Book Club Bonanza: Frightening Reads! & White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson via Central Library, LAPL – Online Teen Event
The Book Club Bonanza Book Club for Teens will host read-alikes and an activity for this month’s selection, White Smoke, by Tiffany D. Jackson.
In this chilling psychological thriller, Marigold is running from ghosts. The phantoms of her old life keep haunting her, but a move with her newly blended family from their small California beach town to the embattled Midwestern city of Cedarville might be the fresh start she needs. Her mom has accepted a new job with the Sterling Foundation that comes with a free house, one that Mari now has to share with her bratty ten-year-old stepsister, Piper.
The renovated picture-perfect home on Maple Street, sitting between dilapidated houses, surrounded by wary neighbors has its…secrets. That’s only half the problem. Cedarville has secrets too.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-bonanza-frightening-reads
Philosophical Horror Book Club: Ghost Eaters at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Philosophical Horror Book Club will discuss its monthly selection, Ghost Eaters, by Clay Chapman.
Erin hasn’t been able to set a single boundary with her charismatic but reckless college ex-boyfriend, Silas. When he asks her to bail him out of rehab—again—she knows she needs to cut him off. But days after he gets out, Silas turns up dead of an overdose in their hometown of Richmond, Virginia, and Erin’s world falls apart.
Then a friend tells her about Ghost, a new drug that allows users to see the dead. Wanna get haunted? he asks.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside Ca 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/philosophical-horror-book-club-ghost-eaters
Nomi Prins & Permanent Distortion: How the Financial Markets Abandoned the Real Economy Forever at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Nomi Prins will present and discuss her new book, Permanent Distortion: How the Financial Markets Abandoned the Real Economy Forever.
This book exposes a world fractured by policies crafted by the largest financial institutions, led by the Federal Reserve, that have supercharged the financial system while selling out regular citizens and leading to social and political reckonings. She uncovers a newly polarized world of the mega rich versus the never rich, the winners and losers of an unprecedented distortion that can never return to “normal.”
This parting from reality has its roots in an emergency response to the financial crisis of 2008. “Quantitative Easing” injected a vast amount of cash into the economy–especially if you were a major Wall Street bank. What began as a short-term dependency became a habit, then a compulsion, and finally an addiction.
Dr. Nomi Prins is an international economist, investigative journalist, geopolitical financial expert, and outspoken advocate for economic reform. She has published seven books, with her most recent bestseller being Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World. She is a regular TV commentator and has appeared on the BBC, CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, MSNBC, CSPAN, Fox Business, and PBS. She was a global Wall Street executive for a decade-and-a-half. Nomi was once a managing director at Goldman Sachs. She ran the international analytics group as a senior managing director at Bear Stearns in London and worked as a senior strategist at Lehman Brothers and Chase Manhattan Bank.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/nomi-prins
In Conversation: Justin LeRoy, Kordae Jatafa Henry & Essence Harden at California African American Museum (CAAM) – In-Person Event
CAAM’s Art + Practice conversation series welcomes artists Justin LeRoy, Kordae Jatafa Henry & Essence Harden to discuss Lay Me Down in Praise, a Black environmentalist strategy, communication, and installation of Black performers with images of geological activity.
Justen LeRoy’s Lay Me Down in Praise is a Black environmentalist strategy. Exhibited as a three-channel film, the installation layers clips of Black performers with images of geological activity. Through this juxtaposition, the artist considers how resistance and regeneration inhabit the wordless screeches of the Earth and the history of Black sound. Join the creator and co-directors of the film, Justen LeRoy and Kordae Jatafa Henry, as they discuss the project with CAAM Visual Arts Curator Essence Harden at Art + Practice.
Essence Harden is a visual arts curator and program manager at the California African American Museum and an independent arts writer. Essence has curated exhibitions at California African American Museum (CAAM), Antenna Gallery (New Orleans), Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), Human Resources (Los Angeles), Oakland Museum of California, UTA Artist Space, El Segundo Museum of Art (ESMoA), Subliminal Projects, Eduardo Secci Contemporary, The Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) and Art + Practice amongst others.
Essence is a contributor to The Los Angeles Times Magazine: Image, SSENSE, Art21, Contemporary Art Review LA (CARLA), Artsy, LALA, Cultured Magazine, Performa Magazine, and SFAQ: International Arts and Culture and has written catalog entries for Prospect 5: Yesterday we said tomorrow; Brave New Worlds: Exploration of Space: Palm Springs Art Museum; and What Needs to Be Said: Hallie Ford Fellows Exhibition
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: California African American Museum (CAAM)
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 600 State St., Exposition Park, Los Angeles, CA 90037
Ericka Huggins & Stephen Shames Launch Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party at Reparations Club Bookstore – In-Person & Virtual Event
Author Ericka Huggins and photographer Stephen Shames will discuss their new release, Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party.
Comrade Sisters is the first book to tell the story of the women of the Black Panther Party, with contributions by more than 50 women Party members, including Angela Davis, Fredrika Newton, and Barbara Easley-Cox.
Ericka Huggins is an activist, former political prisoner, and leader in the Black Panther Party.She spent 14 years in the Black Panther Party, and eight years as Director of the renowned Oakland Community School (1973-1981). She has devoted her life to the equitable treatment of all human beings, beyond the boundaries of race, age, culture, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and status associated with citizenship. For the past 40 years she has lectured across the country and internationally.
Stephen Shames was a 20-year-old photographer when hewasinvited to photograph the Black Panther organization and activities. He has authored over 10 monographs and his images are in the permanent collections of 40 museums and foundations. His work is dedicated to promoting social change and to sharing the stories of those who are frequently overlooked by society.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Reparations Club Bookstore
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 3054 S. Victoria Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016
Website: https://rep.club/products/event-comrade-sisters
Poetic Anarchy: Workshop with Matt Wallat Sims Library of Poetry – Online Event
Matt Wall will lead Poetic Anarchy: A Writing Workshop online through Sims Library of Poetry.
Trust your pen, find your voice, and feel good about breaking the rules.
For more info on this workshop, check out the video at the website.
Matt Wall has been a working writer / artist / musician / filmmaker since 2000. He has many books of fiction and poetry, both self-published and published by small presses. He is the editor of The Blood Rag poetry sheet and the Poetic Anarchy poetry anthologies. He is the former editor of Weird Mask, M Zine, The Time MaZine, Paperback Junky, and many other zine and websites. His work has appeared in The Blotter, Mad Swirl, World of Myth, Horrotica, American Heritage, among others
You can find out more about him on his website.
His poetry chapbooks and zines can be found at the website link and his paperbacks and ebooks can be found at a separate link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetic-anarchy-tickets-413005720227
Gary Goldstein & The Mother I Never Had at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Gary Goldstein will present and discuss his book, The Mother I Never Had.
The Mother I Never Had asks readers to consider what they would do if they found themselves faced with a parent they never knew existed-and if they could accept the secrets and lies that kept her away for a lifetime.
It’s tough enough for L.A. landscape designer Nate Cronin when his professor father, Jim, who raised him alone since birth, dies, leaving Nate an orphan at thirty years old. But when the provocative and mysterious Amy enters Nate’s life soon after, it sends him on a devastating journey to unravel the truth about his past, the veracity of Amy’s claims, and the history of the father he adored.
At the same time, Nate must come to terms with his commitment to his longtime girlfriend, Jennifer, a dance instructor whose patience with the resistant Nate frays as she attempts to help him navigate the psychological minefield set off by Amy’s arrival.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/gary-goldstein-discusses-the-mother-i-never-had
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 17th
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-439585651517
Under the Mic Influence & Open Mic featuring Yawo Watts – In-Person Event
Join host Kuahmel Alyeeus KuahAllah and DJ Kev Jam for poetry, Open Mic, rare grooves, cocktails, tasty bites.
Yawo Watts will be the featured artist!
Yawo Watts is a masterful spoken word artist, a true technician of rhymes and rhythm and his style embodies a signature full circle approach where every poem links the end to the beginning. Yawo is best described as a passionate, sensual soldier. Insightful and witty, he excels at capturing the pulse of inner-city life and love in his poetry. He is the Host of “Oralgasm” a long-running monthly erotic poetry showcase in Los Angeles.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, and details.
Where: LB Unified Bar & Lounge
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 2222 E. Anaheim, Long Beach, CA 90804
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/ or https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10230161851896592&set=a.1169144075089
How to Write a Mystery Novel: NaNoWriMo at Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and we are getting an early start with a program on how to write a mystery novel. Join mystery writer Anne Louise Bannon as she explains the elements and “mysteries” of mystery writing.
Ms. Bannon has self-published 13 novels, including mysteries and the Old Los Angeles series.
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 1:30 pm
Address: 861 Alma Real Dr., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/how-write-mystery-novel
Teen Book Club: A Darker Shade of Magic at Palms-Ranch Park Branch Library, LAPL – Online Teen Event
Do you love to read and talk about Young Adult Lit? Join the Palms Library Teen Book Club! It is open to teens ages 13-17 and meets over Zoom.
On October 18 there will be a discussion of this month’s selection, A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
Where: Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/teen-book-club-2
Book Launch: Pete Hsu & Guests, & If I Were the Ocean I’d Carry You Home at Bel Canto Bookstore – In-Person Event
Author Pete Hsu, with special guests, will present his book, If I Were the Ocean I’d Carry You Home.
Pete Hsu will be joined by authors Toni Ann Johnson, author of Light Skin Gone To Waste, and Jackson Bliss, author of Origami Dream Pop, as well as musical guests.
This book is full of warmth, terror, and underhanded humor. If I Were the Ocean, I’d Carry You Home, Pete Hsu’s debut story collection, captures the essence of surviving in a life set adrift. Children and young people navigate 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, Faultline, and The Los Angeles Review. He was a 2017 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow as well as the 2017 PEN in the Community Writer in Residence.
Toni Ann Johnson became a 2015 NAACP Image Award nominee for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author with her novel Remedy For A Broken Angel. An award-winning novella, Homegoing, was released in 2021 by Accents Publishing. On October 15, 2022, Johnson’s linked story collection Light Skin Gone To Waste will be published by UGA Press. Roxane Gay, who edited the collection, also selected the book as winner of the 2021 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction.
Jackson Bliss is the winner of the 2020 Noemi Book Award in Prose and the mixed-race/hapa author of Counterfactual Love Stories & Other Experiments (Noemi Press, 2021), the backwards novel, Amnesia of June Bugs (7.13 Books, 2022), the choose-your-own-adventure memoir Dream Pop Origami (Unsolicited Press, 2022), and the speculative hypertext, Dukkha, My Love (2017). He lives in LA with his wife and their two fashionably dressed dogs.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore at The Hangout
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 2122 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://shopthehangout.com/products/bcb-author-event-pete-hsu-special-guests-10-18-6pm
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 the 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 18th
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 18th
Time: 6 pm – 9 pm
Address: 8857 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-mic-mickys-tickets-383wan hoi07920617?aff=erelpanelorg
Chiwan Choi & my name is wolf at LibroMobile – In-Person Even
Join LibroMobile to hear a live reading of my name is wolf by poet, organizer, and publisher Chiwan Choi, followed by the poet himself in conversation with LMAC founder Sarah Rafael Garcia. They will discuss writing styles, the publishing world & creative collaborations.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: LibroMobile Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol St., Santa Ana, CA 92704,
Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/my-name-is-wolf-by-chiwan-choi
Celebrate Alice Oseman Day & Heartstopper Partyat Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Event
Celebrate the release of author Alice Oseman’s three new books in the U.S.: The Heartstopper Yearbook, The Official Heartstopper Coloring Book, and I Was Born for This.
We will also be celebrating Alice Oseman’s birthday (Oct. 16th)! There will be a costume contest, crafts, trivia, and more!
Best for fans ages 13 and up
Space is limited! RSVP is required. The $5 RSVP will include snacks, crafts, and a whole lot of fun!
NOTE: See site to order signed books from this SOLD-OUT event.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/heartstopper-party
At Skylight: Jenny Liou, with Vanessa Angelica Villarreal, & Muscle Memory at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Jenny Liou, in conversation with Vanessa Angelica Villarreal, will present and discuss her debut poetry collection, Muscle Memory.
In Muscle Memory, Washington-based poet Jenny Liou grapples with violence and identity, beginning with the chain-link enclosure of the prizefighter’s cage and radiating outward into the diasporic sweep of Chinese American history. Liou writes with spare, stunning lyricism about how cage fighting offered relief from the trauma inflicted by diaspora’s vanishing ghosts; how, in the cage, an elbow splits an eyebrow, or an armbar snaps a limb, and, even when you lose a fight, you’ve won something: pain. Liou places the physical manifestation of violence in her sport alongside the deeper traumas of immigration and her own complicated search for identity, exploring what she inherited from her Chinese immigrant father–who was also obsessed with poetry and martial arts. When she finally steps away from the cage to raise children of her own, she begins to question how violence and history pass from one generation to the next, and whether healing is possible without forgetting.
Jenny Liou is an English professor at Pierce College and a retired professional cage fighter. She lives and writes in Tacoma, Washington.
Vanessa Angélica Villarreal is the author of Beast Meridian (Noemi Press, Akrilica Series 2017), a 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. She is a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellow, and has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, The Boston Review, Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. She is working on a poetry and essay collection while raising her son in Los Angeles.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Maulik Pancholy & Nikhil Out Loud at Vroman’s – In-Person MG Event
Author Maulik Pancholy will present and discuss his Middle Grade book, Nikhil Out Loud.
From the acclaimed actor and Stonewall Honor-winning author of The Best at It, Maulik Pancholy, comes a new middle grade novel about a gay Indian American boy who learns the power of using his voice.
Thirteen-year-old Nikhil Shah is the beloved voice actor for Raj Reddy on the hit animated series Raj Reddy in Outer Space. But being a star on TV doesn’t mean you have everything figured out behind the scenes. When his mom temporarily moves them to the small town in Ohio where she grew up to take care of Nikhil’s sick grandfather, Nikhil feels as out of orbit as his character.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 188h
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Maulik-Pancholy-presents-Nikhil-Out-Loud
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Carla Sameth – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Carla Sameth.
Carla Sameth is the co-Poet Laureate for Altadena, CA for 2022-2024. Her award-winning memoir, One Day on the Gold Line, was published July 2019 by Black Rose. The book will be reissued in November 2022 by Golden Foothills Press. Her essay, “If This Is So, Why Am I” (which is included in her memoir) was listed as a notable in Best American Essays 2019. “Mother’s Day Triptych” was listed as a notable in Best American Essays 2020.
Her chapbook, What Is Left, was published December 2021 by dancing girl press.
Carla teaches creative writing with the Los Angeles Writing Project (LAWP) at California State University Los Angeles (CSULA) and with Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). She was selected to be a 2019-2022 “Pride Poet” participating in the City of West Hollywood’s One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival. Carla is a member of the Pasadena Rose Poets who present “poetry within reach and in unexpected places.” She is a mentor and has taught incarcerated youth through WriteGirl.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
Literary Death Match: Author Reading Series & Guests at the Hammer Museum – In–Person Event
“The most entertaining reading series ever” (Los Angeles Times), Literary Death Match brings together world-class authors to read their most electric writing for five minutes or less before a panel of all-star judges.
This edition features readings from authors Amelia Gray, Jean Chen Ho, and Prince Shakur, and includes judges Zach Anner, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Kristina Wong with emcee and LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga. After each reading, the judges take turns spouting hilarious commentary about each story, and then select their favorite to advance to the finals. The two finalists then compete for the Literary Death Match crown.
JUDGES:
Literary Merit
Viet Thanh Nguyen, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist of The Sympathizer, has also received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction from the American Library Association, the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction, a Gold Medal in First Fiction from the California Book Awards, and the Asian/Pacific American Literature Award from the Asian/Pacific American Librarian Association. HBO is currently developing a series based on The Sympathizer, directed by Park Chan-wook, for 2023.
Performance
A Pulitzer Prize finalist in drama, Kristina Wong is a performance artist, comedian, writer, and elected representative who has appeared across North America, the UK, Hong Kong, and Africa. She is the mind behind Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, and her recent Kristina Wong for Public Office is a real-life stint as the elected Sub-district 5 representative of Wilshire Center Koreatown Neighborhood Council and rally campaign show.
Intangibles
A standup comic, actor, and author of the best-selling memoir Save Yourself, Cameron Esposito has appeared on NBC, CBS, Comedy Central, TBS, IFC, E!, Cartoon Network, and in indie films at Sundance and SXSW, along with big-budget features. She is also host of the podcast Queery.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Hammer Museum
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 10988 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2022/literary-death-match
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 18th
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 18th
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 18th
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 & Lucy by the Sea at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Coffee Time Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Lucy by the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout
This is a poignant, pitch-perfect novel about a divorced couple stuck together during lockdown—and the love, loss, despair, and hope that animate us even as the world seems to be falling apart.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 10:30 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/coffee-time-book-club-10
Tween Book Club & Ghostly October Books at Panorama City Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Tween Book Club will discuss this month’s selections: Dying to Meet You (43 Old Cemetery Road #1) by Kate Klise and Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh.
Tween Book Club is a monthly book club just for kids ages 9-12 years. Share other books you have read and get new reading recommendations!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Panorama City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/tween-book-club-ghostly-october-books
Middle Grade Book Club & The Midnight Children at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Middle Grade Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, The Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart.
This is an extraordinary story about a family of runaways who take up residence in a small town, and the outcast boy who finds his voice and his people—perfect for fans of Katherine Applegate and Kate DiCamillo.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/middle-grade-book-club-10
Graphic Novel Bok Club & Dungeon Crawlers Academy at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
The Graphic Novel Book Club will discuss their selection. J. P. Sullivan’s Dungeon Crawlers Academy.
Club participation requires purchase of featured title from Once Upon A Time and registration during checkout.
Best for ages 9-12. Masks required. Limited space. No drop-ins.
This is a discussion-based club. Participants should come prepared to share their thoughts about that meeting’s book choice.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/graphic-novel-club-dungeon-crawlers-academy-jp-sullivan
Book Talk: Julia Boorstin & When Women Lead at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
CNN’s Julia Boorstin will present and discuss her book, When Women Lead.
This is a groundbreaking, deeply reported work from CNBC’s Julia Boorstin that reveals the key commonalities and characteristics that help top female leaders thrive as they innovate, grow businesses, and navigate crises—an essential resource for anyone in the workplace.
Boorstin brings together the stories of over sixty of those female CEOs and leaders, and dozens of new studies. Her combination of narrative and research reveals how once-underestimated characteristics, from vulnerability and gratitude to divergent thinking, can be vital superpowers—and that anyone can work these approaches to their advantage. Featuring new interviews with Katrina Lake, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jenn Hyman, Whitney Wolfe Herd, Lena Waithe, Shivani Siroya, Julia Collins, and more, When Women Lead is a radical blueprint for the future of business and our world at large.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-julia-boorstin-for-when-women-lead-tickets-433845663057
Bill Schwartz & Out of This World at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Bill Schwartz will present and discuss his book, Out of This World: Historic Milestones in NASA’s Human Space Flight.
This book is a veritable visual tour de force that captures all of the significant moments of NASA’s endeavors at the forefront of space exploration and research, reaching back to its beginnings in 1958 through to the exciting, cutting-edge images recently sent back to earth by the present-day James Webb Telescope. Throughout the book, the space agency’s unwavering devotion to furthering our understanding of what lies within the eternal reaches of space is evidenced by inspirational quotes and historical references, all complemented by stunning high-resolution NASA photos that defy mere words.
Bill Schwartz is a producer, writer and distributor of award-winning documentaries and entertainment IP, worldwide. His credits include such documentaries as Terror on The Titanic, Howard Hughes: The Real Aviator and Valkyrie: The Plot To Kill Hitler. One of Bill’s passion projects was his Journey to Mars documentary, which was the impetus for his new photo book. As a lifelong enthusiast of NASA and space exploration, his goal was to create a book with stunning and rare NASA images, complimented by both inspirational quotes from world-famous luminaries and words-of-wisdom from close friends. Bill’s goal was for young and old alike to open any page and be moved or inspired.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90403
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Bill-schwartz-october-19-Author-signing
Simon Morrison & Mirror in the Sky: The Life and Music of Stevie Nicks at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Simon Morrison will present and discuss his new book, Mirror in the Sky: The Life and Music of Stevie Nicks.
This is a stunning musical biography of Stevie Nicks that paints a portrait of an artist, not a caricature of a superstar.
Reflective and expansive, Mirror in the Sky situates Stevie Nicks as one of the finest songwriters of the twentieth century.
This biography from distinguished music historian Simon Morrison examines Nicks as a singer and songwriter before and beyond her career with Fleetwood Mac, from the Arizona landscape of her childhood to the strobe-lit Night of 1000 Stevies celebrations.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/simon
At Skylight: Fatima Asghar, with Fariha Roisin, & When We Were Sisters at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Fatima Asghar, in conversation with Fariha Roisin, will present and discuss her new book, When We Were Sisters.
In this heartrending, lyrical debut work of fiction, Fatimah Asghar traces the intense bond of three orphaned siblings who, after their parents die, are left to raise one another. The youngest, Kausar, grapples with the incomprehensible loss of their parents as she also charts out her own understanding of gender; Aisha, the middle sister, spars with her “crybaby” younger sibling as she desperately tries to hold on to her sense of family in an impossible situation; and Noreen, the eldest, does her best in the role of sister-mother while also trying to create a life for herself, on her own terms.
Fatimah Asghar, author of If They Come for Us, is a poet, filmmaker, educator, and performer. They are the writer and co-creator of Brown Girls, an Emmy-nominated web series that highlights friendships between women of color. Along with Safia Elhillo, they are the editors of Halal If You Hear Me, an anthology that celebrates Muslim writers who are also women, queer, gender-nonconforming, and/or trans.
Fariha Róisín is a multidisciplinary artist, born in Ontario, Canada. She was raised in Sydney, Australia, and is based in Los Angeles, California. As a Muslim queer Bangladeshi, she is interested in the margins, liminality, otherness, and the mercurial nature of being. Her work has pioneered a refreshing and renewed conversation about wellness, contemporary Islam, and queer identities and has been featured in The New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and Vogue. She is the author of the poetry collection How To Cure A Ghost (2019), as well as the novel Like A Bird (2020).
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-fatimah-asghar-presents-when-we-were-sisters-fariha-r%C3%B3is%C3%ADn
Book Launch: Kid Congo Powers, with Ian Svenonius, & Some New Kind of Kick at Stories Books & Café – In–Person Event
Kid Congo Powers, in conversation with Ian Svenonius, will present his book, Some New Kind of Kick, which details his experiences as a young, queer Mexican American in 1970s Los Angeles through his rise in the glam rock and punk rock scenes.
He has been described by Nick Cave as a “legendary guitarist and paragon of cool” with “the greatest resume ever of anyone in rock music.” That unique imprint on rock history stems from being a member of not one but three beloved, groundbreaking, and influential groups.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026, CA 90266
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
S.K. Ali, with Tahereh Mafi, & Love From Mecca to Medina at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
S.K. Ali, in conversation with Tahereh Mafi, will discuss her book Love From Mecca to Medina.
This story is about Adam and Zayneb. Perfectly matched. Painfully apart.
Adam is in Doha, Qatar, making a map of the Hijra, a historic migration from Mecca to Medina, and worried about where his next paycheck will come from. Zayneb is in Chicago, where school and extracurricular stresses are piling on top of a terrible frenemy situation, making her miserable.
Then a marvel occurs: Adam and Zayneb get the chance to spend Thanksgiving week on the Umrah, a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, in Saudi Arabia. and they can’t wait to see each other. Surely, this is just what they both need. Or is it?
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
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
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 19th
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 19th
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-441078245907
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 19th
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-362733023237?aff=erelpanelorg
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry & Marc J Cid 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 Marc J Cid.
The format is to welcome a featured poet for a reading, and an Open Mic reading. Tonight’s featured reader is Marc J Cid.
Marc J Cid is a volatile meme poet from the seventh circle of Hell, but currently resides in Downey, California. He has never won a slam, but there was this one time he won 1st place at an Anti-Valentine’s Day open mic night, according to the host. Marc is working on a book called Your Funeral Sucked, by the Way, about religious immigrant family trauma and social stigma regarding mental health, due to be published whenever he ceases his lollygagging and gets his act together.
$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 19th
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/5994897013873659
Gary Lippman & We Loved the World But Could Not Stay at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Gary Lippman will present and discuss We Loved the World But Could Not Stay, a collection of intricately constructed single-sentence stories that chronicles the outrageous and the everyday with insight and empathy, all while reimagining and reorganizing the very concept of the story and the basic building blocks of our language.
Gary Lippman was born and raised in New Jersey, received a law degree from Northwestern University and has worked with New York’s Innocence Project. Lippman’s play Paradox Lost ran off Broadway for a month in 2001 and his writing has been published in The New York Times, The Paris Review, VICE, and more. Lippman can now be found in what used to be called “Fun City” with his imaginary French bulldog, his very real Hungarian wife, and a whenever-he’s-inclined-to-visit adult son.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and event details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/20706
Ghostly L.A. History with Author James T. Bartlett at Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
James T. Bartlett, author of The Alaskan Blonde and Gourmet Ghosts, will present some weird L.A. history and local ghostly tales, including stories of true crime, murder, haunted places, and more to get you in the Halloween spirit.
In Gourmet Ghosts and Gourmet Ghosts 2, Bartlett explores the Southland’s most haunted bars and restaurants, the perfect guidebooks if you want to dine with a ghost and enjoy a spooky night on the town.
His new book, The Alaskan Blonde, is a fascinating investigation of a notorious unsolved murder from the 1950s, with illicit affairs, gunshots and deadly consequences stretching from the frozen North to the streets of Hollywood. All three are available in our library collection.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details. Email eden@lapl.org for the Zoom link to join.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/ghostly-la-history-author-james-t-bartlett
Book Talk: Chris Avendano Cruz, with Roshani Chokshi, & Marikit and the Ocean of Stars via Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Middle Grade Event
Chris Avendano Cruz, in conversation with Roshani Chokshi (Three Kisses, One Midnight),will present and discuss her Middle Grade book, Marikit and the Ocean of Stars.
This book is a magical middle-grade debut about a Filipino girl who ventures into the land of the engkantos, or nature spirits, to save herself and her mother from a sinister fate, written by a Filipino author.
Marikit is used to wearing recycled clothes. Her mother, the best seamstress in the barrio, has become an expert at “making due,” ever since Marikit’s father and brother were lost at sea. But for her tenth birthday, all Marikit wants is something new. So, when her mother gifts her a patchwork dress stitched together with leftover scraps from her workshop, Marikit vows to never wear it. That is, until the eve of her birthday, when shadow creatures creep into their home and upend the very life she knew.
Caris Avendaño Cruz is a copywriter for internet brands and cool businesses, but her favorite things to write are magical stories led by kids of color. Marikit and the Ocean of Stars is her debut novel. She lives in Bulacan, Philippines and posts on Twitter and Instagram. Visit her website to learn more.
Roshani Chokshi is the award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling series The Star-Touched Queen, The Gilded Wolves and Aru Shah and The End of Time, which Time Magazine named one of the Top 100 Fantasy Books of All Time. Her novels have been translated into more than two dozen languages and often draw upon world mythology and folklore. Chokshi is a member of the National Leadership Board for the Michael C. Carlos Museum and lives in Georgia with her husband and their cat whose diabolical plans must regularly be thwarted.
NOTE: See site for tickets, link, and details.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Crowdcast event (see site)
Website: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/caris-avendano-cruz/register
Mystery Book Club: Snow at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Mystery Book Club will discuss its monthly selection, Snow, by John Banville.
Booker Prize winner John Banville’s next great crime novel is the story of a family whose secrets resurface when a parish priest is found murdered in their ancestral home
Detective Inspector St. John Strafford has been summoned to County Wexford to investigate a murder. A parish priest has been found dead in Ballyglass House, the family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family.
The year is 1957 and the Catholic Church rules Ireland with an iron fist. Strafford—flinty, visibly Protestant and determined to identify the murderer—faces obstruction at every turn, from the heavily accumulating snow to the culture of silence in the tight-knit community he begins to investigate.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside Ca 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-snow
Chicano Poetry: Luis J. Rodriguez and Matt Sedillo at East L.A. County Library – In-Person Event
The East Los Angeles County Library presents a poetry reading and discussion titled Generations of Chicano Poetry, featuring two notable and lauded Chicano poets:
Luis J. Rodriguez is the Los Angeles Poet Laureate Emeritus, founder of Tia Chucha’s Press and its Centro Cultural and Bookstore in Sylmar, and is the author of many books in numerous genres, including his acclaimed memoir, Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.
Matt Sedillo is a political poet, spoken word artist, and Literary Director of the Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, He is the author of The City on the Second Floor and Mowing Leaves of Grass, both from FlowerSong Press.
The poetry reading will be followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Jose Prado, Professor of Sociology, California State University, Dominguez Hills
NOTE: See site for guidelines and further information.
Where: East Los Angeles County Library, Chicano Resource Center ,
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 1818 N, Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/7183556
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 20th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 900
Website: https://reartela.com/eve nts%2Feventos
David Fenton & The Activist’s Media Handbook: Lessons From Fifty Years as a Progressive Agitator at Book Soup – In-Person Event
David Fenton will present and discuss his new book, The Activist’s Media Handbook: Lessons From Fifty Years as a Progressive Agitator.
Activist and public relations thought leader David Fenton shares lessons on how to organize successful media campaigns, cultivated from more than half a century working within some of history’s most impactful social movements.
Fenton’s battles range from the No-Nukes concerts with Bruce Springsteen in 1979, to the campaigns to free Nelson Mandela and end apartheid in the late 1980s, exposing the dangers of toxic chemicals in our food, the long battle to legalize marijuana and end racist drug laws, the misinformation in Washington during the Bush era in the 2000s, and recent campaigns that successfully banned fracking in New York and alerted the public to the climate crisis, including the environmental impact of Bitcoin.
Part rollercoaster memoir, part practical guide, The Activist’s Media Handbook provides an essential toolkit for today’s activists for organizing to win: how to tell your story, captivate audiences, and inspire them to join the cause.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Rae Dawn Chong Reading of Annie O’Neill Stein’s Exit Wounds at Flintridge Bookstore – In-Person Event
Rae Dawn Stein will present and read in memory of author Annie O’Neill Stein, her novel, Exit Wounds.
Born to shanty Irish on one side and Park Avenue privilege on the other, Laura navigates a turbulent childhood filled with the alcohol-fueled abuse of her volatile father and her mother’s excessive drinking. Her mother dies when Laura is thirteen, leaving her heartbroken and adrift. After several years of meaningless relationships and poor decisions, she eventually marries a caring man and has a loving daughter. But it is only at the end of her life and by way of an unexpected turn of events that she is finally able to make peace with herself and to appreciate that sometimes the most wonderful experiences in our lives come in unanticipated and unsought ways.
New York native Annie O’Neill Stein moved to Los Angeles in the ‘80s as an actress. After many small parts in television, from Miami Vice to Charlie’s Angels, she eventually found her true passion: writing. Hollywood producer Moritz Borman, called Exit Wounds a “brave, raw story of redemption infused with clever and witty black Irish humor.”
Stein’s book was published posthumously in her honor on September 6.
Rae Dawn Chong, born in Canada to her father Tommy Chong, from Cheech and Chong, has been in movies and television since she was twelve years old. She started with Disney’s “Movie of the Week” and later became notable for her roles in films such as Commando, The Color Purple, and Quest for Fire. In 2021, Rae Dawn was honored with the “Invisible Women Award” from the Women Film Critics for her performance in The Sleeping Negro. She plays Louis’ mother in the upcoming television adaptation of Interview with the Vampire, set to debut on October 2nd. Rae Dawn is currently developing a television half-hour show, a comedy set at a mall, loosely based on her life experiences. She is a humanitarian and an activist for equal rights.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Flintridge Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 858 Foothill Blvd., La Canada Flintridge, CA 91011
Website: https://www.flintridgebooks.com/instore-events/2022/10/20/author-appearance-annie-oneill-stein-exit-wounds
At Skylight: Manuel Muñoz, with Caribbean Fragoza, & The Consequences: Stories at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Manuel Munoz, in conversation with author Caribbean Fragoza, presents his new collection of stories, The Consequences.
These exquisite stories are mostly set in the 1980s in the small towns that surround Fresno. With an unflinching hand, Muñoz depicts the Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers who put food on our tables but are regularly and ruthlessly rounded up by the migra, as well as the quotidian struggles and immense challenges faced by their families. The messy and sometimes violent realities navigated by his characters—straight and gay, immigrant and American-born, young and old—are tempered by moments of surprising, tender care: Two young women meet on a bus to Los Angeles to retrieve husbands who must find their way back from the border after being deported; a gay couple plans a housewarming party that reveals buried class tensions; a teenage mother slips out to a carnival where she encounters the father of her child; the foreman of a crew of fruit pickers finds a dead body and is subsequently—perhaps literally—haunted.
In The Consequences, obligation can shape, support, and sometimes derail us.
Manuel Muñoz is the author of two previous collections and a novel. He is the recipient of a Whiting Award, three O. Henry Awards, and has appeared in Best American Short Stories. A native of Dinuba, California, he lives in Tucson, Arizona.
Caribbean Fragoza is a writer and journalist from South El Monte and the author of the story collection, Eat the Mouth That Feeds You.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N, Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Scripps Presents: Celeste Ng, with Gabrielle Zevin, & Our Missing Hearts at Skylight Bookstore at Second Home Hollywood – In-Person Event
Scripps Presents & PEN Out Loudhost Celeste Ng, in conversation with Gabrielle Zevin, to present her third novel, Our Missing Hearts.
Our Missing Hearts is a suspenseful and heartrending novel about the unbreakable love between a mother and child. It is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can pretend to ignore the most searing injustice. It’s a story about the power—and limitations—of art to create change, the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact.
Celeste Ng is the number one New York Times bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere. Her third novel, Our Missing Hearts, will be published in October 2022. Ng is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, and her work has been published in over thirty languages.
Gabrielle Zevin is the New York Times and internationally best-selling author of several critically acclaimed novels, including The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, which won the Southern California Independent Booksellers Award and the Japan Booksellers’ Award among other honors, and Young Jane Young, which won the Southern Book Prize. Her novels have been translated into thirty-nine languages. She has also written books for young readers, including the award-winning Elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, & further information.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1370 North Saint Andrews Place, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Erika Hayasaki, with Kim Noonan, & Somewhere Sisters at Vroman’s – In–Person Event
Erika Hayasaki, in conversation with Kim Noonan, will present her book, Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family.
This story is about identical twins Isabella and Hà, who were born in Vietnam and raised on opposite sides of the world, each knowing little about the other’s existence, until they were reunited as teenagers, against all odds. Although they are separated and raised very differently, when Isabella’s adoptive mother in Chicago learns of her biological twin in Vietnam, all of their lives are changed forever.
Award-winning journalist Hayasaki tells the girls’ stories from their perspectives, contextualizing their stories with data from sinister historic twin studies and the latest scholarship and conversation surrounding adoption.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Erika-Hayasaki-discusses-Somewhere-Sisters
Poetry Reading: Harryette Mullin & Urban Tumbleweed at the Hammer Museum – In–Person Event
Harryette Mullin is the author of several volumes of poetry including Urban Tumbleweed, Blues Baby: Early Poems, and Sleeping with the Dictionary, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award in poetry. Three of her early collections published in the 1990s are collected in Recyclopedia. Mullen published the chapbook Broken Glish: Five Prose Poems by Harryette Mullen with The Center For Book Arts. The recipient of multiple awards and fellowships, Mullen is also a professor in the UCLA Department of English.
Organized and hosted by poet, literary critic, and UCLA Distinguished Research Professor Stephen Yenser. Cosponsored by the UCLA Department of English and UCLA Recreation.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Hammer Museum
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 10988 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2022/harryette-mullen
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 20th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 665 N. Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.instagram.com/fos_thursdays/
Rest is Resistance Author Chat with Tricia Hersey and Sophia Nahli Allison at The Salt Eaters Bookshop – In-Person Event
In-person author chat: Tricia Hersey in conversation with Sophia Nahli Allison about her book Rest Is Resistance.
In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted.
Tricia Hersey is a Chicago native who has called Georgia home for the last 12 years. She has over 20 years of experience as a multidisciplinary artist, writer, theologian and community organizer. She is the founder of The Nap Ministry, an organization that examines rest as a form of resistance and reparations by curating spaces for the community to rest via community rest activations, immersive workshops, performance art installations, and social media.
Where: Salt Eaters Bookshop
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 302 East Queen Street Inglewood, California 90301
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 21st
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose CA 91020
Website:https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/spectacular-story-time-10
2nd & 3rd Grade Book Club & Odder at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
The 2nd & 3rd Grade Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Odder, by Katherine Applegate.
This is an extraordinary story about a family of runaways who take up residence in a small town, and the outcast boy who finds his voice and his people—perfect for fans of Katherine Applegate and Kate DiCamillo.
This book is a touching and lyrical tale about a remarkable sea otter. Inspired by the true story of a Monterey Bay Aquarium program that pairs orphaned otter pups with surrogate mothers, this poignant and humorous tale told in free verse examines bravery and healing through the eyes of one of nature’s most beloved and charming animals.
NOTE: See site for book purchase, guidelines and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore (in the Courtyard)
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 4 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/2nd-and-3rd%C2%A0grade%C2%A0book-club
Bookish Discussion Event: Anthony Doerr, Michelle Tea, Martin Dugard, with host Sandra Tsing Loh, via Once Upon a Time Bookstore & SoCal News Group – Online Event
Bookish is a one-hour event featuring conversations with authors, thinkers, and performers.
Discover new book releases, meet interesting people and learn about a variety of topics with host Sandra Tsing Loh, writer, actress and radio personality.
Anthony Doerr will discuss his most recent novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Michelle Tea will discuss her book, Knocking Myself Up: A Memoir of My (In)Fertility.
Martin Dugard will discuss his forthcoming book, Taking Berlin: The Bloody Race to Defeat the Third Reich.
Sandra Tsing Loh is the author of The Madwoman and the Roomba: My Year of Domestic Mayhem.
NOTE: See site for book purchases, link, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/bookish-october-22
Lyrical Flames: Readings & Open Mic at SPARK: Spring Street Park – In-Person Event
Lida Parent Harris announces the return of Lyrical Flames Literary Event. SPARK will present poets, musicians, comedians, plus an Open Mic. Stay and enjoy the move afterwards. This month it’s Ghostbusters.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and further information.
Where: Spring Street Park Foundation
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 6 pm
Address: 428 S. Spring St., Los Angeles CA 90013
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=101592
7th Annual Katipunan Poetry Slam: Host Eddy M. Gana Jr. & Guest Poets at Robinson S.P.A.C.E. – In-Person Event
Katipunan Poetry Slam competitors include:
Damnyo Lee is a Los Angeles native. Born and raised. Very rare breed, since no one is actually raised in LA. He has been performing poetry and spoken word since 2001. He’s the author of a book of poetry entitled Trap’d and is currently working on a new book.
Jade Phoenix is a Queer, Trans, Femme, Filipinx, Parent, LA-based performance artist + poet, speaker, activist, and educator. Her work is a poetic expression rooted in the multiple identities she holds and how they intersect with her day-to-day fight for a collective liberation, while boldly creating art and cultural content in hopes of bringing queer and trans stories to the center of today’s current social, political and cultural landscapes.
Jaime Estepa (he/they/siya) is a queer Filipinx American who grew up on unceded Southern Paiute land (Las Vegas, NV). Jaime is descended from 20th century migrant Filipino/a/x laborers who worked on Alaskan fishing boats and the farms of Hawai’i and Northern California. He swears some of them must’ve been queer, too. They are also an artist, writer, poet and performer, and he believes that community-centered storytelling can help push for change. Through his work in both the arts and education, he is interested in bridging the gap between queer speculative worlds and the present.
Janelle Paule is all human. friend. writer. poet. author of brave. the everyday practice of resilience & reasons she cannot love you.
Kirby Marquez is a voice actor, poet and spoken word artist who seeks to combine his love of words with his professional experience in voiceover and mental health. In his content, he explore ideas of love and mental health, cultural identity, as well as music and pop culture. Poetry is a medium that reached out to him and begged him to share his story.
Marc Cid is a volatile meme poet from the seventh circle of Hell, but currently resides in Downey, California. He has never won a slam, but there was this one time he won 1st place at an Anti-Valentine’s Day open mic night, according to the host. Marc is working on a book called Your Funeral Sucked, by the Way, about religious immigrant family trauma and social stigma regarding mental health, due to be published whenever he ceases his lollygagging and gets his act together.
Peter Villafane is a Southern California-based journalist and poet with skills in writing, copyediting, photography and design.
TJ Simba-Mende (he/they) is an award-winning poet, a teaching artist-activist, and a proud Filipino. He is the 2009 Southern Fried Individual Poetry Slam Champion. He holds a Bachelors’s in Theater Arts from the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. TJ is the first Filipinx-American Faculty Member of Second City Chicago, the first Filipinx-American DEI Facilitator for Second City Works B2B, and is a recipient of the 2017 Second City Jim Zulevic Award for Community Excellence.
Sound Selection: THATFLYPINAY (she/her)
Food: Petite Peso
Host: Eddy M. Gana Jr. (they/them)
For Filipinos, the modern poetry slam is an echo of the balagtasan (a poetic, political debate). Continuing the work of those who have paved the way before us, from Jose Rizal to Jessica Hagedorn, the slam provides a platform for us to showcase the variety of voices and points of view among Filipinos and Filipino-Americans today.
The lineup includes published authors and seasoned slam champions who are recognized both locally and nationally. There’s no limit to what we do with our words, now let us get the community to hear our stories!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, Prizes, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Robinson S.P.A.C.E. in Historic Filipinotown
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 104 Robinson St., Los Angeles CA 90026
The Poetry Brothel: Blood and Brain Masquerade at El Cid Theatre Los Angeles – In-Person Event
Spooky season descends on Los Angeles Darlings so fit yourself for new fangs, reveal your secret identity, and get ready to sing under the silver moon with the Poetry Brothel! We’ve cooked up a cauldron full of 👻 and 🍬 to tantalize every witch, warlock, and werewolf!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Poetry Brothel at El Cid
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 6:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4212 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90029
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/422789463667 or https://dice.fm/event/agkb7-poetry-brothel-la-blood-and-brain-masquerade-21st-oct-el-cid-los-angeles-tickets
At Skylight: Kien Lam, with Emily Jungmin Yoon, & Extinction Theory at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Kien Lam, in conversation with Emily Jungmin Yoon, will present and discuss his poetry collection, Extinction Theory.
Extinction Theory is a collection of pseudoscience poems that try to provide rationales for some of life’s most salient mysteries. Where is God? What does it mean to belong? Who killed the dinosaurs? Kien Lam creates new worlds with new rules to better answer these perennial questions. His poetry is that of discovery, of looking at the world as if for the first time. Lam exposes the transitory and transcendent nature of things and how we find meaning.
At the heart of this collection is also a cataloging of the smaller “extinctions” in life. Every passing moment is the death of something, and try as we might to recreate the feeling, it can never be the same.
Kien Lam is the author of Extinction Theory (University of Georgia Press), winner of the 2021 National Poetry Series. He is a Kundiman fellow and received his MFA from Indiana University. Poems have appeared in Poetry, The New Republic, The Nation, and elsewhere. He lives in Los Angeles and works in gaming and television.
Emily Jungmin Yoon is the author of A Cruelty Special to Our Species (Ecco, 2018), winner of the 2019 Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award and finalist for the 2020 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and Ordinary Misfortunes (Tupelo Press, 2017), winner of the Sunken Garden Chapbook Prize. She has also translated and edited a chapbook of poems, Against Healing: Nine Korean Poets (Tilted Axis, 2019). She has accepted awards and fellowships from the Poetry Foundation and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, among others. Yoon currently serves as the Poetry Editor for The Margins, the digital magazine of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and as the Abigail Rebecca Cohen Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Chicago.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-kien-lam-presents-extinction-theory-emily-jungmin-yoon
Songs and Sundries: Perla Batta, with Guests Luis Rodriguez & Angelina Saenz at Torrance Performing Arts Center – In-Person Event Event
Singer and stylist Perla Batalla offers two programs titled Songs and Sundries, and featuring local literary guests, including: poets Luis Rodriguez and Angelina Saenz tonight, and Peggy Dobreer tomorrow night.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and further details.
Where: Torrance Performing Arts Center (TOCA)
Date: Friday the 21st & Saturday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 3330 Civic Center Dr., Torrance, CA 90503
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=5642577235861192&set=a.411484668970501 OR https://torrancearts.org/show/perla-batalla/
SWAAM Spoken Word Art & Music Event & The New Renaissance, by Lorenzo Frank at Park Hills Community Center – In-Person Event
Join SWAAM to hear The New Renaissance, plus an Open Mic, hosted by Lorenzo Frank on the third Friday of the month.
This week features “KeiRock” in the building! “KeiRock” is an east coast native taking over the LA scene with all forms of creativity. The world of spoken word has become a safe space for him to walk in purpose with the power of words. He also prides himself on being dedicated to creating a platform for other artists of all kinds. He’s curated many open mics, a poetry workshop and his own poetry production called “Sippin Poetry.” Although his creative side stretches to a lot of different avenues, tonight he is excited to share his stories and life through the passion of poetry.
NOTE: See site for costs, guidelines, and details.
Where: Park Hills Community Center
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 8:30 pm
Address: 5245 Overdale Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/swaam-spoken-word-art-music-tickets-439309294927?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
Third Fridays Poetry Reading Series, with Elena Secota, at Rapp Saloon – In-Person Event
Join Third Fridays to hear featured poets and an Open Mic, hosted by Elena Secots on every third Friday of the month.
Features are: James Evert Jones, Amelié Frank and Surprise Guests
NOTE: See site for guidelines, and details.
Where: Rapp Saloon
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 8:30 pm
Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90401
Website: https://www.facebook.com/therappsaloonpoetryreading/
Liwanag Lit Fest: Filipino American History Month Celebrationat Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library, LBPL – In-Person Event
Celebrate Filipino American History Month at the first ever Liwanag Lit Fest, shining a light on the vibrant diversity of Filipinx storytelling, organized by the Long Beach Public Library, Bel Canto Books, and an amazing volunteer team of book lovers.
There will be a pop-up bookstore, food vendors, kids crafts, and information tables throughout the day. Plus, many appearances by children’s authors, Middle Grade authors, and authors of history/memoir, sci-fi/fantasy, and Coming of Age genres.
Events include: a graphic novel workshop with Mark Nazal; Publishing Roundtable with Rachel Abalos, Jennifer Estacio & Meg Mateo Illasco; and Teen Workshop with Kenny Leoncita (RSVP required).
See detailed schedule at online website!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore at Long Beach Public Library
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 10 am – 4 pm
Address: 5870 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach, CA 90805
Website: https://belcantobooks.net/liwanag
Story Time: Aaron Reynolds & Creepy Carrots at Flintridge Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Author Aaron Reynolds and illustrator Peter Brown have a new children’s book, Creepy Carrots, just in time for Halloween.
Read with Rosie and celebrate Halloween early with this Caldecott Honor-winning picture book. with illustrations from Peter Brown, about a rabbit who fears his favorite treats are out to get him.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, link, and event details.
Where: Flintridge Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 10:30 am – 11:15
Address: 858 Foothill Blvd., La Canada Flintridge, CA 91011
Website: https://www.flintridgebooks.com/instore-events/2022/7/26/storytime-creepy-carrots-by
Glam Story Time: Jeanne Walker Harvey & Dressing Up the Stars: The Story of Movie Costume Designer Edith Head at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Glam up with your fanciest lace, silk, velvet, and sunglasses and join author Jeanne Walker Harvey for a special craft and story time featuring her new picture book biography, Dressing Up the Stars: The Story of Movie Costume Designer Edith Head. Come in your most *FABULOUS* outfit and be ready for artistic inspiration to strike! Best for ages 4+.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, link, and event details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 11 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/dressing-up
Altadena Poets Laureate Present: Reading by Laureate Peter J. Harris, with Special Guests, at Altadena Public Library– In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Altadena Library for readings by Poet Laureate Peter J. Harris and special guests. Details to follow. This program is made possible by the Friends of the Altadena Library. Livestreamed at www.youtube.com/ALTADENALIBRARY.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Altadena Public Library
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 600 E. Mariposa St., Altadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.pasadenanow.com/pasadenaevents/1662514483-2/
Flash in Four: A Creative Writing Experience by Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Explore flash fiction with poet and writer Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera in this creative writing experience for all ages.
Can you write a story in 1,000 words? How about in 100 words? Not sure? Here’s your chance to try. During this four-hour, in-person, creative writing experience for writers at all levels, you’ll learn about flash fiction, flash nonfiction, micro-fiction, and micro-memoir and have time to practice these short forms not once, not twice, but four times! We will look at samples from various online journals, focus on scene building and precise use of language, play with verbs and point of view. Before you leave, you’ll have the opportunity to share your work.
Please bring to the class: favorite food item (or drawing/photo of it), an object (or drawing/photo of one) with emotional significance to you now, a childhood photo (or drawing of one) that represents a significant memory/experience.
Chicana Feminist and former Rodeo Queen, Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera (she/her) writes so the desert landscape of her childhood can be heard as loudly as the urban chaos of her adulthood. She is obsessed with food. A former high school teacher, she earned an MFA at Antioch University Los Angeles and is a PhD Candidate in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Southern California. Her flash fiction and nonfiction have been published by Five Minute Lit, Empty House, Vast Chasm, MAYDAY Magazine, 100 Word Story, Five South, Emerge, Peatsmoke, The Coachella Review Daily, and included in Best Small Fictions 2022. She is a Macondista, creates drama with Center Theater Group Writers’ Workshop, and works for literary equity through Women Who Submit. You can read her other stories and essays at http://tishareichle.com/
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 12 pm – 4 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Fourth Saturdays Poetry Readings: Ron Moertge & Katrinka Moore at Claremont Helen Renwick Library – In-Person Event
Ron Koertge, a long-time resident of South Pasadena, taught at Pasadena City College for thirty-seven years. A prolific writer, he has published more than thirty books of poetry and prose. Some of his most recent books are Fever (Red Hen Press, 2006), The Ogre’s Wife (Red Hen Press, 2013), Vampire Planet (Red Hen Press, 2015), and Olympusville (Red Hen Press, 2018). He is the recipient of grants from the N.E.A. and the California Arts Council and has poems in two volumes of Best American Poetry (1999 and 2005). A recent Pushcart Prize winner, he is also the author of “Negative Space,” short-listed for an Oscar in Animated Short Films in 2018.
Katrinka Moore started out in dance and choreography, made a brief foray into performance art, then shifted to poetry, eventually bringing visual components into her work. She is celebrating the release of her latest book, Diminuendo, by the Claremont press Pelekinesis. Her previous books are Wayfarers, also from Pelekinesis, Numa, Thief, and This is Not a Story, winner of the New Women’s Voices Prize. Katrinka grew up in rural Texas and now lives in New York City and in the Catskill mountains of New York state, where she facilitates community workshops in visual poetry.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Claremont Helen Renwick Library
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 208 Harvard Av. N. Claremont, CA 01711
Website: https://allevents.in/mobile/amp-event.php?event_id=200023431963139
Jenny Liou, with Sam Chanse, & Muscle Memory at Hauser & Wirth Bookstore – In-Person Event
Jenny Liou, in conversation with artist Sam Chanse, will present and sign her debut poetry collection, Muscle Memory, which conjoins the world of cage fighting and the traumas of immigration.
In Muscle Memory, Washington-based poet Jenny Liou grapples with violence and identity, beginning with the chain-link enclosure of the prizefighter’s cage and radiating outward into the diasporic sweep of Chinese American history. Liou writes with spare, stunning lyricism about how cage fighting offered relief from the trauma inflicted by diaspora’s vanishing ghosts; how, in the cage, an elbow splits an eyebrow, or an armbar snaps a limb, and, even when you lose a fight, you’ve won something: pain. Liou places the physical manifestation of violence in her sport alongside the deeper traumas of immigration and her own complicated search for identity, exploring what she inherited from her Chinese immigrant father—who was also obsessed with poetry and martial arts. When she finally steps away from the cage to raise children of her own, she begins to question how violence and history pass from one generation to the next, and whether healing is possible without forgetting.
Where: Hauser & Wirth Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 917 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jenny-liou-muscle-memory-book-launch-signing-tickets-431881879327
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 a Print & Internet Publishing Workshops led by HECTOR SON OF HECTOR and MAURICIO ANDRES MORENO.
Also, there will be readings by Poets published in Four Feathers Press’ THE POETRY LOTTERY 7 (winner announced) and SPORTS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: POETRY OF DIVERSION will read their poetry.
Hector son of hector lives in Oakland, CA. He is the child of Mexican immigrants, currently works in a hospital, dreams of short stories and writes poetry in secret. and turn to smoke through Náhuatl mystics.
Mauricio Moreno is a first generation Colombian American artist, poet, and writer, first published in Conchas y Café by DSTL Arts. He is currently co-host and curator of the Trenches Full of Poets reading series presented monthly at Page Against the Machine Bookstore in Long Beach.
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
At Skylight: Jeanne Walker Harvey & Dressing Up the Stars at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Jeanne Walker Harvey will present and discuss her book. Dressing Up the Stars: The Story of Movie Costume Designer Edith Head.
Discover the true story of how a shy miner’s daughter became one of the most legendary costume designers in Hollywood in this inspiring nonfiction picture book biography.
As a child in the small mining town of Searchlight, Nevada, Edith Head had few friends and spent most of her time dressing up her toys and pets and even wild animals using fabric scraps. She always knew she wanted to move somewhere full of people and excitement. She set her sights on Hollywood and talked her way into a job sketching costumes for a movie studio.
Did she know how to draw or sew costumes? No. But that didn’t stop her! She worked tirelessly training herself until she became the first woman to head a major Hollywood movie studio costume department. She went on to win eight Academy Awards for best costume design—and she defined the style of an era.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-jeanne-walker-harvey-presents-dressing-stars
Poetry Jam with Mike the PoeT & Friends at Long Beach Public Library, Mlller Room – In-Person Event
The Long Beach Public Library hosts an afternoon of poetry, performance, and the spoken word with Mike the PoeT & Friends, moderated by Woodbury University professor and Long Beach native, Mike Sonksen, and featuring a variety of talented special guest poets representing the diversity of voices and life in the LBC and greater SoCal area!
The Billie Jean King Main Library is located at 200 W. Broadway, on the corner of Broadway and Pacific. Library parking is available in the structure at Broadway & Chestnut Avenue. With library validation, parking is free for the first 30 minutes and $2.00 for 2 hours; daily maximum is $12.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Billie Jean King Memorial Library, Long Beach Public Library
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 3:30 pm
Address: 200 w. Broadway, Long Beach, CA
Website: https://www.longbeach.gov/library/events/
Lev AC Rosen In-Person Book Launch & Lavender House at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice will host an in-person book launch of Lev AC Rosen’s new book, Lavender House. Lev will chat about their new novel with Stephen Dunn, creator of the recent Queer as Folk reboot.
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 22nd
Time: 4 pm
Address: Main St. at Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Historical Fiction Book Club: How Much of These Hills Is Gold at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Historical Fiction Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, How Much of These Hills Is Gold, by C. Pam Zhang.
Set during the American gold rush, this story tells the story of siblings Lucy and Sam as they wander the western expanse to give their father a proper burial.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 5 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/historical-fiction-book-club-how-much-these-hills-gold
Book Release Event: Jasmine Banks & attunMEnt at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Jasmine Banks will celebrate the forthcoming release of her new book, attunMEnt.
This collection of poems is dedicated to the people supporting the healing and evolution of our community by unpacking the role that relationships play in the fabric of their intersecting identities. Within her poetry, Jasmine Banks self-reflects and pinpoints the interactions, messages, and experiences that have shaped the lens in which she sees herself in the world.
By reading the story inside of her, Jasmine hopes this encourages you to unapologetically speak your truth and allow the world to revel in the story inside of you.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, guidelines, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, Ca 90043
L.A. Book Launch: Cynthia Guardado & Cenizas, with Guests, at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Cynthia Guardado will present and celebrate her new poetry collection, Cenizas, along with her guest artists: Andres Sanchez and Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, with music by Lillyflor del Valle.
Cenizas offers an arresting portrait of a Salvadoran family whose lives have been shaped by the upheavals of global politics. The speaker of these poems—the daughter of Salvadoran immigrants—questions the meaning of homeland as she navigates life in the United States while remaining tethered to El Salvador by the long shadows cast by personal and public history. Cynthia Guardado’s poems give voice to the grief of family trauma, while capturing moments of beauty and tenderness. Maternal figures preside over the verses, guiding the speaker as she searches the ashes of history to tell her family’s story. The spare, narrative style of the poems are filled with depth as the family’s layers come to light.
Guardado crafted the poems in Cenizas over a ten-year period, often traveling to El Salvador for research and to conduct interviews. The Salvadoran Civil War haunts the pages of this collection as it unflinchingly explores war, its aftermath, and the bittersweet legacies that are passed down from one generation to the next. The poems mourn those who were lost and honor the strength of the speaker’s ancestors. “All my people have been born from the ashes of volcanoes,” she writes, invoking a family lineage that has endured the atrocities committed against them. Even so, El Salvador keeps pulling the speaker back—and despite warnings of danger, she still manages to find beauty among the ruins.
Cynthia Guardado is a Los Angeles–born Salvadoran poet and professor. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Cenizas and Endeavor. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, U.S. Latinx Voices in Poetry, and The Wandering Song. Guardado won the Concurso Binacional De Poesía Pellicer-Frost in 2017, and Cenizas was a finalist for the National Poetry Series in 2019.
Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and the author of Posada: Offerings of Witness and Refuge (Sundress Publications 2016). A former Steinbeck Fellow and Poets & Writers California Writers Exchange winner, she’s received residencies from Hedgebrook, Ragdale, National Parks Arts Foundation, and Poetry Foundation. She has poetry published in Acentos Review, CALYX, American Poetry Review, and most recently, her poem, “Battlegrounds” was featured at Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day and On Being’s Poetry Unbound. Her poetry and organizing are inspired by her Chicana experience and a drive to cultivate comfort in chaotic times. She is director of Women Who Submit, a literary organization fighting for gender parity in publishing. IG: @xochitljulissa
Andrés (Andy) Sanchez, They/He is a trans/non-binary Mexican poet, advocate, and traveler. They migrated to the U.S. at the age of 5 and grew up in Southern California and Las Vegas, NV. They currently live in Long Beach with their dope little black cat Copal. Andy has been featured in over two dozen open-mics in the LA area and has hosted workshops, talks, and readings for diverse communities. Their first collection of poems, This Body was published by World Stage Press in 2020. Andy currently teaches for the Community Literature Initiative.
Lillyflor del Valle is a first generation Salvadoreña, mother, musician and composer with commUNITY roots in the North East San Fernando Valley. She strives to live each day ARTfully. IG: @lillyfloryloscompas.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-book-launch-cenizas-by-cynthia-guardado-tickets-432123502027
Palindrome Poetry Reading Series: Angelina Saenz & Edgecliff at The Pop-Hop – In-Person Event
The Pop Hop hosts its 1st Palindrome Reading Series event, featuring poet and writer Angelina Saenz reading from her new collection Edgecliff.
Angelina Ssaenz is the author of Edgecliff (FlowerSong Press). She is a poet and writer, events curator and educator, as well as an award-winning educator.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Pop Hop
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8002 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
Website: http://www.thepophop.com/calendar?view=calendar&month=10-2022
Children’s Book Event: Mac Barnett & Jon Klassen at Manhattan Beach Library – In-Person Kids Event
The Manhattan Beach Library will host author Mac Barnett and illustrator Jon Klassen, who will present the first in their groundbreaking new collection of fractured Fairy Tale picture books—a brilliantly crafted, hilarious twist on The Three Billy Goats Gruff @ Manhattan Beach Library, with sales through {pages} a bookstore.
MAC BARNETT is the New York Times bestselling author of many picture books, including The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown, the New York Times bestselling The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse, the Caldecott Honor Book and E.B. White Read Aloud Award-winner Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, and the Caldecott Honor Book Extra Yarn. He is also the coauthor of the bestselling Terrible Two series with Jory John. Mac lives in Oakland, California.
JON KLASSEN is an animator and Governor General’s Award-winning creator of children’s books. His book This is Not My Hat won both the American Caldecott Medal and the British Kate Greenway Medal, making Jon the first person to win both awards for the same work. Jon was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and currently resides in Los Angeles.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore at Manhattan Beach Library
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 1 pm
Address: 1320 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/mb-library-author-barnett-klassen
Braintrust Sunday Series Workshop with BRIDGETTE BIANCA: Guide to Revision via The Poetry Lab – Online Event (2nd Session, confirm at site)
The Poetry Lab offers the next in its Braintrust Series of generative writing workshops, Fresh Eyes: Guide to Revision, with professor. Poet, and performance artist bridgette bianca.
The class is a combination of craft talk and generative writing workshop. Even though they are a community of self-guided learners they do not skimp on academic rigor. They classes are based on the best of the MFA residency experience.
Workshops are interactive. At times you will listen, take part in discussion, or be asked to follow a writing prompt. Towards the end of every Workshop there is time to share something you’ve written. They also reserve 30 minutes at the end of the session for a Q&A with the teaching artist. This is your opportunity to ask questions about publishing, touring, the writing life, craft, process, poetry in general, and any other topics that come up during Workshop.
bridgette bianca is a poet and professor from South Central Los Angeles. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Howard University and her Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Otis College of Art & Design. She has performed her poetry all around Southern California, including features at The World Stage, the Southern California Poetry Festival, Los Angeles Lit Crawl, the Table Lit, LitFest Pasadena, Rapp Saloon, La Palabra, Beyond Baroque, and the un::fade::able Reading Series. She is one half of the literary curating team, Making Room for Black Women, with Sanura Williams of My Lit Box, and co-hosts the Women’s Center for Creative Work’s Reading Series with Nina Rota. Her work as a writer and an educator seeks to serve the people and moments most forget or ignore. Her debut collection be/trouble, was released by Writ Large Press in February 2020.
Where: The Poetry Lab
Date: Sunday the23rd
Time: 1 pm – 4 pm
Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.thepoetrylab.com/register/sunday-series/bridgettebianca Or https://www.thepoetrylab.com/checkout?cartToken=L7hjDYdLgVLkK7zr7yYdhFP3qmaOQcPUaP3l5GE2
Latinx Book Club Book Club: Bindle Punk Bruja at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Latinx Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Bindle Punk Bruja by Desideria Mesa.
This novel is based on ancient Mexican folktales and with a layered protagonist and a fast-paced tale. This debut novel is about a Half-Mexican and white-passing witch Rose, who dreams of owning her own illegal jazz club in 1920s Kansas City while trying to refine the powers she inherited from her abuela and weaving her way through various romances and the intricacies of a sexist, racist, xenophobic society.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 2 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/latinx-book-club-bindle-punk-bruja-0
La Palabra Poetry Series & Open Mic with Lisbeth Coiman & 4 Guest Poets at Avenue 50 Studio – In-Person Event
The La Palabra Poetry Series will be hosted by Lisbeth Coiman and will feature:
Raina J. Leon is a teacher, writer, artist, curator, scholar, and speaker. You might know her as a founding editor of The Acentos Review, the lead coordinator for Nomadic Press Philadelphia, the author of black god mother this body, and co-founder of StoryJoy, Inc. with Dr. Norma Thomas. She does lots of things and invites you to dream with her sometime.
Jasmine Mendez is a Dominican-American poet, playwright, translator, and award- winning author of several books for children and adults. She is the author of two hybrid memoirs, Island of Dreams (Floricanto Press) and Night-Blooming Jasmin(n)e: Personal Essays and Poetry (Arte Público Press). Her second YA memoir, Islands Apart: Becoming Dominican American (Arte Público Press) is forthcoming in May 2022 and her debut poetry collection, City Without Altar, was a finalist for the Noemi Press Book Award for Poetry and will be released in August 2022. Her debut middle grade book Anina del Mar Jumps In(Dial) is a novel in verse about a young girl diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and is set to release in 2023. Her debut picture book Josefina’s Habichuelas (Arte Público Press), was released last year.
Yesinia Montilla is an Afro-Latina poet & a daughter of immigrants. Her poetry has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, as well as the literary journals The Gulf Coast, Prairie Schooner, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Best of American Poets (2021, 2022) & others. She received her MFA from Drew University in Poetry and Poetry in Translation & is a 2014 CantoMundo Fellow & a 2020 NYFA Fellow. Her first collection The Pink Box is published by Willow Books & was longlisted for a PEN award in 2016. Her second collection Muse Found in a Colonized Body is published by Four Way Books. She lives in Harlem, NY.
Jenise Miller is a Black Panamanian, Compton-based writer, poet, and urban planner whose work explores art, archives, geographic mapping, and intersectional history. She is a 2021 California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellow and PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow. She co-produces “Reading the City” with Sēpia Collective, a conversation series with artists and cultural producers from Compton. Her words have been published in the Acentos Review, Boom California, Cultural Weekly, KCET Artbound, Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and The New York Times. A Pushcart-nominated poet and Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA) alumna, she is the author of the poetry chapbook The Blvd.
Lisbeth Coiman is a bilingual writer, educator, cultural commentator, and rezandera from Venezuela. She is the author of two books: I Asked the Blue Heron: A Memoir (2017) and Uprising / Alzamiento (Finishing Line Press, June 2021).
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Avenue 50 Studios
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 131 N. Avenue 50, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=5881872511832886&set=a.251487421538118 or https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063622687802
Romance Writing 101 Workshop, with Jeanne De Vitaat The Ripped Bodice Bookstore – In-Person Event
Ripped Bodice will host Romance Writing 101 Workshop, led by Jeanne De Vita.
We read romance novels. Maybe even devour them! But how many of us secretly (or not so secretly) want to try our hand at writing romance? Whether you’ve never written a word or have ten books hidden in a drawer, please join us for Romance Writing 101.
This interactive workshop will teach romance writing fundamentals including: structuring plot, conflict, and resolution, creating romance, setting your story in a time and place that feels real (even if you write shape-shifters or sci-fi), writing believable character development, modeling realistic dialogue, crafting intimacy between your characters (from sweet to hot).
In addition to the essentials of romance writing, we’ll discuss the current publishing market and some ways authors can find an agent, sign with a publisher, and connect with readers who will want to buy your book—including some methods you might not believe actually work.
Jeanne De Vita, also known as the Book Genie, has edited hundreds of books for writers of multiple genres over her 10+ year career in publishing, including several New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance and erotica authors who have books on the shelves of The Ripped Bodice! Jeanne is a Developmental Editor and book coach and has worked as an acquiring editor and managing director of an indie publisher, a freelance editor, and is an author/ bestselling ghostwriter herself. She loves seeing authors’ dreams come true and sharing her experience and passion through teaching at UCLA, The Ripped Bodice, and in many other groups/places.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 om
Address: Main St. at Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Gary Goldstein, with Bruce Cameron, & The Mother I Never Had at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Gary Goldstein, in conversation with Bruce Cameron, will read from and sign his novel, The Mother I Never Had.
The Mother I Never Had asks readers to consider what they would do if they found themselves faced with a parent they never knew existed—and if they could accept the secrets and lies that kept her away for a lifetime.
Gary Goldstein is an award-winning writer for film, TV, and the theatre with more than thirty produced screen and stage credits. He has scripted many feature and television films including such Hallmark Channel favorites as The Wish List, Hitched for the Holidays, My Boyfriends’ Dogs, and the first two movies in the Flower Shop Mysteries series starring Brooke Shields. Gary’s latest film, Lights! Camera! Christmas!, premieres on Hallmark in late 2022. His L.A. stage credits include such plays as Parental Discretion, Three Grooms and a Bride, and April, May & June. The New York native and longtime L.A. resident has also been a contributing film reviewer and arts feature writer for the Los Angeles Times since 2007. His first novel, the romantic comedy The Last Birthday Party, won a 2022 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence in Fiction. Gary’s second novel, the family drama The Mother I Never Had, will be published by Hadleigh House in October 2022.
W. Bruce Cameron is the New York Times bestselling author of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, The Dog Master, and the A Dog’s Purpose series. In 2011 he was named Columnist of the Year by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. He lives in California.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore (in the Courtyard)
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Gary-Goldstein-October-23-Author-signing
At Skylight: Cindy Montenegro & My Mind Is a Mountain/Mi Mente Es Una Montana at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Cindy Montenegro will present and discuss her book.My Mind Is a Mountain/Mi Mente Es Una Montana.
My Mind is a Mountain is a metaphor for the heights a mind can reach in powerfully handling all emotions from the lowest of the lows to the highest of the highs-and everything in between.
Cindy Montenegro is a Salvadoran American mental health therapist ad storyteller for Paramount, California. She received her graduate degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Chapman University and a bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Barbara. In the therapy room, Cindy works with people of all ages to explore their emotions and strengths to create a roadmap to self-love, growth, and healing. Her imagination is influenced by her childhood, love of the outdoors, and passion for mental health.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Algo Nuevo: New Fiction from Latina Authors at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
New Fiction from Latina Authors features the following authors and their two books:
Annette Chavez Macias writes stories about love, family, and following your dreams. She is proud of her Mexican American heritage, culture, and traditions, all of which can be found within the pages of her books. For readers wanting even more love stories and guaranteed happily ever-afters, Annette also writes romance novels under the pen name Sabrina Sol.
Annete Chavez Macias will present her women’s fiction debut, Big Chicas Don’t Cry, which follows the lives and bonds of Mexican American cousins Mari, Erica, Selena, and Gracie.
Margo Candela was born and raised in Los Angeles and began her writing career when she joined her local community college’s student newspaper. The Neapolitan Sisters is her fifth novel and her first after a decade’s long hiatus from writing.
Told in alternating points of view, The Neapolitan Sisters is a humorous yet moving look at what it means to be a sister, daughter, and ultimately, your own self, despite the pressures that come with being part of a family.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/20460
A Reading of Stories: Seven Guest Readers at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Stories Books & Café presents a Reading of Stories by:
Christina Catherine Martinez, Matias Viegener, Camille Roy, Jack Skelley, Christopher Zeischegg, Gracie Hadland & Norman Klein.
Christina Catherine Martinez is a writer, actor, award-winning art critic, and comedian living in Los Angeles. She’s been named both a Comedian You Should Know by Vulture and a Comic to Watch by TimeOutLA in 2020. She writes for Artforum, Art Agenda, Texte Zur Kunst, and also for television, including The Eric Andre Show on Adult Swim. She devised and acted in the short-form series Two Pink Doors for FX’s late night comedy programming. She is the creator and host of the live comedy talk show Aesthetical Relations. She has performed commissions for The Los Angeles Museum of Art, Art TORONTO, and the Spit Take Comedy Series in Minneapolis.
Her book of essays, also titled Aesthetical Relations, is on its second printing with Hesse Press.
Matias Viegener is a writer, artist, and critic working solo and collaboratively in the fields of writing, visual art, and social practice. He is the author of 2500 Random Things About Me Too, a book of experimental non-fiction, hailed as the first book written through Facebook. In 2004 he co-founded Fallen Fruit, a participatory art practice focusing on fruit, urban space, and public life, with whom he worked for nearly a decade. His work has been exhibited at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, The Whitney Museum, Acuna Hansen, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), etc. He’s edited two anthologies with Christine Wertheim, The Noulipian Analects and Séance in Experimental Writing. He is the editor and co-translator of Georges Batailles’ The Trial of Gilles de Rais. He has fiction in the anthologies The & Now Awards—Best Innovative Writing, Encyclopedia F-K, Vital Signs—Essential AIDS Fiction, Men on Men 3, Sundays at Seven, Dear World, and Discontents. His work has appeared in Afterimage, American Book Review, Artforum, Art Issues, ArtUS, Artweek, Black Clock, Bomb, Cabinet, Critical Quarterly, Fiction International, Framework, The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest, The Huffington Post, etc. As literary executor for the writer Kathy Acker, he has written and lectured extensively on her work, and recently edited her correspondence with McKenzie Wark, I’m Very Into You (Semiotext(e). He teaches at CalArts and is the recipient of a 2013 Creative Capital Grant.
Camille Roy is the author of Honey Mine, an adventure story as well as an exploration of sex and gender and American realities. It’s a cross between an excavation and a romp. The book creates a record of surviving and thriving under conditions of danger. It’s faithful to the experience of a young person who is overwhelmed and passionate and completely impacted by everything that surrounds her. The book is new because it’s female and lesbian; old because it’s just American. Her previous books include: Sherwood Forest, The Busy Medallions, and Cold Heaven.
Jack Skelley’s books include Monsters (Little Caesar Press, 1982) and Dennis Wilson and Charlie Manson (Fred & Barney Press, 2021). Interstellar Theme Park: New and Selected Writing will appear from BlazeVOX [books] in fall 2022. Semiotext(e) will publish his novel Fear of Kathy Acker in spring 2023. His psychedelic surf band Lawndale (SST Records) will release a new album in 2022.
Christopher Zeischegg aka Danny Wylde is a writer, musician, and filmmaker who spent eight years working in the adult industry as performer Danny Wylde.
He is the author of four books, The Magician, The Wolves that Live in Skin and Space, Body to Job, and Come to My Brother, and has contributed to Expat 4, Human Rights, Split Lips, and a variety of digital publications, such as Somesuch and The Nervous Breakdown. Zeischegg lives in Los Angeles.
Gracie Hadland is a writer living in Los Angeles.
Norman Klein is a critic, urban and media historian, and novelist. He is a faculty member at Cal Arts. His books include: The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory; Seven Minutes: The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon; The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects; Freud in Coney Island and Other Tales; and the database novel Bleeding Through: Layers of Los Angeles, 1920-86. He is currently completing an interactive historical science fiction novel titled The Imaginary Twentieth Century.
This event is hosted by Mood Killer and Taylor Lewandowski.
NOTE: See site for book purchases, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Los Angeles Literature 
Hi Brian,
I just wanted to thank you (again?) for this service you give. I hope you feel appreciated because it’s valuable and very cool.
Thanks!
Tom Stock-Hendel
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