Philosophical Horror Book Club & Carmilla at Cellar Door Books – In-Person Event
The Philosophical Horror Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Carmilla, by Carmen Maria Machado (Editor), Joseph Sheridan Lefanu.
Isolated in a remote mansion in a central European forest, Laura longs for companionship – until a carriage accident brings another young woman into her life: the secretive and sometimes erratic Carmilla. As Carmilla’s actions become more puzzling and volatile, Laura develops bizarre symptoms, and as her health goes into decline, Laura and her father discover something monstrous.
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s compelling tale of a young woman’s seduction by a female vampire was a source of influence for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which it predates by over a quarter century. Carmilla was originally serialized from 1871 to 1872 and went on to inspire adaptations in film, opera, and beyond, including the cult classic web series by the same name.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Books
Date: Monday the 19th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/philosophical-horror-book-club-carmilla
Sherman Oaks Book Club: The Violin Conspiracy via Sherman Oaks Martin Pollard Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
This book club will discuss this month’s selection, The Violin Conspiracy, by Brendan Slocumb.
Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. But Ray has a gift and a dream—he’s determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music.
Please email shrmno@lapl.org for the Zoom invite.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Sherman Oaks Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 19th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/sherman-oaks-book-club-violin-conspiracy-brendan-slocumb
Main Library Book Discussion Group & Enemy of All Mankind at Main Library, SMPL – Online Event
The Main Santa Monica Library Book Club will discuss Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History’s First Global Manhunt by Steven Johnson.
Henry Every was the seventeenth century’s most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular—and wildly inaccurate—reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every’s most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event—the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew—and its surprising repercussions across time and space. It’s the gripping tale of one of the most lucrative crimes in history, the first international manhunt, and the trial of the seventeenth century.
Contact jeff.schwartz@santamonica.gov for the Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Main Library, SMPL
Date: Monday the 19th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://calendar.smgov.net/library/eventsignup.asp?ID=33899
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 19th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online (see site)
Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-487911675957
150 Community Book Suggestions at Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Loyola Village Branch Library offers a way to celebrate the library’s Sesquicentennial!
We are creating a banner of 150 community book suggestions to celebrate the Library’s 150th Anniversary. Please share your favorite book title, author, and (optional) synopsis with the Westchester – Loyola Village Branch Community.
The book banner templates are available at the Reference Desk.
All ages are welcome.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 20th (continues all week)
Time: 12 pm
Address: 7114 W. Manchester Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/150-community-book-suggestions
Tuesday Afternoon Book Club & The Snow Leopard via Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Tuesday Afternoon Book Club will discuss this month’s book selection, The Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthieson.
In 1973, Peter Matthiessen and field biologist George Schaller traveled high into the remote mountains of Nepal to study the Himalayan blue sheep and possibly glimpse the rare and beautiful snow leopard. Matthiessen, a student of Zen Buddhism, was also on a spiritual quest to find the Lama of Shey at the ancient shrine on Crystal Mountain. As the climb proceeds, Matthiessen charts his inner path as well as his outer one, with a deepening Buddhist understanding of reality, suffering, impermanence, and beauty. The Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by acclaimed travel writer and novelist Pico Iyer.
To receive the Zoom link, email silver@lapl.org.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details
Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/tuesday-afternoon-book-club-3
LA MADE: A Conversation with Author Javier Zamora & Solito via Central Library, LAPL – Online Event
The LA MADE Series will present a conversation with author Javier Zamora, who will discuss his New York Times’ Bestselling book, Solito, about his childhood migration to the U.S. from Central America. The program will be moderated by Carmen Molina-Tamaca and will be largely in English.
Javier Zamora was born in La Herradura, El Salvador, in 1990. His father fled El Salvador when he was a year old, and his mother when he was about to turn five. Both parents’ migrations were caused by the U.S.-funded Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992). In 1999, Javier migrated through Guatemala, Mexico, and eventually through the Sonoran Desert. After a coyote abandoned his group in Oaxaca, Javier managed to make it to Arizona with the aid of other migrants. His first full-length collection, Unaccompanied (Copper Canyon Press, September 2017), explores how immigration and the civil war have impacted his family. Zamora was a 2018-2019 Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and holds fellowships from CantoMundo, Colgate University (Olive B. O’Connor), MacDowell, Macondo, the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Foundation (Ruth Lilly), Stanford University (Stegner), and Yaddo. He is the recipient of a 2017 Lannan Literary Fellowship, the 2017 Narrative Prize, and the 2016 Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award for his work in the Undocupoets Campaign. Javier lives in Tucson, AZ, where he has written his memoir and a second collection of poems.
Carmen Molina-Tamacas is a Salvadoran-born journalist and anthropologist. She studied at Universidad Tecnológica de El Salvador (UTEC) and has worked for several newspapers and online publications. After immigrating to the United States, she worked as a freelancer for El Diario NY, Bklyner.com, and Weather.com. In 2020 she published the book Salviyorkers – Salvadorans by birth, Newyorkers by adoption, which chronicles 100 years of Salvadoran immigration in New York. The book won the 2022 Gold Medal at the International Latino Book Awards for Best Translation Spanish-English.
Those attending the virtual program will have an opportunity to win a free book.
Streaming live on the library’s YouTube channel.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Classic Detectives Book Club & Miss Pinkerton at Cellar Door Books – In-Person Event
The Classic Detectives Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Miss Pinkerton, by Mary Roberts Rinehart.
After a suspicious death at a country mansion, a brave nurse joins the household to see behind closed doors
Miss Adams is a nurse, not a detective—at least, not technically speaking. But while working as a nurse, one does have the opportunity to see things police can’t see and an observant set of eyes can be quite an asset when crimes happen behind closed doors. Sometimes Detective Inspector Patton rings Miss Adams when he needs an agent on the inside. And when he does, he calls her “Miss Pinkerton” after the famous detective agency.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Books
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/classic-detectives-book-club-miss-pinkerton
Third Tuesday Book Club & Night Boat to Tangier at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Tuesday Afternoon Book Club will discuss this month’s book selection, Night Boat to Tangier, by Kevin Barry.
In the dark waiting room of the ferry terminal in the sketchy Spanish port of Algeciras, two aging Irishmen—Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond, longtime partners in the lucrative and dangerous enterprise of smuggling drugs—sit at night, none too patiently. The pair are trying to locate Maurice’s estranged daughter, Dilly, whom they’ve heard is either arriving on a boat coming from Tangier or departing on one heading there. This nocturnal vigil will initiate an extraordinary journey back in time to excavate their shared history of violence, romance, mutual betrayals, and serial exiles.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/3rd-tuesday-book-club
Bilingual Reading Group (Every Other Tuesday) at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Event
The Bilingual Reading Group will continue to discuss Volume 1 of “Capital” by Karl Marx. The discussion will be facilitated by Jose Prado, Ph.D, professor of Sociology at CSUDH.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 2123 E. Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Book Club Meeting Cancelled for Holidays at The Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Village Well has decided to cancel its monthly book club for December and resume their normal schedule in January of 2023 by reading The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events
SOM Tuesdays Open Mic at Murphy’s Pub, Long Beach – In-Person Event
SOM Open Mic Tuesdays at Murphy’s Pub takes place in a casual setting in Long Beach. Come and share music, comedy, and poetry with SOM in its new venue!
Featured guest: TBA. Check to Verify.
Sign-ups at 6:30 pm.
Where: Murphy’s Pub
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 7 pm – 10 am
Address: 4918 2nd St., Belmont Shore, Long Beach, CA 90803
Website: https://www.facebook.com/somopenmic/
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Layla Lenhardt via Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Layla Lenhardt.
Layla Lenhardt is an American poet currently based out of Indianapolis. She was born in Philadelphia and attended Washington & Jefferson College. She is founder and Editor-in-Chief of the (currently on hiatus) national literary journal 1932 Quarterly. Her essays, poems, short prose, and interviews have been published across various types of media, including a pickle jar, a post card, and a bathroom stall in Dublin. She is a 2021 Best of the Net Nominee and is a judge for Poetry Super Highway’s Annual Contest in 2022. Her first full-length poetry collection, Mother Tongue, will be published by Main Street Rag Publications in early 2023. She will be a resident at the SAFTA’s writing residency in November 2022. You can find her essays and musings on her blog https://pretzel8byteslite.wordpress.com
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 20th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
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 20th
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 20th
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm
Address: 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChLUBSRPCFb/ or https://www.dapoetrylounge.com/admission
150 Community Book Suggestions at Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Loyola Village Branch Library offers a way to celebrate the library’s Sesquicentennial!
We are creating a banner of 150 community book suggestions to celebrate the Library’s 150th Anniversary. Please share your favorite book title, author, and (optional) synopsis with the Westchester—Loyola Village Branch Community.
The book banner templates are available at the Reference Desk.
All ages are welcome.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 21st (continues all week)
Time: 12 pm
Address: 7114 W. Manchester Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/150-community-book-suggestions
All’s Fair: The Art of Love & War Poetry with GOODW.Y.N. at Sims Library of Poetry – Online Event
This one-hour workshop 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.
Facilitated by: 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
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 5 pm PT
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/alls-fair-the-art-of-love-war-poetry-tickets-488837424897
British Mystery Book Club & The Death of Mrs. Westaway at West Los Angeles Regional Library, LAPL – Online Event
The West Los Angeles Regional Library British Mystery Book Club will read and discuss this month’s selection, The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware.
On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person–but also that the cold-reading skills she’s honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money. Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased…where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the center of it.
To get the Zoom link or to get more information, email westla@lapl.org.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: West L.A. Regional Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/british-mystery-book-club
Never Speak Writing Workshop with Ravina at Never Speak, Long Beach – Online Event
Ravina Wadhwnai will lead a Writing as Healing Workshop, in collaboration with the community.
This spoken word collective includes Philosophy, Shy But Flyy, Jragonfly, Dr. V. and Ravina Wadhwani.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Never Speak Long Beach at SteelCraft
Date: Wednesday the 21st
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=657460412745868&set=a.351387076686538
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 21st
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.theworldstage.org/events.html
Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop 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 21st
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wednesday-night-poetry-workshop-tickets-489532694467
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 21st
Time: 8 pm – 12 am
Address: 630 N. La Brea Ave., Inglewood, CA 90302
Website: https://allevents.in/inglewood/flight-school-open-mic/10000362733113507
Speculation and Spectacle: A Poetry Reading with Brendan Constantine, Donna Spruijt-Metz, and Sonia Greenfield at The Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Village Well hosts Speculation and Spectacle: A Poetry Reading with Brendan Constantine, Donna Spruijt-Metz, and Sonia Greenfield.
Sonia Greenfield will present All Possible Histories, a collection of poems that explore what could have been if: ghosts have the ability to tell their side of the story, children shed the labels that bind them, mothers and daughters re-make their relationships, beloved pets never die. With poignant deftness, this collection takes the reader on a journey of what might have happened and then returns them to the here and now, grateful not all alternative realities come true.
As with Brendan Constantine’s previous titles, Dementia, My Darling can be enjoyed at random or in order. However, when taken in sequence, the poems construct a thesis on life as we remember it from moment to moment. What is your first memory of love? How soon will you forget answering that question?
In General Release from the Beginning of the World, Donna Spruijt-Metz attempts to reconcile the death of the father, the lies of the mother, a hidden half-sister and the love for a daughter—with the impossible desire to banish the past from the present. She examines shifting relationships with the holy, referred to in the book only as ‘YOU.’ She asks: “Do YOU hear/a whisper/in YOUR//constant night/—and then listen?” She breaks her own heart to touch yours.
About the authors
Sonia Greenfield (she/they) is the author of All Possible Histories (Riot in Your Throat), Letdown (White Pine Press, 2020), American Parable (Autumn House, 2018) and Boy with a Halo at the Farmer’s Market (Codhill Press, 2015). She lives with her family in Minneapolis where she teaches at Normandale College and advocates for both neurodiversity and the decentering of the cis/het white hegemony.
Brendan Constantine’s work has appeared in Poetry, Best American Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Tin House, and other journals. His most recent collections are ‘Dementia, My Darling’ (2016) from Red Hen Press and ‘Bouncy Bounce’ (2018), a chapbook from Blue Horse Press. He teaches at the Windward School in Los Angeles.
Poet, psychology professor, and MacDowell Fellow, Donna Spruijt-Metz’s first career was as a classical flutist. Her poetry appears in Copper Nickel, RHINO, Poetry Northwest, the Tahoma Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her chapbooks are Slippery Surfaces and And Haunt the World’(with Flower Conroy). Her book General Release from the Beginning of the World is forthcoming (2023, Free Verse Editions).
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events
NoHo Online Book Club: The Island of Sea Women at North Hollywood Regional Library, LAPL – Online Event
The NoHo Book Club will be reading and discussing this month’s selection, The Island of Sea Women, by bestselling author Lisa See.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: North Hollywood Regional Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 10 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/noho-book-club
Griot Café Open Mic with Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain at Shades of Africa, Long Beach – In-Person Event (Check to Verify)
Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain host the Griot Café Open Mic & Poetry event every Saturday evening at Shades of Africa in Long Beach. See site to subscribe for reminders, etc.
Where: Griot Café at Shades of Africa (Check to Verify)
Date: Saturday the 24th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 1001 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://shadesofafrika.com/griot-cafe-open-mic-poetry/
Los Angeles Literature 