Peter Merts & Ex Crucible: The Passion of Incarcerated Artists at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Prison Arts collective will have an art auction and author and photographer Peter Merts will present and discuss Ex Crucible: The Passion of Incarcerated Artists. The photographs of Ex Crucible show incarcerated men and women creating artworks with a talent, passion, and authenticity that illuminate the humanity of the artists. These intimate photographs demonstrate the importance that creativity can have in these bleak, controlled spaces.
Peter Merts has been a photographer for 40 years, focusing on documentary, portrait, and fine arts projects. Peter has documented California’s Arts in Corrections program, both as a volunteer, and under contract with the California Arts Council. He has photographed in all 36 of California’s adult state prisons and serves on the advisory board of the Prison Arts Collective, a provider of prison arts programming. Peter co-published, with Dr. Larry Brewster, the book Paths of Discovery: Art Practice and Its Impact in California State Prisons (now in its 2nd edition); in 2022, he published a monograph of his prison arts work, Ex Crucible: The Passion of Incarcerated Artists (Daylight Books).
NOTE: See site for free tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Monday the 10th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/art-auction-book-talk-ex-crucible-by-peter-merts-tickets-428745418087
Generation Sleepless, with Julie Wright & Heather Turgeon at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Join Friends of the Sandy Segal Youth Health Center for an informative evening about your tweens/teens and sleep. Culver City High School implemented a later start time one year before the state mandated it. Are our teens now getting enough sleep? Probably not. Find out more from the authors of Generation Sleepless.
Psychotherapists, sleep specialists and authors, Heather Turgeon and Julie Wright discuss their new book, Generation Sleepless, exploring the science of teen sleep, along with ways that families, high schools, and society at large can take steps to help teens improve their sleep, health, and wellbeing.
NOTE: See site for book purchase, guidelines, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Monday the 10th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/20636
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 10th
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-4318572757377
Jennifer Freed, with Gwenyth Paltrow, & A Map to Your Soul at Vroman’s – Online Event
Jennifer Freed, in conversation with Gwenyth Paltrow, will present and discuss her book, A Map to Your Soul.
Renowned psychological astrologer and psychologist Jennifer Freed will discuss how psychological astrology will help you get to know yourself better, and also support you in using that expanded self-knowledge and self-awareness to make your optimal contribution to your community and loved ones.
Jennifer Freed, PhD, is a renowned psychological astrologer and social and emotional education trainer. She has spent over thirty-five years consulting clients and businesses worldwide on psychological, spiritual, and educational topics. A regular contributor to goop and Maria Shriver’s newsletter The Sunday Paper, Jennifer has penned ten books relating to personal growth, and she has been interviewed for her expertise by the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, People Magazine, and Vogue.
Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow is a bestselling cookbook author, singer, and entrepreneur. In 2008, Paltrow founded goop from her kitchen table. goop has grown into a lifestyle brand devoted to helping women make their own choices count in the various facets of their lives—from style, travel, work, food, and beauty to physical, mental, and spiritual wellness. goop now has a tightly edited digital shop, a book imprint, permanent and pop-up retail experiences, a live event series, and its own product lines, including skincare, fragrances, apparel, bath and body, and supplements.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Jennifer-Freed-talks-with-Gwyneth-Paltrow-about-A-MAP-TO-YOUR-SOUL
Poetry Open Mic at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – Zoom Online Event
This free Poetry Open Mic is offered online on the 2nd Tuesday of every month and led by Wyatt Underwood.
Share a poem you wrote or a poem you love! You are also welcome to just listen and
enjoy.
To receive a Zoom invitation, please contact wwood@lapl.org.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Zoom Online (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-open-mic
Book Talk: Julia Stein, with Contributors, & The Many Voices of the Los Angeles Novel at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Editor Julia Stein and contributing writers will present The Many Voices of the Los Angeles Novel.
As this volume shows, Los Angeles novels changed greatly beginning in the 1960s as the population of the city became multi-national. For decades, Latino/as have written critical novels of resistance about LA, and, in the 1970s, their novels came of age while influenced by South American magical realism. The book also highlights that African-Americans have authored brilliant Los Angeles fiction for a number of years, while women transformed novels dealing with Hollywood, detectives, and science fiction. In addition, LGBTQ writers—both Anglos and Chicano/as—have created innovative works, while men’s novels that explored 20th century class conflicts have been recently rediscovered.
Julia Stein is an oral historian of Los Angeles. She has published five books of poetry, two anthologies of poetry, and co-authored the book Shooting Women: Behind the Camera, Around the World. She also published journalism for decades and was an English professor at Santa Monica Community College.
Contributors include: Héctor Calderón, Norma E. Cantú, Christopher Freeman, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Jonathan Kirsch, Helaina Pisar McKibben, Brian Nelson, Kamala Platt, Charles Scruggs, Julia Stein, and Andrew Tonkovich.
NOTE: See site for free tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Three Act Writing Workshop: Matt Sedillo at Eastside Café– In-Person Event
The Three Act Writing Workshop will be presented and led by Matt Sedillo.
All donations will go to Eastside Café.
Matt Sedillo is an acclaimed political poet, writer and spoken word performer, and is the author of two books: Mowing Leaves of Grass and City on the Second Floor.
NOTE: See site for details. Check to verify DATE.
Where: Eastside Café, El Sereno
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5469 Huntington Dr. North, Los Angeles, CA 90032
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10162683988554522&set=a.212071394521
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 11th
Time: 6 pm – 9 pm
Address: 8857 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-mic-mickys-tickets-383607910587?aff=erelpanelorg
Book of the Month Book Club & The Carrying, by Ada Limon via Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Event
Bel Canto’s BOTM Book Club focuses on fiction and non-fiction books that reflect our theme of the month, from beloved poetry books for National Poetry Month to contemporary Latinx books for Hispanic Heritage Month and more. An Online Zoom Discussion occurs on the 2nd Tuesday of the following month at 7pm PT.
This month’s selection for discussion is the collection The Carrying, by Ada Limon, who was just announced to be the new national Poet Laureate.
The Carrying is the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist fot the PEN/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD
From National Book Award finalist Ada Limón, The Carrying isher most powerful collection yet. Vulnerable, tender, acute, these are serious and poems, exploring the ambiguous moment between the rapture of youth and the grace of acceptance.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://belcantobooks.net/book-clubs
Anna Gomez & Kristopher Polaha & Where the Sun Rises, at Bel Canto Bookstore at The Hangout – In-Person Event SOLD OUT!
Bel Canto’s presentation of Anna Gomez and Kristopher Polaha to discuss their new book, Where the Sun Rises is SOLD OUT.
Singed books may be ordered from Bel Canto at its website.
NOTE: See site to order signed books from this SOLD-OUT event.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2122 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://shopthehangout.com/products/bcb-where-the-sun-rises
Adult Book Group: The Prague Sonata by Bradford Morrow via Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Event
This book club has been going strong for 40+ years and loves to see new faces! Find out what the next book is below.
The Prague Sonata, by Bradford Morrow is a historical novel about a literary quest that travels from Nazi-occupied Prague to turn-of-the-millennium New York as a young musicologist seeks to solve the mystery behind an eighteenth-century sonata manuscript.
Books are available in print, and when possible as an e-book and a digital audiobook.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Onsite Event (see site)
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/adult-book-group-prague-sonata-bradford-morrow
Mystery Book Group: Goldenacre by Phillip Millerat Pages Bookstore – In–Person Event
This Mystery Book Club meets generally on the 2nd Tuesday of each month and reads new release mysteries.
This month the Book Club will read Goldenacre, by Phillip Miller, a story about a bitter journalist and troubled art expert who risk their lives to find the connection between a legendary painting and a series of rash murders.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-9
Margaret Elysia Garcia Launch: The Birth of “Graft:” A Short Story Collection at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Celebrate the launch of Birth of Graft: A short story collection, by Margaret Elysia Garcia.
This event features a reading and book signing by the author.
As well as a short reading by her students the CLI Season 10 Sacramento Chapter.
And snacks.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, link, and event details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry & Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
At Skylight: Pete Hsu, with J. Ryan Stradal, & If I Were the Ocean, I’d Carry You Home at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Pete Hsu, in conversation with J. Ryan Stradal, will present and discuss his debut story collection, If I Were the Ocean, I’d Carry You Home.
If I Were the Ocean, I’d Carry You Home is about children and young people navigating a world where the presence of violence and death rear themselves in everyday places: Vegas casinos, birthday parties, church services, and sunny days at the beach. Each story is a meditation on living in a world not made for us—the pervasive fear, the adaptations, the unexpected longings
Pete Hsu is a Taiwanese American writer based in Pasadena, CA. He is the author of the experimental chapbook, There is a Man (Tolsun Books). His work has also been featured in several journals and anthologies, including Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s The Margins, F(r)iction, The Los Angeles Review, and Los Angeles Review of Books. He was a 2017 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow as well as the 2017 PEN in the Community Writer in Residence.
J. Ryan Stradal is the author of New York Times bestseller Kitchens of the Great Midwest and national bestseller The Lager Queen of Minnesota. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Granta, The Rumpus, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other places. His next novel, Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, is forthcoming from Viking/Pamela Dorman Books in spring 2023.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidlines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Archways 6 Readings at Stories Books & Coffee – In–Person Event
This event features readers from Archways Editions 6, the literary imprint of powerHouse Books, the artbook publisher distributed by Simon & Schuster.
Archways is the accompanying reading series, which aims to bring that into practice. Works from each event are compiled into anthologies of the same name.
Featured readers include:
Aiden Arata writes the monthly-ish newsletter Under the Influence and her written and visual work appears widely.
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.
Caitlin Brady is a fiction writer from San Antonio, Texas, whose short humor has appeared in The Columbia Journal and The Hairpin. She writes sporadically and very unreliably at deathstyleblog.wordpress.com.
Tori Gesualdo is a Los Angeles based poet and bookseller. Her poems are an effort at catharsis and a recollection of her personal responsibility to her own healing and to the healing of the collective. She can be found at Stories in Echo Park, coaxing your friends to read anti-capitalist literatures.
Brady Jackson is a writer, motion graphics designer, video editor and philosopher.
Rachel Ly is a writer, editor and content creator, and co-editor of Flora Fiction.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Aloud Reading Series: An Evening with Cody Keenan, with Jon Favreau, & Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America at ALOUD at LFLA – In–Person Event
This book from Cody Keenan, President Obama’s speechwriter during his presidency, takes readers through the behind-the-scenes moments, from Obama’s suggestion that Keenan pour a drink, listen to some Miles Davis, and “find the silences” to the president’s late-night writing sessions in the First Family’s Residence, Keenan takes us inside the craft of speechwriting at the highest level for the most demanding of bosses, the relentlessly poetic and perfectionist Barack Obama.
GRACE is the propulsive story of ten days in June 2015, when Obama and his chief speechwriter Cody Keenan composed a series of high-stakes speeches to meet a succession of stunning developments: a white supremacist shooting and an astonishing act of forgiveness; a national reckoning with race and the Confederate flag; the fate of marriage equality and the Affordable Care Act.
Cody Keenan rose from a campaign intern in Chicago to become chief speechwriter at the White House and Barack Obama’s post-presidential collaborator. A sought-after expert on politics, messaging, and current affairs, he is a partner at the preeminent speechwriting firm Fenway Strategies and teaches a popular course on political speechwriting at his alma mater, Northwestern University. He lives in New York City with his wife Kristen and their daughter Gracie.
Jon Favreau served as Barack Obama’s head speechwriter from 2005-2013. Since leaving the White House, Favreau has written and spoken about politics and speechwriting to audiences throughout the world. In 2017, he co-founded Crooked Media, where he’s a co-host of Pod Save America and host of both Offline and The Wilderness. Jon grew up outside of Boston, graduated from the College of the Holy Cross, and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Emily, their son Charlie, and their dog Leo.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Mark Taper Auditorium
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 630West 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lfla.org/event/an-evening-with-cody-keenan/
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Briana Muñoz – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Briana Muñoz.
Briana Muñoz is a poet and writer from Southern California. Raised in San Diego, she spent a lot of her time at her mother’s Mexican folklore dance classes and at ranches where her father trained horses into the sunset. 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: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show – In-Person Event
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show is offered every week at the Unurban Coffee House. Hosted by DeForest Wright, all are invited to attend.
NOTE: Details at event link.
Where: Unurban Coffee House
Date: Tuesday the 11th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 3301 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica 90405
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1699147113818899
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 11th
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 11th
Time: 9 pm – 12 am
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA
Website: https://dipiazzas.com/tickets-%26-events
Fall 2022 Writer’s Reading Series Presents: liz gonzalez at Long Beach City College, LAC Campus – In-Person Event
The Fall 2022 Writer’s Reading Series at Long Beach City College, LAC Campus presents poet and writer liz gonzalez who will read and discuss her work.
Writer liz gonzalez is the author of Dancing the Santa Ana Winds: Poems y Cuentos New and Selected, Beneath Bone, and The Original OLG: The First Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Bernardino, forthcoming from Los Nietos Press. Her work has been published widely in magazines, journals, and anthologies, such as Poets & Writers Magazine, The International Literary Quarterly, and What They Leave Behind.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, directions, and details.
Where: Long Beach City College, LAC Campus, Room P104
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 3 pm
Address: LAC Campus, E. Carson St., Long Beach, CA 90808
Website: https://www.facebook.com/liz.gonzalez.9235
Good Trouble Reading Group & Braiding Sweetgrass at Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Good Trouble Reading Group will discuss this month’s selection, Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. We will all read and discuss the Preface and first chapter, “Skywoman Falling.” In addition to that, attendees are encouraged to choose any two other chapters in the book to read and share with the group (they are all fairly short and work as stand-alone pieces). Feel free to read the entire book if you want, but it’s not required for this session.
The Good Trouble Reading Group shares books that engage themes of social justice with love and family at their core. Dr. Andrea Liss, an Echo Park resident, is Professor Emerita of Visual Culture and Cultural Theory at California State University San Marcos. Her teaching and research focus on feminist visual culture and writing, visual art, and photography related to historical events and representations of social justice, particularly through the work of African American women.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/good-trouble-reading-group-braiding-sweetgrass
2022 Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Award Winner: Divya Victor Reads at Claremont Helen Renwick Library – In-Person Event
The 2022 Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Award winner, Divya Victor will read and discuss her work at the Claremont Helen Renwick Library, presented by Fourth Saturday Reading Series, in connection with Claremont Graduate University.
Divya Victor is the author of CURB (Nightboat Books, winner of PEN America Open Book Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award); KITH (Fence Books/ Book*hug); Scheingleichheit: Drei Essays (Merve Verlag); NATURAL SUBJECTS (Trembling Pillow), UNSUB (Insert Blanc), THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR MOUTH (Les Figues). Her work has been collected in numerous venues, including BOMB, the New Museum’s The Animated Reader, Crux: Journal of Conceptual Writing, The Best American Experimental Writing, POETRY, and boundary2. Her work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, and Czech. She has been a Mark Diamond Research Fellow at the U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum, a Riverrun Fellow at the Archive for New Poetry at University of California San Diego, and a Writer in Residence at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibit (L.A.C.E.). Her work has been performed and installed at Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) Los Angeles, The National Gallery of Singapore, the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition (L.A.C.E.) and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). She has been an editor at Jacket2 (United States), Ethos Books (Singapore), Invisible Publishing (Canada) and Book*hug Press (Canada). She is currently an Associate Professor of English at Michigan State University.
This event is FREE and open to the public.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Claremont Helen Renwick Library & Claremont Graduate University
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 208 Harvard Ave. N., Claremont, CA 91711
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/5128721700587341?ref=newsfeed
Kayla Maiuri, with Anna Hogeland, & Mother in the Dark at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Kayla Maiuri, in conversation with Anna Hogeland, will present and discuss her debut novel, Mother in the Dark.
Mother in the Dark is a novel about family secrets and a volatile relationship between a mother and her daughters. It asks whether we can ever return home when the idea of home is fraught with instability. This story about sisterhood, the complications of class, and the chains of inheritance between mothers and daughters delivers an unvarnished portrayal of the fragile horrors of domestic life and a young woman consumed by her past.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, & information.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/kayla-mairui-mother-in-the-dark
Chelsea Martin & Tell Me I’m an Artist at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Chelsea Martin will present and discuss her new novel, Tell Me I’m an Artist.
This novel examines the invisible divide created by class and privilege, ruminates on the shame that follows choosing a path that has not been laid out for you, and interrogates what makes someone an artist at all.
Chelsa Martin is a writer and artist living in Spokane, WA. She grew up in an impoverished town in Northern California, where making art and writing became forms of entertainment for her. In 2004 she was accepted at California College of the Arts in the Bay Area to study painting.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/chelsea-martin
“The Artists Way” Workshop: with Judith Martin-Straw at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Calling all fans of “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron! Starting on Wednesday, October 12, there will be a 10-week workshop led by Judith Martin-Straw at Village Well! Judith is a poet, journalist, and short story writer and has years of experience teaching the principles of this book to artists of all kind. Registration for the workshop is $325 and runs from October 12 to December 14.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, guidelines. and event details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Wednesday the 12th (through December 14th)
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 902 32
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/20313
Gary Phillips, Naomi Hirahara, Jeri Westerson, Jervey Tervalon & Nikolas Charles & South Central Noir at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
South Central Noir focuses the Akashic Noir Series; forensic study of Southern California on one of Los Angeles’s most recognized neighborhoods.
This anthology features 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.
Gary Phillips is a critically acclaimed author of mysteries and graphic novels. Raised in South Central Los Angeles, he grew up reading comics, classic pulp and detective fiction, and took inspiration from all this when he created his first series character, Ivan Monk, in the early 1990s. A private detective adept at navigating the racial tensions of modern L. A. and beyond, Monk has appeared in four novels and one short story collection, Monkology (2011).
Phillips introduced his second series character, Martha Chainey, in High Hand (2000), and followed that rollicking tale of a showgirl’s mafia troubles with another book and short story. Besides writing several stand-alones, like The Jook and The Underbelly, and editing anthologies such as Orange County Noir, and now South Central Noir, he has found success in the field of graphic novels, and illustrated stories such as The Rinse and High Rollers.
Naomi Hirahara was born in Pasadena, California to Japanese parents, both of whom were survivors of the Hiroshima bombing. Hirahara began working at the Rafu Shimpo newspaper in 1984 as writer about the city of Los Angeles. She’s publish non-fiction works: Green Makers: Japanese American Gardeners in Southern California, An American Son: The Story of George Aratani, Founder of Mikasa and Kenwood and Distinguished Asian American Business Leaders and crime fiction with the Max Arai series and Summer of the Big Bachi. She also wrote the Ellie Rush series, and wrote the novel Clark and Division, among others.
Jeri Westerson writes a variety of novels, from her Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mystery Series, to LGBTQ mysteries, to Paranormals.She makes many appearances, has a YouTube channel and a newletter.
Jervey Tervalon is the author of All the Trouble You Need, Understand This, and the Los Angeles Times bestseller Dead Above Ground. An award-winning poet, screenwriter, and dramatist, he was born in New Orleans, raised in Los Angeles, and now lives with his wife and two daughters in Altadena, California.
Nikolas Charles is co-author of the forthcoming book Say Their Names: How Black Lives Came to Matter in America and the Editor and Spokesman of the Save Journalism Project.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/south-central-noir-group-discussion
At Skylight: Christine Sneed & Love in the Time of Time’s Up at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Editor Christine Sneed will present and discuss her new collection of 16 pieces of short fiction, Love in the Time of Time’s Up, all of which offer a blend of humor and horror, victory and heartache, righteous anger, and rueful recrimination.With additional readings by contributors:
Collette Sartor is the author of the linked short story collection Once Removed, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the NYC Big Book Award for Short Story Collections, and the Juror’s Choice Award and the Short Stories Award from the National Indie Excellence Awards. Her work has appeared in Kenyon Review Online, Slice, Carve, The Rumpus, Harvard Review, Prairie Schooner, Colorado Review, and elsewhere. She has taught writing for 20 years, currently at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, as well as privately, and is the Executive Director of The CineStory Foundation, a nonprofit mentoring organization for emerging TV writers and screenwriters. She lives in Los Angeles.
Victoria Patterson’s latest story collection, The Secret Habit of Sorrow, was published in 2018. Her novel The Little Brother, was published in 2015. She is also the author of the novels The Peerless Four and This Vacant Paradise, a 2011 New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Her story collection, Drift, was a finalist for the California Book Award and the Story Prize and was selected as one of the best books of 2009 by the San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in South Pasadena, California with her family, and is an affiliate faculty member at Antioch University Los Angeles.
Dana Johnson is the author of the short story collection In the Not Quite Dark. She is also the author of Break Any Woman Down, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and the novel Elsewhere, California. Both books were nominees for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, Zyzzyva, The Paris Review, Callaloo, and in The Iowa Review, among others, and anthologized in numerous others. Recent work includes Trailblazer: Delilah Beasley’s California, a fictional account of the life of historian and newspaper columnist Delilah Beasley. Born and raised in and around Los Angeles, she is a professor of English at the University of Southern California.
Christine Sneed’s books are the novels Paris, He Said and Little-Known Facts, and the story collections Portraits of a Few of the People I’ Made Cry and The Virginity of Famous Men. Her fifth book, Please Be Advised: A Novel in Memos, is forthcoming from 7.13 Books. Her work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories, the New York Times, O Magazine, New England Review, The Southern Review, Ploughshares, New Stories from the Midwest, Glimmer Train, and many other periodicals. She has received the Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction, the Society of Midland Authors Award, among many honors. She teaches for the MFA programs at Northwestern University and Regis University, and lives in Pasadena.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 12th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-christine-sneed-presents-love-time-times
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 12th
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 12th
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-433621021147
Flight School Open Mic at Playground Hookah Lounge – In-Person Event
Flight School Open Mic is offered every Wednesday.
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 12th
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-362733013207?aff=erelpanelorg
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry & Karo Ska 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 Karo Ska.
The format is to welcome a featured poet for a reading, and an Open Mic reading. Tonight’s featured reader is Karo Ska.
Karo Ska (she/they) is a South Asian and Eastern European gender-fluid poet living on unceded Tongva land. Anti-capitalist & anti-authoritarian, they find joy where they can. Their writing focuses on identity, mental health, survivorship and the intersections of trauma and politics. They have been published in Sobotka Literary Journal, Cultural Daily, Altadena Poetry Review, Marías at Sampaguitas, Glass: A Journal of Poetry among others. Their first full-length collection, loving my salt-drenched bones was released in February 2022 through World Stage Press. For updates, follow them on instagram @karoo_skaa or check out their website karoska.com.
$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 12th
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/1538671263217933
Writer-in-Residence 2022: Juanita E. Manz (“JEM”) at Pasadena City College – In-Person Event
The two writer-in-Residence events for 2022 feature Juanita E. Mantz (“JEM”), a writer, a USC Law educated lawyer, performer and podcaster. Her YA memoir Tales of an Inland Empire Girl was published by Los Nietos Press in January 2022 and her hybrid chapbook Portrait of a Deputy Public Defender: or how I became a punk rock lawyer was released by Bamboo Dart Press in 2021. She was a recent Gold Medal winner for the Mariposa Award at the International Latino Book Awards 2022.
JEM has been published widely in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. She is an alum of the Macondo & VONA Writing Workshops and has presented at UCR Writers Week, Pasadena LitFest, the UCR Punk Conference, AWP and Beyond Baroque. She produced the ASA 2020 Freedom Course on Combatting Mass Incarceration.
JEM is in the low residency MFA program at UNO and works as a deputy public defender in Riverside County in mental health. On her Life of JEM live video podcast, she interviews writers. Find her on her author’s website at: https://juanitaemantz.com/.
Writing Workshop by JEM at PCC Circadian, 12pm – 1pm;
Public Reading and Q/A by JEM in Creveling Lounge, 1pm – 2pm.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Pasadena City College
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside Ca 92507
Website: https://libguides.pasadena.edu/writer-in-residence
Kids Book Club: The Civil War of Amos Abernathy at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
The Kids Book Club will discuss its monthly selection, The Civil War of Amos Abernathy, by Michael Leali.
Amos Abernathy lives for history. Literally. He’s been a historical reenactor nearly all his life. But when a cute new volunteer arrives at his Living History Park, Amos finds himself wondering if there’s something missing from history: someone like the two of them.
Told in an earnest, hilarious voice, this love letter to history, first crushes, and LGBTQ+ community will delight readers of Ashley Herring Blake, Alex Gino, or Maulik Pancholy.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside Ca 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/kids-book-club-civil-war-amos-abernathy
Book Talk: Liz Climo & I’m So Happy You’re Here at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Liz Climo will present and discus her children’s book, I’m So Happy You’re Here.
We all need a reminder that we’re loved and we matter, and international bestselling author Liz Climo delivers that message in her new book
Sometimes we just need a little pep talk to remind us that we’re doing our best. With help from her charming animal drawings, Liz Climo encourages us to embrace the joyful moments, get back up after falling down, and always love ourselves.
NOTE: See site for free tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-im-so-happy-youre-here-by-liz-climo-tickets-429440757867
Live on Crowdcast: Billy-Ray Belcourt & A Minor Chorus at Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Billy-Ray Belcourt presents his debut novel, A Minor Chorus, which brings the modern queer and indigenous experience into sharp relief.
The story takes place in the stark expanse of Northern Alberta, a queer Indigenous doctoral student steps away from his dissertation to write a novel, informed by a series of poignant encounters and intimate voices which the author weaves into a such needed look at the realities of indigenous survival.
Billy-Ray Belcourt is a writer from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He is an assistant professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia and the author of three books of poetry and nonfiction. He lives in Vancouver.
NOTE: See site for link & further information.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 1818 N, Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-billy-ray-belcourt-presents-minor-chorus
Vromans Live Presents Lee Geum-Yi, with Heather Morris, & The Picture Bride at Vroman’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Lee Geum-Yi, in conversation with Heather Morris, will present and discuss her new novel, The Picture Bride.
Of the three lies the matchmaker told Willow before she left home as a picture bride in 1918, the third hurt the most. Never one to be deterred, Willow does all that she can to make the best of her unexpected circumstance. But it isn’t long before her dreams for this new life are shattered, first by a husband who never wanted to marry her in the first place, and then by the escalation of the Korean independence movements, unified in goal, but divergent in action, which threaten to split the Hawaiian Korean community and divide Willow’s family and friends. Still, she forges ahead, working tirelessly for a better life.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 13th
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 13th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/eve nts%2Feventos
Book Talk: Ellen Pall & Must Read Well at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Ellen Pall will present and discus her new novel, Must Read Well.
This story is about an escalating game of cat-and-mouse between two women: a millennial scholar driven to deceit to reach her goals and a frail octogenarian no less capable of deception.
Ellen Pall is the author of a dozen novels, including Back East, Among the Ginzburgs and the mysteries Corpse de Ballet and Slightly Abridged. As a freelance journalist, she has written most often for the New York Times Magazine and the Times Arts and Leisure section.
NOTE: See site for free tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/ellen-pall
Trenches Full of Poets Reading Series: 3 SoCal Poets at Page Against the Machine Bookstore – In-Person Event
Trenches Full of Poets is a diverse and hard-hitting monthly in-store reading series, hosted by L.A.-based poets and writers Nikolai Garcia and Mauricio Andres Moreno, with the goal of supporting published SoCal authors and the local independent bookstores that carry their works.
Iris De Anda is a Guanaca Tapatia poet, speaker, and musician who has been named one of Today’s Revolutionary Women of Color. She is the author of Codeswitch: Fires from Mi Corazon, and Roots of Redemption: You Have No Right to Remain Silent.
Disabled, queer, bilingual immigrant poet Kelsey Bryan-Zwick will be reading from their debut book, Here Go the Knives, a beautiful, illustrated poetry collection that blends memoir with magical realism.
And rounding out the trio is Jonathan Santa Maria, a Whittier-born professional cage fighter turned “new Gothic poet of the 21st century.” He is the author of When the Light Does Not Shine, a Halloween-appropriate illustrated book of ghostly tales.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Page Against the Machine
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2714 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Meghan Quinn In-Person Book Launch: & Runaway Groomsman at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice will host an in-person book launch of Meghan Quinn’s new book, Runaway Groomsman. She will chat about her new novel, Runaway Groomsman, with TikToker, Podcaster, and founder of Camber, Mady Maio.
There will be a book signing to follow. This event is free to attend and tickets are not required, however, we do appreciate RSVPs when possible!
For all events and browsing, we do ask you wear a mask.
The story is about Hollywood screenwriter Sawyer Walsh, who knows a good love story when he sees it. But when it comes to real-life romance, he’s a mess. After finding himself at the altar – of his best friend’s wedding – to his ex-girlfriend, he makes a run for it. Sawyer lands in the charming town of Canoodle, California. He crosses paths with Fallon Long, who runs the Canoodle Cove Cabins, Sawyer’s new short-term residence. Could Canoodle be the setting for a new romance—or is true love just a Hollywood cliché?
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Main St. at Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Joe Meno & A Book of Extraordinary Tragedies at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Joe Meon presents his new novel, A Book of Extraordinary Tragedies, in conversation with Jerry Stahl, Margaret Wappler, and Manny Nieto.
This story is about the impossibility of fate and family. Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies, once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family growing up on their block on the far southside of Chicago, the pair were inseparable until each was forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy at an early age and abandon their musical ambitions.
Now in their twenties, they find themselves encountering ridiculous jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and the outrageousness of ordinary life. Doomed by fate, a family history of failure, an odd mother, an absent father, and a younger brother with a peculiar fondness for catastrophes, the two siblings have all but given up.
But when an illness forces Isobel and her three-year-old daughter to move back into the family home, Aleks becomes deeply involved in the endless challenges that surround his relatives. Once Isobel begins playing cello again, Aleks comes to see a world of possibility and wonder in the lives of his extraordinarily complicated family.
NOTE: See site for link & further information.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N, Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Book Launch: Amina Cain, with Kate Durbin, & A Horse at Night at Stories Books & Coffee – In–Person Event
Amina Cain, in conversation with Kate Durbin, will present her first nonfiction book, A Horse at Night, which is a series of essayistic inquiries come together to form a sustained meditation on writers and their works, on the spaces of reading and writing fiction, and how these spaces take shape inside a life. Driven by primary questions of authenticity and freedom in the shadow of ecological and social collapse, Cain moves associatively through a personal canon of authors—including Marguerite Duras, Elena Ferrante, Renee Gladman, and Virginia Woolf—and topics as timely and various as female friendships, zazen meditation, neighborhood coyotes, landscape painting, book titles, and the politics of excess.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026, CA 90266
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Red Hen Press Poetry Reading: Kim Dower, Brendan Constantine & Ron Koertge at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Kim Dower, Brendan Constantine & Ron Koertge will read from their latest works.
Kim Dower will read from her anthology, I Wore This Dress for You, Mom, which is culled from her four collections, as well as new work. These poems do not glorify mothers, but look at the love, despair, joy, humor and gratitude of our lives.
Brendan Constantine will read from Dementia, My Darling, his thesis on life as we remember it, from moment to moment.
Ron Koertge will read from I Dreamed zi Was Emily Dickenson’s Boyfriend. This book solidifies his reputation as a poet who is very funny and very serious. In these surprising poems, a mannequin joins the Me Too movement, a summer job turns into a lesson in class distinctions, and Jane Austen makes a surprise appearance at a mall.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and event details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 13th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/20565
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 13th
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 13th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/spectacular-story-time-9
Thomas Olde Heuvelt, with Philip Fracassi, & ECHO Book Release at The Last Bookstore – In-Person Event
Thomas Olde Heuvelt, in conversation with Philip Fracassi for The Dark Word, will discuss his new book, ECHO.
From the author of HEX eBook comes a creep, obsessive tale of horror told in alternate voices It follows the aftermath of a terrible accident endured by two mountain climbers, and the primal menace that might have been unleashed on the ill-fated expedition.
There will be a book signing, live audience, and Q&A.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Friday the 14th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Ground Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: https://twitter.com/lastbookstorela/status/1578103692431355904/photo/1
HECHIZERA: Sus Sultry Spells Book Release Party by Dioxa X at Tonalli Studios – In-Person Event
Join in the festivities! There will be poetry and celebration for the release of HECHIZERA: Sus Sultry Spells, by Diosa X.
Special Features: Masiel M. Corona, Brenda Vaca, Teresa Hernandez, Alicia Diaz, and Carlos Hernandez, followed by a book reading and signing by Diosa X.
Masiel M. Corona is a poet, writer, and the host of the L.A. Poet Society’s Lunario Poetico Open Mic series.
Brenda Vaca is a poet and writer, and the author of the debut collection, Riot of Roses, and creator of Riot of Roses Press. Her debut children’s book is forthcoming.
Teresa Hernandez is a writer, graphic artist, golfer and yogi, best known for Lovesickness (2007), and author of YA novels.
Alicia Diaz is a multi-media journalist and writer.
Carlos Hernandez is an Americna writer of sci-fi and fantasy fiction,, best known for his YA novels about Sal and Gabi.
HECHICERA: Sus Sultry Spells, by Diosa Xochiquetzalcoatl, is her second collection, following her debut, A Church of My Own.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Tonalli Studios
Date: Friday the 14th
Time: 6 pm – 9 pm
Address: 4539 E. Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90022
Website: https://www.facebook.com/diosa.xochiquetzalcoatl/videos/532462915356130
Brandon Kyle Goodman & You Gotta Be You at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Brandon Kyle Goodman will present his book, You Gotta Be You: How to Embrace This Messy Life and Step into Who You Really Are.
Compassionate, funny, and revealing, You Gotta Be You is an unapologetic call to self-freedom. It’s about turning rejection (from others and yourself) into a roadmap to self-love. It’s a guide to setting boundaries and fostering self-growth. And most importantly, it’s an affirmation that we are enough exactly as we are.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 14th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/brandon-kyle-goodman
At Skylight: Jonathan Escoffery, with Laura Warrell, & If I Survive You at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Jonathan Escoffery, in conversation with Laura Warrell, will present and discuss his debut, If I Survive You.
This book of linked stories follows a Jamaican family striving for more in Miami, and it introduces a generational storyteller.
In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But America, as the couple and their two children learn, is far from the promised land. Excluded from society as Black immigrants, the family pushes on through Hurricane Andrew and later the 2008 recession, living in a house so cursed that the pet fish launches itself out of its own tank rather than stay. But even as things fall apart, the family remains motivated, often to its own detriment, by what their younger son, Trelawny, calls “the exquisite, racking compulsion to survive.”
Jonathan Escoffery is the recipient of the 2020 Plimpton Prize for Fiction, a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, and the 2020 ASME Award for Fiction. His fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, American Short Fiction, Prairie Schooner, AGNI, Passages North, Zyzzyva, and Electric Literature, and has been anthologized in The Best American Magazine Writing. He received his MFA from the University of Minnesota, is a PhD fellow in the University of Southern California’s PhD in Creative Writing and Literature Program, and in 2021 was awarded a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in the Creative Writing Program at Stanford University. If I Survive You is his debut book.
Laura Warrell is a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has attended residencies at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Writer’s Workshop, and she has taught Creative Writing and Literature through the Emerging Voices program at PEN America Los Angeles, at Writing Workshops Los Angeles, and at academic institutions in Los Angeles and Boston. She currently writes and teaches in Los Angeles. Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is her first novel.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Friday the 14th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Christopher Rivas & Brown Enough: True Stories About Love, Violence, The Student Loan Crisis, Hollywood, Race, Familia, and Making It in America at Vroman’s – In Person Event
Christopher Rivas will present and discuss his book, Brown Enough: True Stories About Love, Violence, The Student Loan Crisis, Hollywood, Race, Familia, and Making It in America
Brown Enough, part memoir and part social commentary, emerges, asking readers to proudly put their bodies, their identities, into the conversations of race. Brown Enough is a roller coaster of finding one’s true self while simultaneously having a racial awakening amidst the struggle to be “perfectly” Latinx, woke, and as Brown as possible to make it in today’s America.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday the 14th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/christopher-rivas-discusses-brown-enough
44 Class: Humor in Poetry, Part 1, with Valerie Nies at Sims Library of Poetry – Online Event
This writing workshop by Valerie Nies will look at how poets use humor and then employ their techniques in poems.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, link, and event details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 10 am
Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/humor-in-poetry-part-1-tickets-426535287527
Special Storytime: Noor Sofi & Brown Is Beautiful at Vroman’s – In Person Kids Event
Illustrator Noor Sofi will present and discuss her children’s book, Brown Is Beautiful.
On a hike with her grandparents, a young Indian American girl makes note of all the things in nature that are brown, too. From viewing a nurturing mother bear, to the steadiness of deep twisting roots, to the beauty of a wild mustang, brown is everywhere! On her way, the girl collects the beautiful brown things she encounters as mementos for a scrapbook to share with a very special new addition to her family—a baby brother!
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/illustrator-noor-sofi-presents-brown-is-beautiful
LGBTQ Book Club & Disoriental at Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL will host a LGBTQ Book Club discussion of the book, Disoriental, by Negar Djavadi.
Winner of the 2019 Albertine Prize and Lambda Literary Award Kimiâ Sadr fled Iran at the age of ten in the company of her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Now twenty-five and facing the future she has built for herself, as well as the prospect of a new generation, Kimiâ is inundated by her own memories and the stories of her ancestors, which come to her in unstoppable, uncontainable waves.
To receive the Zoom link, email silver@lapl.org
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 12 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/lgbtq-book-club
HECHIZERA: Sus Sultry Spells Poetry Collection Celebration by Dioxa X at My Place Cafe – In-Person Event
Join in the festivities for the release of HECHIZERA: Sus Sultry Spells, by Diosa X.
Guest performances by Brenda Vaca, Soul Stuf, Karo Ska, and Soul on Fire, followed by a book reading and signing by Diosa X.
Brenda Vaca is a poet and writer, and the author of the debut collection, Riot of Roses, and creator of Riot of Roses Press. Her debut children’s book is forthcoming.
Soul Stuf, aka Christian Perfas, is a second generation Filipino-American spoken word poet who speaks on the Song, Truth Universal, and Flow of his own wandering spirit. Christian is developing his first published poetry collection with World Stage Press and booking performance and workshop engagements for 2022.
Karo Ska is a South Asian & Eastern European non-binary femme poet, living on unceded Tongva Land. They migrated here in 1996 from Warsaw, Poland. Their writing focuses on identity, mental health, survivorship and the intersections of trauma and politics. Ska is the author of loving my salt-drenched bones.
Soul on Fire N/A
HECHICERA: Sus Sultry Spells, by Diosa Xochiquetzalcoatl, is her second collection, following her debut, A Church of My Own.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: My Place Cafe
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 1 pm – 3 pm
Address: 2057 N. Los Robles Ave., #10, Pasadena, CA 91104
Website: https://www.facebook.com/myplacecafeshop/videos/3362491830707183
Book Talk with Mayly Tao & All American Dream, with Sprinkles at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL will host a Book Talk with author Mayly Tao, who will discuss her book, American Dream, with Sprinkles: The Legacy Story of the Donut Queen and the Donut Princess.
This book is about her mother’s daunting journey from Cambodia and the inspiring evolution of their doughnut business.
Mayly has been featured in the documentary The Donut King and in Phung Huynh’s recent art exhibition, Donut W(h)ole, at Self Help Graphics & Art.
Teens will have a chance to win a free copy of the book. Light refreshments provided. Masks are required.
Register for this event at Eventbrite or by calling the branch.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 5021 Caspar Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90041
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/author-event-teens-mayly-tao
Book Talk with Artist and Author Mina Ferrante at Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL will host a discussion with award-winning artist and author Mina Ferrante, who will tell her story of growing up in Vietnam, talk about her culture, the culture shock of coming to America, and explain how art has impacted her life.
Register for this event by calling the branch.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 10640 Petit Ave., Granada Hills, CA 91344
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mina-ferrante
10th Birthday Storytime Celebration with Isabel Quintero, Monica Mancillas & Evan Turk at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
There will be a 10th Birthday storytime celebration with some favorite authors, who will read and discuss their picture books.
Isabel Quintero will present her children’s book, My Papi Has a Motorcycle.
Monica Mancillas will present her children’s book, Mariana and Her Familia,
Evan Turk will present his children’s book, Hello, Moon.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside Ca 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/tenthbirthdaystorytime
Expressions Poetry Reading & Open Mic at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Studio City Branch Library will host the Expressions Poetry Reading & Open Mic, featuring guest poetry readers and participants in an Open Mic.
Please email studio@lapl.org for instructions on how to join the program.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/expressions-la-poetry-reading-series-and-open-mic
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Readings by Jojo Compton, Katrinka Moore, Cati Porter & Molly Silver + Open Reading hosted by COCO – Online Event via Zoom
Saturday Afternoon Poetry presents an Online event only this week, to present readings by Jojo Compton, Katrinka Moore, Cati Porter & Molly Silver, plus an Open Reading hosted by COCO.
Jojo Compton is the author of the collection stranger in the attic of clouds.
Katrinka Moore is the author of Diminuendo.
Cati Porter isa poet, essayist, editor, and arts administrator based in the Inland Empire She is the author of the collection My Body at a Loss, which addresses parenting and cancer and family. Her collection My Skies of Small Horses is more playful but also decidedly and darkly domestic. Her new chapbook of poems is Novel.
Molly Silver N/A
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
At Skylight: Gail Lerner & The Big Dreams of Small Creatures at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Gail Lerner will present and discuss her book. The Big Dreams of Small Creatures.
Ten-year-old Eden’s quiet life is upended when she saves a paper wasp nest from destruction and discovers, to her awe and amazement, that she and its haughty queen can talk to each other. This first conversation is the start of a grand adventure, leading Eden to The Institute for Lower Learning, a secret laboratory devoted to the peaceful coexistence of humans and insects. The Institute is more fantastic and idyllic than Eden could’ve imagined but hidden deep within its tunnels is an old secret that could spell the end for all insects on earth.
Nine-year-old August, an aspiring actor and bullied fourth-grader, is looking for that very secret after a few disastrous encounters have left him wanting to squash every annoying bug into oblivion. After all insects are small—he is big. And if there is anything he’s learned from the bullies at school—it’s that being bigger is what counts.
But in the world of the Institute where insects have a place of their own, both Eden and August discover being bigger isn’t necessarily better and sometimes the most courageous thing to do is to set out to make a new friend.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 8th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-gail-lerner-presents-big-dreams-small-creatures
Stephanie Kate Strohm In-Person Book Launch & Twelfth Grade Night at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice will host an in-person book launch of Stephanie Kate Strohm’s new book, Twelfth Grad Night. She will chat about YA romance and Shakespeare adaptations with Robin Schneider.
There will be a book signing to follow this free event,
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Main St. at Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
21st Anniversary Celebration at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore – In-Person Event
Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore celebrates its 21st Anniversary with music, vendors, and book sales.
Check site for details.
Face masks required.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 4 pm – 8 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://www.facebook.com/TiaChuchasCentroCultural/
Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Club: A Master of Djinn at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Sci-Fi & Fantasy book Club will discuss this month’s selection, A Master of Djinn, by P. Djeli Clark.
Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.
So, when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside Ca 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/sci-fi-fantasy-book-club-master-djinn
At Skylight: WHAT BOOKS Fall Launch Event at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
WHAT BOOKS will present a special launch event for their fall publications:
Only So Much by Jan Wesley (What Books Press)
Jan Wesley is the author of Living in Freefall, a book of poems, and has two published chapbooks. Only So Much, from What Books, is her second full-length poetry book. Poems have appeared in Askew, Blue Mountain Review, The Iowa Review, Rattle, Spillway, Beyond Words, and anthologies, among others, and she received a Pushcart nomination. She worked in post- production in the film business for many years, and after receiving an MFA at Vermont College she taught writing at The University of Redlands and The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandizing. Currently, she facilitates writing workshops in Los Angeles.
Skeletal Lights from Afar by Forrest Roth (What Books Press)
Forrest Roth holds a Creative Writing Ph.D. from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and is a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Marshall University in West Virginia. In addition to his forthcoming collection Skeletal Lights from Afar, he is the author of a novel, Gary Oldman Is A Building You Must Walk Through (2017), also from What Books Press. His fiction has appeared in NOON, Denver Quarterly, Juked, Columbia Journal, Trnsfr, and other journals.
us clumsy gods by Ash Good (What Books Press)
Ash Good is a queer/nonbinary poet, designer & activist in Portland, Ore. They are cofounding editor at the 501c3 nonprofit First Matter Press & a reader for Frontier Poetry. Their poetry collections include us clumsy gods (What Books Press, 2022) and These things will never happen quite like that again (LettersAt3AM Press, 2017) in addition to the chapbook we are not ready for what we are (First Matter Press, 2019). Poems appear in Faultline Journal of Arts & Letters, Chautauqua, deLuge Literary & Arts Journal, Bird Coat Quarterly, Gulf Stream Magazine, Voicemail Poems, Willawaw Journal, The Timberline Review, Cathexis Northwest Press & others. http://www.ashgood.com
No One Dies in Palmyra Ohio by Henry Elizabeth Christopher (What Books Press)
Henry Elizabeth Christopher is a trans writer from Akron, Ohio. His writing has been published in journals such as The Threepenny Review, Little Patuxent Review, Gordon Square Review, Delay Fiction, HASH, Gigantic Sequins, LandLocked, and Eastern Iowa Review, and has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. He’s currently working toward his Master of Fine Arts in prose at the University of Washington in Seattle.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-what-books-fall-launch-event
Poetry Reading with Cheryl Klein, Kim Young & Sarah Eggers at The Pop-Hop – In-Person Event
The Pop Hop hosts a poetry reading event with three guest artists:
Cheryl Klein is the author of Crybaby (2022 from Brown Paper Press), a memoir about wanting a baby and getting cancer instead. She also wrote a story collection, The Commuters (City Works Press) and a novel, Lilac Mines (Manic D Press).
Kim Young is the author of the collection Tigers, which is a series of mutigenerational landscapes of the feminine–female adolescence, womanhood, motherhood, and personal revelation. Where the traditional coming of age story moves from “innocence to experience,” Tigers moves, through the excavation of trauma, addiction, recovery, adolescence, parenthood, and punk rock, to what it really takes to be mature,
Sarah Eggers is a multi-disciplinary artist and the author of Words & Pictures, bringing writing and art together. She is also a therapist who taught literature and creative writing.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Pop Hop
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 8002 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
Website: http://www.thepophop.com/calendar?view=calendar&month=10-2022
5th Anniversary Fiesta con Familia and Friends at Café con Libros Press – In-Person Event
The 5th Anniversary Fiesta celebrating Café con Libros Press will be held to share the gratitude for the support fro this special endeavor, supporting literacy, art, and culture in the community.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Café con Libros
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 6 pm- 9 pm
Address: 280 2nd St., Pomona, Ca 91766
Poets of the Valley Open Mic, by CLI: Readings at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
The Poets of the Valley Open Mic by Community Literature initiative (CLI) features:
soledad con carne (he/they) is a first-generation Chicanx poet, student, and mixed-media artist. Based in stolen Tongva and Tataviam land and the heart of The Valley, soledad is known as the poet laureate of the San Fernando Valley.
Mr. Chai Tea is a drink of poetry and comedy, undefined by his ongoing quench for living life to the fullest as a nerd and an adventurer born and raised in Los Angeles. As an autistic Asian-American with a background in Mechanical Engineering from Cal State, Northridge, he speaks with his unique slanguage of Chai-nese sharing stories across various mics. He enjoys activities such as but not limited to hiking, rock climbing, archery, 3D printing, video gaming, collecting board games, and spreading knowledge. You can find him at local boba shops and on Instagram: @mr.chai_tea
Juan Cardenas is a flutist, musician, L.A. Poet Society co-leader, and author of the collection, The Beat of an Immigrant Chicano.
Oombi Solis Flores is a queer/non-binary immigrant, poet, and social worker. They were born in Zacatecas, México and reside in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. Their work has previously been featured in Razorcake Issue #102, Sister Spit: QTPOC Cruising the West Tour, Altadena Literary Review 2020, and in the upcoming short film, Shadows at Night. Their first collection of poetry, (BE)LONGING, is out now on World Stage Press.
Estephanie Seis is a first generation Mexican American disabled Queer. Renaissance woman of the 21st century.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, Ca 90043
Website: https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/event-details/pages-on-stages-poets-of-the-valley-1
L.A. Book Launch: SongAgain, by Peter J. Harris & Guests at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person & YouTube Hybrid Event
Beyond Baroque presents a book launch by Peter J. Harris for his new book, SongAgain, with guest readers S. Pearl Sharp and Gloria Alvarez, and music by Nailah Porer & Curtis Robinson, Jr.
Edited by poet Cecilia Woloch, SongAgain is an insistent quest to tap a rigorous and subsonic sensibility, a creative ecology, that radiates as Dark Energy, infused at an elemental essence with R&B, the bluesiness improvisation, and the embellished story-talking of the grown working-class, men and women who made an impact in his life.
SongAgain marks the relaunch of Beyond Baroque Books with this fresh collection of poetry by Peter H. Harris, featuring cover art by artist Robin Strayhorn.
Peter J. Harris is a Los Angeles-based poet and winner of the City of LA’s 2017–’18 COLA Fellowship, and the author of Bless the Ashes (Tia Chucha Press), winner of the 2015 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award; and The Black Man of Happiness: In Pursuit of My “Unalienable Right,” a book of personal essays which won the 2015 American Book Award, and his most recent poetry collection SongAgain (Beyond Baroque Books). His work has appeared since the 1970s in a wide variety of publications, including Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, edited by Suzanne Lummis; Altadena Poetry Anthologies for 2018 and 2019; and Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes & Shifts in Los Angeles, edited by Neelanjana Banerjee, Daniel A. Olivas, and Ruben J. Rodriguez. Since 1992, Harris has been a member of the Anansi Writers Workshop at the World Stage in LA’s Leimert Park.
S. Pearl Sharp illuminates and instigates in the mediums of poetry, essay, short story, non-fiction, broadsides, theatre and documentary film, including Life Is A Saxophone on poet Kamau Daáood. She loves collaborating with jazz and dance artists and was named a 2021-2022 Cultural Trailblazer by the City of Los Angeles. She’s proud to be a Peter J. fan for almost fifty years.
Gloria Enedina Alvarez embodies elegance and grace. her work examines life in all its turbulence and glory: chicana poet, intermedia artist, playwright, librettist, translator, and curator, co-founder of many artists organizations, mentor to generations of artists, teaches creative writing, has won numerous awards, her poetry, librettos, and plays have been published and performed in us, latin america, and europe. publications include emerging en un mar de olanes, la excusa/the excuse, poetry collections in english and spanish, and spoken word albums, centerground, between epiphanies, along with anthologies and periodicals.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday the 15th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-book-launch-songagain-by-peter-j-harris-tickets-432186660937
Focus on Craft Book Club: & The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, by Sangu Mandanna at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
Ripped Bodice will host Focus on Craft Book Club and its discussion of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, by Sangu Mandanna.
This book is a warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family, and a new love, changes the course of her life.
Developmental editor and teacher Jeanne Devita leads this book club that focuses on examining popular romance novels from a writer’s viewpoint. But everyone is welcome, you don’t have to be a writer!
Meets at the store on the 3rd Sunday of the month at 1pm.
No membership necessary, feel free to show up!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 16th
Time: 12 pm
Address: Main St. at Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
HECHIZERA: Sus Sultry Spells Book Tour Party by Dioxa X at The Goddess Mercado Boutique – In-Person Event
Join in the festivities! There will be wine, hor d’oeuvres, sexy poetry and live guitar. Guest performances by Iris De Anda, Xolayruca, Sammy Quetzalli, and flamenco guitarist David Holguitano, followed by a book reading and signing by Diosa X.
Iris De Anda 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. She is the author of Codeswitch: Fires from Mi Corazon and Roots of Redemption: You have No Right to Remain Silent.
Xolayruca N//A
Sammy Quetzalli is a local writer, open mic host, poet, and activist.
HECHICERA: Sus Sultry Spells, by Diosa Xochiquetzalcoatl, is her second collection, following her debut, A Church of My Own.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: The Goddess Mercado Boutique
Date: Sunday the 16th
Time: 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: 5384 Huntington Drive, South, Los Angeles, CA 90032
Bucket List Book Club Book Club: All the King’s Men at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Bucket List Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, All the Kings’ Men, by Robert Penn Warren.
This classic novel is the only American political novel to give readers an in-depth examination of characters, through the story of a backcountry lawyer whose idealism is overcome by his lust for power.
Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989) won three Pulitzer Prizes, the National Book Award, the National Medal for Literature, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1986 he was named the country’s first poet laureate.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 16th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside Ca 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/bucket-list-book-club-all-kings-men
Thomas Mann’s Los Angeles: Stories From Exile 1940-1952 at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Thomas Mann’s Los Angeles: Stories from Exile 1940–1952 explores Mann’s relationships to the city and the network he found there: writers including Bertolt Brecht, Christopher Isherwood, Aldous Huxley, and a young Susan Sontag; Hollywood luminaries like Jack Warner, Carl Laemmle, Max Reinhardt, and Ernst Lubitsch; and musicians such as Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. In addition to the cultural and political life of the city, Thomas Mann’s Los Angeles explores how the formidable Mann adapted to life as an Angeleno, enjoying the city’s many beaches, dining out at the Brown Derby, visiting the Hollywood Bowl, and taking walks through the neighborhood with his poodle, Niko. Short essays on each topic, written by forty-three experts on the subject, provide fascinating insight into Mann’s life in exile.
About the panelists:
Benno Herz is Program Director at the Thomas Mann House, Los Angeles, a residency center and space for transatlantic debate in the former exile home of Nobel-laureate Thomas Mann. Prior to this, Herz studied theater, film, and media at Goethe University Frankfurt, where he completed his M.A. with a focus on digital aesthetics and interface theory. Since 2009, he has been creatively engaged in several music and film projects as a writer and instrumentalist. He is lead singer of the band Okta Logue, which has played with Neil Young & Crazy Horse and Portugal, The Man, and has performed at international festivals such as SXSW. In 2021 and 2022, Herz taught a digital humanities class on European exile at University of California, Los Angeles.
Claudia Suhr Gordon studied Egyptology, Sociology and Coptic Studies at the University of Göttingen, Germany where she earned her Ph.D. with a dissertation on Ancient Egyptian first-person narratives. She has worked as an archaeologist in Luxor, Egypt and currently serves as Director of Villa Aurora, an artist residency in the former exile home of writer Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta. In 2016, Villa Aurora was entrusted with the administration of the Thomas Mann House, where Claudia also serves as Head of Administration.
Thomas Aujero Small is the CEO of Culver City Forward, a non-profit public-private partnership that brings business, government, and the community together to inspire and pursue innovative urban solutions to the most crucial issues in our region. He was the 2018 Mayor of Culver City and served on the City Council from 2016 to 2020. Culver City Forward Motion, part of his 2018 State of the City presentation, sets forth a vision for the future of Culver City. As Mayor, he co-hosted the 2018 Conference of the International Society for Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty with the RAND Corporation and has collaborated with RAND on several research and policy projects. A long-time writer and consultant in architecture and urban planning, he serves on the Mobility Committee of the Urban Land Institute Los Angeles and chairs the LA METRO Sustainability Council.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the16th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/20311
Poetry and Music Jam at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
Bring your poetry, bring your music, let’s jam!
RSVP
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Sunday the 16th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/event-details/poetry-music-jam-1
The Last Estate: James Nulick, Grant Wamack, Adam Johnson, Linda Ravenswood & Gabriel Hart at Stories Books & Cafe – In-Person Event
The Last Estate presents a night of reading from five writers and authors:
James Nulick, is the author of Lazy Eyes.
Grant Wamac, author of Black Gypsies, is also the author of God’s Leftovers, and A Lightbulb’s Lament, plus more than 40 published short stories.
Adam Johnson, author of Cialis, Verdi, Gin, Jag, is also the author of The Orphan Master’s Son, winner of the Pultizer Prize.
Linda Ravenswood, author of The Stan Poems, is also an artist and vocalist, and the author of Hymnal.
Gabriel Hart, is the author of Fallout From Our Asphalt Hell, the poetry collection Unsongs Vol. 1 (2021), and the dipso-pocalyptic twin novel Virgins in Reverse/The Intrusion (2019). He lives in Morongo Valley in California’s high desert and is a regular contributor at LitReactor and The Last Estate.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, Open Mic sign-ups, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Cafe
Date: Sunday the 16th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Los Angeles Literature 