Philosophical Horror Book Club & You Feel It Just Below the Ribs at Cellar Door Books – In-Person Event
The Philosophical Horror Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, by authors Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson.
You Feel It Just Below the Ribs is a fictional autobiography in an alternate twentieth century that chronicles one woman’s unusual life, including the price she pays to survive and the cost her choices hold for the society she is trying to save.
This is a jarring and uncanny tale of loss, trauma, and the power of human connection and deception, You Feel It Just Below the Ribs is a portrait of a disturbing alternate world eerily within reach, and an examination of the difficult choices we must make to survive.
Jeffrey Cranor cowrites the Welcome to Night Vale and Within the Wires podcasts. He also cocreates theater and dance pieces with choreographer/wife Jillian Sweeney. They live in New York.
Janina Matthewson is the author of the novel Of Things Gone Astray and the novella The Understanding of Women. She cowrites Within the Wires, and has also written for Murmurs, The Cipher, and Passenger List. Originally from New Zealand, she now lives in London.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event
Book Talk: Ross Benjamin, with Chris Kraus, & The Diaries of Franz Kafka at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
This book talk event will feature author Ross Benjamin, in conversation with Chris Krause, to discuss his book, The Diaries of Franz Kafka.
This book is a new translation of the author’s complete, uncensored diaries—a revelation of the idiosyncrasies and rough edges of one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers.
Dating from 1909 to 1923, the handwritten diaries contain various kinds of writing: accounts of daily events, reflections, observations, literary sketches, drafts of letters, accounts of dreams, as well as finished stories. This volume makes available for the first time in English a comprehensive reconstruction of the diary entries and provides substantial new content, including details, names, literary works, and passages of a sexual nature that were omitted from previous publications. By faithfully reproducing the diaries’ distinctive—and often surprisingly unpolished—writing in Kafka’s notebooks, translator Ross Benjamin brings to light not only the author’s use of the diaries for literary experimentation and private self-expression, but also their value as a work of art in themselves.
Ross Benjamin’s translations include Friedrich Hölderlin’s Hyperion, Joseph Roth’s Job, and Daniel Kehlmann’s You Should Have Left and Tyll. He was awarded the 2010 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for his rendering of Michael Maar’s Speak, Nabokov, and he received a Guggenheim fellowship for his work on Franz Kafka’s diaries.
Chris Krause is the author of four novels, three books of art and cultural criticism, and a critical biography of Kathy Acker. Her first novel, I Love Dick, was adapted for television. She has written for The Guardian, TLS, Financial Times, and many other publications. Kraus is a co-editor of the independent press Semiotexte, alongside Hedi El Kholti. She teaches writing at ArtCenter.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
At Skylight: Amy Spaulding, with Katie Heaney, & For Her Consideration at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Amy Spaulding, in conversation with Katie Heaney, will discuss For Her Consideration.
When an aspiring L.A. scriptwriter falls head-over-heels for a bossy and beautiful movie star after a devastating break-up, the two take a risk on love and cast themselves as the leading ladies of their own star-struck romance in this sweet and spirited love story from critically-acclaimed writer Amy Spalding in her adult debut.
Amy Spalding is the author of several novels, including the bestselling We Used to Be Friends and The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles), which was named a best book of 2018 by NPR, the Boston Globe, Kirkus, and more. Amy grew up in St. Louis and now lives in Los Angeles. She has a B.A. in Advertising & Marketing Communications from Webster University and an M.A. in Media Studies from The New School. Amy studied longform improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Visit her at TheAmySpalding.com.
Katie Heaney is the author of six books, including the memoirs Never Have I Ever and Would You Rather? and the novels Dear Emma, Public Relations, Girl Crushed, and The Year I Stopped Trying. After working as a journalist for a decade in New York, she recently moved to LA to pursue screenwriting, and was named an Outfest Screenwriting Fellow for 2022.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-amy-spalding-presents-her-consideration-w-katie-heaney
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 an Assistant Professor of Postcolonial and Transnational Literatures at California State University Channel Islands, teaching courses on creative writing and contemporary African literatures. Raquel has published poetry in Africology and The Arrow; fiction in Enculturation, The Daily Palette, The Womanist, and Crux; and non-fiction in Little Village; and has done readings with the Ventura County Poetry project. Raquel lives for talking about all things about the craft and social meanings of literature!
Where: Beyond Baroque – Online event
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)
Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-547699001457
Under the Mic Influence & Open Mic featuring Judah 1 – In-Person Event
Join host Kuahmel Alyeeus KuahAllah and DJ Kev Jam for poetry, Open Mic, rare grooves, cocktails, tasty bites.
David “Judah 1” Oliver is a Los Angeles based poet and performance artist and recently completed his term as Poet Laureate of Pomona.
Under the Mic Influence and Open Mic bring you poetry & battle rap dynamo @sistar_outspoken to set off 2023 in @lbunified with @djkevjam and yours truly. Vegan soul food from @anotherside0fsoul on deck all evening. BE THERE!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, and details.
Where: LB Unified Bar & Lounge
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 7:30 pm; Mic at 8 pm
Address: 2222 E. Anaheim, Long Beach, CA 90804
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/ or https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1849113915467152&set=a.383136428731582
Adult Non-Fiction Book Club: The Spy and the Traitor at Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Adult Non-Fiction Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War, by Ben Macintyre. Discussion is facilitated by Judy Meadow,
If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation’s communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union’s top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States’s nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/adult-nonfiction-book-club
Mysterious Book Club: Murder in an English Village at Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Mysterious Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Murder in an English Village, by Jessica Elliott. New members are welcome.
In 1920, American adventuress Beryl Helliwell, in need of some peace and quiet, reads an ad from “a well-bred lady” requesting a lodger. It leads her to her old schoolmate Edwina Davenport, who is down on her luck in the hamlet of Walmsley Parva. To defray local rumors about Edwina and her reduced finances, Beryl informs the village gossip that the two women are secret agents. The next evening Edwina is attacked in her garden, and the friends realize this quiet village holds some deadly secrets.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 1:30 pm
Address: 861 Alma Real Dr., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mysterious-book-club-7
Classis Detectives Book Club & The Bigger They Come at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Classic Detectives Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, The Bigger They Come: A Cool and Lam Mystery, by author Erle Stanley Gardner.
Bertha Cool is the gruff, tough-talking, corpulent head of her private detective agency, opened after the death of her husband; Donald Lam is her meek, slight, and nervy new hire, who makes up for a lack of boldness with brilliant deductive work. The duo couldn’t be any more dissimilar but, with their skills combined, they are an unstoppable force when it comes to solving crimes, as evidenced by their over two dozen successes in the long-running series penned by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner.
In this, their first outing, Donald Lam is tasked with delivering divorce papers to a man who reportedly made a fortune in rigged slot machines. The only problem is that nobody—not even the police—can find him. Before long, Lam’s seemingly-simple assignment finds him caught up in a web of money, mysterious safety deposit boxes, and a gang of toughs every bit as desperate as he is to find the runaway husband.
Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970) was the best-selling American author of the 20th century, mainly due to the enormous success of his Perry Mason series, which numbered more than 80 novels and inspired a half-dozen motion pictures, radio programs, and a long-running television series that starred Raymond Burr. Having begun his career as a pulp writer, Gardner brought a hard-boiled style and sensibility to the early Mason books, but gradually developed into a more classic detective story novelist, showing enough clues to allow the astute reader to solve the mystery. For more than a quarter of a century he wrote more than a million words a year under his own name and numerous pseudonyms, the most famous being A.A. Fair.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/classic-detectives-book-club-bigger-they-come
An Evening with Nikole Hannah-Jones at USC Visions and Voices – In-Person Event
USC Visions and Voices presents an evening with Nicole Hannah-Jones, staff writer at The New York Times Magazine and Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of The 1619 Project, which illuminates the legacy of slavery in the contemporary United States and highlights the contributions of Black Americans to every aspect of American society. The book version was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller.
This special event will be presented in conjunction with the launch of USC Annenberg’s Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab, which saves, studies, and shares news stories and oral histories about Black social justice trailblazers on the West Coast. The conversation will be moderated by USC Annenberg professor, Bass Lab founder, and award-winning author Allissa V. Richardson, and will be introduced by USC President Carol L. Folt.
Nikole Hannah-Jones has spent her career investigating racial inequality and injustice, and her reporting has earned her the MacArthur Fellowship, known as the Genius grant, a Peabody Award, two George Polk Awards, and the National Magazine Award three times. She also serves as the Knight Chair of Race and Journalism at Howard University, where she founded the Center for Journalism & Democracy. Hannah-Jones is also the co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, which seeks to increase the number of investigative reporters and editors of color, and this year she opened the 1619 Freedom School, a free, afterschool literacy program in her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: USC Visions and Voices, Bovard Auditorium
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 6 pm
Address: 3551 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-nikole-hannah-jones-registration-488417298287
Third Tuesday Book Club: The Rent Collector at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Third Tuesday Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, The Rent Collector, by Camron Wright. New members are welcome.
Survival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash. Life would be hard enough without the worry for their chronically ill child, Nisay, and the added expense of medicines that are not working. Just when things seem worst, Sang Ly learns a secret about the ill-tempered rent collector who comes demanding money–a secret that sets in motion a tide that will change the life of everyone it sweeps past. The Rent Collector is a story of hope, of one woman’s journey to save her son and another woman’s chance at redemption.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/3rd-tuesday-book-club
Book Club Discussion: Author Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi & Jollouf Rice and Other Revolutions at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
For the first time ever, the Village Well Book Club will be holding it’s meeting with the author! Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi has graciously offered her time to discuss the novel with all attendees.
Nigerian author Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi makes her American debut with this dazzling novel which explores her homeland’s past, present, and possible future through the interconnected stories of four fearless globe-trotting women.
Moving between Nigeria and America, Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions is a window into the world of accomplished Nigerian women, illuminating the challenges they face and the risks they take to control their destinies.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/23187
Ross Benjamin, with Paul Holdengraber, & The Diaries of Franz Kafka at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Ross Benjamin, in conversation with Paul Holdengraber, will discuss his book, The Diaries of Franz Kafka.
An essential new translation of the author’s complete, uncensored diaries–a revelation of the idiosyncrasies and rough edges of one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers.
Dating from 1909 to 1923, the handwritten diaries contain various kinds of writing: accounts of daily events, reflections, observations, literary sketches, drafts of letters, accounts of dreams, as well as finished stories. This volume makes available for the first time in English a comprehensive reconstruction of the diary entries and provides substantial new content, including details, names, literary works, and passages of a sexual nature that were omitted from previous publications. By faithfully reproducing the diaries’ distinctive–and often surprisingly unpolished–writing in Kafka’s notebooks, translator Ross Benjamin brings to light not only the author’s use of the diaries for literary experimentation and private self-expression, but also their value as a work of art in themselves
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/Ross-Benjamin
Book Talk: Malcolm Harris & Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World via Chevalier’s Books – Online Event
This book talk event will feature author Malcolm Harris, to discuss his book, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World.
This book is the first comprehensive, global history of Silicon Valley, from railroad capitalists to microchip assemblers, showing how Northern California created the world as we know it
In PALO ALTO, the first comprehensive, global history of Silicon Valley, Malcolm Harris examines how and why Northern California evolved in the particular, consequential way it did, tracing the ideologies, technologies, and policies that have been engineered there over the course of 150 years of Anglo settler colonialism, from IQ tests to the “tragedy of the commons,” racial genetics, and “broken windows” theory. The Internet and computers, too. It’s a story about how a small American suburb became a powerful engine for economic growth and war, and how it came to lead the world into a surprisingly disastrous 21st century.
Malcolm Harris is a freelance writer and the author of Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials and Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit: History Since the End of History. He was born in Santa Cruz, CA and graduated from the University of Maryland.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, iink, and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-malcolm-harriss-palo-alto-tickets-525285672587
Mystery Book Group: Trouble Is What I Do via Santa Monica Main Library, SMPL – Online Event
The Mystery Book Group will discuss this month’s selection, Trouble Is What I Do, by Walter Mosley. New members are welcome.
Detective Leonid McGill is forced to confront the ghost of his felonious past when a nonagenarian Mississippi bluesman is targeted by an infamous assassin.
Contact library@santamonica.gov for Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details
Where: Santa Monica Main Library, SMPL
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Online Zoo Event (see site)
Website: https://smpl.org
At Skylight: Margo Kahn, Angela Cardinale, Sonia Maria David, & Merritt Tierce, & Women Writing About Desire at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Margo Kahn, Angela Cardinale, Sonia Maria David, & Merritt Tierce, will be in conversation and discuss Women Writing About Desire: WANTING:
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
In Conversation: Ashton Politanoff & Kathryn Scanlan, with Zach Davidson, at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Ashton Politanoff’s You’ll Like it Here is a haunting bricolage, divided into three parts, that excavates the forgotten history of Redondo Beach in the early 1900’s through old news clippings, advertisements, recipes and other ephemera that speak to the ills of male stoicism, industrialization and capitalism, and environmental displacement.
Kathryn Scanlan’s Kick the Latch vividly captures the arc of one woman’s life at the racetrack—the flat land and ramshackle backstretch; the bad feelings and friction; the winner’s circle and the racetrack bar; the fancy suits and fancy boots; and the “particular language” of “grooms, jockeys, trainers, racing secretaries, stewards, pony people, hotwalkers, everybody”—with economy and integrity.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Walter Mosley & Every Man a King: A King Oliver Novel at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Walter Mosley will present and discuss his highly anticipated sequel to the Edgar award winner Down the River Unto the Sea, Joe King Oliver is entangled in a dangerous case when he’s asked to investigate whether a white nationalist is being unjustly set up.
When friend of the family and multi-billionaire Roger Ferris comes to Joe with an assignment, he’s got no choice but to accept, even if the case is a tough one to stomach. White nationalist Alfred Xavier Quiller has been accused of murder and the sale of sensitive information to the Russians. Ferris has reason to believe Quiller’s been set up and he needs King to see if the charges hold.
This linear assignment becomes a winding quest to uncover the extent of Quiller’s dealings, to understand Ferris’ skin in the game, and to get to the bottom of who is working for whom. Even with the help of bodyguard and mercenary Oliya Ruez–no regular girl Friday–the machine King’s up against proves relentless and unsparing. As King gets closer to exposing the truth, he and his loved ones barrel towards grave danger.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/walter-mosley-discusses-every-man-king-king-oliver-novel
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Shonda Buchanan via Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Shonda Buchanan.
Shonda Buchanan is an award-winning poet, write, and educator, and the author of five books, including the memoir, Black Indian, and her first collection of poetry, Who’s Afraid of Black Indians? She is a faculty member at Loyola Marymount university and in Alma College’s MFA Program in Creative Writing, and is also President of the Board of Trustees for Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 21st
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 21st
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 3301 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1699147113818899
Da Poetry Lounge 3rd Tuesday Slam Night at Greenway Court – In-Person Event
The nation’s largest weekly Open Mic event is 25 years strong. They hold open mic nights. At an open mic, all are welcome to share their poetry or sit in their audience.
Every Tuesday (except for 3rd Tuesdays which is Slam Night) we hold open mic nights. At an open mic, all are welcome to share their poetry or sit in our audience.
TIME LIMIT: Each artist has 3 minutes at the mic, and if you go over, our DJ will scratch you. Please be respectful of the time limit as we try to accommodate as many people as possible.
$10 donation. Do NOT line up prior to 7:30 p.m. Free parking adjacent to theatre.
See sites for details.
Masks are encouraged. All ages are welcome.
Where: Greenway Court Theatre and YouTube Live Stream
Date: Tuesday the 21st
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/events/open-mic-night
New Neverspeak Tuesdays Open Mic with Tommy Domino at Dipiazza’s – In-Person Event
The New Neverspeak Tuesdays Open Mic at Dipiazza’s with Shy But Flyy, will feature Philosophy, Tommy Domino + El King + an open mic.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Dipiazza’s
Date: Tuesday the 21st
Time: 9 pm
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/philosophy-shy-but-flyy-dr-v-ravina-tommy-domino-el-kng-tickets-314858970657 or Eventbrite
Mystery Book Group: Harlem Shuffle at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Event
The Mystery Book Group will read and discuss this month’s selection, Harlem Shuffle, by Colson Whitehead.
Ray Carney is somewhere between bent and crooked, but he has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes. Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs? Harlem Shuffle’s ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It’s a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem.
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!
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 22nd
Time: 9 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/mystery-book-group-harlem-shuffle-colson-whitehead
Write Your Novel Event at Platt Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Platt Branch Library invites you to write your novel at their library.
Is writing one of your New Year’s resolutions for 2023? Is completing a book on your bucket list? Whether you shouted an emphatic yes or mumbled a hushed maybe to either of those questions, our new novel writing support group is for you. This new group will be a place to learn, practice, and receive support from other writers. We will use LinkedIn Learning courses available on lapl.org to guide us through the novel writing process one step at a time. With weekly goals and the encouragement of your peers, you can spend the year working your way toward a completed novel.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Platt Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 23600 Victory Blvd., Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/write-your-novel
Good Trouble Reading Group & Octavia’s Brood via Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join Dr. Andrea Liss via Zoom to discuss a selection of stories from the anthology Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, edited by Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown. Inspired by the groundbreaking work of the late Octavia Butler, the radical speculative fiction by these visionary writers ranges from science fiction to fantasy, horror, and magical realism. The stories here are united by their commitment to using literary imagination to futurize our political practice and bring about new worlds and selves. Octavia’s Brood is available as a print book and an e-book.
We will be discussing these four stories:
adrienne maree brown, “The River,” p. 23-31
Walidah Imarisha, “Black Angel,” p. 43-55
Tara Betts, “Runway Blackout,” p. 167-175
Vagabond, “Kafka’s Last Laugh” p. 176-186
And also the brief Forward and Introduction to the anthology.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/good-trouble-reading-group-octavias-brood
The Quest Book Club: Purple Hibiscus at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
The Quest Book Club will read and discuss this month’s selection, Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
This book club alternates between fiction and nonfiction titles with a focus on literature; selecting books that are classic, diverse, contemporary, banned, and more.
Purple Hibiscus is a is a book about the promise of freedom; about the blurred lines between childhood and adulthood; between love and hatred, between the old gods and the new.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Westchester, Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.thebookjewel.com/quest-book-club
Reading in Bed: Jessica Wilson Cardenas with guest TBA via L. A. Poet Society – Online Event
The Reading in Bed with Jessica Series is held live on Wednesdays at www.radioollin.org and features oldies, interviews, performances, live in-studio.
The mission of the L. A. Poet Society is to create a bridge, fusing the communities of Los Angeles & Southern California Poets. Jessica Wilson Cardenas is a poet, writer, event curator and founder of the L.A. Poet Society. She is the author of the collection Serious Longing.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: L.A. Poet Society
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.instagram.com/losangelespoetsociety/?hl=en
WeHo Reads: Writing Paths to Justice & Towards Better Future Celebration via WEHO Reads Series – Online Event
In the Writing Paths to Justice event we search for truth in tales of crime and the pursuit of justice with Walter Mosley, Joe Ide, Jordan Harper, Kellye Garrett, and Steph Cha.
What can we learn about human nature from imagining the paths taken by criminals and outcasts? By following people who seek justice, do we learn of better ways to heal wounds and seal rifts? Join us for a discussion with authors who examine what happens when the social contract fractures.
Walter Mosley is one of America’s most celebrated writers with over 50 published books. His recently published novel, Every Man a King (Hachette, 2023), is the second installment in his Joe “King” Oliver series.
Steph Cha is the author of Your House Will Pay (Ecco, 2019), winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the California Book Award, and the Juniper Song crime trilogy. Kellye Garrett is an Anthony, Agatha, and Lefty award-winning author whose most recent suspense novel, Like a Sister (Mulholland Books, 2022), is about the death of a disgraced reality TV star.
Joe Ide is the author of the award-winning IQ series, including the most recent installment, Smoke (Mulholland Books, 2021).
Jordan Harper has been a music journalist, film critic, and TV writer. His most recent novel, Everybody Knows, is a crime thriller about a publicist who works for the corrupt and depraved elite in Southern California (Mulholland Books, 2023).
The event is free and you can watch via YouTube Live on the WeHo Arts channel. Learn more at http://www.weho.org/wehoreads/
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: WeHo Arts & City of West Hollywood
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weho-reads-writing-paths-toward-justice-tickets-471354131897
Mystery & Thriller Book Club: Take Your Breath Away at Venice – Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join the monthly Mystery & Thriller Book Club online, which will discuss this month’s selection, Take Your Breath Away, by Lynwood Barclay.
This book is about a missing woman, a husband suspected. It is a gripping psychological thriller about a formerly missing woman who returns under mysterious circumstances..
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-thriller-book-club
At Skylight: Francesca Lia Block, with Guests & House of Hearts at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Francesca Lia Block, in conversation with Janet Fitch, Samantha Dunn, and Amanda Yates Garcia, will present and discuss her book, House of Hearts.
Izzy Ames lives with her high school sweetheart, Cyrus Rivera, in the Salton Sea. They cling to each other and to their close friends Nephy and Seth to cope with the trauma of their pasts. Until the morning Izzy awakes to find Cyrus has vanished.
When she realizes no one will help, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and decides to search for Cyrus alone. After weeks of looking for him, she discovers a clue that leads her to the House of Hearts retreat center run by the mysterious Sky. At House of Hearts, Izzy meets an intriguing musician named Ever Fontana and for a moment she is able to forget the pain of her past. But when new clues about Cyrus’ disappearance surface, Izzy must go down into the dark to find the truth.
Izzy’s quest will take her into a world of sexuality, madness, and violence, where she will discover life-changing secrets not only about Cyrus but, ultimately, about herself.
Francesca Lia Block is the bestselling author of more than twenty-five widely-translated books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and she has also written various essays, reviews and screenplay adaptations of her work. She has received the Spectrum Award, Phoenix Award, ALA Rainbow Award, and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as praise from the New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, Los Angeles Times, and Publishers Weekly, among others.
Janet Fitch is the bestselling author of White Oleander, Paint it Black, and the duet The Revolution of Marina M. and Chimes of a Lost Cathedral. Her short stories and essays have most recently appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Noir and Palm Springs Noir. She teaches creative writing at the Community of Writers, the Esalen Institute, and through her popular Writing Wednesdays fireside chats on Facebook.
Amanda Yates Garcia is a writer, witch, and the Oracle of Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The LA Times, The SF Chronicle, The London Times, CNN, Bravo, as well as a viral appearance on FOX. She has led rituals, classes and workshops on magic and witchcraft at UCLA, UC Irvine, MOCA, The Hammer Museum, LACMA, The Getty and many other venues. Amanda hosts monthly moon rituals online, and the popular Between the Worlds podcast, which looks at the Western Mystery traditions through a mythopoetic lens. Her book, Initiated: Memoir of a Witch, received a starred review from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly and has been translated into six languages.
The senior editor of premium content for the Southern California News Group, Samantha Dunn has led a dynamic career in publishing. The author of Failing Paris (a finalist for the PEN West Fiction Award in 2000) and the bestselling memoir Not By Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life, as well as Faith in Carlos Gomez: A Memoir of Salsa, Sex and Salvation. Her essays are anthologized in a number of places, including the short story anthology, Women on the Edge: Writing from Los Angeles, which she co-edited. As a journalist, her bylines have been widely published, from O to the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for the stage and has taken a few turns screenwriting as a member of the Writers Guild of America.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Vroman’s Fiction Reading Group: Grey Bees at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Vroman’s Fiction Reading Group meets on the 4th Wednesday of every month and will present and discuss this months; selection, Grey Bees, by Audrey Kurkov.
Grey Bees is as timely as the author’s Ukraine Diaries were in 2014, but she treats the unfolding crisis in a more imaginative way, with a pinch of Kurkov’s signature humour. Who better than Ukraine’s most famous novelist – who writes in Russian – to illuminate and present a balanced portrait of this most bewildering of modern conflicts?
Translated from the Russian by Boris Dralyuk .
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91011
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/vromans-fiction-reading-group
A Mic and Dim Lights: Besskepp and JB at A Mic and Dim Lights – In-Person Event
A Mic and Dim Lights reading event presents Besskepp and JB to perform and discuss their work,
Besskepp will read for his latest release,
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: A Mic and Dim Lights
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1327 Willow St., Los Angele, CA 90013
Website: N/A
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 reading by Paul Mason;
- 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 22nd
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 Event
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. Please be prepared to share one poem. This workshop will be hosted via the Zoom video-conferencing platform. Please sign up for each workshop session at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting, and you will be contacted with instructions on how to join the meeting.
The new facilitator for this workshop will be Tom Laiches, author of Three Hundred Streets of Venice California (FutureCycle Press, 2023), Sixty-Three Photographs from the End of a War (3.1 Press, 2021), and Empire of Eden (The High Window Press, 2019). His recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Salt, Jabberwock, Blue Unicorn, Softblow, Disquieting Muses Quarterly, Stand, and elsewhere. He lives in Venice, California.
Please spend some time before the workshop learning how to share documents via Zoom. It will keep the session moving if you’re able to make your poem viewable quickly and easily. Here’s an instructive video that might help.
The workshop can sometimes reach high levels of attendance, which means not everyone will get a chance to read every session.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
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-551435718077
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry & Aruni Wijesinghe 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 Aruni Wijesinghe.
Aruni Wijesinghe is a project manager, ESL teacher, erstwhile belly dance instructor and occasional sous chef. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, she has been published nationally and internationally.
Her debut collection, 2 Revere Place, is a love letter to her family and miraculous childhood in New York. Her latest collection, The Litany of Missing (Arroyo Seco Press) is a meditation on loss, longing and love. You can follow her at www.aruniwrites.com
The format is to welcome a featured poet for an individual reading, as well as an Open Mic reading.
$4 cover fee, cash only.
NOTE: See site for further details, guidelines & information.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 8 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Two-Idiots-Peddling-Poetry/ or https://www.facebook.com/events/645285904042890
Alphabet Soup at The Book Jewel – In-Person Teen Event
Alphabet Soup is a monthly teen social event held every last Thursday of the month, and includes a Dungeons and Dragons campaign along with other bookstore activities.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Wednesday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Westchester, Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/CnnG9BCOBwm/?hl=en
LGBTQ Book Club & Burn the Page at Cellar Door Books – In-Person Event
The LGTBQ Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Burn the Page: A True Story of Torching Doubts, Blazing Trails, and Igniting Change, by author Danica Roem.
This book is an inspirational memoir-meets-manifesto by Danica Roem, the nation’s first openly trans person elected to US state legislature
Danica Roem made national headlines when–as a transgender former frontwoman for a metal band and a political newcomer–she unseated Virginia’s most notoriously anti-LGBTQ 26-year incumbent Bob Marshall as state delegate. But before Danica made history, she had to change her vision of what was possible in her own life. Doing so was a matter of storytelling: during her campaign, Danica hired an opposition researcher to dredge up every story from her past that her opponent might seize on to paint her negatively. This book will not just encourage people who think they have to be spotless to run for office, but inspire all of us to own our personal narratives as Danica does.
Delegate Danica Roem, part of the historic group that flipped Republican seats in the 2017 election, is the first out-and-seated transgender state legislator in American history. Prior to her political career, Roem was a journalist and now serves as a frequent guest on national media. She and her work have been featured in USA Today, People, GQ, The New York Times, Elle, and many others, and was the subject of the GLAAD award-winning documentary This Is How We Win.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/lgbtq-book-club-burn-page-danica-roem
Book Talk: Jen Beagin & Big Swiss at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Jen Beagin will present and discuss her latest book Big Swiss.
Big Swiss is a brilliantly original and funny novel about a sex therapist’s transcriptionist who falls in love with a client while listening to her sessions. When they accidentally meet in real life, an explosive affair ensues.
Jen Beagin holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine, and is a recipient of a Whiting Award in fiction. Her first novel Pretend I’m Dead was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and Vacuum in the Dark was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction. She is also the author of Big Swiss. She lives in Hudson, New York
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-jen-beagins-big-swiss-tickets-523026324817
Poetry + Magic (Love): Natalie J. Graham & Cynthia A. Briano Present a Recipe for Writing at The Cypress Library – In-Person Event
Roses, Honey, and Tears: a Recipe for Writing is an event inspired by Laura Esquivel’s sensual novel, Like Water for Chocolate,
Natalie J. Graham and Cynthia A, Briano share a journey into writing a recipe and incantation in this writing workshop event.
Free copies of Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel are available for attendees courtesy of Segerstom Center for the Arts (while supplies last).
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: The Cypress Library
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5331 Cypress Ave., Cypress, CA 90620
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10159016779960927&set=a.10152949185905927
LA Times Book Club: Brendan Slocum & The Violin Conspiracy via Los Angeles Times – Online Event
Brendan Slocum, in conversation with LA Times classical music critic Mark Swed, will discuss his novel, The Violin Conspiracy.
Novelist makes music a vital part of his debut mystery because it is essential in his protagonist’s life and the heist at the heart of his story.
The novelist takes readers inside the rarefied world of Ray McMillian, a Black musician whose priceless family Stradivarius is stolen shortly before the world’s most prestigious classical music competition. “The Violin Conspiracy” moves between Ray’s present and his enslaved great-great-grandfather’s past with the fiddle as the young musician struggles to reclaim his precious violin and prove himself.
It’s a world Slocumb — a violinist, performer and music teacher — knows inside and out.
NOTE: See site for link, and details.
Where: Los Angeles Times
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Open Mic: Besos y Puñales at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Event
Viva Padilla will host the Re/Arte Open Mic of musica, poesia, comedia, lectura every Thursday.
Sign up at the door.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, and details.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2123 E. Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://reartela.com/events%2Feventos
Black History Event: Catherine Adel West & The Two Lives of Sara via Santa Monica Public Library – Online Event
Catherine Adel West will feature in a virtual book reading and conversation about her novel The Two Lives of Sara, which tells the story of a young mother who finds refuge and friendship at a boardinghouse in 1960s Memphis, Tennessee, where family encompasses more than just blood and hidden truths can bury you or set you free.
This lively conversation with Catherine Adel West will be facilitated by Alisa Orduña, PhD, an Afro-Feminine Indigenous scholar, writer, and practitioner dedicated to ending homelessness through building beloved communities where persons of African descent experience a sense of belonging in all settings.
Participants will be able to submit questions for the author during the event.
NOTE: See site for link, and details.
Where: Santa Monica Library
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://santamonica.gov/events/ or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/author-reading-and-discussion-with-catherine-adel-west-tickets-500429998597
Black History Month Celebration with Culver City Leaders at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Culver City Vice Mayor Yasmine-Imani McMorrin & CCUSD School Board Member Triston Ezidore are hosting a celebration of Black History Month at Village Well!
Come by to hear different speakers read from their favorite Black texts.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/23626
Gregg Hurwitz & The Last Orphan at DIESEL, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Gregg Hurwitz will present and discuss his new book, The Last Orphan.
As a child, Evan Smoak was plucked out of a group home, raised and trained as an off-the-books assassin for the government as part of the Orphan Program. When he broke with the Program and went deep underground, he left with a lot of secrets in his head that the government would do anything to make sure never got out.
He remade himself as The Nowhere Man, dedicated to helping the most desperate in their times of trouble, Evan found himself slowly back on the government’s radar. Having eliminated most of the Orphans in the Program, the government will stop at nothing to eliminate the threat they see in Evan. But Orphan X has always been several steps ahead of his pursuers.
Until he makes one little mistake…
Now the President has him in her control and offers Evan a deal – eliminate a rich, powerful man she says is too dangerous to live and, in turn, she’ll let Evan survive. But when Evan left the Program he swore to only use his skills against those who really deserve it. Now he has to decide what’s more important – his principles or his life.
Gregg Hurwitz is the New York Times #1 internationally bestselling author of 23 thrillers including the ORPHAN X series. His novels have won numerous literary awards and have been published in 33 languages. Gregg currently serves as the Co-President of International Thriller Writers (ITW). Additionally, he’s written screenplays and television scripts for many of the major studios and networks, comics for AWA, DC, and Marvel, poetry, and political and culture pieces for The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Bulwark and others. .
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: DIESEL, A Bookstore (in the Courtyard)
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA, 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Gregg-Hurwitz-Author-signing
Javier Sethness Castro & Queer Tolstoy: a Psychobiography at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Javier Sethness Castro will discuss his new book, Queer Tolstoy: a Psychobiography.
Queer Tolstoy is a multidimensional work combining psychoanalysis, political history, LGBTQ+ studies, sexology, ethics, and theology to explore the life and art of Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy.
Using a psychobiographical framework, Sethness Castro uncovers profoundly queer dimensions in Tolstoy’s life experiences and art. Deftly contributing to the progressive and radical analysis of gender and sexuality, this book examines how Tolstoy’s erotic dissidence informed his anarchist politics, anti-militarist ideals, and voluminous literary production. Sethness Castro analyzes the influence of Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, Cervantes, Rousseau, Kant, Herzen, Proudhon, Chernyshevsky, and his mother Marya Volkonskaya on the artist’s writings. Furthermore, he details Tolstoy’s emblematic linking of LGBTQ+ desire with moral and erotic self-determination and resistance to Tsarist despotism–especially in War and Peace.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/javier-sethness-castro
Rodney Barnes In-Store Appearance at Malik Books – In-Person Event
Rodney Barnes will discuss and sign his work at Malik Books,
Acclaimed award-winning screenwriter and novelist Rodney Barnes celebrates the legacy of Blacula with his anticipated graphic novel Blacula: Return of the King.
Where: Malik Books
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 6000 Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 2470, Culver City, CA 90230
Website: https://malikbooks.com/events
At Skylight: Sam Kunkel, with Robert Pruett-Vergara & The Solar Circus at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Sa Kunkel, in conversation with Robert Pruett-Vergara, will present and discuss his book, The Solar Circus.
Join us for a discussion on the inventor of free verse poetry, as translator Sam Kunkel discusses the great Gustave Kahn’s Solar Circus with Robert Pruett-Vergara.
The Solar Circus is the great forgotten masterpiece of French Symbolist literature. Written by Gustave Kahn—the man whom Stéphane Mallarmé and Jules Laforgue credited as inventing free verse poetry—the novel drips in decadent images of pastoral vistas, exotic gemstones, merfolk, and a phantasmagoric menagerie. Inverting day for night and reality for a dazzling dream, The Solar Circus tells the story of a solipsistic, isolated Bavarian count who falls in love with the star of a traveling circus. Their relationship, in both love and jealousy, dramatizes that great tension between the inner life of contemplation and the dynamic beauty of the external world. And as they set out from the count’s castle, the couple examines this duality while encountering a world in transformation: peasants in rebellion, the bright lights of London’s Orpheum theater, and even an ether-swilling Jack the Ripper who analyzes humanity through a fog of opium.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Bozoma Saint John, with Allyson Felix, & The Urgent Life at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Bozoma Saint John, in conversation with Allyson Felix, will present and discuss her book, The Urgent Life: My Story of Love, Loss, and Survival.
When Bozoma Saint John’s husband, Peter, died of cancer, she made one big decision: to live life urgently. Bozoma was no stranger to adversity, having lost her college boyfriend to suicide, navigated an interracial marriage, grieved a child born prematurely–a process that led to her and Peter’s separation–and coparented the daughter who she and Peter shared. When Peter knew his cancer was terminal, he gave Bozoma a short list of things to do: cancel the divorce, and fix the wrongs immediately.
Bozoma’s story is extraordinary, but her grief is not uncommon, and her courage is sure to touch any reader who has loved, mourned and is finding a path through loss and grief, as well as anyone who is maneuvering a pivot and wants to live life to its fullest.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 585 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/bozoma-saint-john-urgent-life
Poetry Reading: Vijay Seshadri & 3 Sections at Hammer Museum – In-Person Event
Poet Vijay Seshadri, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning 3 Sections, reads from his work. He is also the author of That Was Now, This Is Then, The Long Meadow, and Wild Kingdom. His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in publications and anthologies including The Nation, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, The New York Times Book Review, The Yale Review, and The Best American Poetry, among many others. He teaches poetry and nonfiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College.
Organized and hosted by poet, literary critic, and UCLA Distinguished Research Professor Stephen Yenser. Cosponsored by UCLA Cultural and Recreational Affairs.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and information.
Where: Hammer Museum
Date: Thursday the 23rd
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2023/vijay-seshadri
Spectacular Story Time at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
This popular children’s story time is held every Friday morning and is ready to delight and dazzle with enthusiastic troubadour, Maddi!
Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/
NoHo Online Book Club & via North Hollywood Regional Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
This Book Club meets every 2nd & 4th Friday of the month, and will discuss the scheduled selection, John Woman by Walter Mosley.
A convention-defying novel by bestselling writer Walter Mosley, John Woman recounts the transformation of an unassuming boy named Cornelius Jones into John Woman, an unconventional history professor―while the legacy of a hideous crime lurks in the shadows.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Hollywood Regional Library
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 10 am
Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/noho-online-book-club
Your Author Series: Janae Marks & Online with Zoe Washington via Central Library, LAPL – Online MG Event
Author Janae Marks will talk about her latest middle-grade book, On Air With Zoe Washington, an empowering and big-hearted sequel to the critically acclaimed From the Desk of Zoe Washington.
On Air follows Zoe and her recently exonerated father as they build on their new relationship and work to open their own restaurant together, but as public interest in their story wanes, will anyone still be listening?
Janae Marks is the critically acclaimed author of middle-grade novels, From the Desk of Zoe Washington, A Soft Place to Land, and On Air with Zoe Washington. Her novels have been named Best Book of the Year by Parents Magazine, Chicago Public Library, the Boston Globe, the Bank Street College of Education, and others. From the Desk of Zoe Washington is currently in development with Disney Branded Television to become an original movie executive produced by Kerry Washington.
Streaming live on the library’s YouTube channel.
Those attending the virtual program will have an opportunity to win a free book.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-janae-marks
2nd & 3rd Grade Book Club & The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Participants at the next 2nd & 3rd grade Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street, by Karina Yan Glaser.
This is the first book in the bestselling series that the New York Times Book Review hails as “delightful and heartwarming.”
The Vanderbeekers have always lived in the brownstone on 141st Street. It’s practically another member of the family. So when their reclusive, curmudgeonly landlord decides not to renew their lease, the five siblings have eleven days to do whatever it takes to stay in their beloved home and convince the dreaded Beiderman just how wonderful they are.
And all is fair in love and war when it comes to keeping their home.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/2nd3rd-grade-book-club-2
Bilingual Book Club: Panda Roja Y Oso Lunar/Red Panda and Moon Bear via Central Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Kids & Teens Event
Club de lectura bilingüe para estudiantes en grados 5-10. Bilingual Book Club for students in grades 5-10.
Streaming live on the library’s YouTube channel.
Inscríbete por correo electrónico / Register by emailing teens@lapl.org
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, link, and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Teen Scape
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angele, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/bilingual-book-club-panda-roja-y-oso-lunarred-panda-and-moon-bear
Black Lit Book Club: Nightcrawling at Cellar Door Books – In-Person Event
The Black Lit Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, Nightcrawling: A Novel, by author Leila Mottley.
Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison.
But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent—which has more than doubled—and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.
Leila Mottley is the author of the novel Nightcrawling, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick and New York Times best seller. She is also the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate. She was born and raised in Oakland, where she continues to live.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/black-lit-book-club-nightcrawling
Book Talk: Joanna Schwartz & Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable at Chevalier’s Books– In-Person Event
Joanna Schwartz will present and discuss her book Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable.
This book is an urgent and definitive examination of how the legal system prevents accountability for police misconduct, from one of the country’s leading scholars on policing
In recent years, the high-profile murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others have brought much-needed attention to the pervasiveness of police misconduct. Yet it remains nearly impossible to hold police accountable for abuses of power—the decisions of the Supreme Court, state and local governments, and policymakers have, over decades, made the police all but untouchable.
In Shielded, UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz exposes the myriad ways in which our legal system protects police at all costs, cutting across race, gender, criminal history, tax bracket, and zip code. The product of more than two decades of advocacy and research, Shielded is a timely and necessary investigation into why civil rights litigation so rarely leads to justice or prevents future police misconduct.
Weaving powerful true stories of people seeking restitution for violated rights with insightful analyses about subjects ranging from qualified immunity to no-knock warrants, Schwartz paints a compelling picture of the human cost of our failing criminal justice system, bringing clarity to a problem that is widely known but little understood. Shielded is a masterful work of immediate and enduring consequence, revealing what tragically familiar calls for “justice” truly entail.
Joanna Schwartz is a professor of law at UCLA, where she teaches civil procedure and courses on police accountability and public interest lawyering. Her writing, commentary, and research about police misconduct, qualified immunity, indemnification, and local government budgeting have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Christian Science Monitor, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, CNN, NPR, and elsewhere. Her research has been quoted and cited by United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and more than two dozen state supreme courts, federal circuit courts, and federal district courts.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Author Conversation: Austin Frank & Journey into Ampliterra at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Austin Frank will discuss his book, Ampliterra: Echoes of the Rift, an open-ended sourcebook for tabletop role playing games. It’s designed to give game masters and players everything they need to set a campaign in this rich world teeming with precarious conflicts and optimistic characters hoping they’ll help resolve them. The book presents the world at an inflection point as it tackles consequences of a reality-altering event nearly 400 years ago. These conflicts are well under-way, but the answers have yet to be written.
Austin Frank is the author of the upcoming tabletop role playing game campaign setting, Ampliterra: Echoes of the Rift. When the sun sets on his day job writing grants for public radio, he’s an avid GM, fantasy writer, and world-builder. In his spare time, Austin loves spending time with his wife and dog, playing board games, and running.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/23344
Fourth Friday Poetry Reading & Spoken Word Event at Bookman Bookstore – In-Person Event
Bookman Bookstore in Orange, CA offers a Poetry Reading & Spoken Word Event every fourth Friday of the month.
NOTE: See store site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Bookman Bookstore
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 6 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 320 E. Katella, Ste. M, Orange CA 92867
Website: https://www.ebookman.com/
The Nervous Ghost Press Open Mic at Brewjeria Co. – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
The Nervous Ghost Open Mic will feature guest emcee Carly Creley, both in-person and via live streaming.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Brewjeria Co.
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 4037 Durfee Ave, Pico Rivera, CA
Website: https://www.nervousghostpress.org/openmic
Bonnie Bartlett Daniels & Middle of the Rainbow at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Bonnie Bartlett Daniels will discuss her new memoir, Middle of the Rainbow – How a wife, mother and daughter managed to find herself and win two Emmys.
Middle of the Rainbow is the blunt and honest memoirs of Emmy-winning actress Bonnie Bartlett Daniels. It’s the story of her 70-plus year career, and her struggles in the pre-#metoo and pre-feminist world. It’s also the rare and unique story of a 70-plus year marriage (with film, theatre and TV icon William Daniels.) In a full telling of her life, we learn that through years of psychoanalysis and, ultimately, thanks to motherhood, she was able to heal the scars left by her abusive father and learn to love her life as if it were a rainbow.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/bonnie-bartlett-daniels
At Skylight: JAC JEMC, with Amelia Gray, & Empty Theatre at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
JAC JEMC, in conversation with Amelia Gray, will present and discuss her book, Empty Theatre.
This book is a wildly over-the-top social satire reimagining the mad misadventures of History knows them as King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Empress Elizabeth of Austria, icons of the late nineteenth century who died young and left behind magnificent portraits and palaces. But to each other they were Ludwig and Sisi, cousins who shared a passion for beauty and a stubborn refusal to submit to the roles imposed upon them.
Ludwig, simultaneously spoiled and punished for his softness and “unmanly” interests, falls hard for the operas of Richard Wagner and neglects his state duties in the pursuit of art. Sisi, married at the age of sixteen to her beloved Franzl, bristles at the restrictions of her elevated position, the value placed on her beauty, and the simultaneous expectation that she ravage her body again and again in childbirth. Both absurdly vain, both traumatized by the demands of their roles, Sisi and Ludwig struggle against the ideals they are expected to embody, and resist through extravagance, petulance, performance, and frivolity.the iconic royal cousins King Ludwig and Empress Sisi.
Jac Jemc is the author of False Bingo, The Grip of It, My Only Wife, and A Different Bed Every Time. My Only Wife was a finalist for the 2013 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction and winner of the Paula Anderson Book Award, and her story collection False Bingo won the Chicago Review of Books Award for Fiction, was a Lambda Award finalist, and was long-listed for the Story Prize. Jemc currently teaches creative writing at the University of California San Diego.
Amelia Gray is the author of five books, most recently Isadora (FSG). Her fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Tin House, and VICE. She is a winner of the NYPL Young Lion and of FC2’s Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize, and a finalist for a WGA Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. As a screenwriter, she has written for the shows Maniac (Netflix), Mr. Robot (USA), and Gaslit (Starz), as well as the games Telling Lies (Annapurna Interactive) and Immortality (Half Mermaid). She lives in Los Angeles.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-jac-jemc-presents-empty-theatre-w-amelia-gray
Tara Ison & At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Tara Ison will present and discuss her book, At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf.
This book is the story of a twelve-year-old Parisian Jewish girl in World War II France, living “in hiding” as a Catholic orphan with a family in a small village.
When Danielle Marton’s father is killed during the early days of the German Occupation, her mother sends her to live in a quiet farming town near Limoges in Vichy France. Now called Marie-Jeanne Chantier, Danielle struggles to balance the truth of what’s happened to her family and her country with the lies she must tell to keep herself safe. At first, she’s bitter about being left behind by her mother, and horrified at having to milk the cow and memorize Catholic prayers for church. But as the years pass and the Occupation worsens, Danielle finds it easier to suppress her former life entirely, and Marie-Jeanne becomes less and less of an act. By the time she’s fifteen and there is talk amongst the now divided town of an Allied invasion, not only has Danielle lost the memories of her father’s face and the smell of her mother’s perfume, but her very self, transforming into a strict Catholic and an anti-Semitic, fervent disciple of fascism.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 585 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/tara-ison-discusses-hour-between-dog-and-wolf
Mike “The Poet” Sonksen: Featured Guests & Open Mic Night at Manta Coffee Co, Azusa – In-Person Event
This Open Mic event will also feature guest readers and performers:
Ashaki Jackson is a poet, writer, social psychologist and program evaluator, and author of two collections of poetry, Language Lesson and Surveillance.
Cory “Besskepp” Cofer will present and read from his new collection, Dreaming Under Polka-Dot Stars. This book is praised as “one part trumpet song, one part elegy,” by poet Michael Torres (An Incomplete List of Names).
Luivette Resto is a mother, teacher, poet, and author of the collections Unfinished Portrait, Ascention, and most recently, Living on Islands Not Found on Maps.
Mike Sonksen is a poet, essayist, writer, historian, college professor, and the author most recently of Letters to My City.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Mantra Coffee Co.
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 615 N. San Gabriel Ave., Azusa, CA 91101
Website: N/A
Obscenely Poetic: A Fusion of Poetry & Jazz at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person Online
Join Beyond Baroque for Extremely Poetic: A fusion of Poetry & Jazz, featuring:
A.K. Toney is a Griot, writer, and educator. He currently is a Literacy Coordinator, Artist teacher and owner of Reading Is Poetry. Although Toney has yet to publish a full volume of poetry, he is currently working on his first book and album chronicling his life as a poet in the Leimert Park Village area in Los Angeles, CA. As a Griot Toney has learned the art of storytelling while playing percussion instruments. He often deeply emerges himself into rhythms of African Oral Tradition and Jazz from a modern urban perspective. A.K. follows the role of the Griot singing and playing the message, loving, and respecting the people.
Rhys Langston is a musician, visual artist, and writer born, raised, and based in Los Angeles, California. Publications such as the NY Times, the LA Times, AFROPUNK, LA Weekly, STEREOGUM, and SPIN have praised his multimedia efforts. Notable projects include 2020’s dissertation and musical album Language Arts Unit: a Rap Textbook and 2022’s Grapefruit Radio, which melded his outré rap, visual art, and absurdist prose. Ever composing and plotting between disciplines, he remains the poet laureate of his living room and has a higher vertical leap than your favorite rapper.
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.
Jeremy Kern began playing music at the age of 4, on piano. From there, saxophone(s), then bass, guitar, and so on. Based out of Los Angeles, he performs on over 10 different instruments and writes and produces music as well. An international performer and touring musician, from the beginning he was driven by a love/appreciation for all types of music which have driven his sound and musicality. His hope in life is to make a lot of music for and with a lot of people, and that it brings much joy and freedom of expression to listeners everywhere. “What We Play Is Life” – Louis Armstrong
Tony Martin is a musician.
This event will be an evening of diatonic feels in rhyming verse & auxiliary prose. Inspired by Rhys Langston’s first track in Grapefruit Radio (published by Black Market Poetry), this powerhouse line-up features three poets based in Los Angeles; multi-media artist Rhys Langston, drummer/spoken-word poet A.K. Toney & the magic of Tori Gesualdo. Enjoy the poetry with a jam-out performance by sax player Jeremy Kern joined by Brainstory’s bassist, Tony Martin.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Friday the 24th
Time: 8 pm (doors at 7:30)
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/obscenely-poetic-a-fusion-of-poetry-and-jazz-tickets-543271598977
Be the Change Book Festival at Glendale Library, with Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Event
Celebrate diverse voices in reading at the Be the Change Book Festival with author talks, local book vendors, food trucks, DJ, and activities for all ages.
The Be the Change Series is the Library’s promise to build collective understanding of systemic racism, elevate the voices and stories of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), and inspire our community to be the change through lectures, exhibits, and programming.
Author Talks featuring:
Vahe Berberian is an Armenian painter, author, playwright and actor. Born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1955 and relocated to Los Angeles in 1976. Vahé has studied art in both Lebanon and the United States, receiving a degree in journalism with honors in 1980. Vahé has participated in more than 30 individual and group exhibitions throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East. Berberian has always painted as a complement to writing and acting, never able to forfeit one form of art for another. “Theatre is conditional on what others do, and its temporality is limiting, whereas painting is personal, direct and does not need a mediator. However, each form feeds on the other, pushing its influence into the world of the other.” Vahe Berberian’s literal work includes the novels, Hanoun Hor Yev Vortvo and Namagner Zaataren and the plays, Pink Elephant and the recently staged, Baron Garbis.
Joe Cepeda is an award-winning author and illustrator of many children’s books, and a presenter to schools and conferences. He is also president of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, SILA.
Naz Kutub is a half-Indian, half-Malay immigrant from Singapore. His debut novel, The Loophole, was inspired by his personal experiences growing up as a gay Muslim, and as someone raised on a calorie-dense diet of Eastern lore.
Andrea J. Loney’s works include the Caldecott Honor winning picture book Double Baby Blues, the Lee and Low New Voices Award winning and an NAACP Award nominated picture book biography Take a Picture of Me, JAMES VANDERZEE!, the picture book Bunnybear, an ALA Rainbow List title, and middle-grade chapter book biography VIP STACEY ABRAMS: Voting Visionary. Her work can also be found in the critically-acclaimed children’s poetry anthology NO VOICE TOO SMALL: FOURTEEN YOUNG AMERICANS MAKING HISTORY. Her upcoming books include picture book biography Curve and Flow: The Elegant Vision of LA Architect Paul R. Williams, and futuristic chapter book series Abby in Orbit (Albert Whitman and Company, October 2022).
Ajuan Mance is a professor of English at Mills College in Oakland, California. She holds degrees from Brown University and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. A lifelong artist, she works in acrylic on paper and canvas, ink on paper and, for the 1001 Black Men project, ink on paper and digital collage.
Luis J. Rodríguez. Is a prolific author of many books, across genres,isa poet, wirter, singer, and his autobiography Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in LA and others are modern classics. He is a journalist and critic and founder of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore and The Tia Chucha Press. He was Poet Laureate of Los Angeles from 2016-2020.
Benson Shum is a children’s book author and illustrator. Tomhe idea that an image or painting can evoke emotions and movement is what brought him to the world of picture books and animation. Benson uses watercolor, ink and digital tools to create his illustrations. His book, Anzu the Great Kaiju received a starred review from School Library Journal. Both Anzu the Great Kaiju and Anzu the Great Listener was selected for 2022 & 2023 Kid’s Indie Next List Recommend by American Booksellers Association. Alex’s Good Fortune was also selected for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library 2022 & 2023.
Jessa Calderon is a singer, song writer, Emcee (rapper), poet, and published author. She is of the Chumash and Tongva Nations of Southern California, and also identifies with her Yoeme and Mexican roots. Jessa is a natural born singer who truly found her voice in hip-hop. As an emcee, poet and published author, she is able to share her culture and truth in a way that keeps the crowds
Festival Activities include:
Bookmark, Keychain/Magnet making
Reusable Bag Decorating
Children’s Bookmark Contest
Bookmaking with LA artist Debra Disman
Book Festival Exhibitors:
Abril Books
Once Upon a Time
Nanowrimo
Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural
Philippine Expressions Bookshop
Octavia’s Bookshelf
Legacy Comics
Indie Author Project (IAP)
Quiet Quail
Writer’s Guild Foundation
Alzheimer’s Association
Korean Cultural Center
Food and book sales will be available onsite. For more details, visit http://www.eglendalelac.org/book-festival
Note: See site for further details.
Where: Glendale Public Library
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 10 am – 4 pm
Address: 222 E. Harvard St., Glendale, CA 91205
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/be-change-book-festival or https://glendaleca.libnet.info/event/7866874
Dane Scarborough & How to Think Like an Inventor at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Kids Event
Dane Scarborough will present and discuss his children’s book, How to Think Like an Inventor.
The author connects her story coming out of abuse denial with a self-help lens, offering readers insight into how all areas of their lives are affected from spirituality to finances by abuse.
Dane Scarborough, is a dad, musician, artist, and the inventor of Überstix construction toys, winner of: Parent’s Choice award, Toy Stores of Canada – Gold Star award, Parent to Parent Adding Wisdom award, Creative Child Magazine – Top Toy of the Year award, Toy Directory -Top Toy award, The Toy Man – Award of Excellence, etc. As a professional inventor, Dane holds 30+ patents, and is a product consultant to Fortune 200 companies.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and further information.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/23414
Altadena Poets Laureate Reading: Carla Sameth, with Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Norika Nakada, Romaine Johnson at Altadena Public Library – In-Person & Online Hybrid YouTube Event
This Poetry Reading will feature Altadena Poet Laureate Carla Sameth, reading with her guests Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Norika Nakada, and Romaine Johnson.
Carla Sameth is the author of the chapbook, What Is Left, published in December 2021 (dancing girl press). Her memoir, One Day on the Gold Line, was published in July 2019 (Black Rose), and will be reissued in 2022 by Golden Foothills Press, edited by former Altadena Poet Laureate Thelma T. Reyna. Sameth’s essay, “If This Is So, Why Am I,” included in her memoir, was listed as a notable in “Best American Essays 2019.” “Mother’s Day Triptych” was listed as a notable in “Best American Essays 2020.”
Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, a first generation Chicana born and raised in San Gabriel, California, who fondly remembers weekends spent haciendo travesuras with her cousins around her grandparents’ Boyle Heights home. Her debut collection, Posada: Offerings of Witness and Refuge (Sundress Publications 2016), was written while living in a house in the shadows of Dodger Stadium in historic Solano Canyon. She is a cofounder of Women Who Submit, a literary organization using social media and community events to empower women and non-binary authors to submit work for publication.
Norika Nakada writes, blogs, tweets, parents, and teaches middle school in Los Angeles. She is committed to writing thought-provoking creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. She is a member of the leadership team for Women Who Submit, an organization empowering women and non-binary writers to submit their work for publication.
Publications include her memoir series: Through Eyes Like Mine, which was shortlisted for the 2040 Book Award. Overdue Apologies: a middle school memoir and I Tried: Tales from an Emerging High School Feminist complete the trilogy. Excerpts, essays, and poetry have appeared in Catapult, Meridian, Kartika, Hippocampus, Compose, Linden Avenue and others.
Romaine Johnson N/A
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, link, and details.
Where: Altadena Public Library, Community Room 600
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 11 pm – 1 pm
Address: 600 E. Mariposa St., Altadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1506739943114941/?ref=newsfeed
Special Storytime: Marcia Berneger & Busy Feet at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Marcia Berneger will present and discuss her new children’s book, Busy Feet.
From former elementary school teacher Marcia Berneger, Busy Feet’s simple, gentle rhyme underscores illustrator Susanna Chapman’s bold, expressive style. This winning combination–along with diverse and inclusive art–makes wiggling around and learning opposites a blast. Little ones will be itching to join the party as the characters dance, hop, and march along!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event
Felicia’s Free-Form Drop-In Writing Workshop at Sims Library of Poetry – Online Event
This free drop-in online writing session is offered on the 4th Saturday of every month for a sliding scale donation.
Felicia will provide a prompt or you can use your own. For this specific time period you can crank out, create, or finish writing a goal or idea for 2023.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 12 pm – 1:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/felicias-free-form-drop-in-writing-session-tickets-534695959007
Ross Benjamin, with Kate Wolf, & The Diaries of Franz Kafka at Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Edendale Branch Library presents translator Ross Benjamin, in conversation with Kate Wolf, to discuss his book The Diaries of Franz Kafka.
Franz Kafka was born in 1883 in Prague, where he lived most of his life. During his lifetime, he published only a few short stories, including “The Metamorphosis,” “The Judgment,” and “The Stoker.” He died in 1924, before completing any of his full-length novels. At the end of his life, Kafka asked his lifelong friend and literary executor Max Brod to burn all his unpublished work. Brod overrode those wishes, publishing three unfinished novels that are now considered classics, along with heavily edited editions of Kafka’s letters and diaries.
Ross Benjamin’s translations include Friedrich Hölderlin’s Hyperion, Joseph Roth’s Job, and Daniel Kehlmann’s You Should Have Left and Tyll. He was awarded the 2010 Helen, and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for his rendering of Michael Maar’s Speak, Nabokov, and he received a Guggenheim fellowship for his work on Franz Kafka’s diaries.
Kate Wolf is a writer and freelance editor based in Los Angeles. She is one of the founding editors of The Los Angeles Review of Books, where she’s currently editor-at-large and co-host and producer of its weekly podcast, the LARB Radio Hour. Her short fiction, criticism, interviews, and essays have appeared in exhibition catalogs, anthologies, and publications, including Bidoun, Bookforum, Art in America, The Nation, East of Borneo, Frieze, X-TRA, Night Papers—an artists’ newspaper she created and edited with the Night Gallery in Los Angeles from 2011 to 2016—and on KCRW and McSweeney’s program, The Organist.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/translator-kafkas-diaries-ross-benjamin-conversation-kate-wolf
Author Talk: Antonio Gonzalez & The Architects Who Built Southern California at Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Brentwood Branch Library presents author Antonio Gonzlaez to discuss his book, The Architects Who Built Southern California.
The author tells the stories of the people behind some of Southern California’s most iconic buildings and architects (or architectural firms), including Harrison Albright, John Austin, Claud Beelman, Elmer Grey, Hudson Munsell, A.C. Martin, Meyer Holler, Julia Morgan, Morgan Walls & Clements, and Alfred F. Rosenheim.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/author-talk-architects-who-built-southern-california
Fourth Saturday Reading Series: Karreem Tayyar & B.H. Fairchild at Helen Renwick Library, Claremont – In-Person Event
The Claremont Helen Renwick Library presents Fourth Saturdays Reading Series, featuring Karreem Tayyar and B.H. Fairchild.
Karreem Tayyar is the author of The Prince of Orange County, which received the 2020 Eric Hoffer Award for Young Adult Fiction, and in 2022 received the Glenna Luscher Poetry Prize. His work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Poetry Magazine, North Dakota Quarterly, and The Writer’s Almanac. His most recent book is Keats in San Francisco & Other Poems, released in 2022.
B.H. Fairchild’s poems have appeared in the New Yorker, Poetry, Hudson Review, Paris Review, Sewanee Review, The Best American Poetry, among others. His third book of poetry, The Art of the Lathe, was a finalist in the National Book Award, and also received the Kingsley Tufts Award, the William Carlos Williams Award, and the Bobbit Award For Poetry from the Library of Congress. His fourth book, Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lowest Midwest, received the National Critics Circle Award for poetry. He’ll read form his new poetry book, As Ordinary Life.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Helen Renwick Library, Claremont
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 208 Harvard Ave., Claremont, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/fourthsaturdayspoetry or https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=639414494859190&set=a.446609804139661
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Print & Internet Publishing Workshop with Mary Beth O’Conner & Poetry Readings – Online Zoom Event
Saturday Afternoon Poetry hosts a Print & Internet Publishing Workshop led by Mary Beth O’Conner, and readings by poets in Four Feathers Press’ BARDS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: TOP 20 SO CAL POETS anthology
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry.
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1438 Atchison St, Pasadena – in Thelma’s backyard
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Nonwhite & Woman: An Anthology Reading Event at LibroMobile – In-Person Event
LibroMobile will host a book reading featuring local contributors Samantha Chagollan, Saarika Row, Elizabeth Su, Ida Soon-ok Hart, & Leena Jun, who will read from the anthology Nonwhite & Woman.
Join us for an evening of live readings from local contributors Samantha Chagollan, Elizabeth Su, Ida Soon-ok Hart, & Leena Jun!
131 Stunning and Evocative Voices Come Together in Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on Being in the World
Editors Darien Hsu Gee and Carla Crujido bring together 131 personal narratives written by established and emerging women of color. In 300 words or less, these true stories speak to otherness, familial relationships, impossible beauty standards, ancestral heritage, coming of age, and owning one’s place in the world. This singular collection, inspired by Lucille Clifton’s luminous poem, won’t you celebrate with me, sings to the beauty of how these women live and thrive in the world, and how they make their lives their own.
RSVP
Where: LibroMobile.
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol St., #A3, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/nonwhite-woman-an-anthology-reading-event
Historical Fiction Book Club & The Secret Keeper of Jaipur: A Novel at Cellar Door Booksstore – In-Person Event
The Historical Fiction Book Club will discuss this month’s selection, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur: A Novel, by author Alka Joshi, author of The Henna Artist.
In this book, henna artist Lakshmi arranges for her protege , Malik, to intern at the Jaipur Palace in this tale rich in character, atmosphere, and lavish storytelling.
It’s the spring of 1969, and Lakshmi, now married to Dr. Jay Kumar, directs the Healing Garden in Shimla. Malik has finished his private school education. At twenty, he has just met a young woman named Nimmi when he leaves to apprentice at the Facilities Office of the Jaipur Royal Palace. Their latest project: a state-of-the-art cinema.
Malik soon finds that not much has changed as he navigates the Pink City of his childhood. Power and money still move seamlessly among the wealthy class, and favors flow from Jaipur’s Royal Palace, but only if certain secrets remain buried. When the cinema’s balcony tragically collapses on opening night, blame is placed where it is convenient. But Malik suspects something far darker and sets out to uncover the truth. As a former street child, he always knew to keep his own counsel; it’s a lesson that will serve him as he untangles a web of lies. .
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., #30A, Riverside CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event
At Skylight: UC Irvine MFA Reading Antics! at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
UC Irvine’s MFA Programs in Writing admit just six fiction writers & six poets per year out of 1000+ applicants. Chosen for both their strong voices & commitment to developing their work in an intensive, intimate creative space, writers enrolled in the Programs in Writing are given three funded years to produce a book-length project.
The MFA Reading Series (a.k.a. Antics!) is a crucial part of the Programs in Writing, an opportunity for the writers to share their work with the larger community. Every reading features four poets and fiction writers currently enrolled in the program, each of whom reads for around fifteen minutes, providing a sampling of their work.
Hallie Gayle grew up in North Texas. She has since lived in South Africa, Vietnam, and California. She is currently in her third year, working on a collection of stories.
Mo Fowler is a second-year poetry student from Sacramento, California. They have a chapbook out with Finishing Line Press and are currently researching the cowboy poets of Nevada.
Flynn Mixdorf is a first-year fiction student from Indianapolis, Indiana. He likes to write funny things about serious topics and is currently working on a detective novel set in sheltered American suburbia.
Kathryn Campo Bowen, a second-year fiction student, is a Salvadoran American writer from Miami, Florida. She is at work on a novel.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website::https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-uc-irvine-mfa-reading-antics
Mic Night @ Midnight: Open Mic Event Launch of Monthly Open Mic at Midnight Books by LA Poet Society – In-Person Event
Los Angeles Poet Society will launch Mic Night @ Midnight at Midnight Books, which hopes to bring a bookstore/community space back to Uptown Whitter.
Featured aritsts: poet laureate of Pomona, Caesar Avelar, and Jasmine Banks.
All genres are welcome: 4 minutes open mic time.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Midnight Books
Date: Saturday the 25th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 7201 Greenleaf Ave., Whittier, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events
Griot Café Open Mic with Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain at Shades of Africa, Long Beach – In-Person Event
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
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 1001 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://shadesofafrika.com/griot-cafe-open-mic-poetry/
826LA@Hammer: Zines: Art in the Palm of Your Hand at Hammer Museum – In-Person Kids Event
In this workshop, participants become zinesters! Making zines together, they will create their own paper-folded zine booklet of writing and creative collage—art in the palm of their hand. Led by Sam Sermeno, a teaching artist and book nerd who learns something from young people at every turn.
Recommended for ages 8–14.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and information.
Where: Hammer Museum
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2023/826lahammer-zines-art-palm-your-hand
Vroman’s Local Author Day: Storytime Edition: Estani Frizzell & Sal the Peacock at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Estani Frizzell will present and discuss her new children’s book, Sal the Peacock; The Unique Book.
Sai is a kind young peacock who lives with his royal family. He has brilliant blue tail feathers that any regal peacock would be proud of–and Sai LOVES to sing.
But his family laughs at that idea, AND at him They say his beak is too big while making fun of his singing voice.
Saddened by their ridicule, Sai finally vows never to sing in front of anyone again He hides himself away and doubts his dreams. Will he take their criticism to heart? Will he give up?
Estani Frizzell’s spirited and unique story shows children how just one special friend’s support can make a difference in carrying us where our talents are meant to take us.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event
Boozy Book Fair with Bel Canto Books at Ambitious Ales & Bel Canto Off-site – In-Person Event
In this Boozy Book Fair Bel Canto is partnering with neighbors for a day fillled with community, books, plants, and most importantly, beers. Author Jenn Estacio @flipp.family will be joining our event for a story time and book signing at 2:30PM!
Stay tuned for more details.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and information.
Where: Bel Canto at KUBO
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 12 pm – 5 pm
Address: 4019 Atlantic Ave/. Long Beach, CA., 90807
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boozy-book-fair-with-bel-canto-books-and-friends-tickets-534875024597
Valley Contemporary Poets (VCP) Reading: at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person Online
Join the VCP SoCal Poets for an afternoon of poetry readings by Laurel Ann Bogen, Michael C Ford, Rick Lupert, E Amato, Beth Ruscio, Robert Krut, and Ashaki Jackson. To celebrate the start of its 3rd year as a virtual poetry series, the VCP SoCal Poets will hold its first live reading of notable Los Angeles-based poets at Beyond Baroque. New and existing board members will be introduced as founding executive director, Jerry Garcia, steps down.
VCP SoCal Poets is a non-profit organization committed to the cultivation and advancement of poetry in Southern California. Founded during the Covid-19 pandemic, its goal is to provide the camaraderie and spirit of the original Valley Contemporary Poets founded by Nan Hunt in 1980.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-reading-with-the-valley-contemporary-socal-poets-tickets-488276777987
La Palabra Poetry Reading Series: Black Voices Emanating Joy at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person Online
Join the La Palabra Poetry Reading Series, hosted by Lisbeth Coiman, to commemorate the joy and struggle of African Americans in the US by hosting three incredible poets and performers:
Dr. Donny Jackson is a former professor, and private practitioner in Clinical Psychology. Dr. Jackson is a multiple Emmy award-winning show-runner and NAACP Image Award-winning producer whose work has spanned a variety of networks, including CNN, A&E, ESPN, WE, BET, TV One, Fuse, and most recently, HBO Max.
A nationally recognized spoken word performer and life-long poet, Jackson’s debut collection of poetry, boy, was published by Silver Star Laboratory in 2020.
IG @doctordonny
TW@DrDonnyJackson
Benin Lemus (she|her) is a poet and an educator based in South Los Angeles. She is a 2022 Inaugural Workshop Fellow with Obsidian Magazine’s O|Sessions: Black Listening–A Performance Master Class and Honorable Mention in the Furious Flower Poetry Center’s annual poetry competition. Her debut poetry collection, Dreaming in Mourning (November 2022), is published by World Stage Press.
IG: @benin_lemus
Nailah Porter is an LA-based poet, photographer, and singer/songwriter, The North Carolina native has recorded and toured worldwide with various artists from jazz to rock to hip hop. Lyrics from her debut release ConJazzNess (EmArcy Records/UMG), were published in Voices from Leimert Park Redux: Los Angeles Poetry Anthology. Nailah is an attorney, DEI consultant, and educator in the California Community College system. Porter recently completed her first book of poetry and photography, CarolinaBlueBlack TobaccoStainedWisdom.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Avenue 50 Studios
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 151 N. Avenue 50, Highland Parl, Los Angeles, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=641937204603697&set=pb.100063622687802.-2207520000
Black History Month Lecture: Valerie Kaur & See No Stranger at La Canada Congregational Church – In-Person Event
Valarie Kaur is a renowned Sikh activist, filmmaker, and civil rights lawyer. Her debut, See No Stranger, enjoins us to look at others and say: You are a part of me I do not yet know. See No Stranger is a practical guide to changing the world, a synthesis of wisdom, a chronicle of personal and communal history—all joined together by a story of awakening. Revolutionary love is medicine for our times.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, guidelines, and details.
Where: La Canada Congregational Church
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 1200 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-history-month-lectures-tickets-457221430607
Beatnik Café: Poetry Readings & Open Mic with Hannah Pachman – In-Person Event
Beatnik Café, hosted by Hannah Pachman, presents another night of truth and perspective!
Tongo Eisen-Martin, from San Francisco, is a poet, movement worker, and educator. His latest curriculum on extrajudicial killing of Black people, We Charge Genocide Again, has been used as an educational and organizing tool throughout the country. He is the author of Someone’s Dead Already, Heaven Is All Goodbyes, Waiting Behind Tornados for Food, and Blood on the Fog. In 2020, he co-founded Black Freighter Press to publish revolutionary works. He is San Francisco’s eighth poet laureate.
Brendan Constantine is a poet and author based in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in many of the nation’s standards, including Poetry, The Nation, Best American Poetry, and Tin House. A popular performer, Brendan has presented his work to audiences throughout the U.S. and Europe, also appearing on NPR’s All Things Considered, TED ED, numerous podcasts, and YouTube. He currently teaches at the Windward School.
NOTE: See site for schedule, guidelines, and details. Open Mic is 3 min per poet.
Where: Hey Hey
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 1555 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://allevents.in/los%20angeles/beatnik-cafe-poetry/200024068943700
Vroman’s Local Author Day: Nita Whitaker, Alden Reimonenq & Scott D. Dovale at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Vroman’s Local Author Day hosts three authors to discuss their work:
Nita Whitaker presents When Your Hand is in the Lion’s Mouth: The Life and Wisdom of a Man Named Green, a narrative non-fiction told in forty-two stories that is a father-daughter memoir. The foundational paternal love, wisdom and life lessons shared can father us all, and at 96 years young, he keeps inspiring and teaching us with his foundational practical wisdom.
Alden Reimonenq presents The Upside-Down Tree, an insightful, powerful look at the worst of racial hatred and violence during the early Jim Crow years, a time rarely addressed by historical-fiction authors. The novel stems from the horrific Colfax Massacre in Louisiana on April 13, 1873, but is primarily set between 1900-1908 in rural Louisiana. Surprising at every turn, the plot twists through lynchings, cross-burnings, love between the races, gay love, religious intolerance, poverty, illness, and death.
Scott D. Dovale presents The Blue Leash: A Year of Mourning, which pays tribute to Scott’s dog, Kuma, and examines the unforeseen struggle to reconcile his death. Told through a unique narration of true stories, fictional tales, journal entries and poetry, the book symbolizes Kuma’s profound influence and a one-of-a-kind relationship most dog owners might find remarkably familiar.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event
At Skylight: Marinaomi, with Megan Kelso, & I thought You Loved Me at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Marinaomi, in conversation with Megan Kelso, will present and discuss her graphic memoir, I Thought You Loved Me.
This Gen-X memoir, which is told in prose, collage, and sequential art, explores queer culture, feminism, race, class, sex work, and the flawed nature of memory as Mari works to uncover a long-lost best friend that she can no longer remember but can’t let go.
Jodie was Mari’s best friend through their teens and twenties. As young Mari began to explore her identity as a bisexual, biracial outsider in a rich, white town, Jodie was her constant confidant, even kissing Mari out of the closet. The two were inseparable as they sought to gain a foothold in life and love as young feminists, Jodie an entrepreneurial sex worker, and Mari working in the boys’ club of video game development in the late ‘90s. Then, suddenly and mysteriously, Jodie ends their friendship. Years later, Mari is stunned when she discovers why.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-marinaomi-presents-i-thought-you-loved-me-w-megan-kelso
Historical Romance Book Club & Forbidden at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice presents the Historical Romance Book Club, led by Katie S., which will discuss Forbidden, by author Beverly Jenkins.
About Forbidden:
Rhine Fontaine is building the successful life he’s always dreamed of—one that depends upon him passing for White. But for the first time in years, he wishes he could step out from behind the façade. The reason: Eddy Carmichael, the young woman he rescued in the desert. Outspoken, defiant, and beautiful, Eddy tempts Rhine in ways that could cost him everything…and the price seems worth paying.
Eddy owes her life to Rhine, but she won’t risk her heart for him. As soon as she’s saved enough money from her cooking, she’ll leave this Nevada town and move to California. No matter how handsome he is, no matter how fiery the heat between them, Rhine will never be hers. Giving in for just one night might quench this longing. Or it might ignite an affair as reckless and irresistible as it is forbidden.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 26th
Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Los Angeles Literature 