Book Club Bonanza and Indigenous Voices: YA Discussion of A Snake Falls to Earth via Central Library, LAPL – Online Teen Event
This book club for teens will read a YA fiction book to read to celebrate Indigenous Voices month, and today will discuss this month’s selection, A Snake Falls to Earth, by Little Darcie Badger.
In this work of Indigenous futurism, the author draws on traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure to weave another unforgettable tale of monsters, magic, and family.
Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She’s always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories.
Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he’s been cast from home. He’s found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake.
Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli’s best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven’t been in centuries.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 28th
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-bonanza-indigenous-voices-0
Quantum Book Club: Exhalation at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
The Quantum Book Club will discuss its monthly selection, Exhalation, by Ted Chiang.
Exhalation is a story about a mechanical being who lives in an enclosed universe. Wanting to better understand how its memories work, the unnamed narrator dissects its own brain and learns its thoughts are air powered.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Monday the 28th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/CkQ22QFtY-b/?hl=en
Joint Book Launch: Kyra Simone & Anna Moschovakis at Stories Books & Cafe – In-Person Event
Kyra Simone will present and discuss her book, Palace of Rubble.
This book is a collection of one-page stories composed primarily of single words culled each day from the New York Times. Written under constraint in the tradition of Oulipo and initially inspired by a photograph of one of Saddam Hussein’s demolished palaces during the fall of Baghdad, these hybrid works of prose are invoked by a historical moment spanning the eras of Bush, Obama, Trump, and into the present day…
Kyra Simone is a Tunisian American writer from Los Angeles. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in a variety of literary journals, including Conjunctions, The Baffler, BOMB, The Anthology of Best American Experimental Writing, and elsewhere. The recent winner of the 2022 Fence Magazine/ILS Fiction Prize, she lives in Brooklyn and is a member of the publishing collective Ugly Duckling Presse. Palace of Rubble is her first book.
Anna Moschovakis will present and discuss her book, Participation.
In the latest novel from Anna Moschovakis, two reading groups, unofficially called Love and Anti-Love, falter amidst political friction and signs of environmental collapse. Participation offers a prescient look at communication in a time of rupture: anonymous participants exchange fantasies and ruminations, and relationships develop and unravel. As the groups consider—or neglect—their syllabi, and connections between members deepen, a mentor in mediation disappears, a translator questions his role, a colleague known as “the capitalist” becomes a point of fixation, and “the news reports” filter through in fragments. With incisive prose and surprising structural shifts, Participation forms an alluring vision of community, and a love story like no other.
Anna Moschovakis works with poetry and prose as a writer, editor, translator, publisher, teacher, and designer. Her most recent books are the English translation of David Diop’s At Night All Blood Is Black (Frère d’âme), the Belladonna* chaplet from ‘Preliminary Notes on Risk,’ and the novel Participation. She was raised mostly in California and lives mostly in New York.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Cafe
Date: Monday the 28th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
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
Date: Monday the 28th
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-473319199467
Come Write In! NANOWRIMO Event at John C. Fremont Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Do you NaNo? November is National Novel Writing Month.
If you’re looking for a place to work on your book, join us for silent writing sessions in our community room on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in November.
Note: There will be no event on Thursday, November 24.
Call (323) 962-3521 or email jcfrmt@lapl.org with questions about the event.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: John C. Fremont Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 5 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 6121 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/come-write
Venice Book Club & Devil’s Highway: A True Story at Venice-Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Venice book Club meets on the last Tuesday of each month, and alternates reading fiction and non-fiction. This month’s selection is Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberti Urrea.
This Pulitzer Prize finalist concerns an event in May 2001, when a group of men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent, the “Devil’s Highway.” Three years later, Luis Alberto Urrea wrote about what happened to them. The result was a national bestseller, a multiple award-winner, and a work proclaimed as a modern American classic.
Email venice@lapl.org for Zoom link. New members are always welcome.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Venice-Abbot Kinney Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/venice-book-club-1
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 29th
Time: 6 pm – 9 pm
Address: 8857 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.mickys.com/tc-events/the-mic-at-mickys-nov-29th/
AAPI Book Club & REPRIEVE at Bel Canto Books – Online Event
The AAPI Book Club will read and discuss its November selection, Reprieve: A Novel by James Han Mattson.
This book is a chilling and blisteringly relevant literary novel of social horror centered around a brutal killing that takes place in a full-contact haunted escape room—a provocative exploration of capitalism, hate politics, racial fetishism, and our obsession with fear as entertainment.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Bel Canto Books
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/read-aapi-book-club-269149
Nancy Olson Livingston & A Front Row Seat: An Intimate Look at Broadway, Hollywood, and the Age of Glamour at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Nancy Olson Livingston will present her book, A Front Row Seat: An Intimate Look at Broadway, Hollywood, and the Age of Glamour.
From her idyllic childhood in the American Midwest to her Oscar–nominated performance in Sunset Boulevard (1950) and the social circles of New York and Los Angeles, actress Nancy Olson Livingston has lived abundantly. In her memoir, A Front Row Seat, Livingston chronicles her life as an actress, wife, and mother, and her memories of many of the most notable figures and moments of her time.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/nancy-olson-livingston
Evelyn Alsultany & Broken: The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Evelyn Alsultany will present and discuss her book, Broken: The Failed Promise of Muslim Inclusion, about how diversity initiatives end up marginalizing Arab Americans and US Muslims.
Evelyn Alsultany argues that Muslims get included through “crisis diversity,” where high-profile Islamophobic incidents are urgently responded to and then ignored until the next crisis. In the popular cultural arena of television, this means interrogating even those representations of Muslims that others have celebrated as refreshingly positive. What kind of message does it send, for example, when a growing number of “good Muslims” on TV seem to have arrived there, ironically, only after leaving the faith? In the realm of corporations, she critically examines the firing of high-profile individuals for anti-Muslim speech—a remedy that rebrands corporations as anti-racist while institutional racism remains intact. At universities, Muslim students get included in diversity, equity, and inclusion plans but that gets disrupted if they are involved in Palestinian rights activism. Finally, she turns to hate crime laws revealing how they fail to address root causes.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/evelyn-alsultany-discusses-broken
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Rawlie James via Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Rawlie James.
Rawle James would tell you that he is a student of life and thus life is his greatest teacher. He is a personal leadership and spiritual coach, and poet that uses poetry as an invitation to examine life. He is committed to being of service to those seeking a holistic and inside-out approach to understanding themselves and tapping into their vault of wisdom. You are your purpose. You are not broken, nor do you need fixing.
Rawle was born in Trinidad & Tobago and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He also spent time in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and lived the majority of his adult years in Toronto, ON, and Kelowna, BC, Canada. He spent over 25 years in the corporate world in a variety of roles performing various tasks alongside good-hearted and well-intentioned people.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 29th
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 29th
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 line up 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 29th
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
NANOWRIMO Write-In Event at Venice Memorial Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
November is National Novel Writing Month.
Need time and space to write during NaNoWriMo? The Venice Library is providing two hours of weekly space, just for you! We may write straight through or do sprints of 25 minutes at a time.
Open to all. Refreshments will be provided.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Venice-Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 3:30 pm
Address: 501 S. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/nanowrimo-write
Chloe Liese, with Sarah Hogle, & Two Wrongs Make a Right via The Ripped Bodice – Online Event
Chloe Liese, in conversation with Sarah Hogle, will celebrate and discuss her new book, Two Wrongs Make a Right, as well as all things romance.
Opposites become allies to fool their matchmaking friends in this swoony reimagining of Shakespeare’s beloved comedy, Much Ado About Nothing.
Jamie Westenberg and Bea Wilmot have nothing in common except a meet-disaster and the mutual understanding that they couldn’t be more wrong for each other. But when the people closest to them play Cupid and trick them into going on a date, Jamie and Bea realize they have something else in common after all—an undeniable need for revenge.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
NANOWRIMO Write-In Event at the Fabulous Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
November is National Novel Writing Month.
Join us in person as we celebrate NaNoWriMo (National Novel-Writing Month) by offering weekly “Write In” sessions in our cool new study rooms! These small collaboration-friendly spaces feature wi-fi, outlets, comfy chairs, and whiteboards. Light refreshments will be served along with literary inspiration. Attendees will also receive some library swag! What more could an aspiring novelist ask? Space is limited, so email fiction@lapl.org to register today.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Literature & Fiction Study Rooms
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/nanowrimo-write-ins-fabulous-central-library
Quest Book Club: Crying in H Mart at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
The Quest Book Club reads literary fiction and nonfiction about journeys for the spirit, and will discuss its monthly selection, Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner.
Crying in H Mart is a memoir about family, food, grief, love, and growing up Korean American.
Michelle Zauner is best known as a singer and guitarist who creates dreamy, shoegaze-inspired indie pop under the name Japanese Breakfast. She has won acclaim from major music outlets around the world for releases like Psychopomp (2016) and Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017). Her forthcoming album Jubilee will be released in June 2021. Her first book is Crying in H Mart, now out in paperback,
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/CkLtL-aNZi7/?hl=en
Central American Diaspora Reading with Cynthia Guardado & Cenizas at Exposition Park Regional Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Cynthia Guardado, Salvadoran poet and professor, will read from her newest book of poetry, Cenizas, and be supported by other poets of Central America.
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.
Cenizas offers an arresting portrait of a Salvadoran family whose lives have been shaped by the upheavals of global politics. Guardado’s poems give voice to the grief of family trauma, while capturing moments of beauty and tenderness.
Copies of Cenizas will be available to purchase from the author.
For information on how to view the program virtually, email expopk@lapl.org.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Exposition Park Regional Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 3900 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90062
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/central-american-poetry
ARTA! Zine Writer’s Workshop led by Viva Padilla at Re/Arte – In-Person Event
The ARTA! Zine Writer’s Workshop is for mujer-identified writers, and is facilitated by editor-in-chief of sin cesar (formerly Dryland), Viva Padilla.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, further details, guidelines & information.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 900
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Jaguarx Feminist Collective Meeting, hosted by Viva Padilla at Re/Arte – In-Person Event
The Jaguarx Feminist Collective Meeting will be hosted at Re/Arte on Wednesdays from 6pm – 7:30pm.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, further details, guidelines & information.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 2123 East Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 900
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Writing with Passion: JEM Interviews Ruthie Marlenée via Life with JEM – Online FB Event
In the Life with JEM podcast, JEM will interview writer Ruthie Marlenée, author of Agave Blues, about writing with heat, fire, and passion and how she weaved tequila into her latest novel.
Agave Blues is a family saga centered on Latin American culture, and a touching mother-daughter reconciliation, packaged in a road trip narrative. This novel is from the author of Isabela’s Island.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, further details, link & information.
Where: Life with JEM
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
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.
- 7:30 pm–8:30 pm — Formal workshop;
- 8:30 pm–9:00 pm — Featured reader;
- 9:05 pm–10:00 pm — 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 30th
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 at 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 30th
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-474826417597
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 30th
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-362733083417?aff=erelpanelorg
Cover to Cover Book Club & Apples Never Fall at Mid-Valley Regional Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Cover to Cover Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Apples Never Fall, by Liane Moriarty.
From the author of Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers, comes Apples Never Fall, a novel that looks at marriage, siblings, and how the people we love the most can hurt us the deepest.
Copies of each month’s selection will be available for check out at the Reference Desk. New members are always welcome!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Mid-Valley Regional Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 1st
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 & Blue-Skinned Gods at Cellar Door Books – In-Person Event
The LGBTQ Book Club will discuss its monthly selection, Blue-Skinned Gods, by SJ Sindu.
This book is a globe-spanning novel about identity, faith, family, and sexuality.
In Tamil Nadu, India, a boy is born with blue skin. His father sets up an ashram, and the family makes a living off of the pilgrims who seek the child’s blessings and miracles, believing young Kalki to be the tenth human incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. In Kalki’s tenth year, he is confronted with three trials that will test his power and prove his divine status and, his father tells him, spread his fame worldwide. While he seems to pass them, Kalki begins to question his divinity…
SJ Sindu is the author of the novel Marriage of a Thousand Lies, which won the Publishing Triangle Edmund White Debut Fiction Award, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, and was an ALA Stonewall Honor Book; as well as the hybrid chapbooks I Once Met You But You Were Dead and Dominant Genes. Sindu holds an MA in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a PhD in English and Creative Writing from Florida State University. Sindu is an Assistant Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Books
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/book/9781641293532
Herbie J. Pilato & The Twelve Best Secrets of Christmas: A Treasure House of December Memories Revealed at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Herbie j Pialto, in conversation with Caryn Richman (Actor, The New Gidget, The Bradys), Jerry Houser (Actor, The Bradys, A Very Brady Christmas/Announcer, Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer), and Dean Butler (Actor, Little House on the Prairie, The New Gidget), will present his book, The Twelve Best Secrmakesets of Christmas: A Treasure House of December Memories Revealed.
This book is about the personal things and intimate moments from which holiday memories spring. These are just a few examples of the December discernments to behold in this book.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/herbie-j-pilato
Simon Van Booy & The Presence of Absence at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Simon Van Booy will present and discuss his book, The Presence of Absence.
The Presence of Absence is an innovative novella that asks the reader to find beauty, and even gratitude, in the cycle of birth and death. Stripped of artifice, it is a meditation between the writer and the reader, an imaginative work that challenges the deceit of written words and explores our strongest emotions.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Simon-Van-Booy-presents-The-Presence-of-Absence
Video Essays: Pau S. Pescador & Stories I Tell Myself at Poetic Research Bureau – In-Person Event
Stories I tell myself, organized by Pau S. Pescador,is a on- night screening event of video essays that explores the individual’s relationship to the greater world around them. The screening includes works by artists, poets and writers who utilize the camera as a space for self-reflection, storytelling and questioning the larger systemic systems now at the end of a pandemic.
Videos are included by:
Maura Brewer is an artist whomakes essay videos that draw together material from many sources, including hacked text messages, public records and diagrams and animations. She makes video collaborations, performance writing pieces, and is best known for Zero Dark Birthday (2017).
Wayne Koestenbaum is an American artist, poet, and cultural critic. He received a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University and is a 1994 Whiting Award recipient. He received an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature in 2020 and has published over 20 books. He works as a Distinguished Professor of English, French, and Comparative Literature at the CUNY Graduate Center, where he taught poet and writer Maggie Nelson, teaches painting at Yale University, and lives and works in New York City.
Pau S. Pescador is a contemporary trans-nonbinary artist who works in film, photography, and performance that lives and works in Los Angeles, California. They graduated with an MFA from University of California, Irvine and a BA from University of Southern California.Their first collection of writing, CRUSHES: A NOVELLA, was published by Econo Textual Objects in Spring 2017.
Emji Saint Spero is a writer, performer, and pervert living in Los Angeles. They are curious about the potential of creative intimacies, and are the author of Almost Any Shit Will Do (2014) and Disgust (2021)
P. Staff aka Patrick Staff is a contemporary visual and performance artist from Bognor Regis, UK, is abased in Los Angeles CA and London, UK, and makes film installations, performance art, and new media works, which address the ecological and industrial relationships on which societies have become dependent. Says Staff. “I’m not interested in physical purity but I am interested in what I am a conduit for, and leading with that type of somatic inquiry.”
Ryat Yezbick is a visual artist, researcher and facilitator who examines group identity, contemporary morals and our cultural relationship to witnessing in theera of digital surveillance and decentralized global conflict. They work in a variety of mediums (notably live performance, experimental documentary, and multi-media installation) that have garnered support from international audiences and curators. They are a published author, multi-time grant recipient, trained anthropologist, and former manager of New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival. They recently launched Creative Fields Consulting, developing programs at the intersections of art, culture, and technology.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.poeticresearch.com/events/stories-i-tell-myself
Book Launch: Ian Svenonius & Against the Written Word at Stories Books & Cafe – In-Person Event
Ian Svenonius will present and discuss his book, Against the Written Word: Toward a Universal Illiteracy.
This book contains nineteen essays ripping, shredding, and tearing apart all the bugaboos that haunt humanity nowadays. Against the Written Word is a must-read for any aspiring radical or would-be gnostic who has a penchant for words, thought, clothes, intoxicants, music, art, expression, etc. The work is presented in a range of writing: essays, screenplays, lectures, sci-fi stories, and manifestos, with topics that are equally wide ranging and compelling.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Cafe
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Joyce Chopra, with Honor Moore, & Lady Director: Adventures in Hollywood Television and Beyond at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Joyce Chopra, in conversation with Honor Moore, will present her book, Lady Director: Adventures in Hollywood, Television and Beyond.
This book is about award-winning director Joyce Chopra, who came of age in the 1950s, prior to the dawn of feminism, and long before the #MeToo movement. As a young woman, it seemed impossible that she might one day realize her dream of becoming a film director—she couldn’t name a single woman in that role. But with her desire fueled by a stay in Paris during the heady beginnings of the French New Wave, she was determined to find a way.
Chopra got her start making documentary films with the legendary D.A. Pennebaker. From her ground-breaking autobiographical short, Joyce at 34 (which was acquired for NY MoMA’S permanent collection), to her rousingly successful first feature, Smooth Talk (winner of the Best Director and Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1985), to a series of increasingly cruel moves by Hollywood producers unwilling to accept a woman in the director’s role.
She shares stories of her bruising encounters with Harvey Weinstein and Sydney Pollack, her experience directing Diane Keaton, Treat Williams, and a host of other actors, as well as her deep friendships with Gene Wilder, Arthur Miller, and Laura Dern.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/joyce-chopra
Open Mic Night at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join Tia Chucha’s for an Open Mic Night event where you can read a poem, sing a song or express yourself in an artistic way. All art forms and languages are welcome!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=632144938568005&set=pb.100053175145055.-2207520000.
SWAAM Spoken Word Art & Music Event & Open Mic by Lorenzo Frank at Park Hills Community Center – In-Person Event (Check to verify).
SWAAM offers a featured poet, plus an Open Mic, hosted by Lorenzo Frank on the first and third Friday of the month.
NOTE: See site for costs, guidelines, and details. Check to verify.
Where: Park Hills Community Center
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 8:30 pm
Address: 5245 Overdale Dr., View Park-Windsor Hills, Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/swaam-spoken-word-art-music-tickets-476102113237?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
First Fridays Rapp Saloon Reading Series, with host Cynthia Alessandra Briano, via Rapp Saloon – Hybrid In-Person & Online Event
First Fridays at Rapp Saloon Open Mic & Featured Readers is an event offered every 1st Friday of the month by host Cynthia Alessandra Briano.
This is a HYBRID event, with a return to live in-person events while maintaining at HISUA Zoom option for our performers and guests.
All languages are welcome.
Featured guest poets and artists this month TBA
Share your voice at the Open Mic, where there is a time limit of 4 minutes max. Sign-ups are at 8 pm – 8:30 pm. Zoom ID posted 3 hours prior to event.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Rapp Saloon at HISUA
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90401 (Zoom link in bio @RappSaloon)
Website: https://m.facebook.com/events/rapp-saloon-reading-series/rapp-saloon-reading-series-first-fridays-open-mic or https://www.facebook.com/RappSaloonReadingSeries/photos/
Poems of Protest: 44 Class Workshop with Karo Ska via Sims Library of Poetry– Online Event
This workshop is part of an introductory poetry craft and generative series. You will have a chance to write and share your work.
In this class, we will discuss protest & poetry, listen to poems by June Jordan, Kristina Colon, Audre Lorde, and Billy Ray-Belcourt, and write our own protest poems.
Through guided prompts, we will plant poem seedlings.
You can pay $25 for one class or sign up for the monthly offerings: $44/month for two classes that meet on the first and third Saturday of the month. You can find more info at site.
Karo Ska (she/they) is a South Asian and Eastern European gender-fluid poet living on unceded Tongva land. Their writing focuses on identity, mental health, survivorship and the intersections of trauma and politics. They have been published in Cultural Daily, Altadena Poetry Review, Marías at Sampaguitas, Glass: A Journal of Poetry among others. They are a 3-time 2020 Pushcart Prize nominee, a 2021 Cal Arts Artist Fellow, and were a 2020 semi-finalist in the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize. Their first full-length collection, loving my salt-drenched bones was released in February 2022 through World Stage Press. For more info, check out their website karoska.com.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, tickets, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 10 am – 12 pm PT
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poems-of-protest-it-is-better-to-speak-audre-lorde-tickets-463885914257
Book Club & There There at Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, the Los Feliz Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, There There by Tommy Orange.
Tommy Orange is the debut author of There There, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, which follows twelve characters form Native communities all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize.
Copies of each month’s selection will be available for check out at the Reference Desk. New members are always welcome!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 11 am
Address: 1874 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/cover-cover-book-club
Vroman’s Special Storytime: Caroline Perry & The Corgi and the Queen at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Children’s author Caroline Perry will present her book, The Corgi and the Queen.
Even a monarch needs a best friend and Queen Elizabeth II found one in a corgi pup she named Susan. From princess-hood to queen-dom the pair forged an unbreakable bond, with Susan even participating in Elizabeth’s wedding day and joining her on honeymoon with Prince Philip. Over the course of her remarkable seventy-year reign the Queen had more than thirty corgi companions, and almost all were direct descendants of her cherished Susan.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Caroline-Perry-presents-The-Corgi-and-the-Queen
Tia Chucha’s Book Club & Mowing Leaves of Grass at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore– In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
The Tia Chucha Book Club will read and discuss this month’s selection, and the last book club meeting of the year, Mowing Leaves of Grass, by Matt Sedillo.
We’re ending the year with Matt Sedillo’s poetry book Mowing Leaves of Grass.
Our book club will be held at Tia Chucha’s and virtually over zoom! Meet us in person or via zoom (register through the link in our bio).
Zoom event at bit.ly/TCBOOKCLUB.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, link, and details
Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://www.facebook.com/TiaChuchasCentroCultural
Beyond the Binding Book Club: Dana Johnson hosts Lynell George & A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia Butler at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
In the first meeting of this new Beyond Baroque Book Club, the group discussed Kindred by Octavia Butler. This discussion will discuss the book A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia Butler, and will welcome its author Lynell George to this session.
Octavia Butler’s Kindred remains deeply relevant more than 44 years since its original publication in 1979. In it, she explores the legacy of slavery through her incomparable vision and imagination. Lynell George’s A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky beautifully illuminates how Butler’s life informed her craft and paints an intimate portrait of Butler’s creativity. These two California writers are a perfect pair to launch the inaugural book club of Beyond Baroque, Los Angeles’s seminal literary arts center.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, free tickets, and details
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 12 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Afternoon Poetry Reading with Poets Laureate Fellows: Brian Sonia-Wallace, Lynne Thompson & Aileen Cassinetto at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Enjoy an Afternoon Poetry Reading by three Poets Laureate Fellows: Brian Sonia-Wallace, West Hollywood Poet Laureate, Lynne Thompson, Los Angeles Poet Laureate, and Aileen Cassinetto, San Mateo County Poet Laureate.
Brian Sonia-Wallace is the West Hollywood City Poet Laureate, a 2021-22 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow for LGBTQ+ literary activism, and the author of The Poetry of Strangers: What I Learned Traveling America with a Typewriter (Harper Collins, 2020). Bylines include Rolling Stone, The Guardian, LitHub, American Poets, Rattle, and more. Brian runs a queer open mic every Tuesday at Micky’s WeHo and teaches at UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. His company, RENT Poet, creates custom poems on demand on vintage typewriters at events. Its motto is, “everyone needs a poem.”
Lynne Thompson is Los Angeles’ 2021-22 Poet Laureate and a 2022 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. She’s the author of three collections of poetry: Beg No Pardon, Start With A Small Guitar, and most recently Fretwork, winner of the 2019 Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize. Thompson sits on the Boards of Cave Canem and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Her recent work can be found or is forthcoming in Best American Poetry, New England Review, Black Warrior Review, Massachusetts Review, The Common, and Copper Nickel, among others.
Aileen Cassinetto is an immigrant writer and Commissioner on the Status of Women for San Mateo County, California. She was named an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow in 2021 and served as the San Mateo County Poet Laureate from 2019-2022. The founder of Paloma Press and author of two poetry collections, her work has appeared in POETRY, Cultural Daily, and poets.org among others.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, link, and details.
Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 1 pm – 3 pm
Address: 5027 Caspar Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90041
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/afternoon-poetry
Author Talk: Kenneth Kubernick & Voodoo Child at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Kenneth Kubernick will discuss stories about Jimi Hendrix taken from the book he co-wrote, Voodoo Child, which is an oral history of the legendary guitarist. This book captures the spirit of the times with reminiscences and plenty of wonderful photographs.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 2 pm
Address: 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/author-talk-kenneth-kubernik
Expressions L.A. Poetry Series & Open Mic at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
The Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series & Open Mic is held on the first and third Saturdays of the month. Join in-person or online and email studio@lapl.org for instructions on how to join the program.
Expressions L.A. today features Hanna Pachman and Steve Cohen.
Hanna Pachman is a poet whose work has been published by The MacGuffin, Book of Matches, Anti-Heroin Chic, and others. Originally from Connecticut, she currently hosts and curates a monthly poetry event, “Beatnik Cafe” in Los Angeles which has been running since 2018. She has been a featured poet at the California Poppy Festival, the KGB Bar, Cobalt Poets, and the Poetry Circus.
Steve Cohen is a writer, photographer and Covid-19 survivor. As Steve recovers, his vision has altered: “I look at life through strange eyes and my poetry reflects that reality for me.”
An open reading is included.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, link, and details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/expressions-la-poetry-reading-series-and-open-mic or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/expressions-la-poetry-spoken-word-tickets-473107506287?aff=erelexpmlt
Billy Porter & Unprotected: A Memoir (paperback) at Book Soup – In-Person Signing Event
Billy Porter will sign the paperback of his book, Unprotected: A Memoir.
This is the paperback release celebration of the Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winner Billy Porter, a powerful and revealing autobiography about race, sexuality, art, and healing. powerful and revealing autobiography about race, sexuality, art, and healing. Porter came of age in a world where simply being himself was a constant struggle, and Unprotected is a resonant, inspirational story of trauma and healing, shot through with his singular voice.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, tickets, and details
Where: Book Soup
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/book-soup-presents-billy-porter
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Poetry Writing Workshop with Don Kingfisher Campbell – Online Only Event
Saturday Afternoon Poetry presents a Poetry Writing Workshop with Don Kingfisher Campbell.
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event Only (see site)
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Los Angeles Poets Reading Event: Brian Dunlap, Christian Lozada, Iris DeAnda & Nikolai Garcia at LibroMobile, Santa Ana – In-Person & Online IG Event
Join LibroMobile to hear four L. A. pets read and discuss their work:
Brian Dunlap is a Los Angeles poet and writer, the author of the chapbook Concrete Paradise, and his poems, essays, and book reviews have been published in numerous literary publications and magazines. He is the creator and curator of the blog, losangelesliterature.wordpress.com, a guide to the literary landscape, history, and events of Southern California.
Christian Lozada is the product of an immigrant Filipino and Daughter of the American Revolution and has co-written the poetry book Leave with More Than You Came With and a history book, Hawaiians in Los Angeles. His poems and stories have appeared in Hawaii Pacific Review, Dryland: A Literary Journal (forthcoming), A&U Magazine and various other journals and anthologies. He has been invited to read or speak at the Autry Museum, the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, and other places throughout Southern California. He currently lives in San Pedro, CA where he teaches his neighbor’s kids at Los Angeles Harbor College.
Iris DeAnda is a Guanaca Tapatia poet, speaker & musician who has been featured with KPFK & KPFA Pacifica Radio, organized with Academy of American Poets, performed at Los Angeles Latino Book Festival, Feria del Libro Tijuana, Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba and is named one of Today’s Revolutionary Women of Color. She I the author of Codeswitch: Fires from Mi Corazon and Roots of Redemption: You have No Right to Remain Silent.
Nikolai Garcia is a poet and writer, the author of the chapbook, Nuclear Shadows of Palm Trees andthe co-host of the monthly reading series Trenches Full of Poets. He resides in Compton, CA.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, IG and details.
Where: LibroMobile
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 1150 S, Bristol St., Santa Ana, CA 92704
Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/four-los-angeles-poets-reading
Poetry Reading & Screening: Jesse Hoffman & Flowers with Temporary Hands (book) and MiddleWest Mascot (film) at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Beyond Baroque and DemPasswords invite artist Jesse Hoffman to present poetry from his book Flowers with Temporary Hands published by moCa Cleveland in the summer of 2022. In addition, he will also present for the first time a short film, MiddleWest Mascot, 2021, that he wrote and directed in collaboration with video artist Ryan Trecartin. Both presentations are an extension of an ongoing archival project, using writing and media from throughout Hoffman’s life to convey new perspectives on loss.
Jesse Hoffman is an interdisciplinary artist and poet based in Los Angeles. Working across sculpture, performance, and photography, Adams’s practice is rooted in examination of the transitional passages of self-acceptance, belonging, and image over time. Using the archive and the portrait as form, Adams’s work lays bare the complication inherent in identity, emphasizing the poignant resilience and fugue in image/word making. J.J. In addition to their independent practice, Adams has created works for and alongside Ryan Trecartin, Janiva Ellis, SOPHIE, Martine Syms, Body X Body and more.
DEM PASSWORDS is a Southern California based contemporary art gallery founded in 2010 by filmmaker, music producer and painter Ethan Higbee and his long time friend and artistic colleague Sebastian Demian.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, free tickets, and details
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Pondwater Cure for the Wintertime Blues at Pondwater Society – In-Person Event
It’s that time again! Open reading, no features, pot luck, show off your epicurian skills. Let’s entertain each other and keep each other warm.
This Pondwater event is hosted by Joanne Qualey Barnes and Pondwater Society.
There will be a gift exchange, no monetary limits, but it should be something consumable; food, candles, soap, butter, charcoal briquets, etc.
Free event, but a $5.00 donation is appreciated.
Probably best to leave the kids out of this, we get to be adults! 21+
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Pondwater Society
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 16504 E. Masline St., Covina, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/491239259474782/?ref=newsfeed
Lindsey Kelk, with Suzanne Park, & Christmas Wish Book Launch via The Ripped Bodice – Online Event
Lindsey Kelk, in conversation with Suzanne Park, will launch and discuss her new book, Christmas Wish, as well as all things romance.
This book asks the question: Can a little Christmas magic mend a broken heart?
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Book Release: Right Wrong Night Song by Jeff Rogers via Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
This poetry performance event features Jeff Rogers and guests in celebration of the release of his debut poetry book Right Wrong Night Song.
All that lives goes to die and all that dies goes to feed all that lives. That’s the heart of it: life, death, and everything in between. From balloons and new shoes to surviving two bouts of COVI D and the illness and death of both parents, Right Wrong Night Song finds poetry everywhere—even its title is a tiny poem. The restless eye of the poet roams the freeways and neighborhoods of Los Angeles, the BLM protests of 2020, nature’s terrible beauty, and wordless internal landscapes, to capture telling moments of human behavior in all our messy glory. And white poet Rogers goes there: he takes on race and whiteness with unsparing compassion in poems and an afterword essay.
Guest Performers:
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. bridgette bianca has performed her poetry all around Southern California, and her work as a writer and an educator seeks to serve the people and moments most forget or ignore. Her first book of poetry, N/A, was just released by Writ Large Press in 2020.
Lee Boek is an actor best known for Naked Campus (1982) and Captured Melody (2013), and has had successful careers as a Fundamentalist Evangelist preacher, radio host, actor, writer, producer.
Rocio Carlos is a poet and writer, and the author of (the other house), written in response to Chiwan Choi’s The Yellow House, and co-author of Attendance, with Rachel Kaminer McLeod.
Benin Lemus is a writer and an educator based in South Los Angeles. She earned her B.A. in English from Bennett College in North Carolina, and an MFA in Film and Television Production from the University of Southern California. Her debut poetry collection, Dreaming in Mourning, will be published by World Stage Press in November, 2022.
Flyy High N/A
Gray Pony Chorus N/A
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, tickets, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 5 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-release-right-wrong-night-song-by-jeff-rogers-tickets-468687054597
LA Poets Celebrate Winter at The Village Well Books & Coffee– In-Person Event
Village Well presents 5 LA poets who will present their work:
Gail Wronsky is s the author, coauthor, or translator of 15 books of poetry and prose. The Stranger You Are, a book of poems by Gail and artwork by the renowned artist Gronk, is just out from Tia Chucha Press. Under the Capsized Boat We Fly: New & Selected Poems was published in 2021 by White Pine Press.
Jan Wesley is the author of Living in Freefall, a book of poems, and has two published chapbooks. Only So Much, from What Books, is her second full-length poetry book. Poems have appeared in Askew, Blue Mountain Review, The Iowa Review, Rattle, Spillway, Beyond Words, and anthologies, among others, and she received a Pushcart nomination. She worked in post-production in the film business for many years, and after receiving an MFA at Vermont College she taught writing at The University of Redlands and The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandizing. Currently, she facilitates writing workshops in Los Angeles.
Elena Karina Byrne is the author of five poetry collections including If This Makes You Nervous (Omnidawn Publishing, 2021). Her poems, reviews, essays, and interviews can be found in POETRY, The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, Poetry International, Poetry Daily, Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day, APR, Plume, Los Angeles Review of Books, BOMB, and elsewhere. Former 12-year Regional Director of the Poetry Society of America, Elena’s the Programming Consultant & Poetry Stage Manager for The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, and Literary Programs Director for the Ruskin Art Club. She’s writing screenplays while completing a collection of hybrid essays entitled Voyeur Hour.
C. P. Rosenthal is a novelist who has published 17 previous books, some under the name Chuck Rosenthal. His work has been translated into Spanish, Italian, German, Swedish, and Korean, and has been nominated for the PEN West Literary Award, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Best American Fiction. He has traveled and researched extensively in Mexico City and throughout Mexico.
Karen Kevorkian has published 3 poetry collections and poems in many journals and anthologies. In LA she has taught creative writing workshops at UCLA and before that at U of Virginia. She’s received multiple artist residency fellowships and in LA is a founding member of What Books Press. https://karenkevorkian.com.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/21364
Weekend Jams with Emma Surdilla at The Village Well Books & Coffee– In-Person Kids Event
Village Well presents Weekend Jams for kids ages 4-8, with Emma Surdilla.
Emma Surdilla continues the tradition started by Cayla Mendoza! Weekend Jams is a youth event aimed to encourage an interest in reading and the arts. Story time, singing, and dancing included!
All ages are welcome and perfect for kids ages 4-8
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events
Edward Vidaurre Workshop: The Beautiful and Painful Truth via The Poetry Salon – Online Event
The award-winning poet Edward Vidaurre teaches this powerful generative workshop on expressing the light and dark in your life and yourself.
By welcoming pain and allowing beauty in your writing, you will learn to write with liberation and joy. Work with award-winning poet Edward Vidaurre, author of “Cry Howl”, to dismantle the obstacles that stop your creative process. Together, we will welcome our most ridiculous ideas and be witnesses to the deep recesses of our hearts and minds
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, tickets, and details.
Where: The Poetry Salon
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 2 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/526557399318231
True Stories and Tales:Toni Ann Johnson, Kate Murayama, Pete Hsu & Aruni Wijesingheat Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
True Stories and Tales will present 4 Poets who will read and discuss their work:
Toni Ann Johnson won the Flannery O’Connor Award for her linked story collection Light Skin Gone to Waste, selected for the prize and edited by Roxane Gay. A novella, Homegoing, was published in 2021. Johnson’s debut novel Remedy For a Broken Angel was nominated for an NACCP Image Award in 2015.
Kate Murayama’s novel Harrowgate was published by 47North and her novella Family Solstice was named Best Fiction Book of 2021 by Rue Morgue Magazine. Her short work has appeared in Asimov’s Magazine, Entropy, Analog SF and in numerous anthologies including December Tales, Winter Horror Days, and Gathering: A Women Who Submit Anthology. She writes, teaches, cooks, and eats in Los Angeles where she lives.
Pete Hsu is the author of the short story collection If I Were The Ocean, I’d Carry You Home (Red Hen Press, 2022) and the experimental chapbook There Is A Man (Tolsun Books). He was born in Taipei, Taiwan and currently resides in Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley.
Aruni Wijesinghe is a project manager, ESL teacher, erstwhile belly dance instructor and occasional sous chef; she now, strangely, adds poet to this list. Her debut poetry collection, 2 Revere Place, is a love letter to her family and miraculous childhood in New York. You can follow her at www.aruniwrites.com
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/21366
All’s Fair: The Art of Love & War Poetry with GOODW.Y.N. via Sims Library of Poetry – Online Event
This writing workshop led by GOODW.Y.N is a conceptual overview and comparison of poems written about universal love and attributes of warfare. It will include a close examination of the instructor’s two books: Warcries and Warcrimes.
About Goodw.y.n.: Nicole Goodwin aka GOODW.Y.N. is the author of Warcries, and the poetic sequel Warcrimes as well as the photographic essay book Ain’t I a Woman (?/!): I Give of Myself based on the five-year iterations of Ain’t I a Woman (?/!). They are a finalist for the CUE Foundation’s 2022 Public Programs Fellowship, as well as a 2020 Pushcart Nominee, 2018-2019 Franklin Furnace Fund Recipient, the 2018 Ragdale Alice Judson Hayes Fellowship Recipient, 2017 EMERGENYC Hemispheric Institute Fellow and the 2013- 2014 Queer Art Mentorship Queer Art Literary Fellow. They published the articles “Talking with My Daughter…” and “Why is this Happening in Your Life…” in the New York Times’ parentblog Motherlode. Additionally, their work Ain’t I a Woman (?/!): Poems, was longlisted for The Black Spring Press Group’s The Christopher Smart-Joan Alice Prize for 2020, and their work Desert Flowers was shortlisted and selected for performance by the Women’s Playwriting International Conference in Cape Town, South Africa in 2015.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/alls-fair-the-art-of-love-war-poetry-tickets-446201369307
Happily Ever After Book Club & You’re a Mean One Matthew Prince at The Ripped Bodice – Online Event
The Happily Ever After Book Clun meets at The Ripped Bodice every first Sunday of the month, and today participants will discuss the book, You’re a Mean One Matthew Prince, by Rachel Lynn Solomon.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidleines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 7:15 pm
Address: Main Street & Venice Blvd., Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Los Angeles Literature 