Book Club Bonanza: Frightening Reads! Discussion of White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson via Central Library, LAPL – Online Teen Event
The Book Club Bonanza Book Club for Teens will host a discussion of 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 24th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-bonanza-frightening-reads
Sun Valley Book Club: The Tobacco Wives via Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Sun Valley Book Club will discuss its monthly selection, The Tobacco Wives, by Adele Myers.
In 1946 North Carolina, seamstress Maddie Sykes, a dressmaker for Bright Leaf’s most influential women—the wives of powerful tobacco executives—uncovers dangerous truths about this lucrative industry in a place where everyone depends on Big Tobacco to survive.
The November selection will be Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr.
Among the most celebrated and beloved novels of 2021, Anthony Doerr’s third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril who find resilience, hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflect our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details. Please email ebarrera@lapl.org for the Google Meet link and additional information.
Where: Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 4:45 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/sun-valley-book-club
Mujeres Monday: Raina J. Leon, Jasminne Mendez & Yesinia Montilla at LibroMobile– In-Person Event
LibroMobile will host Mujeres Monday, an event featuring: authors Raina J. Leon, Jasminne Mendez & Yesinia Montilla, shopping & tasting, a poetry reading, mingling & Q&A.
This event is a quarterly happy hour and reading series for all who identify as womxn, where they can hang their hats, labels, and media headlines at the door in order to embrace an evening of literary inspiration from diverse authors—while sharing culinary delights, empowerment, and joy in our daily lives.
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.
Jasminne Mendez is the author of the memoir Island of Dreams, blends poems and short stories to offer a glimpse into the challenges, joys, hopes, fears and disappointments she and her family faced being Dominican in America. which blends poems and short stories to offer a glimpse into the challenges, joys, hopes, fears and disappointments she and her family faced being Dominican in America.
Yesinia Montilla is the author of Muse Found in a Colonized Body: Poems.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: LibroMobile
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 5 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol St., #A3, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Quantum Book Club: Mary, by Brea Grantat The Book Jewel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Joseph Bricker will host October’s monthly Quantum Book Club discussion of sci-fi and fantasy fiction, Mary: The Adventures of Mary Shelley’s Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Granddaughter, by Brea Grant.
In this book, angsty teenager Mary Shelley is not interested in carrying on her family’s celebrated legacy of being a great writer; but she soon discovers that she has the not-so-celebrated and super-secret Shelley power to heal monsters, just like her famous ancestor, and those monsters are not going to let her ignore her true calling anytime soon.
Everyone expects sixteen-year-old Mary to be a great writer. After all, her mother, her aunt, and her grandmother are all successful writers (as they constantly remind her), not to mention her famous namesake, the OG Mary Shelley, horror author extraordinaire. But Mary is pretty sure she’s not cut out for that life. She can’t even stay awake in class. Then, one dark and rainy night, she’s confronted with a whole new destiny. Mary has the ability to heal monsters…and they’re not going to leave her alone until she does.
With the help of a mysterious (and mysteriously cute) stranger, a harpy, a possessed stuffed bunny, and her BFF Rhonda, Mary must uncover her family’s darkest secret if she’s going to save the monster world…and herself.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.thebookjewel.com/quantum-book-club
Book Launch: Phil Rosenthal, with Allison Janney, & Somebody Feed Phil: The Book at The Ebell Theatre with Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online Event
Phil Rosenthal, in conversation with Allison Janney, will celebrate the release and discuss his new book, Somebody Feed Phil: The Book.
Phil Rosenthal will screen an episode from the sixth season of Somebody Feed Phil, discuss the book with special guest Allison Janney, and meet attendees afterward.
***The ticket price for the evening includes the cost of the autographed book. ***
The ultimate collection of must-have recipes, stories, and behind-the-scenes photos from the Netflix show Somebody Feed Phil.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s atThe Ebell Theatre of Los Angeles
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 4401 W. 8th St., Los Angeles, CA 90005
At Skylight: Bojan Louis, with J.J. Anselmi, & Sinking Bell at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Bojan Louis, in conversation with J. J. Anselmi, will present and discuss his book, Sinking Bell: Stories.
These are potent stories that offer a forceful vision of contemporary Navajo life, by American Book Award winner Bojan Louis.
Set in and around Flagstaff, the stories in Sinking Bell depict violent collisions of love, cultures, and racism. In his gritty and searching fiction debut, Bojan Louis draws empathetic portraits of day laborers, metalheads, motel managers, aspiring writers and musicians, construction workers, people passing through with the hope of something better somewhere else. His characters strain to temper predatory or self-destructive impulses; they raise families, choose families, and abandon families; they endeavor to end cycles of abuse and remake themselves anew.
Bojan Louis is Diné of the Naakai dine’é, born for the Áshííhí. He is the author of a book of poetry, Currents, which received an American Book Award. He has been a resident at MacDowell. He teaches creative writing at the University of Arizona.
J.J. Anselmi grew up in a mining boomtown in Wyoming. He’s the author of Out Here on Our Own, Doomed to Fail, and Heavy. His writing has been featured in VICE, The New Republic, Revolver, The A.V. Club, and other popular venues, and he wrote the liner notes for the 2017 reissue of Sepultura’s classic thrash album, Chaos A.D. An active musician, he lives with his family in Long Beach, California.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-bojan-louis-presents-sinking-bell-jj-anselmi
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 24th
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-443991870637
At Skylight: Selma Blair Signing & Mean Baby at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Selma Blair will present and sign her book, Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up.
Selma Blair has played many roles: Ingenue in Cruel Intentions. Preppy ice queen in Legally Blonde. Muse to Karl Lagerfeld. Advocate for the multiple sclerosis community. But before all of that, Selma was known best as…a mean baby. In a memoir that is as wildly funny as it is emotionally shattering, Blair tells the captivating story of growing up and finding her truth.
The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation: biting her sisters, lying spontaneously, getting drunk from Passover wine at the age of seven, and behaving dramatically so that she would be the center of attention.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 3:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-selma-blair-signs-mean-baby
Book Launch: Seth Fishman & Bad Drawer at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Pages Bookstore presents a book launch event with Seth Fishman, for his children’s book, Bad Drawer.
This book is the author’s version of how to learn to draw anything you want, VERY, VERY BADLY.
Download the COLORING SHEET and bring a BRAVE DRAWING of ANYTHING to the event and you’ll receive a dollar off a purchase of a signed copy of BAD DRAWER!
Seth Fishman is the author of A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars, a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award Honor book and winner of the Mathical Prize, as well as Power Up and The Ocean in Your Bathtub, all illustrated by Isabel Greenberg. He lives with his family in Los Angeles, California.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/fishman-bad-drawer-launch
Venice Book Club: The Midnight Library at Venice Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Venice Book Club meets on the last Tuesday of the month, alternating between fiction and non-fiction, and will discuss this month’s fiction selection, The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig.
This fantasy novel concerns the potential lives every human can experience depending on the choices they make in the present. Somewhere between life and death, Nora Seed finds herself wandering the marble hallways of a never-ending library; “The Midnight Library.” The library is the physical embodiment of life and death, or an in-between state where one addresses what makes life worth living.
Where: Venice-Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/venice-book-club-1
Phy-Sci Book Club: Other Minds at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Phi-Sci Book Club will discuss its monthly selection, Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith.
In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how subjective experience crept into being—how nature became aware of itself. As the author stresses, it is a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared. Tracking the mind’s fitful development, he shows how unruly clumps of seaborne cells began living together and became capable of sensing, acting, and signaling. As these primitive organisms became more entangled with others, they grew more complicated. Taking an independent route, mammals and birds later began their own evolutionary journeys.
By tracing the question of inner life back to its roots and comparing human beings with our most remarkable animal relatives, Godfrey-Smith casts crucial new light on the octopus mind—and on our own.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/phy-sci-book-club-other-minds
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 25th
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 25th
Time: 6 pm – 9 pm
Address: 8857 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-mic-mickys-tickets-383607930647?aff=erelpanelorg
Mystery Book Club: The Busman’s Honeymoon at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the Playa Vista Branch Library for a discussion of the Mystery Book Club selection this month: The Busman’s Honeymoon, by Dorothy L. Sayers.
Dorothy L. Sayers is considered by many to be the premier detective novelist of the Golden Age, and her dashing sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, one of mystery fiction’s most enduring and endearing protagonists.
The fourth Dorothy L. Sayers classic to feature mystery writer Harriet Vane, Busman’s Honeymoon features an introduction by Elizabeth George, herself a crime fiction master. Harriet and her love, Lord Peter, have finally tied the knot but begin their married life together on an unexpectedly sour note when a body is discovered in the cellar of their romantic country estate.
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-2
Michael Seth Starr, with Jeff Abraham, & Don Rickles: The Merchant of Venom via Book Soup – Online Event
Michael Seth Starr, in conversation with Jeff Abraham, will present and discuss his new book, Don Rickles: The Merchant of Venom.
Considered the world’s greatest insult comic, Don Rickles was a legendary comedy giant, honorary Rat Pack member, and “equal opportunity offender” who defied political correctness, transcended every medium, entertained, influenced and insulted generations of comedians and fans over his six-decade career. Now in the first-ever biography and in-depth portrait of Don Rickles, New York Post television editor and celebrity biographer Michael Seth Starr delivers a hilarious, moving look at the real man behind the sting.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/michael-seth-starr
In Conversation: Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao, Lester Walker, Ossayi Endolyn, and Cari Champion & Black Power Kitchen at CAAM with Reparations Club Bookstore – In-Person Event
Celebrate the launch of the cookbook/manifesto Black Power Kitchen with creators Ghetto Gastro—the Bronx-born culinary collective that uses food as a platform to examine inclusion, race, and access. Black Power Kitchen, their first cookbook, combines seventy-five mostly plant-based recipes with immersive storytelling and striking imagery that celebrate Black culture and inspire larger conversations, about how eating well can be a pathway to personal freedom and self-empowerment. Join collective members Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao, and Lester Walker for a conversation with Black Power Kitchen co-author Osayi Endolyn, moderated by broadcast journalist Cari Champion that will center on Black culinary traditions and art as tools for resistance.
Presented in partnership with Reparations Club Bookstore. The Ghetto Gastro Black Power Kitchen Book Tour is sponsored by Discord.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: CAAM with Reparations Club
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 600 State Drive, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, CA 90037
Book Launch: Adam Borba & Outside Nowhere at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person MG & Teen Event
Local author Adam Borba, in conversation with David Lowery, is launching his sophomore novel Outside Nowhere about a young boy finding his place among friends and family with a hint of the impossible and black and white illustrations. Adam will be in conversation with David Lowery. Reminiscent of modern classics such as Louis Sachar’s Holes this book is best for ages 9+.
From Adam Borba, the author of The Midnight Brigade, this heartwarming and humorous middle grade novel follows one boy’s summer adventure at a peculiar farm in the middle of nowhere.
Adam Borba is a writer and filmmaker from California who helps develop and produce movies for Walt Disney Studios. Outside Nowhere is his second novel.
David Lowery is a filmmaker whose movies include Pioneer, A Ghost Story, Pete’s Dragon and The Green Knight.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and further details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/outside-nowhere
Non-Fiction Book Club & Picasso’s War at Pages Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Non-Fiction Book Club will meet and discuss this month‘s book selection, Picasso’s War: How Modern Art Came to America, by Hugh Eakin.
This book is the riveting story of how dueling ambitions and the power of prodigy made America the cultural center of the world—and Picasso the most famous artist alive—in the shadow of World War II
Picasso’s War is the never-before-told story about how a single exhibition, a decade in the making, irrevocably changed American taste, and in doing so, saved dozens of the twentieth century’s most enduring artworks from the Nazis. Through a deft combination of new scholarship and vivid storytelling, Hugh Eakin shows how two men and their obsession with Picasso changed the art world forever.
Hugh Eakin, a senior editor at Foreign Affairs, has written about museums and the art world for The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and The New York Times.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Pages Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/non-fiction-book-club-6
Martine Syms & Rocket Caleshu & The African Desperate at Poetic Research Bureau – In-Person Event
Rosie Stockton hosts the book launch for The African Desperate by Martine Syms and Rocket Caleshu the acerbically funny and intimate screenplay for acclaimed visual artist Martine Syms’s debut film.
Martine Syms has earned wide recognition for a practice that combines conceptual grit, humor, and social commentary. She has shown extensively, including solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Tate Liverpool. She is a recipient of the Creative Capital Award, a United States Artists fellowship, the Tiffany Foundation award, and the Future Fields Art Prize. She lives in Los Angeles.
Writer Rocket Caleshu is based in Los Angeles. He holds a BA in Africana Studies from Brown University and an MFA in Creative Writing/Critical Studies from the California Institute of the Arts, where he was the inaugural Truman Capote Literary Fellow. He received the 2016 Black Warrior Review Prize in Nonfiction. His work has been published in Poetry Magazine, New Delta Review, Dilettante Journal, and others.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.poeticresearch.com/events/martine-syms-amp-rocket-caleshu
Bruce Davis & The Academy & The Award at Vroman’s – In-Person Rescheduled Event
Author Bruce Davis will present and discuss his book, The Academy & The Award: The Coming of Age of Oscar and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Bruce Davis, executive director of the Academy for over twenty years, was given unprecedented access to its archives, and the result is a revealing and compelling story of the men and women, famous and infamous, who shaped one of the best-known organizations in the world. Davis writes about the Academy with as intimate a view of its workings, its awards, and its world-famous membership. Thorough and long overdue, The Academy and the Award fills a crucial gap in Hollywood history.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 258h
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/bruce-davis-discusses-the-academy-and-the-award
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Robbi Nester – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Robbi Nester.
Robbi Nester is is a poet, writer, and retired educator. She is the author of four books of poetry: a chapbook, Balance (White Violet, 2012), and three collections: A Likely Story (Moon Tide, 2014), Other-Wise (Kelsay, 2017), and Narrow Bridge (Main Street Rag, 2019). She has also edited three anthologies of poetry, including The Liberal Media Made Me Do It! (Nine Toes, 2014), Birds, Beasts, and Trees (published as a special issue of Poemeleon poetry journal) and most recently, The Plague Papers. A folio of Robbi’s poems was published by Glass Lyre Press in Aeolian Harp, Volume VI, alongside other poets.
Robbi holds an MA in Writing from Hollins University, an MFA in Poetry from UC Irvine, and a PhD in Comparative Literature from UC Irvine. She taught composition and literature at all levels for over 30 years at various colleges and universities, as well as Humanities Core Course and a survey in the novel, Romance and Realism, at the University of California, Irvine. Although she has retired from teaching in the classroom, Robbi still tutors and freelances as a writer and editor, working with students from 15 through graduate school and adult writers of all ages.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show – In-Person Event
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show is offered every week at the Unurban Coffee House. Hosted by DeForest Wright, all are invited to attend.
NOTE: Details at event link.
Where: Unurban Coffee House
Date: Tuesday the 25th
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 25th
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 25th
Time: 9 pm – 12 am
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA
Website: https://dipiazzas.com/tickets-%26-events
Mystery Book Group & Bayou Book Thief at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Mystery Book Group will discuss this month’s selection, Bayou Book Thief, by Ellen Byron.
Whether you loved it, hated it, or haven’t finished it, we want to see you at our Mystery Book Group at America’s Oldest Children’s Bookstore!
As a special treat, we will be hosting the author Ellen Byron during the club meeting. PLUS, we will be voting this month, so bring your choices!
We will be meeting to discuss the book outside of the shop in the circle in front of Star Cafe. You may still email your thoughts to share with our club if you are unable to attend in-person.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 9 am – 10:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/mystery-book-group-bayou-book-thief-ellen-byron
An Evening with Horror Author Gregory Schaefer at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Gregory Schaefer will present and discuss Mr. Pearsons Lives on Danbury Drive.
The small quiet town of Kilmarnock Virginia thrives on cheer and loving friends and neighbors. However, an evil lurks within one house on Danbury Drive. An evil that seeks to kill those who dare to trespass. It is up to four residents of the town to destroy it and rid Kilmarnock of the sinister presence once and for all.
Gregory Schaefer is an author of horror novellas. His love for writing started at a young age and he has been pursuing his writing ever since. His favorite author and inspiration is the great Stephen King.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/20641
An Evening of Pinay Poetry: Arlene Biala, Marianne Chan, Danni Quintos & Barbara Jane Reyes via Bel Canto Bookstore – Online Event
Celebrate Filipino American History Month with an Evening of Pinay Poetry, featuring:
Arlene Biala is a Pinay poet and performance artist born in San Francisco, CA and raised in the South Bay. She is the author of bone, her first chapbook of poetry published in 1993; continental drift, published by West End Press in 1999; her beckoning hands, published by Word Poetry in July, 2014 and winner of the 2015 American Book Award; and one inch punch, published by Word Poetry in October, 2018. In addition to being a mother of three, Arlene has been working full-time since 1996 as an arts education and grants program manager for the City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs.
Marianne Chan grew up in Stuttgart, Germany, and Lansing, Michigan. Marianne is the author of All Heathens, which was the winner of the 2021 GLCA New Writers Award in Poetry, the 2021 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry, and the 2022 Association for Asian American Studies Book Award for Outstanding Achievement. She lives in Cincinnati, where she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in English & Creative Writing at the University of Cincinnati.
Danni Quintos is the author of the poetry collection, Two Brown Dots (BOA Editions, 2022), chosen by Aimee Nezhukumatathil as winner of the A. Poulin Jr. Prize, and PYTHON (Argus House, 2017), an ekphrastic chapbook featuring photography by her sister, Shelli Quintos. She is a Kentuckian, a knitter, an educator, and an Affrilachian Poet. She received her BA from The Evergreen State College, and her MFA in Poetry from Indiana University. Her work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, Cream City Review, Cincinnati Review, The Margins, Best New Poets 2015, Salon, and elsewhere. Quintos lives in Lexington with her kid & farmer-spouse & their little dog too.
Barbara Jane Reyes is the author of Letters to a Young Brown Girl (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2020). Born in Manila, Philippines, raised in the SF Bay Area, she is also the author of Gravities of Center (Arkipelago Books, 2003), Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish, 2005), Diwata (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2010), To Love as Aswang (PAWA Inc., 2015), and Invocation to Daughters (City Lights, 2017). Her seventh book, Wanna Peek Into My Notebook?: Notes on Pinay Liminality, is out now from Paloma Press.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Bel Canto Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Quest Book Club: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
October’s monthly Quest Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson.
In this beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family’s dark secret readers are taken deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.thebookjewel.com/quest-book-club
Book Launch: Aida Salaza, with Jennifer Torres, & A Seed in the Sun at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Event
Re/Arte will host a book launch for author Aida Salazar’s book, A Seed in the Sun. She will be in conversation with Jennifer Torres, author of Lola Out Loud.
A Seed in the Sun is a children’s book about a farm-working girl with big dreams who meets activist Dolores Huerta and joins the 1965 protest for workers’ rights in this tender-hearted novel in verse.
Aida Salazar is an award-winning author and arts activist whose writings for adults and children explore issues of identity and social justice. She is the author of the critically acclaimed middle-grade verse novels The Moon Within and Land of the Cranes. Her forthcoming books include the picture book anthology In the Spirit of a Dream: 13 Stories of Immigrants of Color (Orchard Books, 2021), the picture book biography Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Mexican Freedom Fighter (Scholastic Press, 2022), the middle-grade novel A Seed in the Sun (Dial, 2022), and the middle-grade anthology My New Gift: 16 Period Stories from BIPOC Authors (Candlewick, 2023). Aida is a founding member of LAS MUSAS—a Latinx kid lit debut author collective. Her story, “By the Light of the Moon,” was adapted into a ballet production by the Sonoma Conservatory of Dance and is the first Xicana-themed ballet in history. She lives with her family of artists in a teal house in Oakland, California.
Jennifer Torres’ Lola Out Loud is a powerful imagined story about real-life civil rights activist and labor leader Dolores Huerta that reminds us that even our biggest heroes started out small. It’s a warm and rollicking picture book that reminds us that sometimes one strong voice is just what we need.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Mystery & Thriller Book Club: Need You Now at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the Studio City Branch Library online for a discussion of the Mystery & Thriller Book Club selection this month: Need You Now, by James Grippando.
This is a story ripped from the headlines, in which a young financial adviser and his girlfriend uncover a conspiracy that reaches from Wall Street to Washington, from the trading floors of the Stock Exchange to the deepest halls of government. Danger and conspiracy lie behind every plot and promise, and the future of the nation lies in the hands of an unlikely champion.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-thriller-book-club-0
Deborah Driggs & Son of a Basque at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Deborah Driggs will present and discuss her book, Son of a Basque.
This book is a fictionalized autobiography, written by Mark Arrieta and discovered by his family after his death. Deborah Driggs, his granddaughter, completed the book to share Mark’s legacy and his resilience, his courage, and his commitment to his country and his family with the world. It’s a historical novel of cultural pride, duty, sacrifice, and intergenerational love. It is also an immigrant’s story, a survivor’s story, and a story of the bonds and gifts of family that will resonate with many people.
Deborah Driggs got hooked on performing at age seven as a figure skater and found fame in her 20s as a model and actress. She now works as a healing coach, helping others work through their emotional trauma, get out of the victim mentality, and step into their highest self. Upon finding her grandfather’s unfinished, fictionalized autobiography upon his death, she set out to finish the book and tell his remarkable story in what she calls an act of “intergenerational love.”
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Deborah-driggs-october-26-Author-signing
L.A. Times Book Club Presents: Lydia Millet & Dinosaurs at The Autry Museum – In-Person Event
Lydia Millet will present and discuss her new novel, Dinosaurs, which follows her recent acclaimed novel, A Children’s Bible, which explored climate change and was a 2020 National Book Award finalist.
Dinosaurs is the story of a 40-something protagonist who escapes Manhattan seeking solitude in the West after a devastating breakup, only to find himself living next door to a family in a glass house.
Publisher’s Weekly calls “Dinosaurs” a “brilliant story of survival.” Lydia Millet has written more than a dozen novels and story collections, including “Fight No More” and “Love in Infant Monkeys” She lives in the desert outside Tucson and has worked as an editor and writer at the Center for Biological Diversity since 1999.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Autry Museum of the American West
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA
New Short Fiction Series: Emerging Voices, with Sally Shore & Guests – Online Event
Sally Shore will present the New Short Fiction Series, offering L.A’s longest running spoken word series, which has offered 26 years of new fiction voices.
This show of West Coast Fiction will have a new guest cast.
Ticket sales close three hours before the performance stream.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, link, and details.
Where: New Short Fiction Series
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Crowdcast Event (see site)
Website: https://newshortfictionseries.net/
Book Launch: Gordon Raphael, with Piper Ferguson, & The World Is Going to Love This at Stories Books & Café – In–Person Event
Producer Gordon Raphael, in conversation with photographer Piper Ferguson, will present his book, The World Is Going to Love This, which recounts his role in the rise of The Strokes, as well as Regina Spektor, The Libertines and other luminaries.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 7 pm- 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026, CA 90266
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Wil Wheaton Presents & Signs: Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Wil Wheaton will present and sign his new book,Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir
From starring in Stand by Me to playing Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation to playing himself, in his second (third?) iconic role of Evil Wil Wheaton in The Big Bang Theory, to becoming a social media supernova, Wil Wheaton has charted a career course unlike anyone else, and has emerged as one of the most popular and well-respected names in science fiction, fantasy and pop culture.
Back in 2001, Wil began blogging on wilwheaton.net. Believing himself to have fallen victim to the curse of the child actor, Wil felt relegated to the convention circuit, and didn’t expect many would want to read about his random experiences and personal philosophies.
Yet, much to his surprise, people were reading. He still blogs, and now has an enormous following on social media with well over 3 million followers.
In Still Just a Geek, Wil revisits his 2004 collection of blog posts, Just a Geek, filled with insightful and often laugh-out-loud annotated comments, additional later writings, and all new material written for this publication.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/wil-wheaton-presents-still-just-a-geek-oct-26
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 26th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.theworldstage.org/events.html
Reading and Conversation: Constance Debre, with Chris Krause, & Love Me Tender at Poetic Research Bureau – In-Person Event
Constance Debre, in conversation with Chris Krause, will present and discuss her book, Love Me Tender.
The daughter of an illustrious French family whose members include a former Prime Minister, a model, and a journalist, Constance Debré abandoned her marriage and legal career in 2015 to write full-time and begin a relationship with a woman. Her transformation from affluent career woman to broke single lesbian was chronicled in her 2018 novel Play boy.
In Love Me Tender, Debré goes on to further describe the consequences of that life-changing decision. Debré speaks courageously of love in its many forms, reframing what it means to be a mother beyond conventional expectations.
Contance Debré is a Villa Albertine resident with the support of the Consulat général de France à Los Angeles. Reinventing artists’ residencies, Villa Albertine is creating a network for arts and ideas spanning France and the United States. It offers tailor-made residencies for global creators, thinkers and cultural professionals. https://villa-albertine.org.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.poeticresearch.com/events/constance-debr
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 26th
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 26th
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-362733033267?aff=erelpanelorg
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry & Annie Freshwater 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 Annie Freshwater.
The format is to welcome a featured poet for a reading, and an Open Mic reading. Tonight’s featured reader is Annie Freshwater.
Annie Freshwater is a writer, educator, and mother in Southern California. She has studied creative writing and literature at the University of Redlands, Oxford University, and Chapman University.
With a deep love of both horror and the supernatural, Annie’s work is primarily dark fantasy, with elements of romance woven in. Her writing is lyrical and evocative, rife with magic and suspense.
Her debut novel, Run Jake, is now available exclusively on Amazon. She is currently writing the sequel.
When she isn’t working on a novel, Annie enjoys teaching mythology and reading in both the fantasy and horror genres. You can often find her wandering old oak forests or getting tattooed.
$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 26th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Two-Idiots-Peddling-Poetry/ or
Gothic Poetry Night 2: Poets & Open Mic at Sage Restaurant & Lounge – In-Person Event
This Halloween themed event invites you to come dressed in costume if you like. There will be vendors, food, drinks, book signings, meet and greets, and an Open Mic (guidelines at site) from 4 pm – 6 pm!
If you enjoy poetry and spoken word, and are intrigued by the darkness, join the featured poets of the evening at the Open Mic segment of this event.
Poets Brenda Vaca, Jean-Pierre Rueda, Natalie Sierra, Elodia Esperanza Benitez and Jonathan Santa Maria will be accompanied by Kakophonix on the Cello.
Brenda Vaca is the author of the collection, Riot of Roses, and the founder of Riot of Roses Press. She is a former minister, CLI participant, and student, and is now a community literary organizer. Her first children’s book is forthcoming in 2022.
Jean-Pierre Rueda is the author of a poetry in Spanish titled HERENCIAS (Alegria Publishing), as well as Her Eyes Were the Moon and I Was the Waves.
Natalie Sierra (she/they) is a first generation Latinx poet & author. Natalie studied journalism at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, CA. Their work has been featured online and in print, in the Sinister Smile Press horror anthologies, Her Heart Poetry, Fine Print Paper, Ink and Nebula, Quail Bell Magazine, South Broadway Ghost Society, Westwind Magazine, a Journal for the arts UCLA, and the Los Angeles Times. Natalie marks her professional debut with a volume of poetry, Medusa (Fall, 2020), with DSTL Arts. She is also the author of three volumes of poetry and short stories: Nadine: Love Songs for Demented Housewives, Temblors, and Strangelove: Tales of Love and Lust. Natalie Sierra lives in Pomona, CA.
Elodia Esperanza Benitez is a poet from Gilroy, CA and the author of Love in Many Faces.
Jonathan Santa Maria is the host of this event. He is the author of When the Light Does Not Shine and a forthcoming book of poetry. The author was a professional mixed martial artist. He has fought for organizations like Bellator MMA and Combate Americas. In his spare time, Jonathan works in the mental health field, assisting those in need. Jonathan lived in the house on Danby Street, where this book was inspired.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Sage Restaurant & Lounge
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 4 pm – 10 pm
Address: 6511 Greenleaf Ave., Whittier, CA 90601
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gothic-poetry-night-2-tickets-421515994687
Teen Book Club: Legend at Sherman Oaks Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Teen Event
Sherman Oaks Martin Pollard Branch Library hosts a new Teen Book Club for 7-12 graders. This month’s selection for discussion is the book Legend, by Marie Lu.
This dystopian novel is full of suspense and has alternating narrators. The author wrote Legend (Book 1) and followed it up with Prodigy, and Champion, as well as The Young Elites.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details. Email ksmith@lapl.org for the Zoom link to join.
Where: Sherman Oaks Martin Pollard Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 14245 Moorpark St., Sherman Oaks, CA 91423 & Online
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/teen-book-club-3
NANOWRIMO Prep Session with Francesca Lia Block at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Francesca Lia Block will lead a “Prep Session” for those who wish to participate in National November Writing Month activities to write their own novel.
Francesca Lia Block, M.F.A., is the author of more than twenty-five books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association and from the New York Times Book Review, and Publisher’s Weekly. Her work has been translated into many languages. Francesca teaches fiction at UCLA Extension, Antioch University, and privately in Los Angeles.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/20669
The Poet Speaks Workshop with Amanda Eke via The Poetry Lab – Online Event
The Poet Speaks is a 4-week series of workshops led by Amanda Eke.
The goal of The Poet Speaks Workshop is to learn about Nigerian and Igbo oral traditions of rhyme and verse and correlate their history to the contemporary spoken word culture.
Participants will learn oral traditions and their histories in these contexts while solidifying the fundamental skills of rhyme. We will build self-confidence, articulate thoughts and feelings through interactive spoken word exercises, and explore spoken word through theatre and choral reading techniques.
Workshop dates: October 27, November 3, 10, and 17.
Writers of all levels of experience are welcome.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, and event details.
Where: The Poetry Lab
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.thepoetrylab.com/register/poet-speaks
Cover to Cover Book Club: A Visit from the Goon Squad at Mid-Valley Regional Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the Cover to Cover Book Club to discuss this month’s selection, A Visit from The Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan.
This prize-winning novel, full of self-destructing and redemptive characters, is a creative blend of satire, romance, and innovative stylistic passages.
NOTE: See site for tickets, link, and details.
Where: Mid-Valley Regional Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 16244 Nordhoff St., North Hills, CA 91343
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/cover-cover-book-club
LGBTQ Book Club: She Who Became the Sun at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The LGBTQ Book Club will discuss its monthly selection, She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor Duology #1) by Shelley Parker-Chan.
This epic fantasy is set in 1345 China, under harsh Mongol rule, where starving peasants on the Central Plains find greatness only in stories. In an effort to escape her own fated death, a girl uses her deceased brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, she learns she’s capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/lgbtq-book-club-she-who-became-sun
Aida Salazar, with Isabel Quintero, & A Seed in the Sun at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Middle Grade Event
Aida Salazar, in conversation with Isabel Quintero, will present and discuss her middle grade book, A Seed in the Sun.
This middle grade book is about Lula Viramontes, who aches to become someone whom no one can ignore: a daring ringleader in a Mexican traveling circus. But between working the grape harvest in Delano, California, with her older siblings under dangerous conditions; taking care of her younger siblings and Mamá, who has mysteriously fallen ill; and doing everything she can to avoid Papá’s volatile temper, it’s hard to hold on to those dreams. Then she meets Dolores Huerta and other labor rights activists and realizes she may need to raise her voice sooner rather than later: Farmworkers are striking for better treatment and wages, and whether Lula’s family joins them or not will determine their future.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside Ca 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/aidasalazar
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 27th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 900
Website: https://reartela.com/eve nts%2Feventos
John Freeman, Tayi Tibble & Natalie Shapero & Wind, Trees, and other selected works at Diesel Bookstore – In-Person Event
In Wind, Trees John Freeman presents a meditation on power and loss, change and adaptation. What can the trees teach us about inhabiting space together? What might we gain if we admit we do not control the wind, and cannot possibly carry all we’ve been handed? Offering a stark moral critique of pandemic self-preservation through narrative lyric and metaphysical pulse, meandering thought and punctuating quiet, Freeman studies the devastating failings of humanity and the redemptive possibilities of love.
John Freeman is the founder of Freeman’s, the literary annual of new writing, and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf. His work includes the poetry collections Maps and The Park, the book-length essay Dictionary of the Undoing, and several anthologies, among them Tales of Two Americas, a volume on inequality in America, Tales of Two Planets, which examines the climate crisis globally, and There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love, coedited by Tracy K. Smith, a portrait of the United States on the cusp of revolution, climate crisis, and the upheavals of a pandemic. His work has been translated into over twenty languages, and his poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and ZYZZYVA. The former editor of Granta, he teaches at NYU and hosts the California Book Club, a monthly discussion of a book from California for Alta Journal.
Tay Tibble (Te Whānau ā Apanui/Ngāti Porou) was born in 1995 and lives in Wellington, New Zealand. In 2017, she completed a master’s degree in creative writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington, where she was the recipient of the Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing. Her second book of poetry, Rangikura, will be published in the United States in 2023. In her debut, Poukahangatus, she explores her identity as a twenty-first-century Indigenous woman. Poem by poem, Tibble carves out a bold new way of engaging history, of straddling modernity and ancestry, desire and exploitation.
Natalie Shapero’s third collection, Popular Longing, highlights the ever-increasing absurdity of our contemporary life. With her sharp, sardonic wit, Shapero deftly captures human meekness in all its forms: our senseless wars, our inflated egos, our constant deference to presumed higher powers, whether they be romantic partners, employers, institutions, or gods. “Why even/look up, when all we’ll see is people/looking down?” In a world where everyone must answer to someone, it seems no one is equipped to disrupt the status quo and how the most urgent topics of conversation can only be approached through refraction.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines & information.
Where: Diesel Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/john-freeman-tay-tibble-natalie-shapero-Author-signing
L.A. Independent Presses: Sunflower Station & Not a Cult Poets at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Livestream Event
Sunflower Station and Not a Cult will present readings by L.A.-based poets Tori Gesualdo, Sheila J. Sadr, Edwin Bodney & Paasha Motamedi + DJ set.
Sheila J. Sadr is a first-generation Iranian American poet, journalist, educator, and resident cow-enthusiast nuzzled somewhere between Orange County & Long Beach, California. She writes about love, her family, her communities, flowers, and her whole heart. She is the author of the poetry collection, Birthday Girl.
Alexandra Jade is an employee at Stories Books & Cafe and she is looking for willing devotees to her life and work.
Tori Gesualdo is a Los Angeles based poet and bookseller. Her poems are an effort at catharsis and recollection of her personal responsibility to her own healing and the healing of the collective. She can be found at Stories in Echo Park, coaxing your friends to read anti-capitalist literature.
Edwin Bodney is a Black, Queer, non-binary artist, award-winning educator, and nationally recognized poet from Los Angeles. As someone living with M.S.—along with the rest of the world’s chaos—they strive to remind all vulnerable communities of their joy and laughter. Edwin and their work has been featured in publications like Button Poetry, Platypus Press, The Exposition Review, The Advocate, Lexus, TvOne, Amazon Prime, UW-Madison, and many others. Their full-length book of poetry, A Study of Hands (2017), is available for purchase through Not A Cult Media.
Paasha Motamedi is an Iranian Indonesian artist based in Los Angeles. Born in San Diego and raised on the Navy island of Coronado, he began photographing to supplement his poetry to explain problems and questions he had with his environment growing up Middle Eastern post-9/11 in a Navy town. He has most recently turned his attention to painting as an additional mode of expression.
With roots in Los Angeles, The Bay Area, and The Pacific Northwest, Sunflower Station Press is a space for burgeoning artists to gather, create, and share. We seek to center artists whose work grapples with their surroundings. The primary question we are concerned with is how to interpret and stitch together the spectrum of experiences, joys, pleasures, and pains that arise in a world that can feel senseless and absurd at times. Our answer is Sunflower Station.
Started in 2016, Not a Cult publishes voices that challenge, inspire, and inform our path to grow through new perspectives.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, link, and details.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm DJ set; 8 pm readings
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Liz Goldwyn & Sex, Health, and Consciousness: How to Reclaim Your Pleasure Potential at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Liz Goldwyn will present and discuss her new book,Sex, Health, and Consciousness: How to Reclaim Your Pleasure Potential.
This book explores how the intersection of sex, health, and consciousness unlocks a new paradigm of pleasure. It covers spiritual and energetic influences on sexuality, such as the chakra system, yin and yang energies, mindfulness practice, and more, as well as social and biological factors, including research on sexual health and first-person accounts of sexual awakening.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Red Hen Press Poetry Reading: Ron Koertge & Diane Thiel at Flintridge Bookstore – In-Person Event
Ron Koertge will readfrom his new collection, I Dreamed I Was Emily Dickenson’s Boyfriend, which is both very funny and very serious, with a playful imagination.
Ron Koertge, a longtime 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), Indigo (Red Hen Press 2009), The Ogre’s Wife (Red Hen Press 2013), and Vampire Planet (Red Hen Press 2015). He is the recipient of grants from the NEA 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,” the prose poem upon which the stop-motion film by the same name was based and was shortlisted for an Oscar in Animated Short Films in 2018.
Diane Thiel will read from her new collection, Questions from Outer Space, which explores fresh and often humorous perspectives that capture the surreal quality of our swiftly changing lives on this planet. The poems travel through questions on many fronts, challenging assumptions and locating unique angles of perception.
Diane Thiel is the author of ten books of poetry and nonfiction, including Echolocations and Resistance Fantasies. Thiel’s work has appeared in Poetry, The Hudson Review, The Hopkins Review, and numerous other publications. Her awards include a PEN Award, the Nicholas Roerich Prize, and a Fulbright. Thiel received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Brown University and has traveled and lived in Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia, working on literary and environmental projects. She is Professor of English and Associate Chair at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and lives in the Sandia Mountain foothills.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Flintridge Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 858 Foothill Blvd., La Canada Flintridge, CA 91011
Website: https://www.flintridgebooks.com/instore-events/2022/10/27/poetry-reading-ron-koertge-amp-diane-thiel
Architecture and Beyond at the Los Feliz Library, LAPLwith Skylight Bookstore – Online Zoom Event
This Architecture and Beyond Event will present and discuss Port of Los Angeles: conflict, Commerce, and the Fight for Control (Angel City Press).
With years of research and more than 200 maps and images, Geraldine Knatz shapes an insightful story of the Port of Los Angeles, from its early entrepreneurs to the city’s business and political leadership, and the inevitable conflicts that arose between them. Knatz digs into the back stories of the key players in a hardcore, well-documented piece of storytelling at its best.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 277h
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N, Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/architecture-and-beyond-los-feliz-library
At Skylight: Ethan Chatagnier, with Ana Reyes, & Singer Distance at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Ethan Chatagnier, in conversation with Ana Reyes, will present and discuss his gender-bending debut, Singer Distance, which asks what it really means to know we’re not alone in the universe.
Ethan Chatagnier’s Singer Distance is a novel about ambition, loneliness, exploration, and love—about how far we’re willing to go to communicate with a distant civilization, and the great lengths we’ll travel to connect with each other here on Earth.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 277h
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N, Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/architecture-and-beyond-los-feliz-library
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 27th
Address: 665 N. Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.instagram.com/fos_thursdays/
Spooktacular Storytime for Children at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Spooktacular Storytime is offered Friday morning at 9:30 am. Storytime is ready to delight and dazzle with troubadour Maddie, and it is geared for children ages 3-6.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/spooktacular-story-time
NoHo Book Club: A Place for Us at North Hollywood Regional Library, LAPL – Online Event
NoHo Book Club will meet to discuss A Place for Us, by Fatima Mirza.
Copies of the selected title may be found in the catalog or be accessed electronically on Hoopla and Overdrive with your library card.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: North Hollywood Amelia Earhart Regional Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 10 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/noho-book-club
Special Readings: Scary Stories Contest for Adults at The Book Jewel Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Book Jewel will host the winners of the Adult Scary Stories Contest to present readings and prizes for their efforts.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: The Book Jewel Bookstore
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Westchester, Los Angeles, CA 9o045
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjJuG8Sou1X/
Black Lit Book Club: The Sweetness of Water at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Black Lit Book Club will discuss its monthly selection, The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris.
This novel was selected by Oprah’s Book Club. “When brothers Prentiss and Landry are freed from the cruelties of slavery at the end of the Civil War by the Emancipation Proclamation, they take refuge in the woods nearby. George Walker and his wife, Isabelle, discover the brothers camping on their land, and with their own grief weighing heavily on them, offer the brothers work and shelter. But they are all navigating the end of the war, the end of slavery, in a place where the humanity of a person of color and the price of demanding acknowledgement of that humanity is often too high to pay. But humanity must be earned through acts of love and courage within a world filled with brutality and ugliness. In that space, the author achieves immense beauty and hope,” according to the Indie Next List review.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside Ca 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/black-lit-book-club-sweetness- water
A Conversation with the Writers of Departures: An Introduction to Critical Refugee Studies – In-Person Event
With Yến Lê Espiritu (UCSD), Ma Vang (UCM), Lan Duong (USC), Victor Bascara (UCLA), Nigel Hatton (UCM) and Fiori Berhane (USC)
Our guests will discuss the main axes for the book and its focus on refugees, asking the questions: Who is a refugee? What is Critical Refugee Studies? How to take action for refugees?
The Critical Refugee Studies Collective is a group of scholars and activists who intend to reframe what it means to be a refugee in today’s discourse. For more information about the Collective, please visit www.criticalrefugeestudies.com.
NOTE: See calendar/site for RSVP and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/a-conversation-with-the-writers-of-departures
LGBTQT Open Mic Night at Café con Libros Press Bookstore – In-Person Event
LGBTQT Open Mic Night at Café con Libros is hosted by Liam and Charlie in a fun event offered every 4th Friday of the month.
Share in a poem (serious, fun, or saucy) or enjoy a fun round of BEST STORY WINS.
NOTE: See calendar/site for guidelines and details.
Where: Café con Libros Press Bookstore
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 280 W. 2nd St., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: https://cafeconlibrospress.org/event-calendar/
K.M. Soehnlein, with J.H. Phrydas, & Army of Lovers at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Lambda Litertary Award-winner K.M. Soehnlein, in conversation with J.H. Phrydas, will present and discuss his new book,Army of Lovers.
This novel follows a young gay man swept up in the excitement, fury, and poignancy of the AIDS activist group ACT UP. I’s born out of the author’s own activism in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and blends history and fiction into an exploration of memory, community, love and justice.
Arriving in New York City full of idealism, Paul discovers the queer community gathering strength in the face of government inaction and social stigma. As he protests, parties, and makes a new home, he finds himself pulling away from his HIV-negative boyfriend to pursue an intense bond with a passionate, HIV-positive artist. Paul’s awakening parallels ACT UP’s rise, successes, and controversies. And then everything shifts again, as his family is thrust into their own life-and-death struggle that tests him even further.
JH Phrydas is an LA-based author of poetry, short stories, and nonfiction. His books include Levitations (Timeless, Infinite Light, 2015), Empire in Shade (Essay Press, 2017), and Imperial Physique (Punctum Books, 2019). Phrydas is currently working on a memoir about his relationship with the San Francisco-based underground artist Mr. David Glamamore: an AIDS-generation fashion designer, drag performer, and queer nightlife icon.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/km-soehnlein
Sunset Ecos: Poetry y Poesia del Sol at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Stories Books & Café presents Sunset Ecos reading series, hosted by Ivan Salinas & Karla Lamb:
The mission is to incite conversation, empower, & amplify creative voices in Echo Park & beyond. Join us for the third installment featuring a powerhouse lineup of local & regional talent including:
Obaasan Lin is the author of “Value,” a beautiful poem in Femme Issue 3.
Iris De Anda is a Guanaca Tapatia poet, speaker & musician who has been featured with KPFK & KPFA Pacifica Radio, organized with Academy of American Poets, performed at Los Angeles Latino Book Festival, Feria del Libro Tijuana, Mexico, Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba and is named one of Today’s Revolutionary Women of Color. Author of Codeswitch: Fires from Mi Corazon with Los Writers Underground Press 2014 & Roots of Redemption: You have No Right to Remain Silent with Flowersong Press 2022.
Dr. Donny N/A
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.
SUNSET ECOS (Spanish for echo) will be MC’d by Karla & Iván, with musical guest Rhys Langston.
NOTE: See site for book purchases, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
A Conversation with the Writers of Departures: An Introduction to Critical Refugee Studies at Vroman’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join a conversation with the writers in Departures: An Introduction to Critical Refugee Studies, including: Yến Lê Espiritu (UCSD), Ma Vang (UCM), Lan Duong (USC), Victor Bascara (UCLA), Nigel Hatton (UCM) and Fiori Berhane (USC).
These guests will discuss the main axes for the book and its focus on refugees, asking the questions: Who is a refugee? What is Critical Refugee Studies? How to take action for refugees?
The Critical Refugee Studies Collective is a group of scholars and activists who intend to reframe what it means to be a refugee in today’s discourse. For more information about the Collective, please visit http://www.criticalrefugeestudies.com.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/a-conversation-with-the-writers-of-departures
At Skylight: Andre Naffis-Sahely, with Christopher Soto, & High Desert at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Andre Naffis-Sahley, in conversation with Christopher Soto, will present and discuss his poetry collection, High Desert.
High Desert is an ode to the American Southwest, exploring such key events as the First Red Scare, the Tulsa Race Massacre and the West Coast’s wildfire epidemic.
The author’s reflections on class, race, and nationalism chart the region’s hidden histories from the Spanish Colonial Era to the current pandemic. The poems in High Desert also revel in their rootlessness, as the author shifts his gaze outside of the US, traveling from Venice and Florence to Chittagong and St Petersburg, tackling our turbulent times and the depths of its problems in searing, extraordinary poems of witness and vision.
André Naffis-Sahely is the author of two collections of poetry, The Promised Land: Poems from Itinerant Life (Penguin UK, 2017) and High Desert (Bloodaxe Books, 2022), as well as the editor of The Heart of a Stranger: An Anthology of Exile Literature (Pushkin Press, 2020). He also co-edited Mick Imlah: Selected Prose (Peter Lang, 2015) and The Palm Beach Effect: Reflections on Michael Hofmann (CB Editions, 2013). He has translated over twenty titles of fiction, poetry and nonfiction, including works by Honoré de Balzac, Émile Zola, Abdellatif Laâbi, Ribka Sibhatu and Tahar Ben Jelloun. His writing appears regularly in the pages of the Times Literary Supplement, The Baffler and Poetry (Chicago), among others. He is a lecturer at the University of California, Davis in the US and the editor of Poetry London in the UK.
Christopher Soto is a poet based in Los Angeles, California. His debut poetry collection, Diaries of a Terrorist, was published by Copper Canyon Press. This collection demands the abolition of policing and human caging. He was honored with Them’s 2022 Now Award in Literature for representing the cutting edge of queer culture.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Adventure in Art & Story: Seth Fishman Presents: Bad Drawer at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Seth Fishman will present and read his art and story book, Bad Drawer.
Storytelling works best with the help of friends in this new imaginative picture book—Bad Drawer, written by Seth Fishman. Seth will read his story, probably will NOT draw but we can see if he’s willing to show off his bad drawer skills, and then sign books. Best for artists, storytellers, and readers ages 4+.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/bad-drawer
Special Storytime: Karen Yin and Bonnie Lui Present: So Not Ghoul at Vroman’s Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Karen Yin and Bonnie Lui will present and read their children’s book, So Not Ghoul.
On her first day haunting a new school, all Mimi has to wear are old Chinese gowns from her great-great-great-great-great-ghost-grandmother. She wants to look horrifying and rattle chains with the cool American ghouls at school, but her ghost ancestors insist she dress and behave like a good Chinese ghost. Desperate to fit in and find a middle ground between her cultures, she plans a ghastly new look. But she questions whether her haunt couture is a fabulous fright or a grave mistake when her family finds out, and another ghoul at school appropriates her Chinese fashion.
This ghoulishly playful ghost story offers a boo-tiful reminder that while sometimes school and family can make you feel invisible, bicultural pride never goes out of style.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/karen-yin-and-bonnie-liu-present-not-so-ghoul
Special Readings: Scary Stories Contest for Children at The Book Jewel Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
The Book Jewel will host the winners of the Children’s Scary Stories Contest to present readings and prizes for their efforts.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: The Book Jewel Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 12 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Westchester, Los Angeles, CA 9o045
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjJuG8Sou1X/
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Readings by SPECTRUM 33 Writers, Hosted by G.T. Foster – In-Person Event
Saturday Afternoon Poetry presents readings by writers in SPECTRUM 33, hosted by G.T. Foster at Red Hen Press offices.
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry at Red Hen Press
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1540 Lincoln Ave., Pasadena, CA 91114
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
At Skylight: Toni Ann Johnson, with Shonda Buchanan & Cynthia Bond, & Light Skin Gone to Waste at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Toni Ann Johnson, in conversation with Shonda Buchanan and Cynthia Bond, will present and discuss her book. Light Skin Gone to Waste: Stories.
In 1962 Philip Arrington, a psychologist with a PhD from Yeshiva, arrives in the small, mostly blue-collar town of Monroe, New York, to rent a house for himself and his new wife. They’re Black, something the man about to show him the house doesn’t know. With that, we’re introduced to the Arringtons: Phil, Velma, his daughter Livia (from a previous marriage), and his youngest, Madeline, soon to be born. They’re cosmopolitan. Sophisticated. They’re also troubled, arrogant, and throughout the linked stories, falling apart.
We follow the family as Phil begins his private practice, as Velma opens her antiques shop, and as they buy new homes, collect art, go skiing, and have overseas adventures. It seems they’ve made it in the white world. However, young Maddie, one of the only Black children in town, bears the brunt of the racism and the invisible barriers her family’s money, education, and determination can’t free her from. As she grows up and realizes her father is sleeping with white women, her mother is violently mercurial, and her half-sister resents her, Maddie must decide who she is despite, or perhaps precisely because of, her family.
Toni Ann Johnson won the Flannery O’Connor Award for short fiction with her linked story collection Light Skin Gone to Waste (October 15, UGA Press), selected for the prize and edited by Roxane Gay. A novella, Homegoing won Accents Publishing’s inaugural novella contest and was published by the press in 2021. It was the Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 LARAMIE Awards. A novel, Remedy For a Broken Angel was published in 2014 and was nominated for a 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author.
Shonda Buchanan is the author of five books, including the award-winning memoir, Black Indian. Shonda is also the newest fiction faculty member in Alma College’s MFA Program. Writing on Tongva/Chumash land, Shonda is currently shopping her book of poetry about Nina Simone.
Cynthia Bond’s debut novel RUBY is a New York Times Bestseller and was selected for Oprah’s Book Club. RUBY was also a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and an Indie Next Pick. A PEN Rosenthal Fellow, Bond attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She founded the Blackbird Writing Collective in 2011 and she teaches writing workshops throughout the year.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
National Poetry Coalition Presents Coalescence: A Poetry Reading in Long Beach with Harryette Mullen, Peter J. Harris, Cathy Linh Che, and others at The Hubb – In-Person Outdoors Event
The Coalescence Poetry Reading is a free event, and will include featured poets Harryette Mullen, Peter J. Harris, Cathy Linh Che.
Harryette Mullen is a poet and a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she teaches creative writing and African American literature. Her collections of poetry include S*PeRM**K*T (1992), Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002), Recyclopedia (2006), and Urban Tumbleweed: Notes from a Tanka Diary (2012). Her poetry has been hailed by critics as unique, powerful, and challenging. Elisabeth A. Frost wrote in Contemporary Literature: “Crossing the lines between often isolated aesthetic camps, Harryette Mullen has pioneered her own form of bluesy, disjunctive lyric poetry, combining a concern for the political issues raised by identity politics with a poststructuralist emphasis on language.”
Peter J. Harris, winner of the City of LA’s 2017–’18 COLA Fellowship, is the author of Bless the Ashes, poetry (Tia Chucha Press), winner of the 2015 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award; and The Black Man of Happiness: In Pursuit of My “Unalienable Right”, a book of personal essays, winner of a 2015 American Book Award. Learn more at http://www.blackmanofhappiness.com/shop. Since the 1970s, Harris has published his work in a wide variety of publications, most recently in Voices from Leimert Park Redux, edited by Shonda Buchanan; Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, edited by Suzanne Lummis; Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology, edited by Thelma T. Reyna, poet laureate of Altadena; and Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes & Shifts in Los Angeles, edited by Neelanjana Banerjee, Daniel A. Olivas, and Ruben J. Rodriguez. Since 1992, he’s been a member of the Anansi Writers Workshop at the World Stage, in Los Angeles’s Leimert Park.
Cathy Linh Che is the author of the poetry collection Split (Alice James Books, 2014), winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize, the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the Best Poetry Book Award from the Association of Asian American Studies.
Ramon Garcia is the author of two books of poetry The Chronicles (Red Hen Press, 2015) and Other Countries (What Books Press, 2010), and a monograph on the artist Ricardo Valverde (University of Minnesota Press, 2013). The Chronicles was a finalist for the Latino International Book Award for Best Poetry Book in English in 2016.
García has published poetry, fiction and scholarly work in a variety of journals, anthologies, and museum catalogs. His poetry has appeared in Best American Poetry anthology, The Floating Borderlands: Twenty-Five Years of US-Hispanic Literature, The American Journal of Poetry, Los Angeles Review, and Mandorla: New Writing from the Americas.
Jessica Kim is the National Youth Poet Laureate of the West and the 2021-22 Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate. She has been recognized as a Youngarts Finalist in Writing (Poetry), Gregory Djanikian Scholar Finalist, and Commended Foyle Young Poet.
The Academy of American Poets, The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers/National Student Poets Program, Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center, CantoMundo, Cave Canem, Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, Indigenous Nations’ Poets (In-Na-Po), Kundiman, Lambda Literary, Letras Latinas, Mass Poetry, Mizna, O, Miami, The Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at SFSU, The Poetry Foundation, The Poetry Project, The Poetry Society of America, Poets House, Split This Rock, University of Arizona Poetry Center, Urban Word/National Youth Poet Laureate Program, Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, Woodland Pattern Book Center, Youth Speaks, and Zoeglossia.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Hubb
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 100 W. Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/coalescence-a-poetry-reading-in-long-beach-tickets-443739465687
VCP Poets SoCal Readings: Brendan Constantine & Students from Windward Creative Writing Program via VCP Poets Zoom Event – Online Event
Brendan Constantine will present poetry readings from students in the Windward School Creative Writing Program, hosted by poet Jerry Garcia.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: VCP SoCal Poets
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 3 pm
Address: Online Event Zoom: 704 755 6075 & PW: vcp@
Website: https://www.vcpsocal.org/
Vroman’s Local Author Day: Jane Olson, Vibiana Aparicio-Chamberlin & Bob Gossom at Vroman’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Local Authors Day will feature three guest authors presenting their works.
Jane Olson presentsWorld Citizen: Journeys of a Humanitarian.
These stories are about light and hope in the midst of unimaginable human suffering in war zones and places of extreme poverty around the world. Important lessons from a childhood in rural western Iowa are woven throughout, as are examples of human strength and resiliency. Each chapter can be read as a complete experience. Intimate details recorded by the author in journals and on film take the reader on memorable journeys with international human rights and humanitarian organizations.
Vibiana Aparicio-Chamberlin presents Chicana On Fire: Ignited by the 1970’s East L.A. Chicano Protest Movement.
Bob Gossom presents The Human Equation.
LA poet Bob Gossom is known for his distinctive poetry and love of music, movies, books, hiking, body surfing, and tap dancing. His new works are avidly anticipated by a small band of fanatic and loyal followers. His stage production “Versified” premiered January, 2020, at the Golden Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles.
His new book spans 50 years of observations on where we each factor in “The Human Equation.”
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Sunday, October 30th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/local-author-day-10-30
At Skylight: Katherine Savage, with Natasha Rao & Groundglass at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Katherine Savage, in conversation with Natasha Rao, will present and discuss her book, Groundglass.
Groundglass takes shape atop a polluted aquifer in Minnesota, beside trains that haul fracked crude oil, as Kathryn Savage confronts the transgressions of U.S. Superfund sites and brownfields against land, groundwater, neighborhoods, and people. Drawing on her own experiences growing up on the fence lines of industry and the parallel realities of raising a young son while grieving a father dying of a cancer with known environmental risk factors, the author traces concentric rings of connection—between our bodies, one another, our communities, and our ecosystem. She explores the porous boundary between self and environment, and the ambiguous yet growing body of evidence linking toxins to disease. Equal parts mourning poem and manifesto for environmental justice, Groundglass reminds us that no living thing exists on its own.
Kathryn Savage’s writing has appeared in American Short Fiction, Ecotone Magazine, the Virginia Quarterly Review, BOMB, and the anthology Rewilding: Poems for the Environment. Recipient of the Academy of American Poets James Wright Prize, she has received support from fellowships and residencies including the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Minnesota State Arts Board, Ucross Foundation, and Tulsa Artist Fellowship. She lives with her family in Minneapolis and teaches creative writing at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Natasha Rao is a poet and educator from New Jersey. Her debut collection, Latitude, was selected by Ada Limón as the winner of the 2021 APR/Honickman First Book Prize. The recipient of a 2021 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, she has also received support from Bread Loaf, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Community of Writers, and was named a Djanikian Scholar by The Adroit Journal. Her work appears in The Nation, American Poetry Review, The New York Times Magazine, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. She holds a BA from Brown University and an MFA from NYU, where she was a Goldwater Fellow. She is currently an editor at American Chordata and lives in Brooklyn.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-kathryn-savage-presents-groundglass-natasha-rao
Los Angeles Literature 