Cute!
Julie and Sirrea will be in conversation about their book and all things romance. A signing will follow the event.
Julie Murphy lives in North Texas with her husband who loves her, her dog who adores her, and her cats who tolerate her. After several wonderful years in the library world, Julie now writes full-time. author of the young adult novels Dumplin’ (now a film on Netflix), Puddin’, Ramona Blue, and Side Effects May Vary. Dear Sweet Pea is her debut middle grade novel.
Sierra Simone is a voracious reader of all things including the smuttiest smut, young adult, piles of non-fiction for research, and everything Bill Bryson (especially on audio).
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Saturday the 24th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Main St., Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Laura Warrell, with Edan Lepucki, & Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Laura Warrwell, in conversation with Edan Lepucki, will discuss her provocative debut novel. Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm.
Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm, set in 2013, tells the story of Circus Palmer, a Boston-based trumpet player who lives for his music and refuses to be tied down. It delivers a lush orchestration of diverse female voices. Warrell spins a provocative, soulful, and gripping story of passion and risk, fathers and daughters, wives, and single women, and, finally, hope and reconciliation, in answer to the age-old question: how do we find belonging when love is unrequited?
Laura Warrell is a contributor to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Writers’ Workshop and is a graduate of the creative writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has appeared in HuffPost, The Rumpus, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications. She has taught creative writing and literature at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and through the Emerging Voices Program at PEN America in Los Angeles, where she lives.
Edan Lepucki is the New York Times bestselling author of the novel California as well as the novella If You’re Not Yet Like Me. A contributing editor and staff writer at the Millions, she has also published fiction and nonfiction in McSweeney’s, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Cut, and elsewhere. She is the founder of Writing Workshops Los Angeles.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 24th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Saturday Jams with Emma: Youth Event for Ages 4-8 at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Emma Surdilla continues the tradition started by Cayla Mendoza! Saturday Jams is a youth event aimed to encourage an interest in reading and the arts. Story time, singing, and dancing included!
All ages welcome and Perfect for kids ages 4-8
This event is free, no registration is required!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 25th
Time:11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/19981
Burning Issues Books Club: Toxic Communities via Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Event
Burning Issues Book Club (BIBC) is an online and local book club that gathers to read and discuss non-fiction works related to climate change, environmental degradation, environmental and social justice, and implementation of social change movements.
This month’s selection for discussion is Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility, by Dorceta Taylor.
This book uncovers the systemic problems that expose poor minority communities to environmental hazards. A fascinating landmark study, Toxic Communities greatly contributes to the study of race, the environment, and space in the contemporary United States.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 25th
Time: 12 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/burning-issues-book-club-261829
Latinx Book Club & The House of Broken Angels at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join the Cellar Door Book Club for a discussion of this month’s selection, House of Broken Angels, by author Luis Alberto Urrea.
In this “raucous, moving, and necessary” story by a Pulitzer Prize finalist (San Francisco Chronicle), the De La Cruzes, a family on the Mexican American border, celebrate two of their most beloved relatives during a joyous and bittersweet weekend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 25th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Create Dr., #30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/latinx-book-club-house-broken-angels
Workshop Your Novel: Event at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
Calling all aspiring authors! You’re invited to submit up to 5,000 words (20 pages) of a romance novel-in-progress (any sub-genre) to our Romance Writing Workshop!
You will submit an excerpt from your novel-in-progress before September 15th so that all participants have time to read your work and complete a Workshop Critique Form. You will also receive a personalized critique from the workshop instructor with helpful tips to bring your romance novel to the next level. Hone your craft by giving critiques as well as receiving them!
How it works:
Once you have reserved your spot, you will receive an email with instructions and a deadline to submit your work.
You will be expected to read all other students manuscript pages and make comments for the author before the workshop itself. (A cover sheet will be provided for each manuscript which you may fill out–or, you can draft your own responses and feedback!)
On the day of the workshop, each author will receive a written manuscript evaluation from our resident romance novel book editor/writing instructor, Jeanne De Vita, with personalized feedback and critique. You will also receive feedback from a lively discussion from each of your peers in the workshop!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 25th
Time: 3 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: Main Street., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Poetry Reading: Frankie Hernandez, Fernando Albert Salinas, Briana Muñoz via VCP SoCal Poets – Online Zoom Event
Join VCP SoCal Poets and hos and poet Jerry Garcia for readings by Frankie Hernandez, Fernando Albert Salinas, and Briana Muñoz.
Frankie Hernandez is a published writer and television producer who has been part of the Los Angeles literary scene for 25 years. She wrote the screenplay The Other Side of Pretty (Created by Frankie Hernandez. Written by Frankie Hernandez and David-Matthew Barnes). Hernandez is currently writing and performing collective of short stories called East L.A. Stories about growing up in the ‘70s with Chola fashion, classic rock, and backyard disco parties.
Fernando Albert Salinas is on the Board of Directors for California Poets in the Schools, the Ventura County Area Coordinator, and a Master Poet-Teacher. He is an Adjunct Professor of English at Ventura College, the Ventura County Area Coordinator and recitation coach for the California Arts Council’s Poetry Out Loud program, and the Editor-In-Chief for Spit Shine Publishing. As Literary Arts Program Coordinator for the Ventura County Arts Council, he focuses on enhancing the presence and appreciation of poetry, and the spoken word. He is the author of the collection, Toxic Masculinity.
Briana Muñoz is a poet, activist, and Mexican folklore dancer, and a writer of healing, challenging, beautiful words. She is the author of the chapbook Loose Lips (Prickly Pear Publishing 2019) and a full-length collection, Everything is Returned to the Soil (FlowerSong Press 2021). Her work has been published in Dryland, the Bravura Literary Journal, LA BLOGA, and in the Oakland Arts Review, among others.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: VCP SoCal Poets On Zoom: 704 755 6075, PW: vcp@
Date: Sunday the 25th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.vcpsocal.org/
All My Favorite Men Are Dead Book Launch: Kate Burns, with Karla Lamb & Elyse Cizek at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
All My Favorite Men Are Dead is the debut collection of poetry from up-and-coming LA-based poet, Női Lélek. The first in her “books of healing” trilogy, the book explores the very real mental, emotional, and physical pain of experiencing sexual trauma and the long-lasting effects it can have on a woman’s feelings of safety, ability to trust, and willingness to engage openly and vulnerably with the world around her.
Női Lélek is the Hungarian pseudonym of 29-year-old Cali native, Kate Burns, that means “female soul”. Shortly after turning 18, Kate was molested by a trusted father-figure and raped by her sister’s ex-boyfriend of over 4 years. Eight years, 56 countries, and 3 suicide attempts later, she wrote her first poem and finally stopped running from her truth. With her poetry she hopes to help other women who have experienced sexual trauma begin to heal.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 25th
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/19781
Vroman’s Local Author Day: Cierra Martinez, Anita Moorjani & Keith Malinsky, Mari Ann Fortuna at Vroman’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Vroman’s Local Author Day welcomes four authors to present and discuss their three books.
Cierra Martinez will present her book, Somewhere That’s Green. This YA novel is about how tow lifelong best friends with a ruptured relationship might be reunited by auditioning in their school’s production of Little Shop of Horrors.
Mari Ann Fortuna will present her frightful tale, Calyxianna’s Night of Fright, about a wicked witch named Calyxianna, who lives on the top of a lonely hill with her only companion, a faithful little black bat. Calyxianna has become embittered over the years after being cast out from a coven of good witches. Seeking revenge, she begins to hatch an evil plot which she plans to put into motion on the All Hallows Eve exactly 1,000 years later.
Anita Moorjani & Keith Malinsky will present their children’s book, Scaredy Caterpillar. The world can be a very scary place, especially if you are a tiny caterpillar who is literally afraid of her own shadow. That is, until she meets the most incredible, the most beautiful creature she has ever seen. Which inspires her to become who she is truly meant to be, and to live her life fearlessly.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Sunday 25th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/local-author-day-september-22
Poetry as Harm Reduction Event: Ceasar K. Avelar, Jireh Deng & AK Toney at Page Against the Machine Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join PATM and host Briana Munoz for the monthly Poetry as Harm Reduction event, featuring performances by poets Caesar K. Avelar, Jireh Deng, and AK Toney.
Caesar K. Avelar is the host of Obsidian Tongues Open Mic and Events at Café con Libros Press. He is a poet and writer who writes that his “style is Mexicans and Salvadorans calling each other hermanos/…invisible but true/…invisible but yet so real!”
Jireh Deng is a queer Taiwanese/Hong Konger American poet and multimedia journalist born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley. Their work appears in the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, the podcast VS, The Rumpus, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Human Rights Campaign, The Los Angeles Times, and more.
AK Toney is a poet, writer, musician, performance artist, and literary coordinator at Reading Is Poetry. View his performances on YouTube or at http://readingispoetry.com.
Briana Munoz is a poet and writer from Southern California, raised in San Diego, who is committed to social justice activism. She is the author of Loose Lips (Prickly Pear Publishing 2019) and Everything is Returned to the Soil/Todo vuelve a la tierra (FlowerSong Press, 2021). Her work has been published in Dryland, the Bravura Literary Journal, LA BLOGA, and in the Oakland Arts Review, among others.
NOTE: Donations of monetary support or hygiene products for unhoused is required.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Page Against the Machine Bookstore
Date: Sunday 25th
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 2714 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=6353243534702855&set=a.442972382396696
Book Launch: Interstellar Theme Park, by Jack Skelly, with Guest Readers at Stories Books & Cafe – In-Person Event
Join Stories Books & Café for the Book Launch of Interstellar Theme Park by Jack Skelley. Spanning four decades of Skelley’s fascination with (and suspicion of) America’s society of the spectacle, Interstellar Theme Park: New and Selected Writing is full of irreverent and unique themes and musings.
Guest readers include:
Francesca Lia Block is a prolific writer of adult and young adult fiction, short stories, and poetry, and is known for her Weetzie Bat series. She is also a teacher, professor, and workshop leader, who teaches at UCLA Extension and Antioch University LA, and privately. Her most recent book is House of Hearts.
Robin Carr N/A
Daniel Weizmann Daniel Weizmann’s writing has appeared in the LA Times, Billboard, UK Guardian, and AP Newswire, as well as several books including Too Cool, Hardcore California, Turn Up the Radio!, and Drinking with Bukowski. He’s the as-told-to for DeeDee Ramone’s autobio, the editor of Timothy Leary’s last collection, and the author of several volumes of Price Stern Sloan’s Mad Libs.
With MC Tosh Berman.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Stories Books & Cafe
Date: Sunday the 25th
Time: 6 pm -7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Los Angeles Literature 